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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19052-8.txt b/19052-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea4b730 --- /dev/null +++ b/19052-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6043 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Stories That Words Tell Us, by Elizabeth O'Neill + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Stories That Words Tell Us + +Author: Elizabeth O'Neill + +Release Date: August 15, 2006 [EBook #19052] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES THAT WORDS TELL US *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + STORIES THAT + + WORDS TELL US + + + + BY + + ELIZABETH O'NEILL, M.A. + + AUTHOR OF "THE WORLD'S STORY," + + "A NURSERY HISTORY + + OF ENGLAND," ETC. + + + + + LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, LTD. + + 35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + AND EDINBURGH + + 1918 + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. SOME STORIES OF BRITISH HISTORY TOLD FROM ENGLISH WORDS + +II. HOW WE GOT OUR CHRISTIAN NAMES AND SURNAMES + +III. STORIES IN THE NAMES OF PLACES + +IV. NEW NAMES FOR NEW PLACES + +V. STORIES IN OLD LONDON NAMES + +VI. WORDS MADE BY GREAT WRITERS + +VII. WORDS THE BIBLE HAS GIVEN US + +VIII. WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF PEOPLE + +IX. WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF ANIMALS + +X. WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF PLACES + +XI. PICTURES IN WORDS + +XII. WORDS FROM NATIONAL CHARACTER + +XIII. WORDS MADE BY WAR + +XIV. PROVERBS + +XV. SLANG + +XVI. WORDS WHICH HAVE CHANGED THEIR MEANING + +XVII. DIFFERENT WORDS WITH THE SAME MEANING, AND THE SAME WORDS WITH + DIFFERENT MEANINGS + +XVIII. NICE WORDS FOR NASTY THINGS + +XIX. THE MORAL OF THESE STORIES + + * * * * * + + + + +STORIES THAT WORDS TELL US. + +CHAPTER I. + +SOME STORIES OF BRITISH HISTORY TOLD FROM ENGLISH WORDS. + + +Nearly all children must remember times when a word they know quite +well and use often has suddenly seemed very strange to them. Perhaps +they began repeating the word half to themselves again and again, and +wondered why they had never noticed before what a queer word it is. +Then generally they have forgotten all about it, and the next time +they have used the word it has not seemed strange at all. + +But as a matter of fact words _are_ very strange things. Every word we +use has its own story, and has changed, sometimes many times since +some man or woman or child first used it. Some words are very old and +some are quite new, for every living language--that is, every language +used regularly by some nation--is always growing, and having new words +added to it. The only languages which do not grow in this way are the +"dead" languages which were spoken long ago by nations which are dead +too. + +Latin is a "dead" language. When it was spoken by the old Romans it +was, of course, a living language, and grew and changed; but though it +is a very beautiful language, it is no longer used as the regular +speech of a nation, and so does not change any more. + +But it is quite different with a living language. Just as a baby when +it begins to speak uses only a few words, and learns more and more as +it grows older, so nations use more words as they grow older and +become more and more civilized. Savages use only a few words, not many +more, perhaps, than a baby, and not as many as a child belonging to a +civilized nation. But the people of great civilizations like England +and France use many thousands of words, and the more educated a person +is the more words he is able to choose from to express his thoughts. + +We do not know how the first words which men and women spoke were +made. People who study the history of languages, and who are called +_Philologists_, or "Lovers of Words," say that words may have come to +be used in any one of three different ways; but of course this is only +guessing, for though we know a great deal about the way words and +languages grow, we do not really know how they first began. Some +people used to think that the earliest men had a language all +ready-made for them, but this could not be. We know at least that the +millions of words in use in the world to-day have grown out of quite a +few simple sounds or "root" words. Every word we use contains a story +about some man or woman or child of the past or the present. In this +chapter we shall see how some common English words can tell us stories +of the past. + +In reading British history we learn how different peoples have at +different times owned the land: how the Britons were conquered by the +English; how the Danes tried to conquer the English in their turn, and +how great numbers of them settled down in the _Danelaw_, in the east +of England; how, later on, the Norman duke and his followers overcame +Harold, and became the rulers of England, and so on. But suppose we +knew nothing at all about British history, and had to guess what had +happened in the past, we might guess a great deal of British history +from the words used by English people to-day. For the English language +has itself been growing, and borrowing words from other languages all +through British history. Scholars who have studied many languages can +easily pick out these borrowed words and say from which language they +were taken. + +Of course these scholars know a great deal about British history; but +let us imagine one who does not. He would notice in the English +language some words (though not many) which must have come from the +language which the Britons spoke. He would know, too, that the name +_Welsh_, which was given to the Britons who were driven into the +western parts of England, comes from an Old English word, _wealh_, +which meant "slave." He might then guess that, besides the Britons who +were driven away into the west of the country, there were others whom +the English conquered and made to work as slaves. From the name +_wealh_, or "slave," given to these, all the Britons who remained came +to be known as _Welsh_. + +Yet though the English conquered the Britons, the two peoples could +not have mixed much or married very often with each other; for if they +had done so, many more British words would have been borrowed by the +English language. To the English the Britons were strangers and +"slaves." + +We could, too, guess some of the things which these old English +conquerors of Britain did and believed from examining some common +English words. If we think of the days of the week besides _Sunday_, +or the "Sun's day," and _Monday_, the "Moon's day," we find _Tuesday_, +"Tew's day," _Wednesday_, "Woden's day," _Thursday_, "Thor's day," +_Friday_, "Freya's day," _Saturday_, "Saturn's day," and it would not +be hard to guess that most of the days are called after gods or +goddesses whom the English worshipped while they were still heathen, +Tew was in the old English religion the bravest of all the gods, for +he gave up his own arm to save the other gods. Woden, the wisest of +the gods, had given up not an arm but an eye, which he had sold for +the waters of wisdom. Thor was the fierce god of thunder, who hurled +lightning at the giants. Freya was a beautiful goddess who wore a +magic necklace which had the power to make men love. We might then +guess from the way in which our old English forefathers named the days +of the week what sort of gods they worshipped, and what kind of men +they were--great fighters, admiring courage and strength above all +things, but poetical, too, loving grace and beauty. + +But, as everybody knows, the English people soon changed their +religion and became Christians; and any student of the English +language would soon guess this, even if he knew nothing of English +history. He would be able to guess, too, that the English got their +Christianity from a people who spoke Latin, for so many of the English +words connected with religion come from the Latin language. It was, of +course, the Roman monk St. Augustine who brought the Christian +religion to the English. Latin was the language of the Romans. The +word _religion_ itself is a Latin word meaning reverence for the gods; +and _Mass_, the name given to the chief service of the Catholic +religion, comes from the Latin _missa_, taken from the words, _Ite +missa est_ ("Go; the Mass is ended"), with which the priest finishes +the Mass. _Missa_ is only a part of the verb _mittere_, "to finish." + +The words _priest_, _bishop_, _monk_, _altar_, _vestment_, and many +others, came into the English language from the Latin with the +Christian religion. + +Even, again, if a student of the English language knew nothing about +the invasions of England by the fierce Danes, he might guess something +about them from the fact that there are many Danish words in the +English language, and especially the names of places. Such common +words as _husband_, _knife_, _root_, _skin_, came into English from +the Danish. + +But many more words were added to the English language through the +Norman Conquest. It is quite easy to see, from the great number of +French words in the English language, that France and England must at +one time have had a great deal to do with each other. But it was the +English who used French words, and not the French who used English. +This was quite natural when a Norman, or North French, duke became +king of England, and Norman nobles came in great numbers to live in +England and help to rule her. + +Sir Walter Scott, in his great book "Ivanhoe," makes one man say that +all the names of living animals are English, like _ox_, _sheep_, +_deer_, and _swine_, but their flesh when it becomes meat is given +French names--_beef_, _mutton_, _venison_, and _pork_. The reason for +this is easy to see: Englishmen worked hard looking after the animals +while they were alive, and the rich Normans ate their flesh when they +were dead. + +England never, of course, became really Norman. Although the English +were not so learned or polite or at that time so civilized as the +Normans, there were so many more of them that in time the Normans +became English, and spoke the English language. But when we remember +that for three hundred years French was spoken in the law courts and +by the nobility of England, and all the English kings were really +Frenchmen, it is easy to understand that a great many French words +found their way into the English language. + +As it was the Normans who governed England, many of our words about +law and government came from the French. Englishmen are very proud of +the "jury system," by which every British subject is tried by his +equals. It was England who really began this system, but the name +_jury_ is French, as are also _judge_, _court_, _justice_, _prison_, +_gaol_. The English Parliament, too, is called the "Mother of +Parliaments," but _parliament_ is a French word, and means really a +meeting for the purpose of talking. + +Nearly all titles, like _duke_, _baron_, _marquis_, are French, for it +was Frenchmen who first got and gave these titles; though _earl_ +remains from the Danish _eorl_. It is a rather peculiar thing that +nearly all our names for _relatives_ outside one's own family come +from the French used by the Normans--_uncle_, _aunt_, _nephew_, +_niece_, _cousin_; while _father_, _mother_, _brother_, and _sister_ +come from the Old English words. + +In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the real "Middle Ages," the +French poets, scholars, and writers were the greatest in Europe. The +greatest doctors, lawyers, and scholars of the western lands of Europe +had often been educated at schools or universities in France. Those +who wrote about medicine and law often used French words to describe +things for which no English word was known. The French writers +borrowed many words from Latin, and the English writers did the same. +Sometimes they took Latin words from the French, but sometimes they +only imitated the French writers, and took a Latin word and changed it +to seem like a French word. + +If we were to count the words used by English writers in the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries, we should find that quite one-tenth of these +are words borrowed from other languages. After this time fewer words +were borrowed, but still the English language has borrowed much more +than most languages. + +Some people think that it is a pity that we have borrowed so many +words, and say that we should speak and write "pure English." But we +must remember that Britain has had the most wonderful history of all +the nations. She has had the greatest explorers, adventurers, and +sailors. She has built up the greatest empire the world has ever seen. +It is only natural that her language should have borrowed from the +languages of nearly every nation in the world, even from the Chinese +and from the native languages of Australia and Africa. + +Ever since the middle of the sixteenth century England has been a +great sea-going nation. Her sailors have explored and traded all over +the world, and naturally they have brought back many new words from +East and West. Sometimes these are the names of new things brought +from strange lands. Thus _calico_ was given that name from _Calicut_, +because the cotton used to make calico came from there. From Arabia we +got the words _harem_ and _magazine_, and from Turkey the name +_coffee_, though this is really an Arabian word. We had already +learned the words _cotton_, _sugar_, and _orange_ from the Arabs at +the time of the Crusades. From the West Indies and from South America +many words came, though the English learned these first from the +Spaniards, who were the first to discover these lands. Among these +words are the names of such common things as _chocolate_, _cocoa, +tomato_. The words _canoe_, _tobacco_, and _potato_ come to us from +the island of Hayti. The words _hammock_ and _hurricane_ come to us +from the Caribbean Islands, and so did the word _cannibal_, which came +from _Caniba_, which was sometimes used instead of Carib. + +Even the common word _breeze_, by which we now mean a light wind, +first came to us from the Spanish word _briza_, which meant the +north-east trade wind. The name _alligator_, an animal which +Englishmen saw for the first time in these far-off voyages, is really +only an attempt to use the Spanish words for the lizard--_al lagarto_. + +When the English at length settled themselves in North America they +took many words from the native Indians, such as _tomahawk_, +_moccasin_, and _hickory_. + +In England and in Europe generally history shows us that there were a +great many changes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This new +love for adventure, which gave us so many new words, was one sign of +the times. Then there were changes in manners, in religion, and in the +way people thought about things. People had quite a new idea of the +world. They now knew that, instead of being the centre of the +universe, the earth was but one of many worlds whirling through space. + +The minds of men became more lively. They began to criticize all sorts +of things which they had believed in and reverenced before. During the +Middle Ages many things which the Romans and Greeks had loved had been +forgotten and despised; but now there was a sudden new enthusiasm for +the beautiful statues and fine writings of the ancient Greeks and +Romans. It was not long before this new great change got a name. It +was called the _Renaissance_, or "New Birth," because so many old and +forgotten things seemed to come to life again, and it looked as though +men had been born again into a new time. + +One of the chief results of the Renaissance was a change in religion. +The Protestants declared that they had reformed or changed religion +for the better, and the change in religion is now always spoken of as +the Reformation; just as the reform of the Catholic Church which soon +followed was called the _Counter-Reformation_, or movement against the +Reformation--_counter_ coming from the Latin word for "against." + +In England the Renaissance and Reformation led to great changes not +only in religion but in government, and the way people thought of +their country and their rulers. People came to have a new love for and +pride in their country. It was in the sixteenth century that the old +word _nation_, which before had meant a race or band of peoples, came +to be used as we use it now, to mean the people of one country under +one government. In the sixteenth century Englishmen became prouder +than ever of belonging to the English "nation." They felt a new love +for other Englishmen, and it was at this time that the expressions +_fellow-countrymen_ and _mother-country_ were first used. + +The seventeenth century was, of course, a period during which great +things happened to the English state. It was the period of the great +Civil War, in which the Parliament fought against the king, so that it +could have the chief part in the government of the country. + +All sorts of new words grew up during the Civil War. The word +_Royalist_ now first began to be used, meaning the people who were on +the king's side. The Royalists called the men who fought for the +Parliament _Roundheads_, because of their hair being cropped short, +not hanging in ringlets, as was the fashion of the day. + +The people who fought against the king were all men who had broken +away from the English Church, and become much more "Protestant." They +were very strict in many ways, especially in keeping the "Sabbath," as +they called Sunday. They dressed very plainly, and they thought the +followers of the king, with their long hair and lace and ruffles, very +frivolous people indeed. It was the men of the Parliament side who +first gave the name _Cavalier_ to the Royalists. It was meant by them +to show contempt, and came from the Italian word _cavaliere_, which +means literally "a horseman," coming from the Late Latin word +_caballus_, "a horse." + +It is a curious fact that we now use the word _cavalier_ as an +adjective to mean rude and off-hand, whereas the Cavaliers of the +seventeenth century certainly had much better manners than the +Roundheads; and at the end of that century the word was sometimes used +in the general sense of gay and frank. + +Both sides in the Civil War invented a good many new words with which +to abuse the enemy. Milton, who wrote on the side of the Parliament, +made a great many; but the Royalists invented more, and perhaps more +expressive, words. At any rate they have been kept and used as quite +ordinary English words. The word _cant_, for instance, which every +one understands to mean pious or sentimental words which the person +who says them does not really mean, was first used in this way by the +Royalists to describe the sayings of the Parliament men who were much +given to preaching and the singing of psalms. Before that time the +word _cant_ had meant a certain kind of singing, and also the whining +sound beggars sometimes made. + +In the eighteenth century, when Parliament was divided into two great +parties, their names were given to them in the same way. The _Tories_ +were so called from the name given to some very wild, almost savage, +people who lived in the bog lands of Ireland; and the name _Whigs_ was +given by the Tories, and came from a Scotch word, _Whigamore_, the +name of some very fierce Protestants in the south of Scotland. At +first these names were just words of abuse, but they came to be the +regular names of the two parties, and people forgot all about their +first meanings. + +The great growth in the power of the peoples of Europe since the +French Revolution has brought about great changes in the way these +countries are governed. It was the French Revolution which led to the +widespread opinion that all the people in a nation should help in the +government. It was in writing on these subjects that English writers +borrowed the words _aristocrat_ and _democrat_ from the French +writers. _Aristocracy_ comes from an old Greek word meaning the rule +of the few; but the French Revolution writers gave it a new meaning, +as something evil. Before the Revolution the name _despotism_ had been +used for the rule of a single tyrant, but it now came to mean unjust +rule, even by several people. + +The French Revolution gave us several other words. We all now know the +word _terrorize_, but it only came into English from the French at the +time of the Revolution, when the French people became used to "Reigns +of Terror." But if the French Revolution gave us many of the words +which relate to democracy or government by the people, England has +always been the country of parliamentary government, and many terms +now used by the other countries of Europe have been invented in +England--words like _parliament_ itself, _bill_, _budget_, and +_speech_. + +Nearly all the words connected with science, and especially the +"ologies," as they are called, like _physiology_ and _zoology_, are +fairly new words in English. In the Middle Ages there was no real +study of science, and so naturally there were not many words connected +with it; but in the last two centuries the study of science has been +one of the most important things in history. We shall see more of +these scientific words in another chapter. + +Perhaps we have said enough in this chapter to show how each big +movement in history has given us a new group of words and how these +words are in a way historians of these movements. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +HOW WE GOT OUR CHRISTIAN NAMES AND SURNAMES. + + +We can learn some interesting stories from the history of our own +names. Most people nowadays have one or more Christian names and a +surname, but this was not always the case. Every Christian from the +earliest days of Christianity must have had a Christian name given to +him at baptism. And before the days of Christianity every man, woman, +or child must have had some name. But the practice of giving surnames +grew up only very gradually in the countries of Europe. At first only +a few royal or noble families had sur-names, or "super" names; but +gradually, as the populations of the different countries became +larger, it became necessary for people to have surnames, so as to +distinguish those with the same Christian names from each other. + +In these days children are generally given for their Christian names +family names, or names which their parents think beautiful or +suitable. (Often the children afterwards do not like their own names +at all.) The Christian names of the children of European countries +come to us from many different languages. Perhaps the greatest number +come to us from the Hebrew, because these Jewish names are, of course, +found in great numbers in the Bible. + +The conversion of the countries of Europe to Christianity united them +in their ways of thinking and believing, and they all honoured the +saints. The names of the early saints, whether they were from the +Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, or Slavonic, were soon spread +throughout all the countries of Europe, so that now French, German, +English, Italian, Spanish names, and those of the other European +countries, are for the most part the same, only spelt and pronounced a +little differently in the different countries. + +The English _William_ is _Guillaume_ in French, _Wilhelm_ in German, +and so on. _John_ is _Jean_ in French, _Johann_ in German, and so on, +with many other names. + +But in early times people got their names in a much more interesting +way. Sometimes something which seemed peculiar about a little new-born +baby would suggest a name. _Esau_ was called by this name, which is +only the Hebrew word for "hairy," because he was already covered by +the thick growth of hair on his body which made him so different from +Jacob. The old Roman names _Flavius_ and _Fulvius_ merely meant +"yellow," and the French name _Blanche_, "fair," or "white." Sometimes +the fond parents would give the child a name describing some quality +which they hoped the child would possess when it grew up. The Hebrew +name _David_ means "beloved." + +The name _Joseph_ was given by Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, to +the baby who came to her after long waiting. _Joseph_ means +"addition," and Rachel chose this name because she hoped another child +would yet be added to her family. She afterwards had Benjamin, the +best beloved of all Jacob's sons, and then she died. + +The name Joseph did not become common in Europe till after the +Reformation, when the Catholic Church appointed a feast day for St. +Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin. Towards the end of the +eighteenth century the Emperor Leopold christened his son Joseph, and +this, and the fact that Napoleon's first wife was named Josephine, +made these two names as a boy's and a girl's name very popular. We +have both Joseph and Josephine in English, and the French have Fifine +and Finette as well as Josephine, for which these are pet names. In +Italy, too, Joseph, or Giuseppe, is a common name, and Peppo, or +Beppo, are short names for it. These pet names seem very strange when +we remember Rachel's solemn choosing of the name for the first Joseph +of all. + +Sometimes the early nations called their children by the names of +animals. The beautiful old Hebrew name _Deborah_, which became also an +old-fashioned English name, means "bee." In several languages the +word for _wolf_ was given as a personal name. The Greek _Lycos_, the +Latin _Lupus_, the Teutonic _Ulf_, from which came the Latin +_Ulphilas_ and the Slavonic _Vuk_, all mean "wolf." The wolf was the +most common and the most treacherous of all the wild animals against +which early peoples had to fight, and this, perhaps, accounts for the +common use of its name. People were so impressed by its qualities that +they thought its name worthy to give to their sons, who, perhaps, they +hoped would possess some of its better qualities when they grew up. + +Sometimes early names were taken from the names of precious stones, as +_Margarite_, a Greek name meaning "pearl," and which is the origin of +all the Margarets, Marguerites, etc., to be found in nearly all the +languages of Europe. + +Among all early peoples many names were religious, like the Hebrew +_Ishmael_, or "heard by God;" _Elizabeth_, or the "oath of God;" +_John_, or the "grace of the Lord." The Romans had the name +_Jovianus_, which meant "belonging to Jupiter," who was the chief of +the gods in whom the Romans believed. + +In some languages names, especially of women, are taken from flowers, +like the Greek _Rhode_, or "rose," the English _Rose_, and _Lily_ or +_Lilian_, and the Scotch _Lilias_. + +A great many of the Hebrew names especially come from words meaning +sorrow or trouble. They were first given to children born in times of +sorrow. Thus we have _Jabez_, which means "sorrow;" _Ichabod_, or "the +glory is departed;" _Mary_, "bitter." The Jews, as we can see from the +Bible, suffered the greatest misfortunes, and their writers knew how +to tell of it in words. The Celtic nations, like the Irish, have the +same gift, and we get many old Celtic names with these same sad +meanings. Thus _Una_ means "famine;" _Ita_, "thirsty." + +The Greek and Roman names were never sad like these. Some old Greek +names became Christian names when people who were called by them +became Christian in the first days of the Church. There are several +names from the Greek word _angelos_. This meant in Greek merely a +messenger, but it began to be used by the early Christian writers both +in Latin and Greek to mean a messenger from heaven, or an angel. The +Greeks gave it first as a surname, and then as a Christian name. In +the thirteenth century there was a St. Angelo in Italy, and from the +honour paid to him the name spread, chiefly as a girl's name, to the +other countries of Europe, giving the English _Angelina_ and +_Angelica_, the French _Angelique_, and the German _Engel_. + +Besides this general name of _angel_, the name of Michael, the +archangel, and Gabriel, the angel of the Annunciation, became +favourite names among Eastern Christians. The reason _Michael_ was +such a favourite was that the great Emperor Constantine dedicated a +church to St. Michael in Constantinople. The name is so much used in +Russia that it is quite common to speak of a Russian peasant as a +"Michael," just as people rather vulgarly speak of an Irish peasant as +a "Paddy." Michael can hardly be called an English name, but it is +almost as common in Ireland as Patrick, which, of course, is used in +honour of Ireland's patron saint. _Gabriel_ is a common name in Italy, +as is also another angel's name, _Raphael_. _Gabriel_ is used as a +girl's name in France--_Gabrielle_. + +No Christian would think of using the name of God as a personal name; +but _Theos_, the Greek word for God, was sometimes so used by the +Greeks. A Greek name formed from this, _Theophilos_, or "beloved by +the gods," became a Christian name, and the name of one of the early +saints. + +The name _Christ_, or "anointed," was the word which the Greek +Christians (who translated the Gospels into the Greek of their time) +used for the _Messiah_. From this word came the name _Christian_, and +from it _Christina_. One of the early martyrs, a virgin of noble Roman +birth, who died for her religion, was St. Christina. In Denmark the +name became a man's name, _Christiern_. Another English name which is +like Christina is _Christabel_. The great poet Coleridge in the +nineteenth century wrote the beginning of a beautiful poem called +"Christabel." The name was not very common before this, and was not +heard of until the sixteenth century, but it is fairly common now. + +Another favourite Christian name from the name of _Christ_ is +_Christopher_, which means the bearer or carrier of Christ, and we are +told in a legend how St. Christopher got this name. He had chosen for +his work to carry people across a stream which had no bridge over it. +One day a little boy suddenly appeared, and asked him to carry him +across. The kind saint did so, and found, as he got farther into the +stream, that the child grew heavier and heavier. When the saint put +him down on the other side he saw the figure of the man Christ before +him, and fell down and adored Him. Ever afterwards he was known as +_Christopher_, or the "Christ-bearer." + +Another Christian name which comes from a Greek word is _Peter_. +_Petros_ is the Greek word for "stone," and _Petra_ for "rock." The +name _Peter_ became a favourite in honour of St. Peter, whose name was +first _Simon_, but who was called _Peter_ because of the words our +Lord said to him: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my +Church." + +When the barbarian tribes, such as the English and Franks, broke into +the lands of the Roman Empire and settled there, afterwards being +converted to Christianity, they chose a good many Latin words as +names. In France names made from the Latin word _amo_ ("I love") were +quite common. We hear of _Amabilis_ ("lovable"), _Amadeus_ ("loving +God"), _Amandus_, which has now become a surname in France as _St. +Amand_. In England, _Amabilis_ became _Amabel_, which is not a very +common name now, but from which we have _Mabel_. _Amy_ was first used +in England after the Norman Conquest, and comes from the French +_Amata_, or _Aimée_, which means "beloved." + +Another Latin word of the same kind which gave us some Christian names +was _Beo_ ("I bless"). From part of this verb, _Beatus_ ("blessed"), +there was an old English name, _Beata_, but no girl or woman seems to +have been called by it since the seventeenth century. _Beatrix_ and +_Beatrice_ also come from this. The name _Benedict_, which sometimes +became in English _Bennet_, came from another word like this, +_Benignus_ ("kind"). _Boniface_, from the Latin _Bonifacius_ ("doer of +good deeds"), was a favourite name in the early Church, and the name +of a great English saint; but it is not used in England now, though +there is still the Italian name, _Bonifazio_, which comes from the +same word. + +Both Christian names and surnames have been taken from the Latin _Dies +Natalis_, or "Birthday of our Lord." The French word for Christmas, +_Noël_, comes from this, and, as well as _Natalie_, is used as a +Christian name. _Noël_ is found, too, both as a Christian name and +surname in England. At one time English babies were sometimes +christened _Christmas_, but this is never used as a Christian name +now, though a few families have it as a surname. + +Perhaps the most peculiar Christian names that have ever been were the +long names which some of the English Puritans gave their children in +the seventeenth century. Often they gave them whole texts of Scripture +as names, so that at least one small boy was called "Bind their nobles +in chains and their kings in fetters of iron." Let us hope his +relatives soon found some other name to call him "for short." + +Everybody has heard of the famous Cromwellian Parliament, which would +do nothing but talk, and which was called the "Barebones Parliament," +after one of its members, who not only bore this peculiar surname, but +was also blessed with the "Christian" name of _Praise-God_. Cromwell +grew impatient at last, and Praise-God Barebones and the other talkers +suddenly found Parliament dissolved. These names were not, as a rule, +handed on from father to son, and soon died out, though in America +even to-day we get Christian names somewhat similar, but at least +shorter--names like _Willing_. + +It is often easier to see how we got our Christian names than how we +got our surnames. As we have seen, there was a time when early peoples +had only first names. The Romans had surnames, or _cognomina_, but the +barbarians who won Europe from them had not. + +In England surnames were not used until nearly a hundred years after +the Norman Conquest, and then only by kings and nobles. The common +people in England had, however, nearly all got them by the fourteenth +century; but in Scotland many people were still without surnames in +the time of James I., and even those who had them could easily change +one for another. Once a man got a surname it was handed on to all his +children, as surnames are to-day. + +It is interesting to see in how many different ways people got their +surnames. Sometimes this is easy, but it is more difficult in other +cases. + +The first surnames in England were those which the Norman nobles who +came over at the Conquest handed on from father to son. These people +generally took the name of the place from which they had come in +Normandy. In this way names like _Robert de Courcy_ ("Robert of +Courcy") came in; and many of these names, which are considered very +aristocratic, still remain. We have _de Corbet_, _de Beauchamp_, _de +Colevilles_, and so on. Sometimes the _de_ has been dropped. +Sometimes, again, people took their names in the same way from places +in England. We find in old writings names like _Adam de Kent_, _Robert +de Wiltshire_, etc. Here, again, the prefix has been dropped, and the +place-name has been kept as a surname. _Kent_ is quite a well-known +surname, as also are _Derby_, _Buxton_, and many other names of +English places. + +The Normans introduced another kind of name, which became very common +too. They were a lively people, like the modern French, and were very +fond of giving nicknames, especially names referring to people's +personal appearance. We get the best examples of this in the +nicknames applied to the Norman kings. We have William _Rufus_, or +"the Red;" Richard _Coeur-de-Lion_, or "Lion-Hearted;" Henry +_Beauclerc_, or "the Scholar." + +These names of kings were not handed down in their families. But in +ordinary families it was quite natural that a nickname applied to the +father should become a surname. It is from such nicknames that we get +surnames like _White_, _Black_, _Long_, _Young_, _Short_, and so on. +All these are, of course, well-known surnames to-day, and though many +men named _Long_ may be small, and many named _Short_ may be tall, we +may guess that this was not the case with some far-off ancestor. +Sometimes _man_ was added to these adjectives, and we get names like +_Longman_, _Oldman_, etc. + +Sometimes these names were used in the French of the Normans, and we +get two quite different surnames, though they really in the first +place had the same meaning. Thus we have _Curt_ for _Short_, and the +quite well-known surname _Petit_, which would be _Short_ or _Little_ +in English. The name _Goodheart_ was _Bun-Couer_ in Norman-French, and +from this came _Bunker_, which, if we knew nothing of its history, +would not seem to mean _Goodheart_ at all. So the name _Tait_ came +from _Tête_, or _Head_; and we may guess that the first ancestor of +the numerous people with this name had something remarkable about +their heads. The name _Goodfellow_ is really just the same as +_Bonfellow_. The surname _Thin_ has the same meaning as _Meagre_, +from which the common name _Meager_ comes. + +Names like _Russell_ (from the old word _rouselle_, or "red"), +_Brown_, _Morell_ ("tan"), _Dun_ ("dull grey"), all came from +nicknames referring to people's complexions. _Reed_ and _Reid_ come +from the old word _rede_, or "red." We still have the names +_Copperbeard_, _Greybeard_, and _Blackbeard_. + +Sometimes names were given from some peculiarity of clothing. +_Scarlet_, an old English name, probably came from the colour of the +clothing of the people who were first called by it--scarlet, like all +bright colours, being very much liked in the Middle Ages. So we hear +of the name _Curtmantle_, or "short cloak," and _Curthose_, which was +later changed to _Shorthose_, which is still a well-known name in +Derbyshire. The names _Woolward_ and _Woolard_ come from the old word +_woolard_, which meant wearing wool without any linen clothing +underneath. This was often done by pilgrims and others who wished to +do penance for their sins. + +Many surnames have come down from nicknames given to people because of +their good or bad qualities. This is the origin of names like _Wise_, +_Gay_, _Hardy_, _Friend_, _Truman_, _Makepeace_, _Sweet_, etc. The +people who have these names may well believe that the first of their +ancestors who bore them was of a gentle and amiable disposition. Names +like _Proud_, _Proudfoot_, _Proudman_, _Paillard_ (French for +"lie-a-bed") show that the first people who had them were not so well +liked, and were considered proud or lazy. + +Another way of giving nicknames to people because of something +noticeable in their character or appearance was to give them the name +of some animal having this quality. The well-known name of _Oliphant_ +comes from _elephant_, and was probably first given to some one very +large, and perhaps a little ungraceful. _Bullock_ as a surname +probably had the same sort of origin. The names _Falcon_, _Hawk_, +_Buzzard_, must have been first given to people whose friends and +neighbours saw some resemblance to the quickness or fierceness or +sureness or some other quality of these birds in them. The names +_Jay_, _Peacock_, and _Parrott_ point to showiness and pride and empty +talkativeness. + +A very great number of surnames are really only old Christian names +either with or without an ending added to them. A very common form of +surname is a Christian name with _son_ added to it. The first man who +handed on the name _Wilson_ (or _Willson_, as it is still sometimes +spelt) was himself the "son of Will." Any one can think of many names +of this kind--_Williamson_, _Davidson_, _Adamson_, etc. Sometimes the +founder of a family had taken his name from his mother. This was the +origin of names like _Margerison_ ("Marjorie's son") and _Alison_ +("Alice's son"). This was a very common way of inventing surnames. + +The Norman _Fitz_ meant "son of," and the numerous names beginning +with _Fitz_ have this origin. _Fitzpatrick_ originally meant the "son +of Patrick," _Fitzstephen_ the "son of Stephen," and so on. The Irish +prefix _O'_ has the same meaning. The ancestor of all the O'Neills was +himself the son of _Neill_. The Scandinavian _Nillson_ is really the +same name, though it sounds so different. The Scotch _Mac_ has the +same meaning, and so have the Welsh words _map_, _mab_, _ap_, and +_ab_. + +One very interesting way of making surnames was to take them from the +trade or occupation of the founder of the family. Perhaps the +commonest of English surnames is _Smith_. And the word for _Smith_ is +the commonest surname in almost every country of Europe. In France we +have _Favier_. + +The reason for this is easy to see. The smith, or man who made iron +and other metals into plough-shares and swords, was one of the most +important of all the workers in the early days when surnames were +being made. There were many smiths, and John the Smith and Tom the +Smith easily became John Smith and Tom Smith, and thus had a surname +to pass on to their families. + +As time went on there came to be many different kinds of smiths. There +was the smith who worked in gold, and was called a "goldsmith," from +which we get the well-known surname _Goldsmith_, the name of a great +English writer. Then there was the "nail smith," from which trade came +the name _Nasmith_; the "sickle smith," from which came _Sixsmith_; +the "shear smith," which gave us _Shearsmith_--and so on. + +In mediæval England the manufacture of cloth from the wool of the +great flocks of sheep which fed on the pasture lands of the +monasteries and other great houses, was the chief industry of the +nation. This trade of wool-weaving has given us many surnames, such as +_Woolmer_, _Woolman_, _Carder_, _Kempster_, _Towser_, _Weaver_, +_Webster_, etc. Some of these referred to the general work of +wool-weaving and others to special branches. + +Any child can think in a moment of several names which have come in +this way from trades. We have _Taylor_ for a beginning. + +But many surnames which are taken from the names of trades come from +Old English words which are now seldom or never used. _Chapman_, a +common name now, was the Old English word for a general dealer. +_Spicer_ was the old name for grocer, and is now a fairly common +surname. The well-known name of _Fletcher_ comes from the almost +forgotten word _flechier_, "an arrowmaker." _Coltman_ came from the +name of the man who had charge of the colts. _Runciman_ was the man +who had charge of horses too, and comes from another Old English word, +_rouncy_, "a horse." The _Parkers_ are descended from a park-keeper +who used to be called by that name. The _Horners_ come from a maker of +horns; the _Crockers_ and _Crokers_ from a "croker," or "crocker," a +maker of pottery. _Hogarth_ comes from "hoggart," a hog-herd; +_Calvert_ from "calf-herd;" and _Seward_ from "sow-herd." _Lambert_ +sometimes came from "lamb-herd." + +But we cannot always be sure of the origin of even the commonest +surnames. For instance, every person named _Smith_ is not descended +from a smith, for the name also comes from the old word _smoth_, or +"smooth," and this is the origin of _Smith_ in _Smithfield_. + +A great many English surnames were taken from places. _Street_, +_Ford_, _Lane_, _Brooke_, _Styles_, are names of this kind. Sometimes +they were prefixed by the Old English _atte_ ("at") or the French _de +la_ ("of the"), but these prefixes have been dropped since. _Geoffrey +atte Style_ was the Geoffrey who lived near the stile--and so on. + +Nearly all the names ending in _hurst_ and _shaw_ are taken from +places. A _hurst_ was a wood or grove; a _shaw_ was a shelter for +fowls and animals. The chief thing about a man who got the surname of +_Henshaw_ or _Ramshaw_ was probably that he owned, or had the care of, +such a shelter for hens or rams. + +Names ending in _ley_ generally came into existence in the same way, a +_ley_ being also a shelter for domestic animals. So we have _Horsley_, +_Cowley_, _Hartley_, _Shipley_ (from "sheep"). Sometimes the name was +taken from the kind of trees which closed such a shelter in, names +like _Ashley_, _Elmsley_, _Oakley_, _Lindley_, etc. + +Surnames as well as Christian names were often taken from the names +of saints. From such a beautiful name as _St. Hugh_ the Normans had +_Hugon_, and from this we get the rather commonplace names of +_Huggins_, _Hutchins_, _Hutchinson_, and several others. So _St. +Clair_ is still a surname, though often changed into _Sinclair_. St. +Gilbert is responsible for the names _Gibbs_, _Gibbons_, _Gibson_, +etc. + +Sometimes in Scotland people were given, as Christian names, names +meaning _servant_ of Christ, or some saint. The word for servant was +_giollo_, or _giolla_. It was in this way that names like _Gilchrist_, +_Gilpatrick_, first came to be used. They were at first Christian +names, and then came to be passed on as surnames. So _Gillespie_ means +"servant of the bishop." + +Some surnames, though they seem quite English now, show that the first +member of the family to bear the name was looked upon as a foreigner. +Such names are _Newman_, _Newcome_, _Cumming_ (from _cumma_, "a +stranger"). Sometimes the nationality to which the stranger belonged +is shown by the name. The ancestors of the people called _Fleming_, +for instance, must have come from Flanders, as so many did in the +Middle Ages. The _Brabazons_ must have come from Brabant. + +Perhaps the most peculiar origin of all belongs to some surnames which +seem to have come from oaths or exclamations. The fairly common names +_Pardoe_, _Pardie_, etc., come from the older name _Pardieu_, or "By +God," a solemn form of oath. We have, too, the English form in the +name _Bigod_. Names like _Rummiley_ come from the old cry of sailors, +_Rummylow_, which they used as sailors use "Heave-ho" now. + +But many chapters could be written on the history of names. This +chapter shows only some of the ways in which we got our Christian +names and surnames. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +STORIES IN THE NAMES OF PLACES. + + +The stories which the names of places can tell us are many more in +number, and even more wonderful, than the stories in the names of +people. Some places have very old names, and others have quite new +ones, and the names have been given for all sorts of different +reasons. If we take the names of the continents, we find that some of +them come from far-off times, and were given by men who knew very +little of what the world was like. The names _Europe_ and _Asia_ were +given long ago by sailors belonging to the Semitic race (the race to +which the Jews belong), who sailed up and down the Ægean Sea, and did +not venture to leave its waters. All the land which lay to the west +they called _Ereb_, which was their word for "sunset," or "west," and +the land to the east they called _Acu_, which meant "sunrise," or +"east;" and later, when men knew more about these lands, these names, +changed a little, remained as the names of the great continents, +Europe and Asia. + +_Africa_, too, is an old name, though not so old as these. We think +of Africa now as a "dark continent," the greater part of which has +only lately become known to white men, and with a native population of +negroes. But for hundreds of years the north of Africa was one of the +most civilized parts of the Roman Empire. Before that time part of it +had belonged to the Carthaginians, whom the Romans conquered. _Africa_ +was a Carthaginian name, and was first used by the Romans as the name +of the district round Carthage, and in time it came to be the name of +the whole continent. + +_America_ got its name in quite a different way. It was not until the +fifteenth century that this great continent was discovered, and then +it took its name, not from the brave Spaniard, Christopher Columbus, +who first sailed across the "Sea of Darkness" to find it, but from +Amerigo Vespucci, the man who first landed on the mainland. + +_Australia_ got its name, which means "land of the south," from +Portuguese and Spanish sailors, who reached its western coasts early +in the sixteenth century. They never went inland, or made any +settlements, but in the queer, inaccurate maps which early geographers +made, they put down a _Terra Australis_, or "southern land," and +later, when Englishmen did at last explore and colonize the continent, +they kept this name _Australia_. This Latin name reminds us of the +fact that Latin was in the Middle Ages the language used by all +scholars in their writings, and names on maps were written in Latin +too, and so a great modern continent like Australia came to have an +old Latin name. + +There is a great deal of history in the names of countries. Take the +names of the countries of Europe. _England_ is the land of the +_Angles_, and from this we learn that the Angles were the chief people +of all the tribes who came over and settled in Britain after the +Romans left it. They spread farthest over the land, and gave their +name to it; just as the _Franks_, another of these Northern peoples, +gave their name to France, and the _Belgæ_ gave theirs to _Belgium_. +The older name of _Britain_ did not die out, but it was seldom used. +It has really been used much more in modern times than it ever was in +the Middle Ages. It is used especially in poetry or in fine writing, +just as _Briton_ is instead of _Englishman_, as in the line-- + + "Britons never, never, never shall be slaves." + +The name _Briton_ is now used also to mean Irish, Scotch, and Welsh +men--in fact, any British subject. We also speak of _Great Britain_, +which means England and Scotland. When the Scottish Parliament was +joined to the English in 1702 some name had to be found to describe +the new "nation," and this was how the name _Great Britain_ came into +use, just as the _United Kingdom_ was the name invented to describe +Great Britain and Ireland together when the Irish Parliament too was +joined to the English in 1804. + +We see how Gaul and Britain, as France and England were called in +Roman times, had their names changed after the fall of the Roman +Empire; but most of the countries round the Mediterranean Sea kept +their old names, just as they kept for the most part their old +languages. Italy, Greece, and Spain all kept their old names, although +new peoples flocked down into these lands too. But though new peoples +came, in all these lands they learned the ways and languages of the +older inhabitants, instead of changing everything, as the English did +in Britain. And so it was quite natural that they should keep their +own names too. + +Most of the other countries in Europe took their names from the people +who settled there. Germany (the Roman _Germania_) was the part of +Europe where most of the tribes of the German race settled down. The +divisions of Germany, like Saxony, Bavaria, Frisia, were the parts of +Germany where the German tribes known as Saxons, Bavarians, and +Frisians settled. The name _Austria_ comes from _Osterreich_, the +German for "eastern kingdom." Holland, on the other hand, takes its +name from the character of the land. It comes from _holt_, meaning +"wood," and _lant_, meaning "land." The little country of Albania is +so called from _Alba_, or "white," because of its snowy mountains. + +But perhaps the names of the old towns of the old world tell us the +best stories of all. The greatest city the world has ever seen was +Rome, and many scholars have quarrelled about the meaning of that +great name. It seems most likely that it came from an old word meaning +"river." It would be quite natural for the people of early Rome to +give such a name to their city, for it was a most important fact to +them that they had built their city just where it was on the river +Tiber. + +One of the best places on which a town could be built, especially in +early days, was the banks of a river, from which the people could get +water, and by which the refuse and rubbish of the town could be +carried away. Then, again, one of the chief things which helped Rome +to greatness was her position on the river Tiber, far enough from the +sea to be safe from the enemy raiders who infested the seas in those +early days, and yet near enough to send her ships out to trade with +other lands. Thus it was, probably, that a simple word meaning "river" +came to be used as the name of the world's greatest city. + +Others among the great cities of the ancient world were founded in a +quite different way. The great conqueror, Alexander the Great, founded +cities in every land he conquered, and their names remain even now to +keep his memory alive. The city of _Alexandria_, on the north coast of +Africa, was, of course, called after Alexander himself, and became +after his death more civilized and important than any of the Greek +cities which Alexander admired so much, and which he tried to imitate +everywhere. Now Alexandria is no longer a centre of learning, but a +fairly busy port. Only its name recalls the time when it helped in the +great work for which Alexander built it--to spread Greek learning and +Greek civilization over Europe and Asia. + +Another city which Alexander founded, but which afterwards fell into +decay, was _Bucephalia_, which the great conqueror set up in the north +of India when he made his wonderful march across the mountains into +that continent. It was called after "_Bucephalus_," the favourite +horse of Alexander, which had been wounded, and died after the battle. +The town was built over the place where the horse was buried, and +though its story is not so interesting as that of Alexandria, as the +town so soon fell into decay, still it is worth remembering. + +Another of the world's ancient and greatest cities, Constantinople, +also took its name from a great ruler. In the days when the Roman +Empire was beginning to decay, and new nations from the north began to +pour into her lands, the emperor, Constantine the Great, the ruler who +made Christianity the religion of the empire, chose a new capital +instead of Rome. He loved Eastern magnificence and Eastern ways, and +he chose for his new capital the old Greek colony of Byzantium, the +beautiful city on the Golden Horn, which Constantine soon made into a +new Rome, with churches and theatres and baths, like the old Rome. The +new Rome was given a new name. Constantine had turned Byzantium into +a new city, and it has ever since been known as _Constantinople_, or +the "city of Constantine." + +We can nearly always tell from the names of places something of their +history. If we think of the names of some of our English towns, we +notice that many of them end in the same way. There are several whose +names begin or end in _don_, like _London_ itself. Many others end in +_caster_ or _chester_, _ham_, _by_, _borough_ or _burgh_. + +We may be sure that most of the places whose names begin or end in +_don_ were already important places in the time before the Britons +were conquered by the Romans. The Britons were divided into tribes, +and lived in villages scattered over the land; but each tribe had its +little fortress or stronghold, the "dun," as it was called, with walls +and ditches round it, in which all the people of the tribe could take +shelter if attacked by a strong enemy. And so the name of London takes +us back to the time when this greatest city of the modern world, +spreading into four counties, and as big as a county itself, with its +marvellous buildings, old and new, and its immense traffic, was but a +British fort into which scantily-clothed people fled from their huts +at the approach of an enemy. + +But the British showed themselves wise enough in their choice of +places to build their _duns_, which, as in the case of London, often +became centres of new towns, which grew larger and larger through +Roman times, and on into the Middle Ages and modern times. + +The great French fortress town of Verdun, which everybody has heard of +because of its wonderful resistance to the German attacks in 1916, is +also an old Celtic town with this Celtic ending to its name. It was +already an important town when the Romans conquered Gaul, and it has +played a notable part in history ever since. Its full name means "the +fort on the water," just as _Dundee_ (from _Dun-tatha_) probably meant +"the fort on the Tay." + +By merely looking at a map of England, any one who knows anything of +the Latin language can pick out many names which come from that +language, and which must have been given in the days when the Romans +had conquered Britain. The ending _caster_ of so many names in the +north of England, and _chester_ in the Midlands, _xeter_ in the west +of England, and _caer_ in Wales, all come from the same Latin word, +_castrum_, which means a military camp or fortified place. So that we +might guess, if we did not know, that at Lancaster, Doncaster, +Manchester, Winchester, Exeter, and at the old capital of the famous +King Arthur, Caerleon, there were some of those Roman camps which were +dotted over England in the days when the Romans ruled the land. + +Here the Roman officers lived with their wives and families, and the +Roman soldiers too, and here they built churches and theatres and +baths, such as they were used to in their cities at home in Italy. +Here, too, it was that many of the British nobles learned Roman ways +of living and thinking; and from here the Roman priests and monks went +out to teach the Britons that the religion of the Druids was false, +and instruct them in the Christian religion. + +Another common Latin ending or beginning to the names of places was +_strat_, _stret_, or _street_, and wherever we find this we may know +that through these places ran some of the _viæ stratæ_, or great Roman +roads which the Romans built in all the provinces of their great +empire. There are many remains of these Roman roads still to be seen +up and down England; but even where no trace remains, the direction of +some, at least, of the great roads could be found from the names of +the towns which were dotted along them. Among these towns are +_Stratford_ in Warwickshire, _Chester-le-Street_ in Durham, +_Streatham_, etc. + +Then, again, some of the towns with _port_ and _lynne_ as part of +their names show us where the Romans had their ports and trading +towns. + +It is interesting to see the different names which the English gave to +the villages in which they dwelt when the Romans had left Britain, and +these new tribes had won it for themselves. Nearly all towns ending in +_ham_ and _ford_, and _burgh_ or _borough_, date from the first few +hundred years after the English won Britain. _Ham_ and _ford_ merely +meant "home," or "village." Thus _Buckingham_ was the home of the +Bockings, a village in which several families all related to each +other, and bearing this name, lived. Of course the name did not change +when later the village grew into a town. Buckingham is a very +different place now from the little village in which the Bockings +settled, each household having its house and yard, but dividing the +common meadow and pasture land out between them each year. + +_Wallingford_ was the home of the Wallings. Places whose names ended +in _ford_ were generally situated where a ford, or means of crossing a +river or stream, had to be made. Oxford was in Old English _Oxenford_, +or "ford of the oxen." + +Towns whose names end in _borough_ are often very old, but not so old +as some of those ending in _ham_ and _ford_. There were _burhs_ in the +first days of the English Conquest, but generally they were only +single fortified houses and not villages. We first hear of the more +important _burghs_ or _boroughs_ in the last hundred years or so +before the Norman Conquest. _Edinburgh_, which was at first an English +town, is a very early example. Its name means "Edwin's borough or +town," and it was so called because it was founded by Edwin, who was +king of England from 617 to 633. + +The special point about boroughs was that they were really free towns. +They had courts of justice of their own, and were free from the +Hundred courts, the next court above them being the Shire court, ruled +over by the sheriff. So we know that most of the towns whose names end +in _burgh_ or _borough_ had for their early citizens men who loved +freedom, and worked hard to win their own courts of justice. + +There are other endings to the names of towns which go back to the +days before the Norman Conquest, but which are not really English. If +a child were told to pick out on the map of England all the places +whose names end in _by_ or _thwaite_, he or she would find that most +of them are in the eastern part of England. The reason for this might +be guessed, perhaps, by a very thoughtful child. Both _by_ and +_thwaite_ are Danish words, and they are found in the eastern parts of +England, because it was in those parts that the Danes settled down +when the great King Alfred forced them to make peace in the Treaty of +Wallingford. After this, of course, the Danes lived in England for +many years, settling down, and becoming part of the English people. +Naturally they gave their own names to many villages and towns, and +many of these remain to this day to remind us of this fierce race +which helped to build up the English nation. + +The Normans did not make many changes in the names of places when they +won England, and most of our place-names come down to us from Roman +and old English times. The places have changed, but the names have +not. But though towns and counties have had their names from those +times, it is to be noticed that the names of our rivers and hills come +down to us from Celtic times. To the Britons, living a more or less +wild life, these things were of the greatest importance. There are +several rivers in England with the name of _Avon_, and this is an old +British name. The rivers _Usk_, _Esk_, and _Ouse_ were all christened +by the Britons, and all these names come from a British word meaning +"water." Curiously enough, the name _whisky_ comes from the same word. +From all these different ways in which places have got their names we +get glimpses of past history, and history helps us to understand the +stories that these old names tell us. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +NEW NAMES FOR NEW PLACES. + + +We have seen in how many different ways many of the old places of this +world got their names. Some names go so far back that no one knows +what is their meaning, or how they first came to be used. But we know +that a great part of the world has only been discovered since the +fifteenth century, and that a great part of what was already known has +only been colonized in modern times. + +With the discovery of the New World and the colonization of the Dark +Continent and other far-off lands, a great many new names were +invented. We could almost write a history of North or South America +from an explanation of their place-names. + +In learning the geography of South America we notice the beautiful +Spanish names of most of the places. The reason for this is that it +was the Spaniards who colonized South America in the sixteenth +century. Very little of this continent now belongs to Spain, but in +those days Spain was the greatest country in Europe. The proud and +brave Spanish adventurers were in those days sailing over the seas +and founding colonies, just as the English sailors of Queen Elizabeth +soon began to do in North America. + +Let us look at some of these names--_Los Angelos_ ("The Angels"), +_Santa Cruz_ ("The Holy Cross"), _Santiago_ ("St. James"), all names +of saints and holy things. Any one who knew no history at all might +guess, from the number of places with Spanish names spread over South +America, that it was the Spaniards who colonized this land. He would +also guess that the Spaniards in those days must have been a very +great nation indeed. And he would be right. + +He would guess, too, that the Spaniards had clung passionately to the +Catholic religion. Here, again, he would be right. Any great +enthusiasm will make a nation great, and the Spaniards in the +sixteenth century were filled with a great love for the old Church +against which the new Protestantism was fighting. The Pope looked upon +Spain as the great bulwark of Catholicism. The new religious feeling, +which had swept over Europe, and which had made the Protestants ready +to suffer and die for their new-found faith, took the form in Spain of +this great love for the old religion. The nation seemed inspired. It +is when these things happen that a people turns to great enterprises +and adventure. The Spaniards of the sixteenth century regarded +themselves, and were almost regarded by the other nations, as +unconquerable. The great aim of Elizabethan Englishmen was to "break +the power of Spain," and this they did at last when they scattered +the "Invincible Armada" in 1588. But before this Spain had done great +things. + +The Portuguese had been the first great adventurers, but they were +soon left far behind by the Spanish sailors, who explored almost every +part of South America, settling there, and sending home great +shiploads of gold to make Spain rich. And wherever they explored and +settled they spread about these beautiful names to honour the saints +and holy things which their religion told them to love and honour. + +It was the great discoverer Christopher Columbus who first gave one of +these beautiful names to a place in South America. He had already +discovered North America, and made a second voyage there, when he +determined to explore the land south of the West Indies. He sailed +south through the tropical seas while the heat melted the tar of the +rigging. But Columbus never noticed danger and discomfort. He had made +a vow to call the first land he saw after the Holy Trinity, and when +at last he caught sight of three peaks jutting up from an island he +gave the island the name of _La Trinidad_, and "Trinidad" it remains +to this day, though it now belongs to the British. As he sailed south +Columbus caught sight of what was really the mainland of South +America, but he thought it was another island, and called it _Isla +Santa_, or "Holy Island." + +It might seem curious that as Columbus had discovered both North and +South America, the continent was given the name of another man. As we +have seen, its name was taken from that of another explorer, Amerigo +Vespucci. The reason for this was that Columbus never really knew that +he had discovered a "New World." He believed that he had come by +another way to the eastern coast of Asia or Africa. The islands which +he first discovered were for this reason called the _Indies_, and the +_West Indies_ they remain to this day. + +It was Amerigo Vespucci who first announced to the world, in a book +which he published in 1507 (three years after Christopher Columbus had +died in loneliness and poverty), that the new lands were indeed a +great new continent, and not Asia or Africa at all. People later on +said that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered a new continent, and that it +ought to be called by his name. This is how the name _America_ came +into use; but of course the work of Vespucci was not to be compared +with that of the great adventurer who first sailed across the "Sea of +Darkness," and was the real discoverer of the New World. + +Though it was the Spaniards who discovered North America, it was the +English who chiefly colonized it. + +It is interesting to notice the names which the early English +colonists scattered over the northern continent. We might gather from +them that, just as the love of their Church was the great passion of +the sixteenth-century Spaniards, so the love of their country was the +ruling passion of the great English adventurers. (Of course the +Spaniards had shown their love for their old country in some of the +names they gave, as when Columbus called one place _Isabella_, in +honour of the noble Spanish queen who had helped and encouraged him +when other rulers of European countries had refused to listen to what +they thought were the ravings of a madman.) + +The English in Reformation days had a very different idea of religion +from the Spanish. Naturally they did not sprinkle the names of saints +over the new lands. But the English of Elizabeth's day were filled +with a great new love for England. The greatest of all the Elizabethan +adventurers, Sir Francis Drake, when in his voyage round the world he +put into a harbour which is now known as San Francisco, set up "a +plate of brass fast nailed to a great and firm post, whereon is +engraved Her Grace's name, and the day and the year of our arrival +there." The Indian king of these parts had freely owned himself +subject to the English, taking the crown from his own head and putting +it on Drake's head. Sir Francis called his land _New Albion_, using +the old poetic name for England. + +But the colonization of North America was not successfully begun until +after the death of Elizabeth, though one or two attempts at founding +colonies, or "plantations," as they were then called, were made in +her time. Sir Walter Raleigh tried to set up one colony in North +America, and called it _Virginia_, after the virgin queen whom all +Englishmen delighted to honour. Virginia did not prosper, and +Raleigh's colony broke up; but later another and successful attempt at +colonizing it was made, and the same name kept. Virginia--"Earth's +only Paradise," as the poet Drayton called it--was the first English +colony successfully settled in North America. This was in the year +1607, when two hundred and forty-three settlers landed, and made the +first settlement at a point which they called _Jamestown_, in honour +of the new English king, James I. + +The first settlers in Virginia were men whose chief aim was to become +rich, but it was not long before a new kind of settler began to seek +refuge in the lands north of Virginia, to which the great colonizer, +Captain John Smith, had by this time given the name of _New England_. +It was in 1620 that the "Pilgrim Fathers," because they were not free +to worship God as they thought right at home, sailed from Southampton +in the little _Mayflower_, and landed far to the north of Virginia, +and made a settlement at a place which Smith had already called +_Plymouth_. + +Before long new colonies began to spring up all over New England; and +though we find some new names, like the Indian name of the great +colony _Massachusetts_, we may read the story of the great love which +the colonists felt for the old towns of the mother-country in the way +they gave their names to the new settlements. + +A curious thing is that many of these new towns, christened after +little old towns at home, became later very important and prosperous +places, while the places after which they were called are sometimes +almost forgotten. Many people to whom the name of the great American +city of Boston is familiar do not know that there still stands on the +coast of Lincolnshire the sleepy little town of Boston, from which it +took its name. + +Boston is the chief town of Massachusetts; but the first capital was +_Charlestown_, called after King Charles I., who had by this time +succeeded his father, James I. The place on which Charlestown was +built, on the north bank of the Charles River, was, however, found to +be unhealthy. The settlers, therefore, deserted it, and Boston was +built on the south bank. + +It was not long before the Massachusetts settlers built a college at a +place near Boston which had been called _Cambridge_. This is a case in +which the old town at home remained, of course, much more important +than its godchild. If a person speaks of Cambridge, one's mind +immediately flies to the English university city on the banks of the +river Cam. Still the college built at the American Cambridge, and +called "Harvard College," after John Harvard, one of the early +settlers, who gave a great deal of money towards its building, is +famous now throughout the world. + +It was natural and suitable that the early settlers should use the old +English names to show their love for the mother-country; but it was +not such a wise thing to choose the names of the great historic towns +of Europe, and give them to the new settlements. To give the almost +sacred name of _Rome_ to a modern American town seems almost +ridiculous. Certainly one would have always to be very careful to add +"Georgia, U.S.A." in addressing letters there. The United States has +several of these towns bearing old historic names. _Paris_ as the name +of an American town seems almost as unsuitable as Rome. + +But this mistake was not made by the early colonists. If we think of +the names of the colonies which stretched along the east of North +America, we find nearly always that the names are chosen to do honour +to the English king or queen, or to keep the memory fresh of some +beloved spot in the old country. + +In 1632 the Catholic Lord Baltimore founded a new colony, the only one +where the Catholic religion was tolerated, and called it _Maryland_, +in honour of Charles I.'s queen, Henrietta Maria. Just after the +Restoration of Charles II. in 1660, when the country was full of +loyalty, a new colony, _Carolina_, was founded, taking its name from +_Carolus_, the Latin for "Charles." Afterwards this colony was divided +into two, and became North and South Carolina. + +To the north of Maryland lay the _New Netherlands_, for Holland had +also colonized here. In the seventeenth century this little nation was +for a time equal to the greatest nations in Europe. The Dutch had very +soon followed the example of that other little nation Portugal, which, +directed by the famous Prince Henry of Portugal, had been the first of +all the European nations to explore far-off lands. Holland was as +important on the seas as Spain or England; but this could not last +long. The Dutch and the English fought several campaigns, and in the +end the Dutch were beaten. + +In 1667 the New Netherlands were yielded up to England. The name of +the colony was changed to _New York_, and its capital, New Amsterdam, +was given the same name. This was in honour of the sailor prince, +James, Duke of York, afterwards the unhappy King James II. Another of +the Stuarts who gave his name to a district of North America was +Prince Rupert, the nephew of Charles I., who fought so hard for the +king against Cromwell. In 1670 the land round Hudson Bay was given the +name of _Rupertsland_. + +Sometimes, but not often, the new colonies were given the names of +their founders. William Penn, who founded the Quaker colony of +_Pennsylvania_, gave it this name in honour of his father, Admiral +Penn. _Sylvania_ means "land of woods," and comes from the Latin +_sylvanus_, or "woody." + +But it is not only in America that the place-names tell us the +stories of heroism and romance. All over the world, from the icy lands +round the Poles to the tropical districts of Africa, India, and +Australia, these stories can be read. The spirit in which the early +Portuguese adventurers sailed along the coast of Africa is shown in +the name they gave to what we now know as the _Cape of Good Hope_. +Bartholomew Diaz called it the _Cape of Storms_, for he had discovered +it only after terrible battlings with the waves; but when he sailed +home to tell his news the king of Portugal said that this was not a +good name, but it should instead be called the _Cape of Good Hope_, +for past it lay the sea passage to India which men had been seeking +for years. And so the _Cape of Good Hope_ it remains to this day. + +After this it was not long before the Portuguese explored the south +and east coasts of Africa and the west coast of India to the very +south, where they took the _Spice Islands_ for their own. From these +the Portuguese brought home great quantities of spices, which they +sold at high prices in Europe. + +It was the great explorer Ferdinand Magellan who first sailed round +the world, being sure, as he said, that he could reach the Spice +Islands by sailing west. And so he started on this expedition, sailing +through the straits which have ever since been known as the _Magellan +Straits_ to the south of South America, into the Pacific, or +"Peaceful," Ocean, and then ever west, until he came round by the +east to Spain again, after three years of great hardship and wonderful +adventure. + +The adventures of the early explorers most often took the form of +seeking a new and shorter passage from one ocean to another, and so +many straits bear the names of the explorers. The Elizabethan +explorer, Martin Frobisher, sought for a "North-west Passage" from the +Atlantic to the Pacific, and for a time it was thought that he had +found it in the very north of North America. But it was afterwards +found that the "passage," which had already been given the name of +_Frobisher's Straits_, was really only an inlet, and afterwards it +became known as _Lumley's Inlet_. + +Frobisher never discovered a North-west Passage, for the ships of +those days were not fitted out in a way to enable the sailors to bear +the icy cold of these northern regions. Many brave explorers tried +later to discover it. Three times John Davis made a voyage for this +purpose but never succeeded, though _Davis Strait_ commemorates his +heroic attempts. Hudson and Baffin explored in these waters, as the +names _Hudson Bay_ and _Baffin Bay_ remind us. + +It was nearly two hundred years later that Sir John Franklin sailed +with an expedition in two boats, the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, determined +to find the passage. He found it, but died in the attempt; but, +strangely enough, his name was not given to any strait, though later +it was given to all the islands of the Arctic Archipelago. + +The winning of India by the British in the eighteenth century did not +give us many new English names. India was not, like the greater part +of America, a wild country inhabited by savage peoples. It had an +older civilization than the greater part of Europe, and the only +reason that it was weak enough to be conquered was that the many races +who lived there could not agree among themselves. Most of the +place-names of India are native names given by natives, for centuries +before France and England began to struggle for its possession in the +eighteenth century India had passed through a long and varied history. + +When we remember that the natives of India have no name to describe +the whole continent, it helps us to understand that India is in no way +a single country. The British Government have given the continent the +name _India_, taking it from the great river Indus, which itself takes +its name from an old word, _sindhu_, meaning "river." + +In the days of the early explorers, after the islands discovered by +Columbus were called the _West Indies_, some people began to call the +Indian continent the _East Indies_, to distinguish it; and some of the +papers about India drawn up for the information of Parliament about +Indian affairs still use this name, but it is not a familiar use to +most people. + +The mistake which Columbus and the early explorers made in thinking +America was India has caused a good deal of confusion. The natives of +North America were called Indians, and it was only long afterwards, in +fact quite lately, that people began to write and speak of the natives +of India as _Indians_. When it was printed in the newspapers that +Indians were fighting for the British Empire with the armies in +France, the use of the word _Indian_ seemed wrong to a great many +people; but it is now becoming so common that it will probably soon +seem quite right. When it is used with the old meaning we shall have +to say the "Indians of North America." Some people use the word +_Hindu_ to describe the natives of India; but this is not correct, as +only _some_ of the natives of India are Hindus, just as the name +_Hindustan_ (a Persian name meaning "land of the Hindus," as +_Afghanistan_ means "land of the Afghans"), which some old writers on +geography used for India, is really the name of one part of the land +round the river Ganges, where the language known as _Hindi_ is spoken. + +The place-names of India given by natives of the many different races +which have lived in the land could fill a book with their stories +alone. We can only mention a few. The name of the great range of +mountains which runs across the north of the continent, the +_Himalayas_, means in Sanskrit, the oldest language used in India, the +"home of snow." _Bombay_ takes its name from _Mumba_, the name of a +goddess of an early tribe who occupied the district round Bombay. +_Calcutta_, which stretches over ground where there were formerly +several villages, takes its name from one of these. Its old form was +_Kalikuti_, which means the "ghauts," or passes, leading to the temple +of the goddess Kali. + +In Australia, where a beginning of colonization was made through the +discoveries of Captain Cook towards the end of the eighteenth century, +the place-names were sometimes given from places at home, sometimes +after persons, but they have hardly the same romance as the early +American names. + +_Botany Bay_ was the name chosen by Captain Cook in a moment of +enthusiasm for an inlet of New South Wales. He gave it this name +because of the great number of plants and flowers which grow there. + +In Africa a good deal of history can be learned from the place-names. +Although the north of Africa had for many hundreds of years had its +part in the civilization of the countries round the Mediterranean Sea, +the greater part of Africa had remained an unexplored region--the +"Dark Continent," as it was called. In the fifteenth century the +Portuguese sailors crept along the western coast, and afterwards along +the south, as we have seen, past the Cape of Good Hope. But the +interior of the continent remained for long an unexplored region. + +The Dutch had, very soon after the discovery of the Cape, made a +settlement there, which was known as _Cape Colony_. This was +afterwards won by the English; but many Dutchmen still stayed there, +and though, since the Boer War, when the Boers, or Dutch, in South +Africa tried to win their independence, the whole of South Africa +belongs to the British Empire, still there are naturally many Dutch +names given by the early Dutch settlers. Some of these became very +well known to English people in the Boer War. _Bloemfontein_ is one of +these names, coming from the Dutch word for "spring" (_fontein_), and +that of Jan Bloem, one of the farmers who first settled there. Another +well-known place in the Transvaal, _Pietermaritzburg_, took its name +from the two leaders who led the Boers out of Cape Colony when they +felt that the English were becoming too strong there. These leaders +were Pieter Retief and Georit Maritz. This movement of the Boers into +the Transvaal was called the "Great Trek," _trek_ being a Dutch word +for a journey or migration of this sort. Since the days of the Boer +War this word has been regularly used in English with this same +meaning. Like the English settlers in America, the Dutch settlers in +South Africa sometimes gave the names of places in Holland to their +new settlements. _Utrecht_ is an example of this. + +Up to the very end of the nineteenth century no European country +besides England had any great possessions in Africa. The Portuguese +still held the coast lands between Zululand (so called from the +fierce black natives who lived there) and Mozambique. Egypt had come +practically under British rule soon after the days of Napoleon, and in +the middle of the nineteenth century the great explorers Livingstone +and Stanley had explored the lands along the Zambesi River and a great +part of Central Africa. Stanley went right across the centre of the +continent, and discovered the lake _Albert Edward Nyanza_. _Nyanza_ is +the African word for "lake," and the name Albert Edward was given in +honour of the Prince Consort. _Victoria Nyanza_, so called after Queen +Victoria, had been discovered some years before. It was all these +discoveries which led to the colonization of Africa by the nations of +Europe. + +In 1884 the great German statesman, Prince Bismarck, set up the German +flag in Damaraland, the coast district to the north of the Orange +River; and soon after a German colony was set up in the lands between +the Portuguese settlements and the Equator. This was simply called +German East Africa. At the same time the other nations of Europe +suddenly realized that if they meant to have part of Africa they must +join in the scramble at once. There were soon a British East Africa, a +Portuguese East Africa, a Portuguese West Africa, a German South-west +Africa, and so on. All these are names which might have been given in +a hurry, and in them we seem to read the haste of the European +nations to seize on the only lands in the world which were still +available. They are very different from the descriptive names which +the early Portuguese adventurers had strewn along the coast, like +_Sierra Leone_, or "the lion mountain;" _Cape Verde_, or "the green +cape," so called from its green grass. + +Still, romance was not dead even yet. There is one district of South +Africa which takes its name in the old way from that of a person. +_Rhodesia_, the name given to Mashonaland and Matabeleland, was so +called after Mr. Cecil Rhodes, a young British emigrant, who went out +from England in very weak health and became perfectly strong, at the +same time winning a fortune for himself in the diamond fields of +Kimberley. He devoted himself heart and soul to the strengthening of +British power in South Africa, and it is fitting that this province +should by its name keep his memory fresh. + +The story of the struggle in South Africa between Boer and Briton can +be partly read in its place-names; and the story of the struggle +between old and new settlers in Canada can be similarly read in the +place-names of that land. + +The first settlers in Canada were the French, and the descendants of +these first settlers form a large proportion of the Canadian +population. Many places in Canada still have, of course, the names +which the first French settlers gave them. + +The Italian, John Cabot, had sailed to Canada a few years after +Columbus discovered America, sent by the English king, Henry VII., but +no settlements were made. Thirty-seven years later the French sailor, +Jacques Cartier, was sent by the French king, Francis I., to explore +there. Cartier sailed up the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far as the spot +where Montreal now stands. The name was given by Cartier, and means +"royal mount." It was Cartier, too, who gave Canada its name; but he +thought that this was already the Indian name for the land. A story is +told that some Red Indians were trying to talk to him and making +signs, and they pointed to some houses, saying, "Cannata." Cartier +thought they meant that this was the name of the country, but he was +mistaken. They were, perhaps, pointing out their village, for +_cannata_ is the Indian name for "village." + +Cartier, like Cabot, sailed away again, and the first real founder of +a settlement in Canada was the Frenchman, Samuel de Champlain, who +made friends with the Indians, and explored the upper parts of the +river Lawrence, and gave his name to the beautiful _Lake Champlain_, +which he discovered. It was he who founded _Quebec_, giving it this +Breton name. Sailors from Brittany had ventured as far as the coast of +Canada in the time of Columbus, and had given its name to _Cape +Breton_. And so French names spread through Canada. Later, in one of +the wars of the eighteenth century, England won Canada from France; +but these French names still remain to tell the tale of French +adventure and heroism in that land. + +We have seen many names in new lands, some of them given by people +from the Old World who settled in these lands. In the great European +War we have seen people from these new lands coming back to fight in +some of the most ancient countries of the Old World. The splendid +Australian troops who fought in Gallipoli sprinkled many new names +over the land they won and lost. One, at least, will always remain on +the maps. _Anzac_, where the Colonials made their historic landing, +will never be forgotten. It was a new name, made up of the initial +letters of the words "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps," and will +remain for ever one of the most honoured names invented in the +twentieth century. + +Children who like history can read whole chapters in the place-names +of the old world and the new. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +STORIES IN OLD LONDON NAMES. + + +It is not only in the names of continents, countries, and towns that +stories of the past can be read. The names of the old streets and +buildings (or even of new streets which have kept their old names) in +our old towns are full of stories. Especially is this true about +London, the centre of the British Empire, and almost the centre of the +world's history. It will be interesting not only to little Londoners, +but to other children as well, to examine some of the old London +names, and see what stories they can tell. + +Naturally the most interesting names of all are to be found in what we +now call "the City," meaning the centre of London, which was at one +time all the London there was. + +We have seen that London was in the time of the Britons just a fort, +and that it became important in Roman times, and a town grew up around +it. But this town in the Middle Ages, and even so late as the +eighteenth century, was not at all like the London we know to-day. +London now is really a county, and stretches away far into four +counties; but mediæval London was like a small country town, though a +very important and gay and busy town, because it was the capital. + +Many of the names in the City take us back to the very earliest days +of the capital. This part of London stands on slightly rising ground, +and near the river Thames, just the sort of ground which early people +would choose upon which to build a fortress or a village. The names of +two of the chief City streets, the Strand and Fleet Street, help to +show us something of what London was like in its earliest days. A few +years ago, in a famous case in a court of law, one of the lawyers +asked a witness what he was doing in the Strand at a certain time. The +witness, a witty Irishman, answered with a solemn face, "Picking +seaweed." Everybody laughed, because the idea of picking seaweed in +the very centre of London was so funny. But a strand _is_ a shore, and +when the name was given to the London _Strand_ it was not a paved +street at all, but the muddy shore of the river Thames. + +Then _Fleet Street_ marks the path by which the little river Fleet ran +into the Thames. The river had several tributaries, which were covered +over in this way, and several of them are used as sewers to carry away +the sewage of the city. There is a _Fleet Street_, too, in Hampstead, +in the north-west of London, and this marks the beginning of the +course of the same little river Fleet which got its water from the +high ground of Hampstead. + +This river has given us still another famous London name. It flowed +past what is now called King's Cross, and here its banks were so steep +that it was called _Hollow_, or _Hole-bourne_, and from this we get +the name _Holborn_. + +The City being the centre of London had a certain amount of trading +and bargaining from the earliest times. In those times there were no +such things as shops. People bought and sold in markets, and the name +of the busy City street, _Cheapside_, reminds us of this. It was +called in early times the _Chepe_, and took its name from the Old +English word _ceap_, "a bargain." + +At the end of Cheapside runs the street called _Poultry_, and this, so +an old chronicler tells us, has its name from the fact that a fowl or +poultry market was regularly held there up to the sixteenth century. +The name of another famous City street, _Cornhill_, tells us that a +corn market used to be held there. Another name, _Gracechurch Street_, +reminds us of an old grass market. It took its name from an old +church, St. Benet Grasschurch, which was probably so called because +the grass market was held under its walls. + +_Smithfield_ is the great London meat market now; but its name means +"smooth field," and in the Middle Ages it was used as a cattle and hay +market, and on days which were not market days games and tournaments +took place there. Later its name became famous in English history for +the "fires of Smithfield," when men and women were burned to death +there for refusing to accept the state religion. + +Many London names come from churches and buildings which no longer +exist. The names help us to picture a London very different from the +London of to-day. One of the busiest streets in that part of the City +round Fleet Street where editors and journalists, and printers and +messengers are working day and night to produce the newspapers which +carry the news of the day far and wide over England, is _Blackfriars_. +This is a very different place from the spot where the Dominicans, or +"Black Friars," built their priory in the thirteenth century. + +In those days the friars chose the busiest parts of the little English +towns to build their houses in, so that they could preach and help the +people. They thought that the earlier monks had chosen places for +their monasteries too far from the people. There were grey friars and +white friars, Austin friars and crutched friars, all of whose names +remain in the London of to-day. + +There were many monasteries and convents in the larger London which +soon grew up round the City, and in the City itself we have a street +whose name keeps the memory of one convent of nuns. The street called +the _Minories_ marks the place where a convent of nuns of St. Clare +was founded in the thirteenth century. The Latin name for these nuns +is _Sorores Minores_, or "Lesser Sisters," just as the Franciscans, or +grey friars, were _Fratres Minores_, or "Lesser Brethren." And so from +the Latin _minores_ we get the name Minories as the name of a London +street, standing where this convent once stood. + +The name of the street _London Wall_ reminds us of the time when +London was a walled city with its gates, which were closed at night +and opened every morning. Many streets keep the names of the old +gates, like _Ludgate Hill_, _Aldersgate_, _Bishopsgate_. + +The great _Tower of London_ still stands to show us how London was +defended in the old feudal days; but _Tower Bridge_, the bridge which +crosses the river at that point, is a modern bridge, built in 1894. +The name _Cripplegate_ still remains, and the story it has to tell us +is that in the Middle Ages there stood outside the city walls beyond +this gate the hospital of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. It was a hospital +for lepers; but St. Giles is the patron saint of cripples, and so this +gate of the city got the name of Cripplegate, because it was the +nearest to the church of the patron saint of cripples. + +This church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields no longer remains; but we have +_St. Martin's-in-the-Fields_, to remind us of the difference between +Trafalgar Square to-day and its condition not quite two hundred years +ago, when this church was built. + +It must be remembered that even at the very end of the eighteenth +century London was just a tiny town lying along the river. At that +time many of the nobles and rich merchants were building their +mansions in what is now the West Central district of London. The north +side of Queen Square, Bloomsbury, was left open, so that the people +who lived there could enjoy the view of the Highgate and Hampstead +hills, to which the open country stretched. Even now this end of Queen +Square is closed only by a railing, but a great mass of streets and +houses stretches far beyond Hampstead and Highgate now. + +_Trafalgar Square_ itself got its name in honour of Nelson, the hero +of the great victory of Trafalgar. The great column with the statue of +Nelson stands in the square. + +This brings us to one of the most interesting of old London names. On +one side of the square stands _Charing Cross_, the busiest spot in +London. At this point there once stood the last of the nine beautiful +crosses which King Edward III. set up at the places where the coffin +of his wife, Eleanor, was set to rest in the long journey from +Lincolnshire, where she died, to her grave in Westminster Abbey; and +so it got its name. A fine modern cross has been set up in memory of +Edward's cross, which has long since disappeared. + +The district of Westminster takes its name, of course, from the abbey; +and the name _Broad Sanctuary_ remains to remind us of the sanctuary +in which, as in many churches of the Middle Ages, people could take +refuge even from the Law. _Covent Garden_ took its name from a convent +garden belonging to the abbey. + +One of the oldest parts of London is _Charterhouse Square_, where, +until a year or two ago, there stood the famous boys' school of this +name. The school took its name from the old monastery of the +Charterhouse, which King Henry VIII. brought to an end because the +monks would not own that he was head of the Church instead of the +Pope. They suffered a dreadful death, being hanged, drawn, and +quartered as traitors. The monastery was taken, like so many others, +by the king, and afterwards became a school. But the school was +removed in 1872 to an airier district at Godalming. Part of the old +building is still used as a boys' day school. + +The word _Charterhouse_ was the English name for a house of +Carthusians, a very strict order of monks, whose first house was the +Grande Chartreuse in France. + +Not far from the Charterhouse is _Ely Place_, with the beautiful old +church of St. Ethelreda. This was, in the Middle Ages, a chapel used +by the Bishop of Ely when he came to London, and that is how Ely +Place, still one of the quietest and quaintest spots in London, got +its name. + +People who go along Ludgate Hill to St. Paul's must have noticed many +curious names. Perhaps the quaintest of all is _Paternoster Row_. +This street, which takes its name from the Latin name of the "Our +Father," or Lord's Prayer, got its name from the fact that in the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries many sellers of prayer-books and +texts collected at this spot, on account of it being near the great +church of St. Paul's. Paternoster Row is still full of booksellers. + +_Ave Maria Lane_ and _Amen Corner_, just near, got their names in +imitation of Paternoster Row, the _Ave Maria_, or "Hail, Mary!" being +the words used by the angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin at the +Annunciation, and _Amen_ being, of course, the ending to the +_paternoster_, as to most prayers. + +Not far from St. Paul's is the Church of _St. Mary-le-Bow_. It used to +be said that the true Londoner had to be born within the sound of +Bow-bells, and the old story tells us that it was these bells which +Dick Whittington heard telling him to turn back when he had lost hope +of making his fortune, and was leaving London for the country again. +The present Church of St. Mary-le-Bow was built by Sir Christopher +Wren, the great seventeenth-century architect, who built St. Paul's +and several other of the most beautiful London churches after they had +been destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. But underneath the present +Church of St. Mary-le-Bow is the crypt, which was not destroyed in the +fire. This crypt was built, like the former church, in Norman times, +and the church took its name of _bow_ from the arches upon which it +was built in the Norman way, it being the first church in London to be +built in this way. The church is generally called "Bow Church." + +Another famous old London church, the _Temple Church_, which is now +used as the chapel of the lawyers at the Inns of Court, got its name +from the fact that it belonged to and was built by the Knights +Templars in the twelfth century. These knights were one of those +peculiar religious orders which joined the life of a soldier to that +of a monk, and played a great part in the Crusades. King Edward III. +brought the order to an end, and took their property; but the Temple +Church, with its tombs and figures of armoured knights in brass, +remains to keep their memory fresh. + +We may mention two other names of old London streets which take us +back to the Middle Ages. In the City we have the street called _Old +Jewry_, and this reminds us of the time when in all the more important +towns of England in the early Middle Ages a part was put aside for the +Jews. This was called the _Ghetto_. The Jews were much disliked in the +Middle Ages because of the treatment of Our Lord by their forefathers; +but the kings often protected them because, in spite of everything, +the Jews grew rich, and the kings were able to borrow money of them. +In 1290, however, Edward I. banished all the Jews from England, and +they did not return until the days of Cromwell. But the name of the +Old Jewry reminds us of the ghetto which was an important part of old +London. + +Another famous City street, _Lombard Street_, the street of bankers, +got its name from the Italian merchants from Lombardy who set up their +business there, and who became the bankers and money-lenders when +there were no longer any Jews to lend money to the English king and +nobles. + +As time went on London began to grow in a way which seemed alarming to +the people of the seventeenth century, though even then it was but a +tiny town in comparison with the London of to-day. The fashionable +people and courtiers began to build houses in the western "suburbs," +as they were then called, though now they are looked upon as very +central districts. It was chiefly in the seventeenth century that what +we now know as the _West End_ became a residential quarter. Some parts +of the West End are, of course, still the most fashionable parts of +London; but some, like Covent Garden and Lincoln's Inn Fields, have +been given over to business. + +Most of the best-known names in the West End date from the seventeenth +and eighteenth centuries. The most fashionable street of all, +_Piccadilly_, probably got its name from the very fashionable collar +called a _pickadil_ (from the Spanish word _picca_, "a spear") which +the fine gentlemen wore as they swaggered through the West End in the +early seventeenth century. _Pall Mall_ and the _Mall_ in St. James's +Park took their names from a game which was very fashionable after the +Restoration, but which was already known in the time of Charles I. The +game was called _pall-mall_, from the French _paille-maille_. After +the Restoration Charles II. allowed the people to use St. James's +Park, which was a royal park, and Londoners used to watch respectfully +and admiringly as Charles and his brother James played this game. + +_Spring Gardens_, also in St. James's Park, reminds us of the lively +spirits of Restoration times. It was so called because of a fountain +which stood there, and which was so arranged that when a passer-by +trod by accident on a certain valve the waters spurted forth and +drenched him. We should not think this so funny now as people did +then. + +At the same time that the West End was growing, poorer districts were +spreading to the north and east of the City. _Moorfields_ (which tells +us by its name what it was like in the early London days) was built +over. _Spitalfields_ (which took its name from one of the many +hospitals which religious people built in and near mediæval London) +and _Whitechapel_ also filled up, and became centres of trade and +manufacture. The games and sports which amused the people in these +poorer quarters were not so refined as the ball-throwing of the +princes and courtiers. In the name _Balls Pond Road_, Islington, we +are reminded of the duck-hunting which was one of the sports of the +common people. + +As time went on and London became larger and more crowded, the +fashionable people began to go away each summer to drink the waters at +Bath and Tunbridge Wells. But in London itself there were several +springs and wells whose waters were supposed to be good for people's +health, and these have given us some of the best-known London names. +Near _Holywell Street_ there were several of these wells; and along +_Well Walk_, in the north-west suburb of Hampstead, a procession of +gaily-dressed people might regularly be seen in Charles II.'s time +going to drink the waters. _Clerkenwell_ also took its name from a +well which was believed to be mediæval and even miraculous. +_Bridewell_, the name of the famous prison, also came from the name of +a well dedicated to St. Bride. + +Many of the great streets and squares of the West End of London have +taken their names from the houses of noblemen who have lived there, or +from the names of the rich owners of property in these parts. +_Northumberland Avenue_, opening off Trafalgar Square, takes its name +from Northumberland House, built there in the time of James I. +_Arundel Street_, running down to the Embankment from the Strand, is +so called in memory of Arundel House, the home of the Earl of Arundel, +which used to stand here. It was there that the famous collection of +statues known as the "Arundel Marbles" was first collected. They were +presented to Oxford University in 1667. + +Just near Charing Cross there is a part of old London called the +_Adelphi_. This district takes its name from a fine group of buildings +put up there in the middle of the eighteenth century by the two famous +brother architects Robert and William Adam. _Adelphi_ is the Greek +word for "brothers," but the name seems very peculiar applied in this +way. + +The name of _Mayfair_, the very centre of fashion in the West End, +reminds us that in this magnificent quarter of London a fair used to +be held in May in the time of Charles II. This gives us an idea of how +the district must have changed since then. _Farm Street_, in Mayfair, +has its name from a farm which was still there in the middle of the +eighteenth century. The ground is now taken up by stables and +coach-houses. _Half-Moon Street_, another fashionable street running +out of Piccadilly, takes its name from a public house which was built +on this corner in 1730. + +These old names give us some idea of what London was like at different +times in the past; but another very interesting group of names are +those which are being made in the greater London of to-day. One of the +commonest words used by Londoners to-day is the _Underground_. If an +eighteenth-century Londoner could come back and talk to us to-day he +would not know what we meant by this word. For the great system of +underground railways to which it refers was only made in the later +years of the nineteenth century. The _Twopenny Tube_ was the name of +one of the first lines of these underground railways. It was so called +because the trains ran through great circular tunnels, like the +underground railways which connect all parts of London to-day. It has +now become quite a habit of Londoners to talk of going "by Tube" when +they mean by any of the underground railways. + +One of these lines has a very peculiar and rather ugly name. It is +called the _Bakerloo Railway_, because it runs from Baker Street to +Waterloo. It certainly makes us think that the Londoners of long ago +showed much better taste in the names they invented. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +WORDS MADE BY GREAT WRITERS. + + +As we have seen, languages while they are living are always growing +and changing. We have seen how new names have been made as time went +on. But many new words besides names are constantly being added to a +language; for just as grown-up people use more words than children, +and educated people use more words than uneducated or less educated +people, so, too, _nations_ use more words as time goes on. Every word +must have been used a first time by some one; but of course it is +impossible to know who were the makers of most words. Even new words +cannot often be traced to their makers. Some one uses a new word, and +others pick it up, and it passes into general use, while everybody has +forgotten who made it. + +But one very common way in which people learn to use new words is +through reading the books of great writers. Sometimes these writers +have made new words which their readers have seen to be very good, and +have then begun to use themselves. Sometimes these great writers have +made use of words which, though not new, were very rare, and +immediately these words have become popular and ordinary words. + +The first great English poet was Chaucer, and the great English +philologists feel sure that he must have made many new words and made +many rare words common; but it is not easy to say that Chaucer made +any particular word, because we do not know enough of the language +which was in use at that time to say so. One famous phrase of Chaucer +is often quoted now: "after the schole of Stratford-atte-Bowe," which +he used in describing the French spoken by one of the Canterbury +Pilgrims in his great poem. He meant that this was not pure French, +but French spoken in the way and with the peculiar accent used at +Stratford (a part of London near Bow Church). We now often use the +phrase to describe any accent which is not perfect. + +But though we do not know for certain which words Chaucer introduced, +we do know that this first great English poet must have introduced +many, especially French words; while Wyclif, the first great English +prose writer, who translated part of the Bible from Latin into +English, must also have given us many new words, especially from the +Latin. The English language never changed so much after the time of +Chaucer and Wyclif as it had done before. + +The next really great English poet, Edmund Spenser, who wrote his +wonderful poem, "The Faerie Queene," in the days of Queen Elizabeth, +invented a great many new words. Some of these were seldom or never +used afterwards, but some became ordinary English words. Sometimes his +new words were partly formed out of old words which were no longer +used. The word _elfin_, which became quite a common word, seems to +have been invented by Spenser. He called a boasting knight by the name +_Braggadocio_, and we still use the word _braggadocio_ for vain +boasting. A common expression which we often find used in romantic +tales, and especially in the novels of Sir Walter Scott, _derring-do_, +meaning "adventurous action," was first used by Spenser. He, however, +took it from Chaucer, who had used it as a _verb_, speaking of the +_dorring-do_ (or "daring to do") that belonged to a knight. Spenser +made a mistake in thinking Chaucer had used it as a noun, and used it +so himself, making in this way quite a new and very well-sounding +word. + +Another word which Spenser made, and which is still sometimes used, +was _fool-happy_; but other words, like _idlesse_, _dreariment_, +_drowsihead_, are hardly seen outside his poetry. One reason for this +is that Spenser was telling stories of quaint and curious things, and +he used quaint and curious words which would not naturally pass into +ordinary language. + +The next great name in English literature, and the greatest name of +all, is Shakespeare. Shakespeare influenced the English language more +than any writer before or since. First of all he made a great many new +words, some very simple and others more elaborate, but all of them so +suitable that they have become a part of the language. Such a common +word as _bump_, which it would be difficult to imagine ourselves +without, is first found in Shakespeare's writings. _Hurry_, which +seems to be the only word to express what it stands for, seems also to +have been made by Shakespeare, and also the common word _dwindle_. +Some other words which Shakespeare made are _lonely_, _orb_ (meaning +"globe"), _illumine_, and _home-keeping_. + +Many others might be quoted, but the great influence which Shakespeare +had on the English language was not through the new words he made, but +in the way his expressions and phrases came to be used as ordinary +expressions. Many people are constantly speaking Shakespeare without +knowing it, for the phrases he used were so exactly right and +expressive that they have been repeated ever since, and often, of +course, by people who do not know where they first came from. We can +only mention a few of these phrases, such as "a Daniel come to +judgment," which Shylock says to Portia in the "Merchant of Venice," +and which is often used now sarcastically. From the same play comes +the expression "pound of flesh," which is now often used to mean what +a person knows to be due to him and is determined to have. "Full of +sound and fury, signifying nothing," "to gild refined gold," "to wear +one's heart upon one's sleeve,"--these and hundreds of other phrases +are known by most people to come from Shakespeare; they are used by +many who do not. They describe so splendidly so many things which are +constantly happening that they seem to be the only or at least the +best way of expressing the meanings they signify. + +But not only have hundreds of Shakespeare's own words and phrases +passed into everyday English, but the way in which he turned his +phrases is often imitated. It was Shakespeare who used the phrase to +"out-Herod Herod," and now this is a common form of speech. A +statesman could now quite suitably use the phrase to "out-Asquith +Asquith." + +The next great poet after Shakespeare was Milton. He also gave us a +great many new words and phrases, but not nearly so many as +Shakespeare. Still there are a few phrases which are now so common +that many people use them without even knowing that they come from +Milton's writings. Some of these are "the human face divine," "to hide +one's diminished head," "a dim religious light," "the light fantastic +toe." It was Milton who invented the name _pandemonium_ for the home +of the devils, and now people regularly speak of a state of horrible +noise and disorder as "a pandemonium." Many of those who use the +expression have not the slightest idea of where it came from. The few +words which we know were made by Milton are very expressive words. It +was he who invented _anarch_ for the spirit of anarchy or disorder, +and no one has found a better word to express the idea. _Satanic_, +_moon-struck_, _gloom_ (to mean "darkness"), _echoing_, and _bannered_ +are some more well-known words invented by Milton. + +It is not always the greatest writers who have given us the greatest +number of new words. A great prose writer of the seventeenth century, +Sir Thomas Browne, is looked upon as a classical writer, but his works +are only read by a few, not like the great works of Shakespeare and +Milton. Yet Sir Thomas Browne has given many new words to the English +language. This is partly because he deliberately made many new words. +One book of his gave us several hundreds of these words. The reason +his new words remained in the language was that there was a real need +of them. + +Many seventeenth-century writers of plays invented hundreds of new +words, but they tried to invent curious and queer-sounding words, and +very few people liked them. These words never really became part of +the English language. They are "one-man" words, to be found only in +the writings of their inventors. Yet it was one of these fanciful +writers who invented the very useful word _dramatist_ for "a writer of +plays." + +But the words made by Sir Thomas Browne were quite different. Such +ordinary words as _medical_, _literary_, and _electricity_ were first +used by him. He made many others too, not quite so common, but words +which later writers and speakers could hardly do without. + +Another seventeenth-century writer, John Evelyn, the author of the +famous _Diary_ which has taught us so much about the times in which he +lived, was a great maker of words. Most of his new words were made +from foreign words, and as he was much interested in art and music, +many of his words relate to these things. It was Evelyn who introduced +the word _opera_ into English, and also _outline_, _altitude_, +_monochrome_ ("a painting in one shade"), and _pastel_, besides many +other less common words. + +Robert Boyle, a great seventeenth-century writer on science, gave many +new scientific words to the English language. The words _pendulum_ and +_intensity_ were first used by him, and it was he who first used +_fluid_ as a noun. + +The poets Dryden and Pope gave us many new words too. + +Dr. Johnson, the maker of the first great English dictionary, added +some words to the language. As everybody knows who has read that +famous book, Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, Dr. Johnson was a man who +always said just what he thought, and had no patience with anything +like stupidity. The expression _fiddlededee_, another way of telling a +person that he is talking nonsense, was made by him. _Irascibility_, +which means "tendency to be easily made cross or angry," is also one +of his words, and so are the words _literature_ and _comic_. + +The great statesman and political writer, Edmund Burke, was the +inventor of many of our commonest words relating to politics. +_Colonial_, _colonization_, _electioneering_, _diplomacy_, +_financial_, and many other words which are in everyday use now, were +made by him. + +At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a great revival +in English literature, since known as the "Romantic Movement." After +the rather stiff manners and writing of the eighteenth century, people +began to have an enthusiasm for all sorts of old and adventurous +things, and a new love for nature and beauty. Sir Walter Scott was the +great novelist of the movement, and also wrote some fine, stirring +ballads and poems. In these writings, which dealt chiefly with the +adventurous deeds of the Middle Ages, Scott used again many old words +which had been forgotten and fallen out of use. He made them everyday +words again. + +The old word _chivalrous_, which had formerly been used to describe +the institutions connected with knighthood, he used in a new way, and +the word has kept this meaning ever since. It has now always the +meaning of courtesy and gentleness towards the weak, but before Sir +Walter Scott used it it had not this meaning at all. Scott also +revived words like _raid_ and _foray_, his novels, of course, being +full of descriptions of fighting on the borders of England and +Scotland. It was this same writer who introduced the Scottish word +_gruesome_ into the language. + +Later in the century another Scotsman, Thomas Carlyle, made many new +words which later writers and speakers have used. They are generally +rather forcible and not very dignified words, for Carlyle's writings +were critical of almost everything and everybody, and he seemed to +love rather ugly words, which made the faults he described seem +contemptible or ridiculous. It was he who made the words _croakery_, +_dry-as-dust_, and _grumbly_, and he introduced also the Scottish word +_feckless_, which describes a person who is a terribly bad manager, +careless and disorderly in his affairs, the sort of person whom +Carlyle so much despised. + +The great writers of the present time seem to be unwilling to make new +words. The chief word-makers of to-day are the people who talk a new +slang (and of these we shall see something in another chapter), and +the scientific writers, who, as they are constantly making new +discoveries, have to find words to describe them. + +Some of the poets of the present day have used new words and phrases, +but they are generally strange words, which no one thinks of using for +himself. The poet John Masefield used the word _waps_ and the phrase +_bee-loud_, which is very expressive, but which we cannot imagine +passing into ordinary speech. Two poets of the Romantic Movement, +Southey and Coleridge, used many new and strange words just in this +way, but these, again, never passed into the ordinary speech of +English people. + +One maker of new words in the nineteenth century must not be +forgotten. This was Lewis Carroll, the author of "Alice in Wonderland" +and "Through the Looking-Glass." He made many new and rather queer +words; but they expressed so well the meaning he gave to them that +some of them have become quite common. This writer generally made +these curious words out of two others. The word _galumph_ (which is +now put as an ordinary word in English dictionaries) he made out of +_gallop_ and _triumph_. It means "to go galloping in triumph." Another +of Lewis Carroll's words, _chortle_, is even more used. It also has +the idea of "triumphing," and is generally used to mean "chuckling +(either inwardly or outwardly) in triumph." It was probably made out +of the words _chuckle_ and _snort_. + +But great writers have not only added new words and phrases to the +language by inventing them; sometimes the name of a book itself has +taken on a general meaning. Sir Thomas More in the time of Henry VIII. +wrote his famous book, "Utopia," to describe a country in which +everything was done as it should be. _Utopia_ (which means "Nowhere," +More making the word out of two Greek words, _ou_, "not," and _topos_, +"place") was the name of the ideal state he described, and ever since +such imaginary states where all goes well have been described as +"Utopias." + +Then, again, a scene or place in a great book may be so splendidly +described, and interest people so much, that it, too, comes to be used +in a general way. People often use the name _Vanity Fair_ to describe +a frivolous way of life. But the original _Vanity Fair_ was, of +course, one of the places of temptation through which Christian had to +pass on his way to the Heavenly City in John Bunyan's famous book, the +"Pilgrim's Progress." Another of these places was the _Slough of +Despond_, which is now quite generally used to describe a condition of +great discouragement and depression. The adjective _Lilliputian_, +meaning "very small," comes from _Lilliput_, the land of little people +in which Gulliver found himself in Swift's famous book, "Gulliver's +Travels." + +Then many common expressions are taken from characters in well-known +books. We often speak of some one's _Man Friday_, meaning a right-hand +man or general helper; but the original Man Friday was, of course, the +savage whom Robinson Crusoe found on his desert island, and who acted +afterwards as his servant. + +In describing a person as _quixotic_ we do not necessarily think of +the original Don Quixote in the novel of the great Spanish writer, +Cervantes. Don Quixote was always doing generous but rather foolish +things, and the adjective _quixotic_ now describes this sort of +action. A quite different character, the Jew in Shakespeare's play, +"The Merchant of Venice," has given us the expression "a Shylock." +From Dickens's famous character Mrs. Gamp in "Martin Chuzzlewit," who +always carried a bulgy umbrella, we get the word _gamp_, rather a +vulgar name for "umbrella." + +We speak of "a Sherlock Holmes" when we mean to describe some one who +is very quick at finding out things. Sherlock Holmes is the hero of +the famous detective stories of Conan Doyle. + +It is a very great testimony to the power of a writer when the names +of persons or places in his books become in this way part of the +English language. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WORDS THE BIBLE HAS GIVEN US. + + +A great English historian, writing of the sixteenth century, once +said, "The English people became the people of a book." The book he +meant was, of course, the Bible. When England became Protestant the +people found a new interest in the Bible. In Catholic times educated +people, like priests, had read the Bible chiefly in Latin, though the +New Testament had been translated into English. But most of the people +could not even read. They knew the Bible stories only from the sermons +and teaching of the priests, and from the great number of statues of +Biblical kings and prophets which covered the beautiful churches of +the Middle Ages. + +But the new Protestant teachers were much more enthusiastic about the +Bible. Many of them found the whole of their religion in its pages, +and were constantly quoting texts of Scripture. New translations of +the New Testament were made, and at last, in 1611, the wonderful +translation of the whole Bible known as the "Authorised Version," +because it was the translation ordered and approved by the +Government, was published. About the same time a translation into +English was made for Catholics, and this was hardly less beautiful. It +is known as the "Douai Bible" because it was published at Douai by +Catholics who had fled from England. + +From that time the Bible has been the book which English people have +read most, and it has had an immense influence on the English +language. + +Even in the Middle Ages the Bible had given many new words to the +language. Names of Eastern animals, trees, and plants, etc., like +_lion_, _camel_, _cedar_, _palm_, _myrrh_, _hyssop_, _gem_, are +examples of new words learned from the Bible at this time. + +But the translations of the Bible in the Reformation period had a much +greater effect than this. Many words which were already dying out were +used by the translators, and so kept their place in the English +language. Examples of such words are _apparel_ and _raiment_ for +"clothes." These words are not used so often as the more ordinary word +_clothes_ even now, but it is quite probable that they would have +passed out of use altogether if the translators of the Bible had not +saved them. + +There are many words of this sort which were saved in this way, but +they are chiefly used in poetry and "fine" writing. We do not speak of +the "firmament" in an ordinary way; but this word, taken from the +first chapter of the Bible, is still used as a more poetical name for +_sky_. + +But the translators of the Bible must also be put among the makers of +new English words. Sometimes the translator could not find what he +considered a satisfactory word to express the meaning of the Greek +word he wished to translate. He, therefore, made a new word, or put +two old words together to express exactly what he thought the Greek +word meant. The word _beautiful_ may not have been actually invented +by the translator, William Tyndale, but it is not found in any book +earlier than his translation of the New Testament. It seems a very +natural and necessary word to us now. It was Tyndale who first used +the words _peacemaker_ and _scapegoat_ and the compound word +_long-suffering_; and another famous translator, Miles Coverdale, who +invented the expressions _loving-kindness_ and _tender mercy_. + +But the great effect which the Bible has had on the English language +is not in the preserving of old words and the making of new. Its chief +effect has been in the way many of its expressions and phrases have +passed into everyday use, so that people often use Biblical phrases +without even knowing that they are doing so, just as we saw was the +case with many phrases taken from Shakespeare's works. + +Every one knows the expression to _cast pearls before swine_, and its +meaning, "to give good things to people who are too ignorant to +appreciate them." This expression, taken from the Gospel of St. +Matthew, has now become an ordinary English expression. The same is +the case with the expression, _the eleventh hour_, meaning "just in +time." But perhaps not every one who uses it remembers that it comes +from the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, though, of course, +most people would. + +Other common Biblical expressions are, _a labour of love_, _to hope +against hope_, _the shadow of death_, and so on. When a child is +described as the _Benjamin_ of the family, we know that this means the +youngest and best loved, because the story of Jacob's love for +Benjamin is familiar to every one. Again, when a person is described +as a _Pharisee_ no one needs to have a description of his qualities, +for every one knows the story of the Pharisee and the Publican. + +The Bible is, of course, full of the most poetical ideas and the most +vivid language, and the fact that this language has become the +everyday speech of Englishmen has been most important in the +development of the English language. Without the Bible, which is full +of the richness and colour of Eastern things and early peoples, the +English language might have been much duller and less expressive. + +But the religious writers of the Reformation period gave us another +kind of word besides those found in the translations of the Bible. +Many of these writers thought it was their duty to abuse the people +who did not agree with them on the subject of religion. Tyndale +himself, who invented such beautiful words in his translations, was +the first to use the word _dunce_. He called the Catholics by this +name, which he made out of the name of a philosopher of the Middle +Ages called Duns Scotus. The Protestants despised the Catholic or +scholastic philosophy. But Duns Scotus was quite a clever man in his +day, and it is curious that his name should have given us the word +_dunce_, which became quite a common word as time went on. + +Other new words which the Protestants used against the Catholics were +_Romish_, _Romanist_ (which Luther had used, but which Coverdale was +the first to use in English), _popery_, _popishness_, _papistical_, +_monkish_, all of which are still used to-day, and still have an +anti-Catholic meaning. It was then that Rome was first described as +_Babylon_, the meaning of the Protestants being that the city was as +wicked as ancient Babylon, the name of which is used as a type of all +wickedness in the Apocalypse, and these writers often used the words +_Babylonian_ and _Babylonish_ instead of _Roman_. The name _Scarlet +Woman_, also taken from the Apocalypse, was also often used to +describe the Catholic Church. + +The expression _Roman Catholic_, to which no one objects, was invented +later, at the time that it was thought that Charles I. was going to +marry a Spanish princess, and, of course, a Catholic. It was invented +as being more polite than the terms by which the Protestants had so +often abused the Catholics, and it has been used ever since. + +Other new words came from the breaking up of Protestantism into +different sects. _Puritan_ was the name given to those who wished to +"purify" the Protestant religion from all the old ceremonies of +Catholicism. The Calvinists (or followers of the French reformer, John +Calvin) believed that souls were "predestined" to go to heaven or to +be lost. The people who were predestined to be lost they described as +_reprobate_, and this word we still use, but with a different meaning. +A reprobate nowadays is a person who is looked upon as hopelessly bad, +and the word is also sometimes used jokingly. + +The name _Protestant_ itself is interesting. It was first used to +describe the Lutherans, who "protested" against, and would not agree +with, the decisions made by the Emperor Charles V. on the subject of +religion. + +The names of the different forms of Protestantism are often very +interesting, and were, of course, new words invented to describe the +different forms of belief. The first great division was between the +_Lutherans_ and the _Calvinists_. The meaning of these names is plain. +They were merely the followers of Martin Luther and John Calvin. + +But later on there were many divisions, such as the _Baptists_, who +were so called because they thought that people should not be baptized +until they were grown up. They also administered the sacrament in a +different way from most other Churches, the person baptized being +dipped in the water. At one time these people were called +_Anabaptists_, _ana_ being the Greek word for "again." But this was +supposed to be a term of abuse similar to those showered on the Roman +Catholics, and in time it died out. + +Then there were the _Independents_, who were so called because they +believed that each congregation should be independent of every other. + +Perhaps the most peculiar name applied to one of the many sects in the +England of the seventeenth century was that of the _Quakers_. This, +too, was a name of abuse at first; but the "Society of Friends," to +whom it was applied, came sometimes to use it themselves. They were a +people who believed in great simplicity of life and manners and dress, +and had no priests. At their religious meetings silence was kept until +some one was moved to speak. The name was taken from the text, +"quaking at the word of the Lord." + +The names chosen by religious leaders, and those applied to the sects +by their enemies, can teach us a great deal of history. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF ANIMALS. + + +It is easy to see how names of persons have sometimes changed into +general words. But we have also a great number of general words which +are taken from animals' names. Most often these words are used to +describe people's characters. Sometimes people are merely compared +with the animals whose qualities they are supposed to have, and +sometimes they are actually called by the names of these animals. Thus +we may say that a person is "as sly as a fox," or we may call him an +"old fox," and every one understands the same thing by both +expressions. + +The cause of this continual comparison of human beings with animals is +that long ago, when these expressions first began to be used, animals, +and especially wild animals, played a great part in the lives of the +people. In the Middle Ages great parts of England, now dotted over +with big towns, were covered with forest land. Wolves roamed in the +woods, and the fighting of some wild animals and the taming of others +formed a most important part of people's lives. The same thing was, +of course, the case in other countries. So familiar were people in +those days with animals that they thought of them almost as human +beings and believed that they had their own languages. It was people +who believed these things who made up many of the old fairy tales +about animals--stories like "Red Riding Hood" and the "Three Bears." + +We often say that we are "as hungry as a wolf;" but we who have never +seen wolves except behind the bars of their cages at the Zoological +Gardens do not know how hungry a wild wolf can be. Those, however, who +first used this expression thought of the lean and hungry wolves who +prowled round the farms and cottages in the hard winter weather, +driven by starvation to men's very doors. We also have the expression, +"a wolf in sheep's clothing." By this we mean a person who is really +dangerous and harmful, but who puts on a harmless and gentle manner to +deceive his victim. + +Another use of the word _wolf_ is as a verb, meaning to eat in a very +quick and greedy manner, as we might imagine a hungry wolf would do, +and as our forefathers knew by experience that they did do. Most of +the people who use the names of the wolf and the fox in these ways do +not know anything of the habits of these animals, but the expressions +have become part of the common language. + +The same thing is, of course, true about the lion, with which even our +far-off English ancestors had never to fight. But the lion is such a +fierce and magnificent animal that it naturally appeals to our +imagination, and we find numerous comparisons with it, chiefly in +poetical language. We say a soldier is as "brave as a lion," or +describe him as a "lion in the fight." + +A less complimentary comparison is an expression we often hear, "as +stubborn as a mule." Only a few of the people who use this expression +can have had any experience of the stubbornness of mules. Sometimes a +stubborn person is described quite simply as a "mule." Another +compliment of the same sort is to call a person who seems to us to be +acting stupidly a "donkey." + +We may say a person is as "greedy as a pig," or describe him with +disgust as a "pig," which may mean either that they are very greedy or +that they are behaving in a very ungracious or unmannerly way. A more +common description of a person of this sort is "a hog." Every one has +heard of the "road hogs," who drive their motors regardless of other +people's convenience or safety; and of the "food hogs," who tried to +store up food, or refused to ration themselves, and so shortened other +people's supplies of food in the Great War. + +Other common expressions comparing people with animals are--"sulky as +a bear," "gay as a lark," "busy as a bee." We might also call a cross +person a "bear," but should not without some explanation call a person +a "lark" or a "bee." + +We may say a person "chatters like a magpie," or we may call him or +her a "magpie." A person who talks without thinking, merely repeating +what other people have said, is often called a "parrot." + +Sometimes names of common animals or birds used to describe people are +complimentary, but more often they are not. It seems as though the +people who made these metaphors were more eloquent in anger than in +love. A very nice child will be described by its friends as a "little +duck." A mischievous child may also be described good-temperedly as a +"monkey;" but there are far more words of abuse taken from the names +of animals than more or less amiable words like these. + +A bad-tempered woman is described as a "vixen," or female fox; a lazy +person as a "drone," or the bee which does no work. A stupid person +may be called a "sheep" or a "goose" (which is not quite so +insulting). _Dog_, _hound_, _cur_, and _puppy_ are all used as words +of abuse; and contempt for some one who is regarded as very +mean-spirited is sometimes shown by describing such a person as a +"worm," or worse, if possible, a "reptile." A "bookworm," on the other +hand, the name of a little insect which lives in books and eats away +at paper and bindings, is applied to people who love books in another +way--great readers--and is, of course, not at all an uncomplimentary +word. + +A foolish person who has been easily deceived in some matter is often +described as a "gull," or is said to have been "gulled." _Gull_ is +now the name of a sea-bird, but in Early English it was used to +describe any young bird, and from the idea that it is easy to deceive +such youngsters came the use of the word to describe foolish people. + +Another name of a bird used with almost the opposite meaning is +_rook_. This name is given to people who are constantly cheating +others, especially at card games. It was earlier used, like _gull_, to +describe the person cheated. It then came to be used as a verb meaning +"to cheat," and from this was used to describe the person cheating +instead of the person cheated. + +Other names of birds not quite so common used to describe stupid +people are _dotterel_ and _dodo_. The dotterel is a bird which is very +easily caught, and it was from this fact that it got its name, which +comes from _dote_, to be "silly" or "feeble-minded." When the name of +the bird is used to describe a silly person, the word is really, as an +interesting writer on the history of words says, turning "a complete +somersault." The same is the case with _dodo_, which is also used, but +not so often, to describe a stupid person. This bird also got its name +from a word which meant "foolish." It comes from the Portuguese word +_doudo_, which means "simpleton." + +We have a few verbs also taken from the names of animals and birds. We +say a person "apes" another when he tries to imitate him. This word +comes, of course, from the fact that the ape is always imitating any +action performed by other people. + +A person who follows another persistently is said to "dog" his steps. +This expression comes, of course, from the fact of dogs following +their masters. Another expression is to "hound" a person to do +something, by which we mean persecute him. This comes from the idea of +a hound tracking its victim down. Another of these words which has the +idea of persecution is _badger_. When some one constantly talks about +a subject which is unpleasant to another, or continually tries to +persuade him to do something against his will, he is said to be +"badgering" him. The badger is an animal which burrows into the ground +in winter, and dogs are set to worry it out of its hiding-place. The +badger is the victim and not the persecutor, as we might think from +the use of the verb. + +The verb _henpeck_, to describe the teasing of her husband by a +disagreeable wife, comes, of course, from the idea of the continual +pecking of a hen. + +Many common articles are named after animals which they resemble in +some way. A "ram" is an instrument, generally of wood, used to drive +things into place by pressure. In olden days war-ships used to have a +"battering-ram," or projecting beak, at their prow, with which to +"ram" other vessels. The Romans called such a beak an _aries_, which +is the Latin for "ram," a male sheep. This was probably from the habit +of rams butting an enemy with their horns. The Romans often had the +ends of their battering-rams carved into the shape of the head of a +ram. A "ramrod" gets its name from the same idea. It is an instrument +for pressing in the ammunition when loading the muzzle of a gun. + +The word "ram" has now several more general uses. We speak of a person +"ramming" things into a drawer or bag when we mean pushing them +hastily and untidily into too small a place. Or a man may "ram" his +hat down on his head. Again, we may have a lesson or unpleasant fact +"rammed" into us by some one who is determined to make the subject +clear whether we want to hear about it or not. And all this comes from +the simple idea of the ram butting people whom it considers +unpleasant. + +More commonplace instruments having animals' names are the +"clothes'-horse" and "fire-dogs." + +We have other words, which we should not guess to be from animals' +names, but which really are so. We say that a person who is always +changing his mind, and wanting first one thing and then another, is +"capricious." Or we speak of a curious or unreasonable desire as a +"caprice." These words really come from the Latin name for a +goat--_caper_. The mind of the capricious person skips about just like +a goat. At least that is what the word _capricious_ literally says +about him. The word _caper_, meaning to "jump about playing tricks," +comes from the Latin word _capra_, a "she-goat." + +The word _coward_ comes from the name of an animal, but _not_ the cow. +In a famous French story of the Middle Ages, in which all the +characters are animals, the "Roman de Renard," the hare is called +_couard_, and it is from this that the word _coward_ ("one who runs +away from danger") comes. + +All these words from the names of animals take us back, then, to the +days when every man was a kind of naturalist. In those early days, +when town life hardly existed, everybody knew all about animals and +their habits. Their conversation was full of this sort of thing. And +so it is that in hundreds of our words which we use to-day, without +thinking of the literal meaning at all, we have a picture of the lives +of our ancestors preserved. + +We have, too, words taken from the names of some animals which never +existed at all. The writers of the Middle Ages told many tales or +fables of animals and monsters which were purely imaginary, but in +which the people of those days firmly believed. We sometimes hear +people use the expression a "basilisk glare," which other people would +describe as a "look that kills," meaning a look of great severity or +displeasure. There is a little American lizard which zoologists call +the "basilisk," but this is not the basilisk from which this +expression comes. The basilisk which the people of the Middle Ages +imagined, but which never existed, was a monstrous reptile hatched by +a serpent from a cock's egg. By its breath or even its look it could +destroy all who approached it. + +Another invention of the Middle Ages was the bird called the +"phoenix." We now use the word _phoenix_ to describe some one who +is unique in some good quality. A commoner way of expressing the same +idea would be that "there is no one like him." It was believed in the +Middle Ages that only one of these wonderful birds could exist in the +world at one time. The story was that the phoenix, after living +through five or six hundred years in the Arabian desert, prepared a +funeral pile for itself, and was burned to death, but rose again, +youthful and strong as ever, from the ashes. + +In these words we are reminded once again of another side of the life +of our ancestors. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF PLACES. + + +We have already seen something of the stories which the names of +places, old and new, can tell us. But the names of places themselves +often give us new words, and from these, too, we can learn many +interesting facts. + +Many manufactured things, and especially woven cloths, silks, etc., +are called by the name of the place from which they come, or from +which they first came. _Cashmere_, a favourite smooth woollen +material, is called after Cashmir, in India. _Damask_, the material of +which table linen is generally made, takes its name from Damascus; as +does _holland_, the light brownish cotton stuff used so much for +children's frocks and overalls, from Holland, and the rough woollen +material known as _frieze_ from Friesland. _Cambric_, the fine white +material often used for handkerchiefs, takes its name from Cambrai in +France, the place where it was first made. The word _cambric_, +however, came into English from _Kamerijk_, the Dutch name for +Cambrai. So the other fine material known as _lawn_ got its name from +Laon, another French town. Another fine material of this kind, +_muslin_, takes its name from Mussolo, a town in Mesopotamia, from +which this kind of material first came. + +Another commoner kind of stuff is _fustian_, made of cotton, but +thick, with a short nap, and generally dyed a dark colour. The word +_fustian_ has also come to be used figuratively to describe a showy +manner of speaking or writing, or anything which tries to appear +better than it is. The word comes from Fustat, a suburb of Cairo. + +A more substantial material, _tweed_, which is largely made in +Scotland, really takes its name from people pronouncing _twill_ badly; +but the form _tweed_ spread more quickly because people associated the +material with the country beyond the river Tweed. + +Another kind of stuff which we generally associate with Scotland is +_tartan_, because this woollen stuff, with its crossed stripes of +different colours, is chiefly used for Scottish plaids and kilts, +especially of the Highland regiments. But the word _tartan_ does not +seem to be a Scottish word, and probably comes from _Tartar_, which +was formerly used to describe almost any Eastern people. Perhaps the +fact that Eastern peoples love bright colours caused this name to be +given to these bright materials, though there is nothing at all +Eastern in the designs of the Scottish tartans. Another material with +an Eastern name is _sarcenet_, or _sarsenet_, a soft, silky stuff now +chiefly used for linings. + +Often in tales of olden times we read of people hiding behind the +"arras." This was a wall covering of tapestry, often hung sufficiently +far from the wall to leave room for a person to pass. The word _arras_ +comes from Arras, a town in France, which was famous for its beautiful +tapestries. + +We know the word _tabby_ chiefly as the name of a kind of striped cat, +but this use of the word came from the Old French word _tabis_, and +described a material with marks which the markings on a "tabby" cat +resemble. The French word came from the Arab word _utabi_, which +perhaps came from the name of a suburb of the famous city of Baghdad. + +_Worsted_, the name of a certain kind of knitting-wool, comes from the +name of the town of Worstead, in Norfolk. The close-fitting woollen +garments worn by sailors and often by children are known as +_jerseys_--a word which is taken from the name of one of the Channel +Islands, Jersey. Sometimes, but not so commonly, they are called +_guernseys_, from the name of the chief of the other Channel Islands, +Guernsey. Another piece of wearing apparel, the Turkish cap known as a +_fez_, gets its name, perhaps, from Fez, a town in Morocco. + +Besides woven stuffs, many other things are called by the names of the +places from which they come. _China_, the general name for very fine +earthenware, is the same name as that of the great Eastern country +which is famous for its beautiful pottery. Another kind of ornamented +earthenware is the Italian _majolica_, and this probably gets its name +from the island of Majorca; while _delf_ is the name of the glazed +earthenware made at Delft (which in earlier times was called "Delf"), +in Holland. + +The beautiful leather much used for the bindings of books, _morocco_, +takes its name from Morocco, where it was first made by tanning +goatskins. It is now made in several countries of Europe, but it keeps +its old name. Another old kind of leather, but whose name is no longer +used, was _cordwain_, a Spanish leather for the making of shoes, which +took its name from Cordova in Spain. _Cordwainer_ was the old name for +"shoemaker," and is still kept in the names of shoemakers' guilds and +societies. + +Many wines are simply called by the names (sometimes altered a little +through people mispronouncing them) of the places from which they +come. _Champagne_ is the wine of Champagne, _Burgundy_ of Burgundy, +_Sauterne_ of Sauterne, _Chablis_ of Chablis--all French wines. _Port_ +takes its name from Oporto, in Portugal; and _sherry_, which used to +be called "sherris," comes from the name of Xeres, a Spanish town. + +Many less well-known wines have merely the name of the place where +they are produced printed on the label, and they tend to be called by +these names--such as _Capri bianco Vesuvio_, etc. _Malmsey_, the old +wine in which the Duke of Clarence was supposed to have been drowned +when his murder was ordered by his brother, and which is also called +_malvoisie_, got its name from Monemvasia, a town in the peninsula of +Morea. + +Not only wine but other liquids are sometimes called after the places +from which they come. The oil known as _macassar_ comes from +Maugkasara, the name of a district in the island of Celebes. This oil +was at one time very much used as a dressing for the hair, and from +this we get the name _antimacassar_ for the coverings which used to be +(and are sometimes still) thrown over the backs of easy-chairs and +couches to prevent their being soiled by such aids to beauty. +_Antimacassar_ means literally a "protection against macassar oil," +_anti_ being the Latin word for "against." + +The tobacco known as _Latakia_ takes its name from the town called by +the Turks Latakia, the old town of Laodicea. (Laodicea also gives us +another common expression. We describe an indifferent person who has +no enthusiasm for anything as "a Laodicean," from the reproach to the +Church of the Laodiceans, in the Book of Revelation in the Bible, that +they were "neither cold nor hot" in their religion.) + +Both the words _bronze_ and _copper_ come from the names of places. +_Bronze_ is from _Brundusium_, the ancient name of the South Italian +town which we now call Brindisi. The Latin name for this metal was +_aes Brundusinum_, or "brass of Brindisi." _Copper_ was in Latin _aes +Cyprium_, or "brass of Cyprus." + +Some coins take their names from the names of places. The _florin_, or +two-shilling piece, takes its name from Florence. _Dollar_ is the same +word as the German _thaler_, the name of a silver coin which was +formerly called a _Joachimstaler_, from the silver-mine of +Joachimstal, or "Joachim's Dale," in Bohemia. The _ducat_, a gold coin +which was used in nearly all the countries of Europe in the Middle +Ages, and which was worth about nine shillings, got its name from the +duchy (in Italian, _ducato_) of Apulia, where it was first coined in +the twelfth century. + +It was an Italian town, Milan, which gave us our word _milliner_. This +came from the fact that many fancy materials and ornaments used in +millinery were imported from Milan. + +Many old dances take their names from places. We hear a great deal +nowadays of the "morris dances" which used to be danced in England in +olden times. But _morris_ comes from _morys_, an old word for +"Moorish." In the Middle Ages this word was used, like "Turk" or +"Tartar," to describe almost any Eastern people, and the name came, +perhaps, from the fact that in these dances people dressed up, and so +looked strange and foreign. The name of a very well-known dance, the +_polka_, really means "Polish woman." _Mazurka_, the name of another +dance, means "woman of Masovia." The old-fashioned slow dance known +as the _polonaise_ took its name from Poland, and was really a Polish +dance. The well-known Italian dance called the _tarantella_ took its +name from the South Italian town Tarento. + +The word _canter_, which describes another kind of movement, comes +from Canterbury. _Canter_ is only the short for "Canterbury gallop," +an expression which was used to describe the slow jogging pace at +which many pilgrims in the Middle Ages rode along the Canterbury road +to pray at the famous shrine of St. Thomas Becket in that city. + +Several fruits take their names from places. The _damson_, which used +in the Middle Ages to be called the "damascene," was called in Latin +_prunum damascenum_, or "plum of Damascus." The name _peach_ comes to +us from the Late Latin word _pessica_, which was a bad way of saying +"Persica." _Currants_ used to be known as "raisins of Corauntz," or +Corinth raisins. + +_Parchment_ gets its name from Pergamum, a city in Asia Minor. +_Pistol_ came into English from the Old French word _pistole_, and +this came from an Italian word, _pistolese_, which meant "made at +Pistoja." We do not think of _spaniels_ as foreign dogs; but the name +means "Spanish," having come into English from the Old French word +_espagneul_, with that meaning. + +A derivation which it would be even harder to guess is that of the +word _spruce_. We now use this word to describe a kind of leather, a +kind of ginger beer, and a variety of the fir tree, and also in the +same sense as "spick and span." The word used to be _pruce_, and meant +"Prussia." + +The name of the famous London fish-market, _Billingsgate_, has long +been used to mean very violent and abusive language supposed to +resemble the scoldings of the fishwomen in the market. + +Another word describing a certain kind of speaking, and which also +comes from the name of a place, is _bunkum_. When a person tells a +story which we feel sure is not true, or tells a long tale to excuse +himself from doing something, we often say it is all "bunkum." This +word comes from the name of the American town of Buncombe, in North +Carolina, and came into use through the member for Buncombe in the +House of Representatives insisting on making a speech just when every +one else wanted to proceed with the voting on a bill. He knew that he +had nothing of importance to say, but explained that he must make a +speech "for Buncombe"--that is, so that the people of Buncombe, who +had elected him, might know that he was doing his duty by them. And so +the expression _bunkum_ came into use. + +Another word which may go with these, because it also begins with the +letter _b_, is _bedlam_. We describe a scene of great noise and +confusion, as when a number of children insist on talking all +together, as a "perfect bedlam." The word _bedlam_ comes from +Bethlehem. In the Middle Ages there was a hospital in London kept by +monks of the Order of St. Mary of Bethlehem. In time this house came +to be known as "Bedlam," and as after a while the hospital came to be +an asylum for mad people, this name came to be used for any lunatic +asylum. From that it came to have its modern use of any great noise or +confusion. + +The sport of shooting pheasants is very English, and few people think +that the pheasant is a foreign bird, introduced into England, just as +in fact the turkey, which seems to belong especially to the English +Christmas, came to us from America. The _pheasant_ gets its name from +the river Phasis, in the Eastern country of Pontus. It may seem +peculiar that a bird coming from America should be called a _turkey_; +but we saw in an earlier chapter how vague the people of the fifteenth +and sixteenth centuries were about America. When Columbus reached the +shore of that continent, people thought he had sailed round by another +way to the "Indies." In nearly all European countries the turkey got +names which show that most people thought it came from India, or at +least from some part of the "Indies." Even in England it was called +for a time "cok off Inde." In Italy it was _gallina d'India_ (or +"Indian hen"). The modern French words for male and female turkeys +come from this mistake. In French the bird was at first known as +_pouille d'Inde_ (or "Indian fowl"). The name came to be shortened +into the one word _dinde_, and then, as people thought this must mean +the female turkey, they made a new word for the male, _dindon_. + +But though so many words come from the names of places, and some of +these would not seem to do so at first sight, there are other words +which seem to come from place-names which do not do so at all. +_Brazil_ wood is found in large quantities in Brazil, but the wood is +not called after the country. On the contrary, the country is called +after the wood. This kind of wood was already used in Europe in the +twelfth century, and its name is found in several European languages. +When the Portuguese adventurers found such large quantities in this +part of South America they gave it the name of _Brazil_ from the wood. +The island of _Madeira_ got its name in the same way, this being the +word for "timber," from the Latin word _materia_. + +Again, guinea-pigs do not come from Guinea, on the west coast of +Africa, though guinea-fowls do so. Guinea-pigs really come from +Brazil. The name _guinea-pig_ was given to these little animals +because, when the sailors brought them home, people thought they had +come from Africa. But in the seventeenth century a common voyage for +ships was to sail from English or other European ports to the west +coast of Africa, where bands of poor negroes were seized or bought, +and carried over the Atlantic to be sold as slaves in the American +"plantations." The ships naturally did not come home empty, but often +people were not very clear as to whether the articles they brought +back came from Africa or America. + +Again, _India ink_ comes, not from India, but from China. _Indian +corn_ comes from America. _Sedan chairs_ had nothing to do with Sedan +in France, but probably take their name from the Latin verb _sedere_, +"to sit." + +In these words, as in many others, we can see that it is never safe to +_guess_ the derivation of words. Many of the old philologists used to +do this, and then write down their guesses as facts. This caused a +great deal of extra work for modern scholars, who will not, of course, +accept any "derivation" for a word until they have clear proof that it +is true. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +PICTURES IN WORDS. + + +Everybody who has thought at all about our ways of speech must have +noticed that we are all constantly saying things in a way which is not +literally true. We say a child is a "sunbeam in the house;" but, of +course, we only mean that she is gay and happy, and cheers every one +up by her merriment. Or we describe some one as a "pearl among women," +meaning that by her splendid qualities she is superior to most women +as a pearl is to common stones. + +Or, again, we may read in the newspaper that a statesman "spoke with +sudden fire;" by which, of course, we understand that in the course of +a calm speech he suddenly broke out passionately into words which +showed how keenly he felt on the subject of which he was speaking. + +Our language is full of this kind of speaking and writing, which is +called "metaphorical." The word metaphor comes from two Greek words +meaning "to carry over." In "metaphorical" speech a name or +description of one thing is transferred to another thing to which it +could not apply in ordinary commonplace language. + +By means of metaphors we express more vividly and strikingly our +feelings on any subject. We draw our metaphors from many different +sources. Many of them naturally come from Nature, for the facts of +Nature are all around us. We speak of a "sea of trouble" when we feel +that the spirit is overwhelmed by sadness so great that it suggests +the vastness of the sea swallowing up all that it meets. Or we speak +of a "storm of anger," because what takes place in a person's soul in +such a state is similar in some way to the confusion and force of a +storm in Nature. Again, an expression like a "torrent of words" is +made possible by our familiarity with the quick pouring forth of water +in a torrent. By this expression, of course, we wish to suggest a +similar quick rushing of words. Other expressions of this kind are "a +wave of anguish," the "sun of good fortune," and there are hundreds of +which every one can think. + +Another source from which many metaphors have come is war, which has +given men some of the most vivid action possible to humankind. Thus we +speak of "a war of words," of a person "plunging into the fray," when +we mean that he or she joins in a keen argument or quarrel. Or we +speak more generally of the "battle of life," picturing the troubles +and difficulties of life as the obstacles against which soldiers have +to fight in battle. Shakespeare has the expression, "the slings and +arrows of outrageous fortune." + +We have a great many metaphorical expressions taken from painting, +sculpture, and other arts. Thus we speak of "moulding" one's own life, +picturing ourselves as sculptors, with our lives as the clay to be +shaped as we will. Shakespeare has a similar metaphor,-- + + "There's a divinity which shapes our ends, + Rough-hew them how we will." + +We may, he says, roughly arrange our way of life, but the final result +belongs to a greater artist--God. + +Again, we speak of "building our hopes" on a thing, of "moulding" a +person's character, of the "canvas of history," imagining history as a +picture of things past. We speak of a person describing something very +enthusiastically as "painting it in glowing colours," and so on. We +also describe the making of new words as "coining them." + +But not only are the sentences we make full of metaphors, but most of +our words--all, in fact, except the names of the simplest things--are +really metaphors themselves. The first makers of such words were +speaking "in metaphor," as we should say now; but when the words +passed into general use this fact was not noticed. + +A great many of the metaphors found in words are the same in many +languages. Many of them are taken from agriculture, which is, of +course, after hunting, the earliest occupation of all peoples. We can +easily think of many words now used in a general sense which +originally applied to some simple country practice. We speak of being +"goaded" to do a thing when some one persuades or threatens or +irritates us into doing it. But a _goad_ was originally a spiked stick +used to drive cattle forward. The word _goad_, then, as we use it now, +is a real metaphor. + +Again, we speak of our feelings being "harrowed." The word _harrow_ +first meant, and still means, the drawing of a frame with iron teeth +(itself called a _harrow_) over ploughed land to break up the clods. +From this meaning it has come to have the figurative meaning of +wounding or ruffling the feelings. + +Another word connected with agriculture which has passed into a +general sense is _glean_. We may now speak of "gleaning" certain facts +or news, but to glean was originally (and still means in its literal +sense) to gather the ears of corn remaining after the reapers have got +in the harvest. + +We speak of a nation groaning under the "yoke" of a foreign tyrant, or +again of the "yoke" of matrimony, and in the Bible we have the text, +"My yoke is easy." In these and in many other cases the word _yoke_ is +used figuratively to denote something weighing on the spirit; but the +original use of _yoke_, and again one which remains, was to name the +wooden cross-piece fastened over the necks of two oxen, and attached +to a plough or wagon which they have to draw. + +The word _earn_ reminds us of a time when the chief way of earning +money or payment of any kind was field-labour; for this word, which +means so many things now, comes from an old Teutonic word meaning +field-labour. The same word became in German _ernte_, which means +"harvest." + +Another common word with somewhat the same meaning as _earn_ is +_gain_; and this, again, takes us back to a time when our early +ancestors won their profits by the grazing of their flocks. The word +_gain_ came into English from an Old French word, but this word in its +turn came from a Teutonic word meaning to graze or pasture. The first +people who used the word _earn_ for other ways of getting payment than +field-labour, and the word _gain_ in a general sense, were really +making metaphors. + +Some of our commonest words take us back to a time before our +ancestors even settled down to cultivate the land, or perhaps even +before the days when they had learned to tame and give pasturage to +their flocks. Some of our simplest words contain the idea of +_travelling_ or _wandering_. The word _fear_, which would not seem to +have anything to do with journeying, comes from the same root-word as +_fare_, the Old English word for "travel." Probably it came to be used +because people travelling through the wild forests and swamps of +Europe in those far-off days found much to terrify them, and so the +word _fear_ was made, containing this idea of moving from place to +place. But again this was a metaphor. Until after the Norman Conquest +the word _fear_ meant a sudden or terrible happening. Only later it +came to mean the feeling which such an event or the expectation of it +would cause. + +We may become tired in mind or body from many causes; but when we say +we are "weary" we are literally saying that we have travelled far over +difficult ground, for the word _weary_ comes from an Old English word +meaning this. + +Some of our words are really metaphors showing the effect which +different aspects of Nature had on the men who made them. When we say +we are astonished we do not mean that we are "struck by thunder," but +that is what the word literally means. It comes from the Latin word +_attonare_, which means this. The words _astound_ and _stun_ contain +the same hidden metaphor, which we use in a plainer way when we say we +are "thunder-struck," meaning that we are very much surprised. + +In the Middle Ages people believed that the stars had a great effect +on the lives of men. If the stars were in a certain position at the +time of a person's birth, he would be lucky all his life; if in +another, he was doomed to unhappiness. From this belief we still use +the expression "born under a lucky star" to describe a person who +seems always to be fortunate. But the same metaphor is contained in +single words. We speak of an unfortunate enterprise as "ill-starred," +and the metaphor is clear. But when the newspapers speak of a railway +"disaster," very few people realize that they are speaking the +language of the mediæval astrologers, men who studied the fortunes of +nations and individuals from the stars. _Disaster_ literally means +such a misfortune as would be caused by adverse stars, and comes from +the Greek word for star, _astron_, and the Latin _dis_. + +The words _jovial_ and _mercurial_, used to describe people of merry +and lively temper, are metaphors of the same kind. A person born under +the planet Jupiter (the star called after the Roman god Jupiter or +Jove) was supposed to be of a merry disposition, and a person born +when the planet Mercury was visible in the heavens was expected to be +lively and ready-witted. When we use these words now to describe +people, we do not, of course, mean that they were born under any +particular star, but the words are metaphors which literally do mean +this. + +The word _auspicious_ comes from a similar source. We speak of an +"inauspicious" undertaking, meaning one which seems destined to be +unlucky. But really what the word _inauspicious_ says is that the +"auspices are against" the undertaking. And this takes us back to +Roman times, when no important thing was done in the state without the +magistrates "taking the auspices." This they did from observing the +flight of certain birds. In war the commander-in-chief of the Roman +armies alone had the right to "take the auspices." We should think +such a proceeding very foolish now, but in the words _auspicious_ and +_inauspicious_ we are literally saying that the auspices have been +favourable or unfavourable. + +One of the common practices of the scholars who studied astrology and +other sciences in the Middle Ages was the search for the philosopher's +stone, which they believed had the power of giving eternal youth. They +would melt metals in pots for this purpose. These pots were called by +the Old Latin name of _test_. From this word we now have the modern +word _test_, used in the sense of _trial_--another metaphor from the +Middle Ages. + +Many common English words are really metaphors made from old English +sports, such as hunting and hawking. It is curious to think how these +words are chiefly used to-day by people who know nothing of these +pastimes, while the people who made the words were so familiar with +them that they naturally expressed themselves in this way. We speak of +a person being in another's "toils," when we mean in his "power." The +word _toils_ comes from the French _toiles_, meaning "cloths," and +also used for the nets put round part of a wood, in which birds are +being preserved for shooting, to prevent their escaping. The +expression to "turn" or be "at bay," by which we mean that there is no +chance of escape, but that the person in such a situation must either +give in or fight, comes from hunting. The hare or the fox is said to +be "at bay" when it comes to a wall or other object which prevents its +running farther, and so turns and faces its pursuers. _Bay_ is the +deep barking of the hounds. + +The word _crestfallen_, by which we mean looking ashamed and +depressed, comes from the old sport of cock-fighting. The bird whose +crest (or tuft of hair on the head) drooped after the fight was +naturally the one which had been beaten. The word _pounce_ comes from +hawking, _pounces_ being the old word for a hawk's claws. The word +_haggard_, which now generally means worn and sometimes a little +wild-looking through grief or anxiety, was originally the name given +to a hawk caught, not, like most hawks used for hawking, when it was +quite young, but when it was already grown up. Such a hawk would +naturally have a wild look, and would never become so tame as the +birds caught young. + +Several words meaning to entice a person come from fowling. We speak +of persons being "decoyed" when we mean that they are deceived into +going to some dangerous place. The person who entices them away is +called a "decoy;" but the first use of the word was to describe a duck +trained to induce other ducks to fly or walk into nets laid over ponds +by trappers. Another word of this kind is _allure_, which means to +persuade a person to do something by making it seem very attractive. +This word really means to bring a person (originally an animal) to +the "lure" or "bait" prepared to catch him. + +The word _trap_, which may now mean to show a person to be guilty by a +trick, or to put him in the wrong in some way, is a metaphorical use. +The word literally means to catch an animal in a trap. + +Many words contain metaphors drawn from the older and simpler trades. +We speak of a thing being "brand-new"--that is, as new as though just +stamped with a "brand" or iron stamp. Another expression which has +changed its meaning a little with time used to have exactly the same +meaning. We now say a person looks "spick and span" when he or she is +very neatly dressed. Formerly the expression was "spick and span +new"--that is, as new as a spike (or spoon) just made or a chip newly +cut. We may safely say that very few people who now use the expression +"spick and span" have any idea of what it means literally. The +metaphor is well hidden, but it is there. + +Another metaphor, connected with metals and coins, is contained in the +word _sterling_. We speak of "sterling qualities" or a "sterling +character" in praising people for being straightforward and truthful, +and not boastful. But the expression originally applied only to metals +and coins. Sterling gold or silver is gold or silver of a certain +standard of purity and not mixed with too much of any base metal. + +Even the art of the baker has given us a word with a hidden metaphor. +We speak of sending out another "batch" of men to the front; but +_batch_ originally meant, and still means, the loaves of bread +produced at one baking. It is now used generally to describe a number +of things coming together or in a set. + +The butcher's shop has given us the word _shambles_, by which we now +mean a place of slaughter. Thus we speak of a terrible battlefield as +a "shambles." This metaphor is really due to a mistake. People came to +think that a shambles was a singular noun meaning slaughter-house, or +place where cattle were killed; but really the shambles were the +benches on which the meat was spread for sale. + +We speak of a person being the "tool" of another, and this is a +metaphor taken from the general idea of work. The "tool" is merely +used by the other person for some purpose of his own, just as a +workman uses his tools. The greatest poem, or book, or picture of a +poet, writer, or painter is often described as a "masterpiece." This +word now means a "splendid piece of work," but in the Middle Ages a +"masterpiece" was a piece of work by which a person working at a trade +showed himself sufficiently good to be allowed to be a "master." +Before that he was a "journeyman," and worked for a master himself, +and, earlier still, an apprentice merely learning his trade. We often +now use the expression to try one's "'prentice hand" on a thing when +we mean that we are going to do a thing for the first time. + +The commonest actions have naturally given us most metaphorical words, +for these were the actions of which the word-makers were most easily +reminded. We speak of our passions or emotions being "kindled," taking +the metaphor from the common action of lighting a fire. + +The two words _lord_ and _lady_ contain very homely metaphors. The +lord was the "loaf-keeper," in Old English _hlaford_, the person on +whom the household depended for their food. The lady might even make +the bread, and often did so; and the word lady comes from +_hlæfdige_--_dig_ being the Old English word for _knead_. + +The common word _maul_ may mean to beat and bruise a person, but it +means more often merely to handle something carelessly and roughly. +Literally it means "to hit with a hammer," and comes from _maul_ or +_mall_, the name of a certain very heavy kind of hammer; so that when +a child is told not to "maul" a book, it is literally being told not +to hit it with a heavy hammer. + +We have made many metaphorical words from joining together two Latin +words and making a new meaning. We speak of a person having an +"obsession" about something when he is always thinking of one thing. +But the word _obsession_ comes from the Latin word _obsidere_, "to +besiege;" and so in the word _obsession_ the constant thought is +pictured as continually trying to gain entrance into the mind. We use +the word _besiege_ in the same metaphorical sense. We speak of being +"besieged" with questions, and so on. + +Another word used now most often metaphorically comes also from this +idea of siege warfare. In all fortified places there are holes at +intervals along the walls of defence, through which the defenders may +shoot at the attackers. These are called "loop-holes." This word is +now used much oftener in a figurative sense than to describe the +actual thing. When two persons are arguing and one has plainly shown +the other to be wrong, we say he has "not a loophole" of escape from +the other's reasoning. Or if a person objects very much to doing +something, and makes many excuses, every one of which is shown to be +worthless, we again say he has "no loophole for escape." + +Every child has heard of the Crusades, in which the nobles and knights +and soldiers of the Middle Ages went to fight against the Turks to win +back the Holy Sepulchre. These wars were called "crusades," from the +cross which the Crusaders wore as badges. The word was made from the +Latin word _crux_, which means "cross." But _crusade_ has now become a +general word. We speak of a "temperance crusade," of a "peace +crusade," and so on. The word has come to have the general meaning of +efforts made by people for something which they believe to be good; +but literally every person who works for such a "crusade" is a knight +buckling on his armour, signed with the cross, and sallying forth to +the East. + +This word _sally_ also comes from siege warfare. A "sally" means a +rush of defenders from a besieged place, attempting to get past the +besiegers by taking them by surprise. It also has the more general +meaning of an excursion, such as the going forth to a crusade. It +means literally a "leaping out," and comes from the Latin word +_salire_, "to leap." The word _sally_ is also used to mean a sudden +lively remark generally rather against some person or thing. It is +interesting to notice that the fish salmon also probably takes its +name from this Latin word meaning "to leap." + +Any child with a dictionary can find for himself many hidden metaphors +in the commonest words; and he will learn a great deal and amuse +himself at the same time. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +WORDS FROM NATIONAL CHARACTER. + + +There is one group of metaphorical words which is specially +interesting for the stories of the past which they tell us if we +examine into their meaning. Many names of ancient tribes and nations, +and some names of modern peoples, have come to be used as general +words; but the new meanings they have now tell us what other peoples +have thought of the nations bearing these names in history. + +One of the best things that can be said about a boy or a girl is that +he or she is "frank," by which we mean open and straightforward. The +Franks were, of course, the Teutonic tribe which conquered Gaul (the +country we now call France) in the sixth century. Unlike the English +when they conquered the Britons, the Franks mixed with the Gauls and +the Roman population which they conquered; but for a long time the +Franks were the only people who were altogether free. From this fact +the word _frank_ came into use, meaning "free." A "frank" person is +one who speaks out freely and without restraint. + +The name _Frank_ has given us a word with a very pleasant meaning, but +this was not the case with all the Teutonic tribes which broke in upon +the Roman Empire. A person who is very uncivilized in his manners is +sometimes called a "Goth." The word is often especially used to +describe a person who does not appreciate pictures and books and works +of art. Sometimes architects will pull down beautiful old buildings to +make place for new, and the people who appreciate beautiful things +describe them as "Goths." More often, perhaps, the word _Vandal_ is +used to describe such people. The Goths and Vandals were two of the +fiercest and most barbaric of the German tribes which overran the +Roman Empire from the third to the fifth century. They showed no +respect for the beautiful buildings and the great works of art which +were spread over the empire. They robbed and burned like savages, and +in a few years destroyed many of the beautiful things which had been +made with so much care and skill by the Greek and Roman artists. So +deep an impression did their destructiveness make on the world of that +time that their names have been handed down through sixteen centuries, +and are used to-day in the unpleasant sense of wilful destroyers of +beautiful things. + +The words _barbarian_ and _barbarous_ are used in the same way. We +describe a child who behaves in a rough way as "a little barbarian," +or a grown-up person without ordinary good manners as "a mere +barbarian." And the word _barbarous_ has an even worse meaning. It is +used to describe very coarse, uncivilized behaviour; but most often it +has also the sense of cruelty as well as coarseness. Thus we speak of +the barbarous behaviour of the Germans in Belgium. But when the word +_barbarous_ was first used it meant merely "foreign." + +To the Greeks there were only two classes of people--Greeks, and +non-Greeks or "barbarians." The name _barbarian_ meant a bearded man, +and came from the Greek word _barbaros_. The Greeks were clean-shaven, +and distinguished themselves from the "bearded" peoples who knew +nothing of Greek civilization. The Romans conquered Greece, and +learned much from its civilization. To them all who were not Greeks or +Romans were "barbarians." Some Roman writers, like Cicero, use the +word in the modern sense of unmannerly or even savage, but this was +not a common use. St. Paul was a Roman citizen, for he belonged to +Tarsus, a city in Asia Minor which had been given full Roman rights; +but he was a Greek by birth, and he uses the word in the Greek way. He +speaks of all men being equal according to the Christian religion, +saying, "There is neither Greek nor ... barbarian, bond nor free." + +The word _slave_, again, contains in itself whole chapters of European +history. It comes from the word _Slav_. The Slavs are the race of +people to which the Russians, Poles, and many other nations in the +East of Europe belong. The Great War has been partly fought for the +freedom of the small Slav nations, of which Serbia is one. The Slavs +have a long history of oppression and tyranny behind them. They have +been subject to stronger nations, such as the Turks, and, in Hungary, +the Magyars. The first "slaves" in mediæval Europe belonged to this +race, and the word "slave" is only another form of _Slav_. The word +gives us an idea of the impression which the misfortunes of the Slavs +made on the people of the Middle Ages. + +The words _Turk_ and _Tartar_ have almost the opposite meaning to +_slave_ when they are used in a general sense. We call an unmanageable +baby a "young Turk," and in this expression we have the idea of all +the trouble the Turks have given the people of Europe since they +swarmed in from the East in the twelfth century. The word _Turk_ in +this sense is now generally used amusingly to describe a troublesome +child; but a grown-up person with a very quick temper or very +difficult to get on with is often described also, chiefly in fun, as a +"Tartar." Tartar is the name of the race of people to which the Turks, +Cossacks, and several other peoples belong. The name by which they +called themselves was _Tatar_; but Europeans changed it to _Tartar_, +from the Latin word _Tartarus_, which means "hell." This gives us some +idea of the impression these fierce people made on mediæval Europe--an +impression which is kept in memory by the present humorous use of the +word. + +It is chiefly Eastern peoples whose names have passed into common +words meaning fierce and cruel people. Our fairy tales are full of +tales of "ogres." It is not quite certain, but it is probable that +this word comes from _Hungarian_. The chief people of Hungary are the +Magyars; but the first person who used the name _Hungarian_ in the +sense of "ogre" probably did not know this, but thought of them as +Huns, or perhaps Tartars, and therefore as very fierce, cruel people. +The first person who is known to have used it is Perrault, a French +writer of fairy tales in the seventeenth century. + +The Great War has given us another of these national names used in a +new way. Many people referred to the Germans all through the war as +the "Huns." The Huns were half-savage people, who in the early Middle +Ages moved about in great hordes over Europe killing and burning. They +were at last conquered in East and West, and finally disappeared from +history. But their name remained as a synonym for cruelty. The Kaiser, +in an unfortunate speech, exhorted his soldiers to make themselves as +terrible as Huns; and when people heard of the ill-treatment of the +Belgians when their country was invaded at the beginning of the war, +they said that the Germans had indeed behaved like the Huns of long +ago. The name clung to them, and during the war, when people spoke of +the "Huns," they generally meant the Germans, and not the fierce, +half-savage little men who followed their famous chief Attila, +plundering and burning through Europe about fifteen centuries ago. + +Another name with a somewhat similar meaning is _assassin_, which most +people would not guess to have ever been the name of a collection of +people. An assassin is a person who arranges beforehand to take some +one by surprise and kill him. But the original assassins were an +Eastern people who believed that the murder of people of a religion +other than their own was pleasing to their God. The Arabs first called +this sect by the name _hashshash_, which the scholars of the Middle +Ages translated into the Latin _assassinus_. The Arab name was given +because these people were great eaters of "hashish" or dry herbs. + +The name _Arab_ itself has come to be used with a special meaning +which has nothing to do with the people whose name it is. A rough +little boy who spends most of his time in the streets is described as +a "street Arab," and this comes from the fact that we think of the +Arabs as a wandering people. The "street Arab" is a wanderer also, of +another sort. + +Another name of a wandering people has also come to have a special +meaning in English. The French word for gipsy is _bohemien_, and from +this we have the English word _Bohemian_. When we say a person is "a +Bohemian," we mean that he lives in the way he really likes, and does +not care whether other people think he is quite respectable or not. +It was the novelist Thackeray who first used the word _Bohemian_ in +this sense. + +_Bohemia_ is, of course, the name of a country in Germany, but it is +also used figuratively to describe the region or community in which +"Bohemian" or unconventional people live. + +The word _gipsy_ itself is used to describe a very dark person, or +almost any kind of people travelling round the country in caravans. +But _gipsy_ really means "Egyptian." When the real gipsies first +appeared in England, in the sixteenth century, people thought they +came from Egypt, and so gave them this name. + +Another name often given to very dark people is _blackamoor_, a name +by which negroes are sometimes described. This really means "Black +Moor," and shows us how confused the people who first used the word +were about different races of people. The Moors were a quite different +people from the negroes, being related to the Arabs. But to some +people every one who is not white is a "nigger." _Nigger_ comes, of +course, from _negro_. + +The Moors inhabited a part of North-west Africa. It was also a North +African people, the Algerians, who gave us the word _Zouave_. Every +one has seen since the Great War began pictures of the handsome and +quaintly-dressed French soldiers called "Zouaves." Perhaps some +children wondered why they wore such a strange Eastern dress. It is +because the Zouave regiments, which are now chiefly composed of +Frenchmen, were originally formed from an Algerian mountain tribe +called the Zouaves--Algeria being a French possession. The name is +almost forgotten as that of a foreign tribe, but has become instead +the name of these light infantry French regiments. + +The name of the most famous of Eastern nations now spread all over the +world, the Jews, has become a term of reproach. For hundreds of years +after the spread of Christianity over Europe the Jews were looked upon +as a wicked and hateful people. In many countries they were not +allowed to live at all; in others a portion of the towns was set apart +for them, and they were allowed to live there because they were useful +as money-lenders. + +Naturally the Jews, persecuted and distrusted, made as much profit as +they could out of the people who treated them in this way. Perhaps +with the growth of their wealth they grew to love money for its own +sake. In any case, before long the Jews were looked upon as people who +were decidedly ungenerous in the matter of money. Everybody knows the +story of the Jew Shylock in Shakespeare's great play "The Merchant of +Venice." Nowadays a person who is not really a Jew is often described +contemptuously as a "Jew" if he shows himself mean in money matters; +and some people even use a slang expression, "to jew," meaning to +cheat or be very mean over a money affair. + +Another name of a nation which stands for dishonesty of another sort +(and much more excusable) is _Gascon_. The Gascons are the natives of +Gascony, a province in the south of France. It is proverbial among +other Frenchmen that the Gascons are always boasting, and even in +English we sometimes use the word _Gascon_ to describe a great +boaster, while _gasconade_ is now a common term for a boastful story. + +Another word which we use to describe this sort of thing is _romance_. +We often hear the expression, "Oh, he is only romancing," by which we +mean that a person is saying what is not true, inventing harmless +details to improve his story. The word _romance_ has now many +meanings, generally containing the idea of _imagination_. A person is +called "romantic" when he or she is full of imaginings of great deeds +and events. Or we say a person is a "romantic figure" when we mean +that from his looks or speech, or from some other qualities, he seems +fit for adventures. + +But _romance_, from which we get romantic, was at first merely an +adjective used to describe the languages which are descended from the +Latin language, like French, Italian, and Spanish. In the Middle Ages +scholars wrote in Latin, but poets and taletellers began to write in +the language of the people--the _romance_ languages in France and +Italy. The tales of adventure and things which we should now call +"romantic" were written in the "romance" languages; and from being +used to describe the language, the word came to be used to describe +the kind of story contained in these poems and tales. Gradually the +words _romantic_ and _romance_ got the meaning which they have to-day. + +We have seen in another chapter that we have a number of words taken +from the names of persons in ancient history. We have also a modern +and special use of words formed from the names of some of the ancient +nations. We saw that we use the word _Spartan_ to describe any very +severe discipline, or a person who willingly uses such discipline for +himself. + +There are several other such names used in a more or less +complimentary way. We speak of "Roman" firmness, and every one who has +read Roman history will agree that this is a good use of the word. On +the other hand, we have the expression "Punic faith" to describe +treachery. The Romans had had many reasons for mistrusting their great +enemy, the Carthaginians, and they used this expression, _Fides +Punica_, which we have simply borrowed from the Latin. + +We use the expression "Attic (or Athenian) salt" to describe a very +refined wit or humour. The Romans used the word _sal_, or "salt," in +this sense of _wit_, and their expression _sal Atticum_ shows the high +opinion they had of the Athenians, from whom, indeed, they learned +much in art and in literature. It is this same expression which we use +to-day, having borrowed and translated it also from the Latin. + +We speak of a "Parthian shot" when some one finishes a conversation or +an argument with a sharp or witty remark, leaving no chance for an +answer. This expression comes from the story of the Parthians, a +people who lived on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and were famous as +good archers among the ancient nations. + +The way in which the names of nations and peoples have taken on more +general meanings gives us many glimpses into history. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +WORDS MADE BY WAR. + + +Since the earliest ages men have made war on one another, and we have +a great crowd of words, new and old, connected with war. Some of these +are very simple words, especially the names of early weapons; some are +more elaborate and more interesting in their derivation. + +The chief of all weapons, the sword, has its simple name from the Old +English language itself, and so has the spear. But it was after the +Norman conquest of England that war became more elaborate, with +armoured knights and fortified towers, and nearly all the names +connected with war of this sort come to us from the French of that +time. The word _war_ itself comes from the Old French word _werre_. +_Battle_, too, comes from the French of this time; and so do _armour_, +_arms_, _fortress_, _siege_, _conquer_, _pursue_, _tower_, _banner_, +and many other words. All of these words came into French originally +from Latin. _Knight_, however, is an Old English word. The French word +for knight, _chevalier_, never passed into English, but from it we got +the word _chivalry_. + +The great weapons of modern warfare are the gun and the bayonet. There +are, of course, many kinds of guns, small and large. Formerly it was +the fashion to call the big guns by the name of _cannon_, but in the +great European war this word has hardly been used at all. They are all +"guns," from the rifles carried by the foot soldiers to the Maxims and +the great howitzers which each require a company of men to serve them. +The word _cannon_ comes from the French _canon_, and is sometimes +spelt in this way in English too. It means "great tube." + +The derivation of the word _gun_ is more interesting. Gunpowder was +not really discovered until the fifteenth century, but long before +this a kind of machine, or gun, for hurling great stones, or sometimes +arrows, had been used. These instruments were called by the Latin word +_ballista_ (for the Romans had also had machines of this sort), which +comes from the Greek word _ballo_, meaning "throw." In the Middle Ages +weapons of this sort were called by proper names, just as ships are +now. A common name for them was the woman's name _Gunhilda_, which +would be turned into _Gunna_ for short. It is probably from this that +we get the word _gun_. The most interesting of all the guns used in +the Great War has only a number for its name. It is the famous French +'75, and takes this name merely from a measurement. + +The special weapon of the foot soldier, or infantryman, is the +bayonet. This is a short blade which the foot soldier fixes on the +muzzle of his rifle before he advances to an attack. In the trenches +his weapon is the rifle; before the order is given to go "over the +parapet"--that is, to climb out of the trenches, to run forward and +attack the enemy at close quarters--he "fixes his bayonet." The word +_bayonet_ probably comes from _Bayonne_, the name of a town in France. + +The word _infantry_ itself, now used to describe regiments of foot +soldiers armed with the ordinary weapons, comes to us, like most of +our words connected with war, from the French. We have already seen +that the words of this sort which we borrowed in the Middle Ages were +Norman-French words descended from Latin. But after the use of +gunpowder in war became general there were many new terms; and as at +this time the Italians were the people who fought most, and wrote most +about fighting, many words relating to the methods of war after the +close of the Middle Ages were Italian words. It is true that we +learned them from the French, for the great writers on military +matters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were Frenchmen. But +they borrowed many words from the Italian writers of the fifteenth +century. One of these words is _infantry_, which means a number of +junior soldiers or "infants"--the regiments of foot soldiers being +made up of young men, while the older and more experienced soldiers +made up the cavalry. + +This, again, is a word which we borrowed from the French, and which +the French had borrowed from the Italians. _Cavalry_ is, of course, +the name for horse soldiers, and the Italian word _cavalleria_, from +which it comes, was itself derived from the Latin word _caballus_, "a +horse." The general weapon for a cavalryman is the "sabre," a sword +with a curved blade. This, again, comes to us from the French, but was +probably originally an Eastern word. It is quite common for officers, +in reckoning the number of men in an army, to speak of so many +"bayonets" and so many "sabres," instead of "infantry" and "cavalry." + +Many of the words which people began to use familiarly during the +great European war first came into English in the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, a time when it seemed to be the ordinary state +of affairs for some, at least, of the European countries to be at war +with one another. _Bivouac_ is a word which was used a good deal in +descriptions of earlier wars. It is a German word, which came into +English at the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) in Germany. +It means an encampment for a short time only (often for the night), +without tents. It plainly has not much connection with modern trench +warfare. + +Another word which came from the German at the same time may serve to +remind us that the German soldier of to-day is not very much unlike +his ancestors of three hundred years ago. The word _plunder_ was +originally a German word meaning "bed-clothes" or other household +furnishing. From the fact that so much of this kind of thing was +carried off in the fighting of this terrible war, the word came to +have its present sense of anything taken violently from its rightful +owner. It must be confessed that the word was also used a great deal +in the English Civil War, which was, of course, fought at the same +time as the end of the Thirty Years' War. + +It was also in the English Civil War that we first find the word +_capitulation_, which now generally means to surrender on certain +conditions. Before this, _capitulation_ had more the meaning which it +still keeps in _recapitulation_. It meant an arrangement under +headings, and the word probably was transferred from describing the +terms of surrender to describing the surrender itself. + +One of the many words connected with war which came into the English +language from the French in the seventeenth century was _parade_, +which means the showing off of troops, and came into French from an +Italian word which itself came from the Latin word _parare_, "to +prepare." Another of these words which has been much used in +descriptions of the battles of the Great War, and especially in the +"Battle of the Rivers" in the autumn of 1914, is _pontoon_. Pontoons +are flat-bottomed boats by means of which soldiers make a temporary +bridge across rivers, generally when the permanent bridges have been +destroyed by the enemy. The word is _ponton_ in French, and comes from +the Latin _pons_, "a bridge." Most words of this sort in French ending +in _on_ take the ending _oon_ in English. Thus _ballon_ in French +becomes _balloon_ in English. _Barracks_ also comes from the French +_baraque_, and the French had it from the Spanish or Italian _barraca_ +or _baraca_; but no one knows whence these languages got the word. + +The word _bombard_, also much used during the Great War, came into +English at the end of the seventeenth century from the French word +_bombarder_, which came from the Latin word _bombarda_, an engine for +throwing stones, and which in its turn came from the Latin word +_bombus_, meaning "hum." Even a stone hurled with great force through +the air makes a humming noise, and the "singing" of the bombs and +shells hurled through the air became a very familiar sound to the +soldiers who fought in the Great War. The word _bomb_, too, comes from +the French _bombe_. + +The words _brigade_ and _brigadier_ also came from the French at this +time. So, too, did the word _fusilier_, a name which some British +regiments still keep (for example, the Royal Fusiliers), though they +are no longer armed with the old-fashioned musket known as the +_fusil_, the name of which also came from the French, which had it +from the Latin word _focus_, "a hearth" or "fire." It is curious how +the names of modern British regiments, not even carrying the weapons +from which they have their names, should take us back in this way to +the days of early Rome. + +The word _patrol_, which was used very much especially in the early +days of the Great War, has an interesting origin. It may mean a small +body of soldiers or police sent out to go round a garrison, or camp, +or town, to keep watch; or, again, it may mean a small body of troops +sent on before an advancing army to "reconnoitre"--that is, to spy out +the land, the position of the enemy, etc. The word _patrol_ literally +means to "paddle in mud," for the French word, _patrouille_, from +which it came into English in the seventeenth century, came from an +earlier word with this meaning. + +The word _campaign_, by which we mean a number of battles fought +within a certain time, and generally according to a plan arranged +beforehand, also came from the French word _campagne_ at the beginning +of the eighteenth century--a century of great wars and many campaigns. +The word was more used in those earlier wars than it is now, because +in those days the armies used practically never to fight in the +winter, and so each summer during a war had its "campaign." The +earlier meaning of the French word _campagne_, and one which it still +keeps besides this later meaning, is "open country," the kind of +country over which battles were generally fought. + +_Recruit_ is another word which came into English from the French at +this time. It, again, is a word which has been used a great deal in +the European war. It came from the French word _recrue_, which also +means a newly-enlisted soldier. The French word _croître_, from which +_recrue_ came, was derived from the Latin word _crescere_, "to +increase." + +All these words, we should notice, have now a figurative use. We speak +of "recruits" not only to the army, but to any society. Thus we may +say a person is a valuable "recruit" to the cause of temperance, etc. +A "campaign" can be fought not only on the field of battle, but +through newspapers, meetings, etc. It is in this sense that we speak +of the "campaign" for women's suffrage, etc. + +Many words relating to the dress and habits of our soldiers have +curious origins. We say now quite naturally that a man is "in khaki" +when we mean that he is a soldier, because the peculiar yellow-brown +colour which is known as "khaki" is now the regular colour of the +uniform of the British soldier. In earlier days the British soldier +was generally a "redcoat," but in modern trench warfare it is so +important that the enemy should not be able to pick out easily the +position of groups of men in order to "shell" them, that the armies of +all nations use gray or brown or other dull shades. _Khaki_ is a word +which came into English through the South African War, when the policy +of clothing the soldiers in this way was first begun on a large scale. +It comes from a Hindu word, _khak_, which means "dust." The object of +this kind of clothing for our soldiers is that they shall not be +easily distinguished from the soil of the trenches and battle-fields. + +When a soldier or officer or any other person who is generally in +uniform wears ordinary clothes we say he is "in mufti." This, again, +is an Arab word meaning "Mohammedan priest." + +The soldiers in the Great War used many new words which became a +regular part of their speech. They were chiefly "slang," but it is +quite possible that some of them may pass into good English. We shall +see something of them in a later chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +PROVERBS. + + +Every child knows what a proverb is, though every child may not, +perhaps, be able to say in its own words just what makes a proverb. A +proverb has been defined as "a wise saying in a few words." At any +rate, if it is not always wise, the person who first said it and the +people who repeat it think it is. Most proverbs are very old, and take +us back, just as we saw that words formed from the names of animals +do, to the early days before the growth of large towns. + +In those days life was simple, and people thought chiefly of simple +things. When they thought children or young persons were going to do +something foolish they gave them good advice, and tried to teach them +a little lesson from their own experience of what happened among the +common things around them. + +A boy or a girl who was very enthusiastic about some new thing was +warned that "new brooms sweep clean." When several people were anxious +to help in doing one thing, they were pushed aside (just as they are +now) with the remark that "too many cooks spoil the broth." The people +who use this proverb now generally know very little about broth and +still less about cooking. They say it because it expresses a certain +truth in a striking way; but the first person who said it knew all +about cooks and kitchens, and spoke out of the fullness of her (it +must have been a woman) experience. + +Again, a person who is discontented with the way in which he lives and +is anxious to change it is warned lest he jump "out of the frying-pan +into the fire." Again the wisdom comes from the kitchen. And we may +remark that these sayings are difficult to contradict. + +But there are other proverbs which contain statements about birds and +animals and things connected with nature, and sometimes these seem +only half true to the people who think about them. We sometimes hear +it said of a person who is very quiet and does not speak much that +"still waters run deep." This is true in Nature. A little shallow +brook will babble along, while the surface of a deep pool will have +hardly a ripple on it. But a quiet person is not necessarily a person +of great character or lofty thoughts. Some people hardly speak at all, +because, as a matter of fact, they find nothing to say. They are +quiet, not because they are "deep," but because they are shallow. +Still, the proverb is not altogether foolish, for when people use it +about some one they generally mean that they think this particular +quiet person is one with so much going on in his or her mind that +there is no temptation to speak much. "Empty vessels make most sound" +is another of these proverbs which is literally true, but is not +always true when applied to people. A person who talks a great deal +with very little to say quite deserves to have this proverb quoted +about him or her. But there are some people who are great talkers just +because they are so full of ideas, and to them the proverb does not +apply. + +Another of these nature proverbs, and one which has exasperated many a +late riser, is, "The early bird catches the worm." Many people have +inquired in their turn, "And what about the worm?" But the proverb is +quite true, all the same. + +Again, "A rolling stone gathers no moss" is a proverb which has been +repeated over and over again with many a headshake when young people +have refused to settle down, but have changed from one thing to +another and roamed from place to place. And this is quite true. But we +may ask, "Is it a good thing for stones to gather moss?" After all, +the adventurous people sometimes win fortunes which they could never +have won if they had been afraid to move about. And the adventurous +people, too, win other things--knowledge and experience--which are +better than money. Of course the proverb is wise to a certain degree, +for mere foolish changing without any reason cannot benefit any one. +But things can gather _rust_ as well as moss by keeping still, and +this is certainly not a good thing. + +"Where there's a will there's a way." So the old proverb says, and +this is probably nearly always true, except that no one can do what is +impossible. "Look before you leap" is also good advice for impetuous +people, who are apt to do a thing rashly and wonder afterwards whether +they have done wisely. + +The most interesting thing about proverbs to the student of words is +that they are always made up of simple words such as early peoples +always used. But we go on repeating them, using sometimes words which +we should never choose in ordinary speech, and yet never noticing that +they are old-fashioned and quaint. + +It is true that there are some sayings which are so often quoted that +they seem almost like proverbs. But a line of poetry or prose, however +often it may be quoted, is not a proverb if it is taken from the +writings of a person whom we know to have used it for the first time. +These are merely quotations. No one can say who was the first person +to use any particular proverb. Even so long ago as the days of the +great Greek philosopher Aristotle many proverbs which are used in +nearly every land to-day were ages old. Aristotle describes them as +"fragments of an elder wisdom." + +Clearly, then, however true some quotations from Shakespeare and Pope +and Milton may be, and however often repeated, they are not proverbs. + + "A little learning is a dangerous thing." + +This line expresses a deep truth, and is as simply expressed as any +proverb, but it is merely a quotation from Pope. Again, + + "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" + +is true enough, and well enough expressed to bear frequent quotation, +but it is not a "fragment of elder wisdom." It is merely Pope's +excellent way of saying that foolish people will interfere in delicate +matters in which wise people would never think of meddling. Here, +again, the language is not particularly simple as in proverbs, and +this will help us to remember that quotations are not proverbs. There +is, however, a quotation from a poem by Patrick A. Chalmers, a +present-day poet, which has become as common as a proverb:-- + + "What's lost upon the roundabouts + We pulls up on the swings." + +The fact that this is expressed simply and even ungrammatically does +not, of course, turn it into a proverb. + +Though many of the proverbs which are repeated in nearly all the +languages of the world are without date, we know the times when a few +of them were first quoted. In Greek writings we already find the +half-true proverb, "Rolling stones gather no moss;" and, "There's many +a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," which warned the Greeks, as it +still warns us, of the uncertainty of human things. We can never be +sure of anything until it has actually happened. In Latin writings we +find almost the same idea expressed in the familiar proverb, "A bird +in hand is worth two in the bush"--a fact which no one will deny. + +St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from Greek into Latin in the +fourth century and wrote many wise books besides, quotes two proverbs +which we know well: "It is not wise to look a gift horse in the +mouth," and, "Liars must have good memories." The first again deals, +like so many of the early proverbs, with the knowledge of animals. A +person who knows about horses can tell from the state of their mouths +much about their age, health, and general value. But, the proverb +warns us, it is neither gracious nor wise to examine too closely what +is given to us freely. It may not be quite to our liking, but after +all it is a present. + +The proverb, "Liars must have good memories," means, of course, that +people who tell lies are liable to forget just what tale they have +told on any particular occasion, and may easily contradict themselves, +and so show that they have been untruthful. It is necessary, then, for +such a person, unless he wishes to be found out, to remember exactly +what lies he has told. + +Many proverbs have remained in the English language, not so much for +the wisdom they contain as for the way in which they express it. Some +are in the form of a rhyme--as, "Birds of a feather flock together," +and "East and west, home is best." These are always favourites. + +Others catch the ear because of their alliteration; that is to say, +two or three of their words begin with the same letter. Examples of +this are: "Look before you leap." The proverb "A stitch in time saves +nine" has something of both these attractions, though it is not +exactly a rhyme. Other examples of alliteration in proverbs are: +"Delays are dangerous," "Speech is silvern, silence is golden." + +A few proverbs are witty as well as wise, and these are, perhaps, the +best of all, since they do not, as a rule, exasperate the people to +whom they are quoted, as many proverbs are apt to do. Usually these +witty proverbs are metaphors. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +SLANG. + + +Every child has some idea of what is meant by "slang," because most +schoolboys and schoolgirls have been corrected for using it. By slang +we mean words and expressions which are not the ordinary words for the +ideas which they express, but which are invented as new names or +phrases for these ideas, and are at first known and used only by a few +people who use them just among themselves. There are all kinds of +slang--slang used by schoolboys and schoolgirls in general, slang used +by the pupils of each special school, slang used by soldiers, a +different slang used by their officers, and even slang used by members +of Parliament. + +The chief value of slang to the people who use it is that at first, at +any rate, it is only understood by the inventors and their friends. +The slang of any public school is continually changing, because as +soon as the expressions become known and used by other people the +inventors begin to invent once more, and get a new set of slang terms. +Sometimes a slang word will be used for years by one class of people +without becoming common because it describes something of which +ordinary people have no experience, and therefore do not mention. + +The making of slang is really the making of language. Early men must +have invented new words just as the slang-makers do to-day. The +difference is that there are already words to describe the things +which the slang words describe. It may seem curious, then, that people +should trouble to find new words. The reason they do so is often that +they want to be different from other people, and sometimes because the +slang word is much more expressive than the ordinary word. + +This is one reason that the slang of a small number of people spreads +and becomes general. Sometimes the slang word is so much better in +this way than the old word that it becomes more generally used than +it, and finds its way into the ordinary dictionaries. When this +happens it is no longer slang. + +But, as a rule, slang is ugly or meaningless, and it is very often +vulgar. However common its use may become, the best judges will not +use such expressions, and they remain mere slang. + +A writer on the subject of slang has given us two good examples of +meaningless and expressive slang. The people who first called +marmalade "swish" could have no reason for inventing the new name +except to seem odd and different from other people. _Swish_ is +certainly not a more expressive or descriptive word than _marmalade_. +The one means nothing, while the other has an interesting history +coming to us through the French from two old Greek words meaning +"apple" and "honey." + +The expressive word which this writer quotes is _swag_, a slang word +for "stolen goods." There is no doubt that _swag_ is a much more +expressive word than any of the ordinary words used to describe the +same thing. One gets a much more vivid picture from the sentence, "The +thieves got off with the _swag_," than he would had the word _prize_ +or even _plunder_ or _booty_ been used. Yet there is no sign that the +word _swag_ will become good English. Expressive as it is, there is a +vulgar flavour about it which would make people who are at all +fastidious in their language very unwilling to use it. + +Yet many words and phrases which must have seemed equally vulgar when +first used have come to be accepted as good English. And in fact much +of our language, and especially metaphorical words and phrases, were +once slang. It will be interesting to examine some examples of old +slang which have now become good English. + +One common form of slang is the use of expressions connected with +sport as metaphors in speaking of other things. Thus it is slang to +say that we were "in at the death" when we mean that we stayed to the +end of a meeting or performance. This is, of course, a metaphor from +hunting. People who follow the hounds until the fox is caught and +killed are "in at the death." Another such expression is to "toe the +mark." We say a person is made to "toe the line" or "toe the mark" +when he or she is subjected to discipline; but it is a slang phrase, +and only good English in its literal meaning of standing with the toes +touching a line in starting a race, etc., so that all may have an +equal chance. + +We say a person has "hit below the belt" if we think he has done or +said something unfair in an argument or quarrel. This is a real slang +phrase, and is only good English in the literal sense in which it is +used in boxing, where it is against the rules to "hit below the belt." +The term "up to you," by which is expressed in a slang way that the +person so addressed is expected to do something, is a slang expression +borrowed from cards. + +Even from these few examples we can see that there are various degrees +in slang. A person who would be content to use the expression "toe the +line" might easily think it rather coarse to accuse an opponent of +"hitting below the belt." There comes a time when some slang almost +ceases to be slang, and though good writers will not use it in +writing, quite serious people will use it in merely speaking. It has +passed out of the stage of mere slang to become a "colloquialism." + +The phrases we have quoted from present-day sport when used in a +general sense are still for the most part slang; but many phrases +taken from old sports and games, and which must have been slang in +their time, are now quite good English and even dignified style. We +speak of "wrestling with a difficulty" or "parrying a thrust" (a +metaphor taken, of course, from fencing), of "winning the palm," and +so on, all of which are not only picturesque but quite dignified +English. + +A very common form of slang is what are called "clipped" words. Such +words are _gov_ for "governor," _bike_ for "bicycle," _flu_ for +"influenza," _indi_ for "indigestion," _rec_ for "recreation," _loony_ +for "lunatic," _pub_ for "public house," _exam_ for "examination," +_maths_ for "mathematics." All of these words are real slang, and most +of them are quite vulgar. There is no sign that any of them will +become good English. The most likely to survive in ordinary speech is +perhaps _exam_. + +Yet we have numbers of short words which have now become the ordinary +names for certain articles, and yet which are only short forms of the +original names of those articles. The first man who said _bus_ for +"omnibus" must have seemed quite an adventurer. He probably struck +those who heard him as a little vulgar; but hardly any one now uses +the word _omnibus_ (which is in itself an interesting word, being the +Latin word meaning "for all"), except, perhaps, the omnibus companies +in their posters. Again, very few people use the full phrase +"Zoological Gardens" now. Children are taken to the _Zoo_. _Cycle_ for +"bicycle" is quite dignified and proper, though _bike_ is certainly +vulgar. In the hurry of life to-day people more frequently _phone_ +than "telephone" to each other, and we can send a wire instead of a +"telegram" without any risk of vulgarity. The word _cab_ replaced the +more magnificent "cabriolet," and then with the progress of invention +we got the "taxicab." It is now the turn of _cab_ to be dropped, and +when we are in haste we hail a _taxi_. No one nowadays, except the +people who sell them, speaks of "pianofortes." They have all become +_pianos_ in ordinary speech. + +The way in which good English becomes slang is well illustrated by an +essay of the great English writer Dean Swift, in the famous paper +called "The Tatler," in 1710. He, as a fastidious user of English, was +much vexed by what he called the "continual corruption of the English +tongue." He objected especially to the clipping of words--the use of +the first syllable of a word instead of the whole word. "We cram one +syllable and cut off the rest," he said, "as the owl fattened her mice +after she had cut off their legs to prevent their running away." One +word the Dean seemed especially to hate--_mob_, which, indeed, was +richer by one letter in his day, for he sometimes wrote it _mobb_. +_Mob_ is, of course, quite good English now to describe a disorderly +crowd of people, and we should think it very curious if any one used +the full expression for which it stands. _Mob_ is short for the Latin +phrase _mobile vulgus_, which means "excitable crowd." + +Other words to which Swift objected, though most of them are not the +words of one syllable with which he declared we were "overloaded," and +which he considered the "disgrace of our language," were _banter_, +_sham_, _bamboozle_, _bubble_, _bully_, _cutting_, _shuffling_, and +_palming_. We may notice that some of these words, such as _banter_ +and _sham_, are now quite good English, and most of the others have at +least passed from the stage of slang into that of colloquialism. + +The word _bamboozle_ is still almost slang, though perhaps more common +than it was two hundred years ago, when Swift attacked it. Even now we +do not know where it came from. There was a slang word used at the +time but now forgotten--_bam_, which meant a trick or practical joke; +and some scholars have thought that _bamboozle_ (which, of course, +means "to deceive") came from this. On the other hand, it may have +been the other way about, and that the shorter word came from the +longer. The word _bamboozle_ shows us how hard it is for meaningless +slang to become good English even after a struggle of two hundred +years. + +We have seen how many slang words in English have become good English, +so that people use with propriety expressions that would have seemed +improper or vulgar fifty or ten or even five years ago. Other +interesting words are some which are perfectly good English as now +used, but which have been borrowed from other languages, and in those +languages are or were mere slang. The word _bizarre_, which we +borrowed from the French, and which means "curious," in a fantastic or +half-savage way, is a perfectly dignified word in English; but it must +have been a slang word at one time in French. It meant long ago in +French "soldierly," and literally "bearded"--that is, if it came from +the Spanish word _bizarra_, "beard." + +Another word which we use in English has a much less dignified use in +French. We can speak of the _calibre_ of a person, meaning the quality +of his character or intellect; but in French the word _calibre_ is +only in ordinary speech applied to things. To speak of a "person of a +certain calibre" in French is very bad slang indeed. + +Again, the word _fiasco_, which we borrowed from the Italian, and +which means the complete failure of something from which we had hoped +much, was at first slang in Italian. It was applied especially to the +failure of a play in a theatre. To break down was _far fiasco_, which +literally means "make a bottle." The phrase does not seem to have any +very clear meaning, but at any rate it is far removed from the +dignified word _fiasco_ as used in English. + +The word _sack_ as used in describing the sack of a town in war is a +picturesque and even poetic word; but as it comes from the French +_sac_, meaning "pack" or "plunder," it is really a kind of slang. + +On the other hand, words which belong to quite good and ordinary +speech in their own languages often become slang when adopted into +another. A slang word much used in America and sometimes in England +(for American expressions are constantly finding their way into the +English language) is _vamoose_, which means "depart." _Vamoose_ comes +from a quite ordinary Mexican word, _vamos_, which is Spanish for "let +us go." + +It is very interesting to find that many of our most respectable words +borrowed from Latin have a slang origin. Sometimes these words were +slang in Latin itself; sometimes they were used as slang only after +they passed into English. The French word _tête_, which means "head," +comes from the Latin _testa_, "a pot." (We have seen that this is the +word from which we get our word _test_.) Some Romans, instead of using +_caput_, the real Latin word for "head," would sometimes in slang +fashion speak of some one's _testa_, or "pot," and from this slang +word the French got their regular word for head. + +The word _insult_ comes from the Latin _insultarc_, which meant at +first "to spring or leap at," and afterwards came to have the same +meaning as it has with us. The persons who first used this expression +in the second sense were really using slang, picturing a person who +said something unpleasant to them as "jumping at them." + +We have the same kind of slang in the expression "to jump down one's +throat," when we mean "to complain violently of some one's behaviour." +The word _effrontery_, which comes to us from the French +_effronterie_, is really the same expression as the vulgar terms +_face_ and _cheek_, meaning "impudence." For the word comes from the +Latin _frons_, "the forehead." + +An example of a word which was quite good English, and then came to be +used as slang in a special sense, and then in this same special sense +became good English again, is _grit_. The word used to mean in English +merely "sand" or "gravel," and it came to mean especially the texture +or grain of stones used for grinding. Then in American slang it came +to be used to mean all that we mean now when we say a person has +"grit"--namely, courage, and strength, and firmness. This use of the +word seemed so good that it rapidly became good English; but the +American slang-makers soon found another word to replace it, and now +talk of people having "sand," which is not by any means so expressive, +and will probably never pass out of the realm of slang. + +An example of a word which was at first used as slang not many years +ago, and is now, if not the most elegant English, at least a quite +respectable word for newspaper use, is _maffick_. This word means to +make a noisy show of joy over news of a victory. It dates from the +relief of Mafeking by the British in 1900. When news of its relief +came people at home seemed to go mad with joy. They rushed into the +streets shouting and cheering, and there was a great deal of noise and +confusion. It was noticed over and over again that there was no +"mafficking" over successes in the Great War. People felt it too +seriously to make a great noise about it. + +A slang word which has become common in England during the Great War +is _sträfe_. This is the German word for "punish," and became quite +familiar to English people through the hope and prayer to which the +Germans were always giving expression that God would "sträfe" England. +The soldiers caught hold of the word, and it was very much used in a +humorous way both at home and abroad. But it is not at all likely to +become a regular English word, and perhaps will not even remain as +slang after the war. + +Besides the fact that slang often becomes good English, we have to +notice that good English often becomes slang. One of the most common +forms of slang is to use words, and especially adjectives, which mean +a great deal in themselves to describe quite small and ordinary +things. To speak of a "splendid" or "magnificent" breakfast, for +instance, is to use words out of proportion to the subject, though of +course they are excellent words in themselves; but this is a mild form +of slang. + +There are many people now who fill their conversation with +superlatives, although they speak of the most commonplace things. A +theatrical performance will be "perfectly heavenly," an actress +"perfectly divine." Apart from the fact that nothing and no one merely +human can be "divine," divinity itself is perfection, and it is +therefore not only unnecessary but actually incorrect to add +"perfectly." A scene or landscape may very properly be described as +"enchanting," but when the adjective is applied too easily it is a +case of good English becoming slang. + +Then, besides the use of superlative adjectives to describe things +which do not deserve such descriptions, there is a crowd of rarer +words used in a special sense to praise things. + +Every one knows what a "stunning blow" is, but few people can ever +have been stunned by the beauty of another's clothes. Yet the +expression "stunning hat" or "stunning tie" is quite common. +Expressions like a "ripping time" are even more objectionable, because +they are even more meaningless. + +Then, besides the slang use of terms of praise, there are also many +superlatives expressing disgust which the slangmongers use instead of +ordinary mild expressions of displeasure. To such people it is not +simply "annoying" to have to wait for a lift on the underground +railways; for them it is "perfectly sickening." + +_Horrid_, a word which means so much if used properly, is applied to +all sorts of slightly unpleasant things and people. When one thinks of +the literal Latin meaning of this word ("so dreadful as to cause us to +shudder"), the foolishness of using it so lightly is plain. People +frequently now declare that they have a "shocking cold"--a +description which, again, is too violent for the subject. + +Another form of slang is to combine a word which generally expresses +unpleasant with one which expresses pleasant ideas. So we get such +expressions as "awfully nice" and "frightfully pleased," which are +actually contradictions in terms. + +This kind of slang is the worst kind of all. It soon loses any spice +of novelty. It is not really expressive, like some of the quaint terms +of school or university slang, and it does a great deal of harm by +tending to spoil the full force of some of our best and finest words. +It is very difficult to avoid the use of slang if one is constantly +hearing it, but, at any rate, any one who feels the beauty of language +must soon be disgusted by this particular kind of slang. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +WORDS WHICH HAVE CHANGED THEIR MEANING. + + +We have seen in the chapter on "slang" how people are continually +using old words in new ways, and how, through this, slang often +becomes good English and good English becomes slang. The same thing +has been going on all through the history of language. Other words +besides those used as slang have been constantly getting new uses. +Many English words to-day have quite different meanings from those +which they had in the Middle Ages; some even have exactly opposite +meanings to their original sense. Sometimes words keep both the old +meaning and the new. + +In this matter the English language is very different from the German. +The English language has many words which the Germans have too, but +their meanings are different. The Germans have kept the original +meanings which these words had hundreds of years ago; but the +thousands of words which have come down to us from the English +language of a thousand years ago have nearly all changed their +meanings. + +We have two of these old words which have now each two exactly +opposite meanings. The word _fast_ means sometimes "immovable," and +sometimes it means the exact opposite--"moving rapidly." We say a key +is "fast" in a lock when we cannot get it out, and we say a person +runs "fast" when we mean that he runs quickly. The first meaning of +steadiness is the original meaning; then the word came to be used to +mean "moving steadily." A person who ran on, keeping up a steady +movement, was said to run fast, and then it was easy to use the word +for rapidity as well as steadiness in motion or position. This is how +the word _fast_ came to have two opposite meanings. + +Another word, _fine_, has the same sort of history. We speak of a +"fine needle" when we mean that it is thin, and a "fine baby" when we +mean that it is fat. The first meaning is nearer to the original, +which was "well finished off." Often a thing which had a great deal of +"fine" workmanship spent on it would be delicate and "fine" in the +first sense, and so the word came to have this meaning. On the other +hand, the thing finished off in this way would generally be beautiful. +People came to think of "fine" things as things to be admired, and as +they like their babies to be fat, a fat baby will generally be +considered a fine baby. It was in this kind of way that "fine" came to +have its second meaning of "large." + +The common adjectives _glad_ and _sad_ had quite different meanings +in Old English from those they have now. In Old English glad meant +"shining," or "bright," but in a very short time it came to mean +"cheerful." Now it means something rather different from this, for +though we may speak of a "glad heart" or "glad spirit," such +expressions are chiefly used in poetry. Generally in ordinary speech +when we say that we are "glad" we mean that we are pleased about some +special thing, as "glad that you have come." + +_Sad_ in Old English meant to have as much as one wanted of anything. +Then it came to mean "calm" and "serious," perhaps from the idea that +people who have all they want are in a mood to settle down and attend +to things seriously. Already in Shakespeare's writings we find the +word with its present meaning of "sorrowful." It has quite lost its +earlier meaning, but has several special new meanings besides the +general one of "sorrowful." A "sad tint," or colour, is one which is +dull. "Sad bread" in the north of England is "heavy" bread which has +not risen properly. Again, we describe as "sad" some people who are +not at all sorrowful. We say a person is a "sad" liar when we mean +that he is a hopeless liar. + +The word _tide_, which we now apply to the regular rise and fall of +the sea, used to mean in Old English "time;" and it still keeps this +meaning in the words _Christmastide_, _Whitsuntide_, etc. + +One common way in which words change is in going from a general to a +more special meaning. Thus in Old English the word _chest_ meant "box" +in general, but has come now to be used as the name of a special kind +of box only, and also as the name of a part of the body. The first +person who used the word in this sense must have thought of the +"chest" as a box containing the lungs and the heart. + +_Glass_ is, of course, the name of the substance out of which we make +our windows and some of our drinking vessels, etc., and this was at +one time its only use; but we now use the name _glass_ for several +special articles--for example, a drinking-vessel, a telescope, a +barometer, a mirror (or "looking-glass"), and so on. _Copper_ is +another word the meaning of which has become specialized in this way +as time has gone on. From being merely the name of a metal it has come +to be used for a copper coin and for a large cauldron especially used +in laundry work. Another example of a rather different kind of this +"specialization" which changes the meaning of words is the word +_congregation_. _Congregation_ used to mean "any gathering together of +people in one place," and we still use the word _congregate_ in this +sense. Thus we might say "the people congregated in Trafalgar Square," +but we should never think of speaking of a crowd listening to a +lecturer there as a "congregation." The word has now come to mean an +assembly for religious worship in a chapel or church. + +Some words have changed their meaning in just the opposite way. From +having one special meaning they have come by degrees to have a much +more general sense. The word _bureau_, which came into English from +the French, meant at first merely a "desk" in both languages. It still +has this meaning in both languages, but a wider meaning as well. It +can now be used to describe an office (a place associated with the +idea of desks). Thus we have "employment bureau," and can get English +money for foreign at a "bureau de change." From this use of the word +we have the word _bureaucracy_, by which we describe a government +which is carried on by a great number of officials. + +A better example of how a word containing one special idea can extend +its meaning is the word _bend_. This word originally meant to pull the +string of a bow in order to let fly an arrow. The expression "bend a +bow" was used, and as the result of pulling the string was to curve +the wooden part of the arrow, people came in time to think that +"bending the bow" was this making the wood to curve. From this came +our general use of "bend" to mean forcing a thing which is straight +into a curve or angle. We have, of course, also the metaphorical use +of the word, as when we speak of bending our will to another's. + +Another word which has had a similar history is _carry_. When this +word was first borrowed from Old French it meant to move something +from place to place in a cart or other wheeled vehicle. The general +word for our modern _carry_ was _bear_, which we still use, but +chiefly in poetry. In time _carry_ came to have its modern general +sense of lifting a thing from one place and removing it to another. A +well-known writer on the history of the English language has suggested +that this came about first through people using the word in this sense +half in fun, just as the word _cart_ is now sometimes used. A person +may say (a little vulgarly), "Do you expect me to cart all these +things to another room?" instead of using the ordinary word carry. If +history were to repeat itself in this case, _cart_ might in time +become the generally used word, and _carry_ in its turn be relegated +to the realm of poetry. + +Words often come to have several meanings through being used to +describe things which are connected in some way with the things for +which they were originally used. The word _house_ originally had one +meaning, which it still keeps, but to which several others have been +added. It was a building merely, but came in time to be used to mean +the building and the people living in it. Thus we say one person +"disturbs the whole house." From this sense it got the meaning of a +royal family, and we speak of the House of York, Lancaster, Tudor, or +Stuart. We also use the word in a large sense when we speak of the +"House of Lords" and the "House of Commons," by which we hardly ever +mean the actual buildings known generally as the "Houses of +Parliament," but the members of the two Houses. The word _world_ has +had almost the opposite history to the word _house_. World originally +applied only to persons and not to any place. It meant a "generation +of men," and then came to mean men and the earth they live on, and +then the earth itself; until it has a quite general sense, as when we +speak of "other worlds than ours." + +Many words which are used at present to describe bad or disagreeable +things were used quite differently originally. The word _villain_ is, +perhaps, the most expressive we can use to show our opinion of the +depths of a person's wickedness. Yet in the Middle Ages a villain, or +"villein," was merely a serf or labourer bound to work on the land of +a particular lord. The word in Saxon times would have been _churl_. As +time went on both these words became terms of contempt. The lords in +the Middle Ages were certainly often more wicked than the serfs, as we +see in the stories of the days of Robin Hood; but by degrees the +people of the higher classes began to use the word _villain_ more and +more contemptuously. Many of them imagined that only people of their +own class were capable of high thoughts and noble conduct. Gradually +"villainy" came to mean all that was low and vulgar, and by degrees it +came to have the meaning it has now of "sheer wickedness." At the end +of the Middle Ages there were practically no longer any serfs in +England; but the word _villain_ has remained in this new sense, and +gives us a complete story of the misunderstanding and dislike which +must have existed between "noble" and "simple" to cause such a change +in the meaning of the word. + +The word _churl_ has a somewhat similar history. We say now that a +sulky, ungracious person is a "mere churl," or behaves in a "churlish" +manner, never thinking of the original meaning of the word. Here, +again, is a little story of injustice. The present use of the word +comes from the supposition that only the mere labourer could behave in +a sulky or bad-tempered way. + +_Knave_ is another of those words which originally described persons +of poor condition and have now come to mean a wicked or deceitful +person. A knave, as we now understand the word, means a person who +cheats in a particularly mean way, but formerly the word meant merely +"boy." It then came to mean "servant," just as the word _garçon_ +("boy") is used for all waiters in French restaurants. Another word +which now means, as a rule, some one unutterably wicked, is _wretch_, +though it is also used rather contemptuously to describe some one who +is not wicked but unutterably miserable. Yet in Old English this word +merely meant an "exile." An exile was a person to be pitied, and also +sometimes a person who had done something wrong, and we get both these +ideas in the modern uses of the word. The word _blackguard_, which now +means a "scoundrel," was also once a word for "scullion;" but it does +not go back as far as "knave" and "villain," being found chiefly in +writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. + +Another word in which the "villeins" and "knaves" and "churls" seem to +have their revenge on the "upper classes" is _surly_. This word used +to be spelt _sirly_, and meant behaving as a "sire," or gentleman, +behaves. Originally this meant "haughty" or "arrogant," but by degrees +came to have the idea of sulkiness and ungraciousness, much like +_churlish_. + +Several adjectives which are now used as terms of blame were not only +harmless descriptions originally, but were actually terms of praise. +No one likes to be called "cunning," "sly," or "crafty" to-day; but +these were all complimentary adjectives once. A _cunning_ man was one +who knew his work well, a _sly_ person was wise and skilful, and a +_crafty_ person was one who could work well at his trade or "craft." +Two words which we use to-day with a better sense than any of these, +and yet which have a slightly uncomplimentary sense, are _knowing_ and +_artful_. It is surely good to "know" things, and to be full of art; +but both words have already an idea of slyness, and may in time come +to have quite as unpleasant a meaning as these three which have the +same literal meaning. + +_Fellow_, a word which has now nearly always a slightly contemptuous +sense, had originally the quite good sense of _partner_. It came from +an Old English word which meant the man who marked out his land next +to yours. The word still has this good sense in _fellowship_, +_fellow-feeling_, etc., and as used to describe a "fellow" of a +college or society. But the more general use is as a less respectful +word for man. One man may say of another that he is a "nice fellow" +without any disrespect; but the word has no dignity, and people, even +though they use it of an equal, would not think of using it to +describe a superior, and the more general use is that of blame or +contempt, as in the expressions, "a disagreeable fellow" or "a stupid +fellow." The word _bully_ was at one time a word which showed +affection, and meant even "lover." In English now, of course, a bully +is a person, especially a boy, who tyrannizes over people weaker than +himself; but the Americans still use the word in a good sense when +they say "bully for you," meaning "bravo." + +We have seen many words whose meanings have become less dignified than +their original meaning; but sometimes the opposite happens. Every one +now speaks with respect of a "pioneer," whether we mean by that people +who are the first to venture into strange lands, or, in a more +figurative sense, people who make some new discovery in science or +introduce some new way of thinking or acting. Yet "pioneers" were +originally merely the soldiers who did the hard work of clearing the +way for an advancing army. They were looked upon as belonging to a +lower class than the ordinary soldiers. But this new and at first +figurative use of the word, applied first to geographical and then to +scientific and moral explorers, has given the word a new dignity. + +A group of words which had originally very humble meanings, and have +been elevated in an even more accidental way, are the names of the +officials of royal courts. The word _steward_ originally meant, as it +still means, a person who manages property for some one else. The +steward on a ship is a servant; but the steward of the king's +household was no mean person, and was dignified with the title of the +"Lord High Steward of England." The royal house of Stuart took its +name from the fact that the heads of the family were in earlier times +hereditary stewards of the Scottish kings. So _marshal_, the name of +another high official at court, means "horse boy;" _seneschal_, "old +servant;" _constable_, "an attendant to horses' stalls," and so on. +Some of these words have kept both a dignified and a commoner meaning. +_Constable_, besides being the name of a court official, is also +another term for "policeman." + +The word _silly_ meant in Old English "blessed" or "happy," but of +course has wandered far from this meaning. On the other hand, several +words which once meant "foolish" have now quite different meanings. +_Giddy_ and _dizzy_ both had this sense in Old English, and so had +the word _nice_. But later the French word _fol_, from which we get +_foolish_, was introduced into English, and these words soon ceased to +be used in this sense. Before this the two words _dizzy_ and _giddy_ +had occasionally been used in the sense in which they are used now, to +describe the condition of a person whose head "swims;" this now became +their general meaning, though _giddy_ has gone back again to something +of its old meaning in its later use to describe a person's conduct. A +_giddy_ person is another description for one of frivolous character. + +The word _nice_ has had a rather more varied history. It had its +original meaning of "foolish" from the literal meaning of the Latin +word _nescius_, "ignorant," from which it was derived. Gradually it +came to mean "foolishly particular about small things;" and we still +have a similar use of the word, as when we say a person has a "nice +taste in wines," or is a "nice observer," or speak of a "nice +distinction," by which we mean a subtle distinction not very easily +observed. But this is, of course, not the commonest sense in which we +use the word. By _nice_ we generally mean the opposite of _nasty_. A +"nice" observer was a good observer, and from this kind of idea the +word _nice_ came to have the general sense of "good" in some way. +_Nice_ is not a particularly dignified word, and is little used by +good writers, except in its more special and earlier sense. It is, +perhaps, less used in America than in England, and it is interesting +to notice that _nasty_, the word which in English always seems to be +the opposite of _nice_, is not considered a respectable word in +America, where it has kept its earlier meaning of "filthy," or +absolutely disgusting in some way. + +Again, the word _disgust_, by which we express complete loathing for +anything, used merely to mean "dislike" or "distaste." In the same +way, the word _loathe_, by which we mean "to hate" or feel the +greatest disgust for, originally meant merely "to dislike." The +stronger meaning came from the fact that the word was often used to +describe the dislike a sick person feels for food. Every one knows how +strong this feeling can be, and it is from this that _loathe_ and +_loathsome_ took the strong meaning they now have. Curiously enough, +the adjective _loath_ or _loth_, from the same word, has kept the old +mild meaning. When we say we are "loth" to do a thing, we do not mean +that we hate doing it, but merely that we feel rather unwilling to do +it. In Old English, too, the word _filth_ and its derivative _foul_ +were not quite such strong words as _dirt_ and _dirty_. + +Again, the words _stench_ and _stink_ in Old English meant merely +"smell" or "odour." One could then speak of the "sweet stench" of a +flower; but in the later Middle Ages these words came to have their +present meaning of "smelling most disagreeably." + +We saw how the taking of the word _fol_ from the French, meaning +"foolish," caused the meaning of several English words which before +had this meaning to be changed. The coming in of foreign words has +been a very common cause for such changes of meaning. The word _fiend_ +in English has now a quite different meaning from its original meaning +in English, when it simply meant "enemy," the opposite to "friend." +When the word "enemy" itself was borrowed from the French, the word +_fiend_ came to be less and less often used in this sense. In time +_fiend_ came to be another word for _devil_, the chief enemy of +mankind. But in modern times we do not use the word much in this +sense. It is most often now applied to persons. It sounds rather +milder than calling a person a "devil," but it means exactly the same +thing. + +The word _stool_ came to have its present special meaning through the +coming into English from the French of the word _chair_. Before the +Norman Conquest any kind of seat for one person was a "stool," even +sometimes a royal throne. The word _deer_ also had in Old English the +meaning of "beast" in general, but the coming in of the word _beast_ +from the French led to its falling into disuse, and by degrees it +became the special name of the chief beast of chase. + +Again, the Latin word _spirit_ led to the less frequent use of the +word _ghost_, which was previously the general word for _spirit_. When +spirit came to be generally used, _ghost_ came to have the special +meaning which it has for us now--that of the apparition of a dead +person. + +A great many words have changed their meaning even since the time of +Shakespeare through being transferred from the subject of the feeling +they describe to the object, or from the object to the subject. Thus +one example of this is the word _grievous_. We speak now of a +"grievous wrong," or a "grievous sin," or a "grievous mistake," and +all these phrases suggest a certain sorrow in ourselves for the fact +described. But this was not the case in the time of Queen Elizabeth, +when it was decreed that a "sturdy beggar," a man who could work but +begged instead, should be "grievously whipped." In this case +_grievously_ merely meant "severely." On the other hand, the word +_pitiful_, which used to mean "compassionate," is no longer applied to +what we feel at seeing a sad thing, but to the sadness of the thing +itself. We do not now say a person is pitiful when he feels sorry for +some one, but we speak of a "pitiful sight" or a "pitiful plight." + +The word _pity_ itself is used still in both ways, subjectively and +objectively. A person can feel "pity," and there is "pity" in the +thing for which we feel sorry. This is the sense in which it is used +in such expressions as "Oh, the pity of it!" + +The word _hateful_ once meant "full of hate," but came to be used for +the thing inspiring hate instead of for the people feeling it. So, +_painful_ used to mean "painstaking," but of course has no longer +this meaning. + +One very common way in which words have changed their meanings is +through the name of one thing being given to another which resembles +it. The word _pen_ comes from the Latin _penna_, "a feather;" and as +in olden days the ordinary pens were "quills" of birds, the name was +very good. We still keep it, of course, for the steel pens and gold +pens of to-day, which we thus literally speak of as feathers. _Pencil_ +is a word with a somewhat similar history. It comes from the Latin +_penicillus_, which itself came from _peniculus_, or "little tail," a +kind of cleaning instrument which the Romans used as we use brushes. +_Pencil_ was originally the name of a very fine painter's brush, and +from this it became the name of an instrument made of lead which was +used for making marks. Then it was passed on to various kinds of +pencils, including what we know as a lead-pencil, in which, as a +writer on words has pointed out, there is really neither lead nor +pencil. + +The word _handkerchief_ is also an interesting word. The word +_kerchief_ came from the French _couvre-chef_, "a covering for the +head." Another similar word is one which the Normans brought into +England, _curfew_, which means "cover fire." When the curfew bell rang +the people were obliged to extinguish all lights and fires. The +"kerchief" was originally a covering for the head. Then the fashion +arose of carrying a square of similar material in the hand, and so we +get _handkerchief_, and later _pocket-handkerchief_, which, if we +analyse it, is rather a clumsy word, "pocket-hand-cover-head." The +reason it is so is that the people who added _pocket_ and _hand_ knew +nothing of the real meaning of _kerchief_. + +There are several words which used to mean "at the present time" which +have now come to mean "at a future time." This can only have come +about through the people who used them not keeping their promises, but +putting off doing things until later. The word _soon_ in Old English +meant "immediately," so that when a person said that he would do a +thing soon he meant that he would do it "instantly." The trouble was +that often he did _not_, and so often did this happen that the meaning +of the word changed, and _soon_ came to have its present meaning of +"in a short time." The same thing happened with the words _presently_ +and _directly_, and the phrase _by-and-by_, all of which used to mean +"instantly." _Presently_ and _directly_ seem to promise things in a +shorter time than _soon_, but _by-and-by_ is a very uncertain phrase +indeed. It is perhaps because Scotch people are superior to the +English in the matter of doing things to time that with them +_presently_ still really means "instantly." + +In all the examples we have seen of changes in the meaning of words it +is fairly easy to see how the changes have come about. But there are +some words which have changed so much in meaning that their present +sense seems to have no connection with their earlier meaning. The +word _treacle_ is a splendid example of this. It comes from a Greek +word meaning "having to do with a wild beast," and this seems to have +no connection whatever with our present use of the word _treacle_ as +another word for _syrup of sugar_. The steps by which this word came +to change its meaning so enormously were these. From the general +meaning of "having to do with a wild beast," it came to mean "remedy +for the bite of a wild beast." As remedies for wounds and bites were, +in the old days, generally thick syrups, the word came in time to mean +merely "syrup," and lastly the sweet syrup which we now know as +"treacle." + +Another word which has changed immensely in its meaning is _premises_. +By the word _premises_ we generally mean a house or shop and the land +just round it. But the real meaning of the word _premises_ is the +"things already mentioned." It came to have its present sense from the +frequent use of the word in documents drawn up by lawyers. In these, +which very frequently dealt with business relating to houses, the +"things before mentioned" meant the "house, etc.," and in time people +came to think that this was the actual meaning of _premises_, and so +we get the present use of the word. + +The word _humour_ is one which has changed its meaning very much in +the course of its history. It comes to us from the Latin word _humor_, +which means a "fluid" or "liquid." By "humour" we now mean either +"temper," as when we speak of being in a "good" or "bad" humour, or +that quality in a person which makes him very quick to find "fun" in +things. And from the first meaning of "temper" we have the verb "to +humour," by which we mean to give in to or indulge a person's whims. +But in the Middle Ages "humour" was a word used by writers on +philosophy to describe the four liquids which they believed (like the +Greek philosophers) that the human body contained. These four +"humours" were blood, phlegm, yellow bile (or choler), and black bile +(or melancholy). According to the balance of these humours a man's +character showed itself. From this belief we get the adjectives--which +we still use without any thought of their origin--_sanguine_ +("hopeful"), _phlegmatic_ ("indifferent and not easily excited"), +_choleric_ ("easily roused to anger"), and _melancholy_ ("inclined to +sadness"). A person had these various temperaments according as the +amount of blood, phlegm, yellow or black bile was uppermost in his +composition. From the idea that having too much of any of the +"humours" would make a person diseased or odd in character, we got the +use of the word _humours_ to describe odd and queer things; and from +this it came to have its modern meaning, which takes us very far from +the original Latin. + +It was from this same curious idea of the formation of the human body +that we get two different uses of the word _temper_. _Temper_ was +originally the word used to describe the right mixture of the four +"humours." From this we got the words _good-tempered_ and +_bad-tempered_. Perhaps because it is natural to notice more when +people are bad-tempered rather than good, not more than a hundred +years ago the word _temper_ came to mean in one use "bad temper." For +this is what we mean when we say we "give way to temper." But we have +the original sense of "good temper" in the expression to "keep one's +temper." So here we have the same word meaning two opposite things. + +Several words which used to have a meaning connected with religion +have now come to have a more general meaning which seems very +different from the original. A word of this sort in English is +_order_, which came through the French word _ordre_, from the Latin +_ordo_. Though the Latin word had the meaning which we now give to the +word _order_, in the English of the thirteenth century it had only the +special meaning (which it still keeps as one of its meanings) of an +"order" or "society" of monks. In the fourteenth century it began to +have the meaning of "fixed arrangement," but the adjective _orderly_ +and the noun _orderliness_ did not come into use until the sixteenth +century. The word _regular_ has a similar history. Coming from the +Latin _regula_, "a rule," its modern general meaning in English of +"according to rule" seems very natural; but the word which began to be +used in English in the fourteenth century did not take the modern +meaning until the end of the sixteenth century. Before this, it too +was used as a word to describe monastic orders. The "regular" clergy +were priests who were also monks, while the "secular" clergy were +priests but not monks. The words _regularity_, _regulation_, and +_regulate_ did not come into use until the seventeenth century. + +Another word which has now a quite different meaning from its original +meaning is _clerk_. A "clerk" nowadays is a person who is employed in +an office to keep accounts, write letters, etc. But a "clerk" in the +Middle Ages was what we should now more generally call a "cleric," a +man in Holy Orders. As the "clerks" in the Middle Ages were +practically the only people who could read and write, it is, perhaps, +not unnatural that the name should be now used to describe a class of +people whose chief occupation is writing (whether with the hand or a +typewriter). People in the Middle Ages would have wondered what could +possibly be meant by a word which is common in Scotland for a "woman +clerk"--_clerkess_. + +The words which change their meanings in this way tell us the longest, +and perhaps the best, stories of all. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +DIFFERENT WORDS WITH THE SAME MEANING, AND THE SAME WORDS WITH +DIFFERENT MEANINGS. + + +We have seen that there are great numbers of words in English which +come from the Latin language. Sometimes they have come to us through +Old French words borrowed from the Latin, and sometimes from the Latin +words directly, or modern French words taken from the Latin. The fact +that we have borrowed from the Latin in these two ways has led +sometimes to our borrowing twice over from the same word. Different +forms going back in this way to the same origin are known as +"doublets." The English language is full of them, and they, too, can +tell us some interesting stories. + +Many of these pairs of words seem to have no relation at all with each +other, so much has one or the other, or both, changed in meaning from +that of the original word from which they come. A familiar pair of +doublets is _dainty_ and _dignity_, both of which come from the Latin +word _dignitas_. _Dignity_, which came into the English language +either directly from the Latin or through the modern French word +_dignité_, has not wandered at all from the meaning of the Latin word, +which had first the idea of "merit" or "value," and then that of +honourable position or character which the word _dignity_ has in +English. _Dainty_ has a quite different meaning; though it, too, came +from _dignitas_, but through the less dignified way of the Old French +word _daintie_. + +The English words _dish_, _dais_, _desk_, and _disc_ all come from the +Latin word _discus_, by which the Romans meant first a round flat +plate thrown in certain games (a "quoit"), and secondly a plate or +dish. In Old English this word became _dish_. In Old French it became +_deis_, and from this we have the English _dais_--the raised platform +of a throne. In Italian it became _desco_, from which we got _desk_; +and the scientific men of modern times, in their need of a word to +describe exactly a round, flat object, have gone back as near as +possible to the Latin and given us _disc_. It is to be noticed that +the original idea of the Latin word--"having a flat surface"--is kept +in these four descendants of a remote ancestor. + +The words _chieftain_ and _captain_ are doublets coming from the Late +Latin word _capitaneus_, "chief;" the former through the Old French +word _chevetaine_, and the latter more directly from the Latin. +_Frail_ and _fragile_ are another pair, coming from the Latin word +_fragilis_, "easily broken;" the one through Old French, and the other +through Modern French. + +Both these pairs of words have kept fairly close to the original +meaning; but _caitiff_ and _captive_, another pair of doublets, have +quite different meanings from each other. Both come from the Latin +word _captivus_, "captive," the one indirectly and the other directly. +_Caitiff_, which is not a word used now except occasionally in poetry, +means a "base, cowardly person;" but _captive_ has, of course, the +original meaning of the Latin word. + +Another pair of doublets, which are quite different in form and almost +opposite to each other in meaning, are _guest_ and _hostile_. These +two words come from the same root word; but this goes further back +than Latin, to the language known as the Aryan, from which nearly all +the languages of Europe and the chief language of India come. +_Hostile_ comes from the Latin _hostis_, "an enemy;" but _hostis_ +itself comes from the same Aryan word as that from which _guest_ +comes, and so these two words are doublets in English. They express +very different ideas: we are not generally "hostile" or "full of +enmity" against a "guest," one who partakes of our hospitality. + +Another pair of doublets not from the Latin are _shirt_ and _skirt_, +which are both old Germanic words. _Skirt_ came later into the +language, being from the Scandinavian, while _shirt_ is an Old English +word. + +The word _cross_ and the many words in English beginning with +_cruci_--such as _crucial_, _crucifix_, and _cruciform_--the adverb +_across_, as well as the less common word _crux_, all come from the +Latin word _crux_, "a cross." The word _cross_ first came into the +English language with Christianity itself, for the death of our Lord +on the cross was, of course, the first story which converts to +Christianity were told. It came through the Irish from the Norwegian +word _cros_, which came direct from the Latin. All the words beginning +with _cruci_ come straight from the Latin. _Cruciform_ and _crucifix_ +refer to the form of a cross, and so sometimes does the word +_crucial_. But, as a rule, _crucial_ is used as the adjective of the +word _crux_, which means the "test," or "difficult point," in deciding +or doing something. The Romans did not use _crux_ in this sense; but +it is interesting to notice that they did use it in the figurative +sense of "trouble" just as we do. This came from the fact that the +common form of execution for all subjects of the Roman Empire except +Roman citizens was crucifixion. + +Two such different words as _tavern_ and _tabernacle_, the one meaning +an inn and the other the most sacred part of the sanctuary in a +church, are doublets from the Latin word _tabernaculum_, "tent." The +first comes from the French _taverne_, and the second directly from +the Latin. + +The words _mint_ and _money_ both come from the Latin word _moneta_, +which was an adjective attached by the Romans to the name of the +goddess Juno. The place where the Romans coined their money was +attached to the temple of Juno Moneta, or Juno the Adviser. From this +fact the Romans themselves came to use _moneta_ as the name for +coins, or what we call money. The word passed into French as +_monnaie_, which is still the French word both for _money_ and _mint_, +the place where we coin our money. In German it became _munze_, which +has the same meanings. In English it became _mint_. But the English +language, as we have seen, has a fine gift for borrowing. In time it +acquired the French word _monnaie_, which became _money_ as the name +for coins, while it kept the word _mint_ to describe the place where +coins are made. + +The words _bower_, formerly the name of a sleeping-place for ladies +and now generally meaning a summer-house, and _byre_, the place where +cows sleep, both come from the Old English word _bur_, "a bower." The +word _flour_ (which so late as the eighteenth century Dr. Johnson did +not include in his great dictionary) is the same word as _flower_. +Flour is merely the flower of wheat. Again, _poesy_ and _posy_ are +really the same word, _posy_ being derived from _poesy_. _Posy_ used +to mean a copy of verses presented to some one with a bouquet. Now it +stands either for verses, as when we speak of the "posy of a ring," or +more commonly a bunch of flowers without any verses. + +The words _bench_ and _bank_ both come from the same Teutonic word +which became _benc_ in Old English and _banc_ in French. _Bench_ comes +from _benc_, but _bank_ has a more complicated history. From the +French _banc_ we borrowed the word to use in the old expression a +"bank of oars." From the Scandinavians, who also had the word, we got +_bank_, used for the "bank of a river." Meanwhile the Italians had +also borrowed the old Germanic word which became with them _banca_ or +_banco_, the bench or table of a money-changer. From this the French +got _banque_, and this became in English _bank_ as we use it in +connection with money. + +The Latin word _ratio_, "reckoning," has given three words to the +English language. It passed into Old French as _resoun_, and from this +we got the word _reason_. Later on the French made a new word direct +from the Latin--_ration_; which, again, passed into English as a +convenient name for the allowance of food to a soldier. It has now a +more general sense, as when in the Great War people talk of the whole +nation being put "on rations." Then again, as every child who is old +enough to study mathematics knows, we use the Latin word itself, +_ratio_, as a mathematical term. + +Another Latin word which has given three different words to the +English language is _gentilis_. From it we have _gentile_, _gentle_, +and _genteel_. Yet the Latin word had not the same meaning as any of +these words. _Gentilis_ meant "belonging to the same _gens_ or +'clan.'" It became later a distinguishing term from _Jew_. All who +were not Jews were _Gentiles_, and this is still the meaning of the +word _gentile_ in English. It came directly from the Latin. But +_gentilis_ became _gentil_ in French; and we have borrowed twice from +this word, getting _gentle_, which expresses one idea contained in the +French word, though the French word means more than our word _gentle_. +It has the sense of "very amiable and attractive." The last word of +the three, _genteel_, is rather a vulgar word. It means "like +gentlemen and ladies have to do," and only rather ignorant people use +the word seriously. + +Doublets from Latin words for the most part resemble each other in +meaning and form, though, as we have seen, this is not always the +case. We could give a long list of examples where both sense and form +are similar, but there is only space to mention a few. _Poor_ and +_pauper_ (a miserably poor person) both come from the Latin _pauper_, +"poor." _Story_ and _history_ both come from _historia_, a word which +had both meanings in Latin. _Human_ and _humane_ are both from the +Latin _humanus_, "belonging to mankind." _Sure_ and _secure_ are both +from the Latin _securus_, "safe." _Nourishment_ and _nutriment_ are +both from the Latin _nutrimentum_. _Amiable_ and _amicable_ are both +from the Latin _amicabilis_, "friendly." + +Examples of doublets which are similar in form but not in sense are +_chant_ and _cant_, which both come from the Latin _cantare_, "to +sing." _Chant_ has the original idea, being a form of singing, +especially in church; but _cant_ has wandered far from the original +sense, meaning insincere words, especially such as are used by people +pretending to be religious or pious. The word _cant_ was first used +in describing the chanting or whining of beggars, who were supposed +often to be telling lies; and from this it got its present use, which +has nothing to do with singing. + +_Blame_ and _blaspheme_, both coming from the Latin _blasphemare_, +itself taken from a Hebrew word, are not, perhaps, quite so different +in sense; but _blame_ means merely to find fault with a person, while +_blaspheme_ means to speak against God. + +_Chance_ and _cadence_ both come from the Latin _cadere_, "to fall," +but have very little resemblance in meaning. _Chance_ is what happens +or befalls, and _cadence_ is movement measured by the fall of the +voice in speaking or singing. + +But the most interesting doublets of all are those which have neither +form nor sense in common. No one would guess that the words _hyena_ +and _sow_, the names of two such different animals, are doublets. Both +come from the Greek word _sus_ or _hus_, "sow." The Saxons, when they +first settled in England, had the words _su_, "pig," and _sugu_, +"sow;" and later the word _hyena_ was taken from the Latin word +_hyaena_, itself derived from the Greek _huaina_, "sow." + +The words _furnish_ and _veneer_, again, are doublets which do not +resemble each other very closely either in sound or in sense. Both +come from the Old French word _furnir_, which has become _fournir_ in +Modern French, and means "to furnish." The English word _furnish_ was +taken direct from the French, while the word _veneer_, which used to +be spelt _fineer_, came into English from a German word also borrowed +from the French _furnir_. + +No one would easily guess that the name _nutmeg_ had anything to do +with _musk_; but the word comes from the name which Latin writers in +the Middle Ages gave to this useful seed--_nux muscata_, "musky nut." + +It seems strange, when we come to think of it, that great English +sailors like Admiral Jellicoe and Admiral Beatty are called by a title +which is really the same as the name of an Arabian chieftain--_Emir_. +_Admiral_ comes from the Arab phrase _amir al bahr_, "emir on the +sea." + +Just the opposite to doublets which do not resemble each other are +many pairs of words which are pronounced alike and sometimes spelled +alike. Very often these words come from two different languages, and +there are many of them in English through the habit the language has +always had of borrowing freely whenever the need of a new word has +been felt. + +The word _weed_, "a wild plant," comes from an Old English word, _weod_; +while "widows' weeds" take their name from the Old English word +_woede_, "garment." The word _vice_, meaning the opposite of _virtue_, +comes through the French from the Latin _vitium_, "a fault;" while a +"_vice_," the instrument for taking a perfectly tight hold on anything, +comes from the Latin _vitis_, "a vine," through the French _vis_, "a +screw." Yet another _vice_, as in _viceroy_, _vice-president_, etc., +comes from the Latin _vice_, "in the place of." _Angle_, meaning the +sport of fishermen, comes from an Old English word, _angel_, +"fish-hook;" while _angle_, "a corner," comes from the Latin word +_angulus_, which had the same meaning. + +We might imagine that the word _temple_, as the name of a part of the +head, was a metaphor describing the head as the temple of the mind, +but it has no such romantic meaning. _Temple_, the name of a place of +worship, comes from the Latin _templum_, "a temple;" but _temple_, the +name of a part of the head, is from the Latin word _tempus_, which had +the same meaning in Latin, and also the earlier meaning of "the +fitting time." It has been suggested that in Latin _tempus_ came to +mean "the temple," because it is "the fitting place" for a fatal blow, +the temple being the most delicate part of the head. + +_Tattoo_, meaning a "drum beat," comes from the Dutch _tap-toe_, +"tap-to," an order for drinking-houses to shut. But _tattoo_, +describing the cutting away of the skin and dyeing of the flesh so +common among sailors, is a word borrowed from the South Sea Islanders. + +_Sound_ meaning "a noise," and _sound_ meaning "to find out the depth +of," as in _sounding-rod_, are two quite different words. The one +comes from the word _son_, found both in Old English and French, and +the other from the Old English words _sundgyrd_, _sund line_, "a +sounding line;" while _sound_ meaning "healthy" or "uninjured," as in +the expression "safe and sound," comes from the Old English word +_sund_, and perhaps from the Latin _sanus_, "healthy." + +The existence of so many pairs of words of this sort, which have the +same sound and which yet come from such different origins--origins as +far apart as the speech of the people of Holland and that of the South +Sea Islanders, as we saw in the word _tattoo_--illustrates in a very +interesting way the wonderful history of the English language. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +NICE WORDS FOR NASTY THINGS. + + +In the days of Queen Elizabeth there were in England certain writers +who were called "Euphuists." They got this name from the title of a +book, "Euphues," written by one of them, John Lyly. The chief +characteristic of the writings of these Euphuists was the grandiose +way in which they wrote of the simplest things. Their writings were +full of metaphors and figures of speech. The first Euphuists were +looked upon as "refiners of speech," and Queen Elizabeth and the +ladies at her court did their best to speak as much in the manner of +Euphues as they could. + +But all men at all times are unconscious Euphuists, in so far as they +try to say ugly and unpleasant things in a way which will make them +sound pleasant. This tendency in speech is called "euphemism," a word +which is made from two Greek words meaning "to speak well." It is a +true description of what the word means if by "well" we understand "as +pleasantly as possible." The word _euphemeîte_, "speak fair," was +used as a warning to worshippers in Greek temples, in the belief that +the speaking of an unfortunate word might bring disaster instead of +blessing from the sacrifice. + +Every day, and often in a day, we use euphemisms. How often do we hear +people say, "if anything should happen to him," meaning "if he died;" +and on tombstones the plain fact of a person's death is nearly always +stated in phrases such as "he passed away," "fell asleep," or +"departed this life." People often refer to a dead person as the +"deceased" or the "departed," or as the "_late_ so-and-so." The fact +is that, death being to most people the unpleasantest thing in the +world, there is a general tendency to mention it as little as +possible, and, when the subject cannot be avoided, to use vague and +less realistic phrases than the words _death_, _dead_, or _die_. + +One reason for this avoidance of an unpleasant subject is the +superstitious feeling that mentioning a thing will bring it to pass. +Or, again, if a misfortune has happened, many people feel that it only +makes it worse to talk about it. While everybody avoids speaking on +the subject, we can half pretend to ourselves that it is not true. + +We might imagine that this kind of "refinement of speech" (which when +carried to excess really becomes vulgar) was the result of modern +people being so "nervous." But this is not the case. Complete savages +have the same custom. If civilized people have a superstitious feeling +that to mention a misfortune may bring it to pass, savages firmly +believe that this is the case. Not only will they not mention the +subject of death in plain words, but some will not even mention the +name of a dead person or give that name to a new-born child, so that +in some tribes names die out in this way. Many civilized people have +this same idea that it is unlucky for a new-born child to be called by +the name of a brother or sister who has already died. + +The subject of death has gathered more euphemisms around it than +almost any other. Some of them are ugly and almost vulgar, while +others, from the way in which they have been used, are almost +poetical. To speak of the "casualties" in a battle, meaning the number +of killed and wounded men, seems almost heartless; but to say a man +"fell in battle," though it means the same thing, is almost poetical, +because it suggests an idea of courage and sacrifice. The expression, +"Roll of Honour," is a euphemism, but poetical. It suggests the one +consoling thought which relieves the horror of the bald expression, +"list of casualties." + +Another cause of the use of euphemisms, besides the superstitious fear +of bringing misfortune by mentioning it too plainly, is the fear of +being vulgar or indecent. Through this feeling words which are quite +proper at one time pass out of use among refined people. English +people do not freely use the word "stomach" in conversation, and are +often a little shocked when they hear French people describing their +ailments in this region of the body. In the same way, names of +articles of underclothing pass out of use. The old word for the +garment which is now generally called a "chemise" was _smock_; but +this in time became tinged with vulgarity, and the word _shift_ was +used. This in its turn fell out of use among refined people, who began +to use the French word _chemise_. Even this, and the word _drawers_, +which was also once a most refined expression, are falling into +disuse, and people talk vaguely of "underlinen" in speaking of these +garments. The shops which are always refined to the verge of vulgarity +only allow themselves to use the French word _lingerie_. + +Again, the faults of our friends and acquaintances, and even the +graver offences of criminals, are matters with which we tend to deal +lightly. Such offences have gathered a whole throng of euphemisms +about them. When we do not like to say boldly that a person is a liar, +we say the same thing by means of the euphemism a "stranger to the +truth." Other lighter ways of saying that a person is lying is to say +that he is "romancing," or "drawing the long bow," or "drawing on the +imagination," or "telling a fairy tale." A thief will be described as +a "defaulter," and we may say of a man who has stolen his employer's +money as it passed through his hands that he is "short in his +accounts." + +Especially among the poorer or less respectable people, to whom the +idea of crime becomes familiar, the use of slang euphemisms on this +subject grows up. A person for whom the police are searching is +"wanted." A man who is hanged "swings." These expressions may seem +very dreadful to more refined people, but their use really comes from +the same desire to be indulgent which leads more educated people to +use euphemisms to cover up as far as possible the faults of their +friends. + +Again, misfortunes which come not from outside happenings but from +some defect in a person's mind and body are often the subject of +euphemisms. In Scotland a person who is quite an imbecile will be +described as an "innocent"--a milder way of saying the same thing. +_Insane_ and _crazy_ were originally euphemisms for _mad_, but now +have come to be equally unpleasant descriptions. So for _drunken_ the +euphemism _intemperate_ came to be used, but is now hardly a more +polite description. We would not willingly speak of a person being +"fat" in his presence. If it is necessary to touch on the subject, the +word "stout" is more favoured. In the absence of the fat person the +humorous euphemism may be used by which he or she is said to "have a +good deal of _embonpoint_." + +Many words are euphemisms in themselves, just as many words are +complete metaphors in themselves. The word _ill_ means literally +"uncomfortable," but has come to have a much more serious meaning. +_Disease_ means literally "not being at ease," but the sense in which +we use it describes something much more serious than the literal +meaning. The word _ruin_ is literally merely a "falling." + +One result of words being used euphemistically is that they often +cease to have their milder original meaning, and cease therefore to +seem euphemistic at all. _Vile_, which now means everything that is +bad, is in its literal and earlier use merely "cheap." _Base_, which +has the meaning of unutterable meanness, is literally merely "low." +_Mercenary_ is not exactly a complimentary description now. It means +that a person thinks far too much of money, but originally it merely +meant "serving for pay," a thing which most men are obliged to do. +_Transgression_ is generally used now to describe some rather serious +offence, but it literally means only a "stepping across." The "step" +which it describes being, however, in the wrong direction, the word +has come to have a more and more serious meaning. The study of +euphemisms can teach us much about men's thoughts and manners in the +past and the present. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE MORAL OF THESE STORIES. + + +Most stories have a moral. At least grown-up people have a habit of +tacking a little lesson on to the end of the stories they tell to +children. And as a rule the children will listen to the moral for the +sake of the story. And so even the stories which words tell us have +their lessons for us too, and, let us hope, the stories are +sufficiently interesting to pay for the moral. + +One thing that these stories must have shown us is that the English +language is a very ancient and wonderful thing. We have only been able +to get mere glimpses of its wonderful development since the days when +the ancestors of the peoples of Europe and many of the peoples of +India spoke the one Aryan tongue. All the history of Europe and of +India--we might almost say of the world--is contained in the languages +which have descended from that Aryan tongue. + +Another point which these stories have impressed upon us is that +language is a kind of mirror to thought. For every new idea people +must find a word, and as ideas change words change with them. These +stories have given us some idea of the wonderful growth of ideas in +the minds of men in the past; they have shown us men daring all +dangers for the sake of adventure and discovery and for pride of +country; they have shown us the growth of new ideas of religion and +kindness, new notions about science and learning: in fact, they have +given us glimpses of the whole story of human progress. + +The great lesson which these stories ought to teach us is respect for +words. Seeing as we do what a beautiful and wonderful thing the +English language has become, it ought to be the resolution of each one +of us never to do anything to spoil that beauty. Every writer ought to +choose his words carefully, neither inventing nor copying ugly forms +of speech. We have seen also from these stories, especially in the +chapter on "Slang," how people have misused certain words, until +speakers and writers of good taste can no longer use them in their +original sense, and therefore do not use them at all. + +There are many other faults in speaking and in writing which take away +from the beauty and dignity of the language. We shall see what some of +these faults are; but one golden rule can be laid down which, if +people keep it, will help them to avoid all these faults. No one +should ever try to write in a fine style. The chief aim which all +young writers should keep before them is to say exactly what they +mean, and in as few and simple words as possible. If on reading what +they have written they find that it is not perfectly clear, they +should not immediately begin to rewrite, but instead set themselves to +find out whether their _thoughts_ are perfectly clear. + +There is no idea which has no word to fit it. Of course some writers +must use difficult language. The ordinary reader can sometimes not +understand a sentence of a book of philosophy. This is not because the +philosophers do not write clearly, but because the ideas with which +they have to deal are very subtle, and hard for the ordinary person to +understand. + +But for ordinary people writing on ordinary things there is no excuse +for writing so as not to be clearly understood, or for writing in such +a long and round-about way that people are tired instead of refreshed +by reading. Nor is there any excuse for the use of words and phrases +which are vulgar or too colloquial for the subject; yet how often is +this done in the modern newspaper. It may seem unnecessary to speak to +boys and girls of the faults of newspaper writers. But the boys and +girls of to-day are the newspaper writers and readers of the future, +and the habits which young writers form cling to them afterwards. Of +course many of the faults which the worse kind of journalists commit +in writing would not occur to boys and girls; but one fault leads to +another. The motive at the root of most poor and showy writing is the +desire to "shine." The faults which seem so detestable to the critical +reader seem very ingenious and brilliant to the writer of poor taste. +To the journalist, as to the schoolboy and the schoolgirl, the golden +rule is, "Be simple." + +Let us see what some of the commonest faults of showy and poor writers +of English are--always with the moral before us that they are to be +avoided. + +One great fault of newspaper writers and of young writers in general +is to sprinkle their compositions thickly with quotations, until some +beautiful and expressive lines from the greatest poetry and prose have +almost lost their force through the ear having become tired by hearing +them too often. Some such phrases are-- + +"Tell it not in Gath;" + +"Heap coals of fire upon his head;" + +"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof:" + +all fine and picturesque lines, the apt quotation of which must have +been very impressive, until, through frequent repetition, they have +become almost commonplace. + +A similar hackneyed fault is the too frequent application of the name +of some historical or Biblical personage to describe the character of +some person of whom we are writing. It is much more expressive now to +describe a person as a "doubter" than as a "doubting Thomas," though +the latter phrase may serve to show that the writer knows something +of his New Testament. The first man who called a sceptic a "doubting +Thomas" was certainly a witty and cultivated person; but this cannot +now be said of the use of this hackneyed phrase. Again, it is better +to say a "traitor" than a "Judas," a "wise man" than a "Solomon," a +"tyrant" than a "Nero," a "great general" than a "Napoleon;" for all +these names used in this way have lost their force. + +A similar fault is the describing of a person by some abstract noun +such as a "joy," a "delight," an "inspiration"--a way of speaking +which savours both of slang and affectation, and which is not likely +to appeal to people of good taste. Of course it is quite different +when the poet writes-- + + "She was a vision of delight;" + +for poetry has its own rules, just as it has its own range of ideas +and inspiration, and we are speaking now of the writing of mere prose. + +Another bad fault of the same kind, but more colloquial, and more +often met with in speaking than in writing, is the too frequent use of +a word or phrase. Some people say "I mean," or "personally," or "I +see," or "you see," or similar expressions, at nearly every second +sentence, until people listening to them begin to count the number of +times these expressions occur, instead of attending to the subject of +conversation. + +Another very common fault in writing made by newspaper writers, and +even more so by young beginners in composition, is the use of long +words derived from Latin instead of the simpler words which have come +down from the Old English. This does not mean that these words are not +so good or so beautiful as the Old English words. As we have seen, +these words were borrowed by our language to express ideas for which +no native word could be found. But a person who deliberately chooses +long Latin words because they are longer, and, as he thinks, sound +grander, is sure to write a poor style. A saying which is perhaps +becoming almost as "hackneyed" as some of the quotations already +mentioned in this chapter is, "The style is the man." This means that +if a person thinks clearly and sincerely he will write clearly and +sincerely. If a person's thoughts are lofty, he will naturally find +dignified words to express them. No good writer will deliberately +choose "high-sounding" words to express his ideas. All young writers +should avoid what have been called "flowery flourishes." + +Again, young writers should be very careful not to use really foreign +words to express an idea for which we have already a good word in +English. Sometimes the foreign word comes first to our pen, but this +may be because of the bad habit which has grown up of using these +words in place of the English words which are quite as correct and +expressive. Sometimes, on the other hand, the foreign word expresses +a shade of meaning which the English word misses, and then, of course, +it is quite right to use it. For instance, _amour propre_ is not in +any way better than "self-love," _bêtise_ than "stupid action," +_camaraderie_ than "comradeship," _savoir faire_ than "knowledge of +the world," _chef d'oeuvre_ than "masterpiece," and so on. + +One disadvantage of borrowing such words is that they often come to be +used in a different sense from their use in their native language; and +people with an imperfect knowledge of these languages will say rather +vulgar or shocking things when using them in the English manner in +those languages. Thus, to speak of a person of a certain "calibre" in +French is exceedingly vulgar; and refined people do not use the word +_chic_ as freely as the English use of it would suggest. Examples of +foreign words which we could hardly replace by English expressions are +_blasé_, _tête-à-tête_, _brusque_, _bourgeois_, _deshabille_. These +have been borrowed, just as words have been borrowed all through its +history, by the English language to fill gaps. They have really become +English words. But there are many foreign expressions now scattered +freely through newspapers the sense of which can only be plain to +those who have had a classical education. Unfortunately it is only the +minority of readers who have had this. The effect is to make whole +passages unintelligible or only half intelligible to the majority of +readers. This is not writing good English. Thus people will write _le +tout Paris_ instead of "all Paris," _mémoires pour servir_ instead of +"documents," _ipsis Hibernis Hiberniores_ for "more Irish than the +Irish." Such phrases are quite unsuitable to the general reader, and +as perfect equivalents can be found in English, there would be no +point in using them, even if writing for a learned society. + +Modern English, and especially colloquial English, has borrowed a +great deal from the American way of speaking English. The people of +the United States, though their language is that of the +mother-country, have modified it so that it is, as it were, a mirror +of the difference between American and English life. In America there +is more hurry and bustle and less dignity. It is this difference which +makes Americans and the American way of speaking appear interesting +and piquant to English people. But this is no good reason for the +adoption of American mannerisms into the English language. A typically +American word is _boom_, meaning a sudden coming into popularity of +something. Thus one may speak of a "boom" in motors, and the word has +become quite common in English; but it is not beautiful, and we could +easily have done without it. Words which sound quite natural when used +by Americans often seem unnecessarily "slangy" when used by English +people. + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Stories That Words Tell Us, by Elizabeth O'Neill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES THAT WORDS TELL US *** + +***** This file should be named 19052-8.txt or 19052-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/5/19052/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Stories That Words Tell Us + +Author: Elizabeth O'Neill + +Release Date: August 15, 2006 [EBook #19052] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES THAT WORDS TELL US *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>STORIES THAT<br /> + + +WORDS TELL US</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>BY</h3> +<p> </p> + +<h2>ELIZABETH O'NEILL, M.A.</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF "THE WORLD'S STORY,"<br /> + +"A NURSERY HISTORY <br /> +OF ENGLAND," ETC.</h4> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h3>LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span></h3> +<h4>35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.<br /> + +AND EDINBURGH</h4> +<h3>1918</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + + + + + + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="tocch">I.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Some Stories of British History told from English Words</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"> <a href="#Page_7">7</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">II.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">How we got our Christian Names and Surnames</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">III.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Stories in the Names of Places</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">IV.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">New Names for New Places</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">V.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Stories in Old London Names</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">VI.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Words made by Great Writers</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">VII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Words the Bible has given us</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">VIII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Words from the Names of People</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">IX.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Words from the Names of Animals</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">X.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">Words from the Names of Places</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td +></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XI.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">Pictures in Words</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Words from National Character</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XIII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">Words made by War</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XIV.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">Proverbs</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XV.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">Slang</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XVI.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Words which have changed their Meaning</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XVII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">Different Words with the Same Meaning, and the Same Words with Different Meanings</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XVIII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">Nice Words for Nasty Things</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_224">224</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XIX.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">The Moral of these Stories</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="STORIES_THAT_WORDS_TELL_US" id="STORIES_THAT_WORDS_TELL_US"></a>STORIES THAT WORDS TELL US.</h2> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>SOME STORIES OF BRITISH HISTORY TOLD FROM ENGLISH WORDS.</h3> + + +<p>Nearly all children must remember times when a word they know quite +well and use often has suddenly seemed very strange to them. Perhaps +they began repeating the word half to themselves again and again, and +wondered why they had never noticed before what a queer word it is. +Then generally they have forgotten all about it, and the next time +they have used the word it has not seemed strange at all.</p> + +<p>But as a matter of fact words <i>are</i> very strange things. Every word we +use has its own story, and has changed, sometimes many times since +some man or woman or child first used it. Some words are very old and +some are quite new, for every living language—that is, every language +used regularly by some nation—is always growing, and having new words +added to it. The only languages which do not grow in this way are the +"dead" languages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> which were spoken long ago by nations which are dead +too.</p> + +<p>Latin is a "dead" language. When it was spoken by the old Romans it +was, of course, a living language, and grew and changed; but though it +is a very beautiful language, it is no longer used as the regular +speech of a nation, and so does not change any more.</p> + +<p>But it is quite different with a living language. Just as a baby when +it begins to speak uses only a few words, and learns more and more as +it grows older, so nations use more words as they grow older and +become more and more civilized. Savages use only a few words, not many +more, perhaps, than a baby, and not as many as a child belonging to a +civilized nation. But the people of great civilizations like England +and France use many thousands of words, and the more educated a person +is the more words he is able to choose from to express his thoughts.</p> + +<p>We do not know how the first words which men and women spoke were +made. People who study the history of languages, and who are called +<i>Philologists</i>, or "Lovers of Words," say that words may have come to +be used in any one of three different ways; but of course this is only +guessing, for though we know a great deal about the way words and +languages grow, we do not really know how they first began. Some +people used to think that the earliest men had a language all +ready-made for them, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> this could not be. We know at least that the +millions of words in use in the world to-day have grown out of quite a +few simple sounds or "root" words. Every word we use contains a story +about some man or woman or child of the past or the present. In this +chapter we shall see how some common English words can tell us stories +of the past.</p> + +<p>In reading British history we learn how different peoples have at +different times owned the land: how the Britons were conquered by the +English; how the Danes tried to conquer the English in their turn, and +how great numbers of them settled down in the <i>Danelaw</i>, in the east +of England; how, later on, the Norman duke and his followers overcame +Harold, and became the rulers of England, and so on. But suppose we +knew nothing at all about British history, and had to guess what had +happened in the past, we might guess a great deal of British history +from the words used by English people to-day. For the English language +has itself been growing, and borrowing words from other languages all +through British history. Scholars who have studied many languages can +easily pick out these borrowed words and say from which language they +were taken.</p> + +<p>Of course these scholars know a great deal about British history; but +let us imagine one who does not. He would notice in the English +language some words (though not many) which must have come from the +language which the Britons spoke. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> would know, too, that the name +<i>Welsh</i>, which was given to the Britons who were driven into the +western parts of England, comes from an Old English word, <i>wealh</i>, +which meant "slave." He might then guess that, besides the Britons who +were driven away into the west of the country, there were others whom +the English conquered and made to work as slaves. From the name +<i>wealh</i>, or "slave," given to these, all the Britons who remained came +to be known as <i>Welsh</i>.</p> + +<p>Yet though the English conquered the Britons, the two peoples could +not have mixed much or married very often with each other; for if they +had done so, many more British words would have been borrowed by the +English language. To the English the Britons were strangers and +"slaves."</p> + +<p>We could, too, guess some of the things which these old English +conquerors of Britain did and believed from examining some common +English words. If we think of the days of the week besides <i>Sunday</i>, +or the "Sun's day," and <i>Monday</i>, the "Moon's day," we find <i>Tuesday</i>, +"Tew's day," <i>Wednesday</i>, "Woden's day," <i>Thursday</i>, "Thor's day," +<i>Friday</i>, "Freya's day," <i>Saturday</i>, "Saturn's day," and it would not +be hard to guess that most of the days are called after gods or +goddesses whom the English worshipped while they were still heathen, +Tew was in the old English religion the bravest of all the gods, for +he gave up his own arm to save the other gods. Woden, the wisest of +the gods,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> had given up not an arm but an eye, which he had sold for +the waters of wisdom. Thor was the fierce god of thunder, who hurled +lightning at the giants. Freya was a beautiful goddess who wore a +magic necklace which had the power to make men love. We might then +guess from the way in which our old English forefathers named the days +of the week what sort of gods they worshipped, and what kind of men +they were—great fighters, admiring courage and strength above all +things, but poetical, too, loving grace and beauty.</p> + +<p>But, as everybody knows, the English people soon changed their +religion and became Christians; and any student of the English +language would soon guess this, even if he knew nothing of English +history. He would be able to guess, too, that the English got their +Christianity from a people who spoke Latin, for so many of the English +words connected with religion come from the Latin language. It was, of +course, the Roman monk St. Augustine who brought the Christian +religion to the English. Latin was the language of the Romans. The +word <i>religion</i> itself is a Latin word meaning reverence for the gods; +and <i>Mass</i>, the name given to the chief service of the Catholic +religion, comes from the Latin <i>missa</i>, taken from the words, <i>Ite +missa est</i> ("Go; the Mass is ended"), with which the priest finishes +the Mass. <i>Missa</i> is only a part of the verb <i>mittere</i>, "to finish."</p> + +<p>The words <i>priest</i>, <i>bishop</i>, <i>monk</i>, <i>altar</i>, <i>vestment</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> and many +others, came into the English language from the Latin with the +Christian religion.</p> + +<p>Even, again, if a student of the English language knew nothing about +the invasions of England by the fierce Danes, he might guess something +about them from the fact that there are many Danish words in the +English language, and especially the names of places. Such common +words as <i>husband</i>, <i>knife</i>, <i>root</i>, <i>skin</i>, came into English from +the Danish.</p> + +<p>But many more words were added to the English language through the +Norman Conquest. It is quite easy to see, from the great number of +French words in the English language, that France and England must at +one time have had a great deal to do with each other. But it was the +English who used French words, and not the French who used English. +This was quite natural when a Norman, or North French, duke became +king of England, and Norman nobles came in great numbers to live in +England and help to rule her.</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott, in his great book "Ivanhoe," makes one man say that +all the names of living animals are English, like <i>ox</i>, <i>sheep</i>, +<i>deer</i>, and <i>swine</i>, but their flesh when it becomes meat is given +French names—<i>beef</i>, <i>mutton</i>, <i>venison</i>, and <i>pork</i>. The reason for +this is easy to see: Englishmen worked hard looking after the animals +while they were alive, and the rich Normans ate their flesh when they +were dead.</p> + +<p>England never, of course, became really Norman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> Although the English +were not so learned or polite or at that time so civilized as the +Normans, there were so many more of them that in time the Normans +became English, and spoke the English language. But when we remember +that for three hundred years French was spoken in the law courts and +by the nobility of England, and all the English kings were really +Frenchmen, it is easy to understand that a great many French words +found their way into the English language.</p> + +<p>As it was the Normans who governed England, many of our words about +law and government came from the French. Englishmen are very proud of +the "jury system," by which every British subject is tried by his +equals. It was England who really began this system, but the name +<i>jury</i> is French, as are also <i>judge</i>, <i>court</i>, <i>justice</i>, <i>prison</i>, +<i>gaol</i>. The English Parliament, too, is called the "Mother of +Parliaments," but <i>parliament</i> is a French word, and means really a +meeting for the purpose of talking.</p> + +<p>Nearly all titles, like <i>duke</i>, <i>baron</i>, <i>marquis</i>, are French, for it +was Frenchmen who first got and gave these titles; though <i>earl</i> +remains from the Danish <i>eorl</i>. It is a rather peculiar thing that +nearly all our names for <i>relatives</i> outside one's own family come +from the French used by the Normans—<i>uncle</i>, <i>aunt</i>, <i>nephew</i>, +<i>niece</i>, <i>cousin</i>; while <i>father</i>, <i>mother</i>, <i>brother</i>, and <i>sister</i> +come from the Old English words.</p> + +<p>In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the real "Middle Ages," the +French poets, scholars, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> writers were the greatest in Europe. The +greatest doctors, lawyers, and scholars of the western lands of Europe +had often been educated at schools or universities in France. Those +who wrote about medicine and law often used French words to describe +things for which no English word was known. The French writers +borrowed many words from Latin, and the English writers did the same. +Sometimes they took Latin words from the French, but sometimes they +only imitated the French writers, and took a Latin word and changed it +to seem like a French word.</p> + +<p>If we were to count the words used by English writers in the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries, we should find that quite one-tenth of these +are words borrowed from other languages. After this time fewer words +were borrowed, but still the English language has borrowed much more +than most languages.</p> + +<p>Some people think that it is a pity that we have borrowed so many +words, and say that we should speak and write "pure English." But we +must remember that Britain has had the most wonderful history of all +the nations. She has had the greatest explorers, adventurers, and +sailors. She has built up the greatest empire the world has ever seen. +It is only natural that her language should have borrowed from the +languages of nearly every nation in the world, even from the Chinese +and from the native languages of Australia and Africa.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ever since the middle of the sixteenth century England has been a +great sea-going nation. Her sailors have explored and traded all over +the world, and naturally they have brought back many new words from +East and West. Sometimes these are the names of new things brought +from strange lands. Thus <i>calico</i> was given that name from <i>Calicut</i>, +because the cotton used to make calico came from there. From Arabia we +got the words <i>harem</i> and <i>magazine</i>, and from Turkey the name +<i>coffee</i>, though this is really an Arabian word. We had already +learned the words <i>cotton</i>, <i>sugar</i>, and <i>orange</i> from the Arabs at +the time of the Crusades. From the West Indies and from South America +many words came, though the English learned these first from the +Spaniards, who were the first to discover these lands. Among these +words are the names of such common things as <i>chocolate</i>, <i>cocoa, +tomato</i>. The words <i>canoe</i>, <i>tobacco</i>, and <i>potato</i> come to us from +the island of Hayti. The words <i>hammock</i> and <i>hurricane</i> come to us +from the Caribbean Islands, and so did the word <i>cannibal</i>, which came +from <i>Caniba</i>, which was sometimes used instead of Carib.</p> + +<p>Even the common word <i>breeze</i>, by which we now mean a light wind, +first came to us from the Spanish word <i>briza</i>, which meant the +north-east trade wind. The name <i>alligator</i>, an animal which +Englishmen saw for the first time in these far-off voyages, is really +only an attempt to use the Spanish words for the lizard—<i>al lagarto</i>.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the English at length settled themselves in North America they +took many words from the native Indians, such as <i>tomahawk</i>, +<i>moccasin</i>, and <i>hickory</i>.</p> + +<p>In England and in Europe generally history shows us that there were a +great many changes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This new +love for adventure, which gave us so many new words, was one sign of +the times. Then there were changes in manners, in religion, and in the +way people thought about things. People had quite a new idea of the +world. They now knew that, instead of being the centre of the +universe, the earth was but one of many worlds whirling through space.</p> + +<p>The minds of men became more lively. They began to criticize all sorts +of things which they had believed in and reverenced before. During the +Middle Ages many things which the Romans and Greeks had loved had been +forgotten and despised; but now there was a sudden new enthusiasm for +the beautiful statues and fine writings of the ancient Greeks and +Romans. It was not long before this new great change got a name. It +was called the <i>Renaissance</i>, or "New Birth," because so many old and +forgotten things seemed to come to life again, and it looked as though +men had been born again into a new time.</p> + +<p>One of the chief results of the Renaissance was a change in religion. +The Protestants declared that they had reformed or changed religion +for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> better, and the change in religion is now always spoken of as +the Reformation; just as the reform of the Catholic Church which soon +followed was called the <i>Counter-Reformation</i>, or movement against the +Reformation—<i>counter</i> coming from the Latin word for "against."</p> + +<p>In England the Renaissance and Reformation led to great changes not +only in religion but in government, and the way people thought of +their country and their rulers. People came to have a new love for and +pride in their country. It was in the sixteenth century that the old +word <i>nation</i>, which before had meant a race or band of peoples, came +to be used as we use it now, to mean the people of one country under +one government. In the sixteenth century Englishmen became prouder +than ever of belonging to the English "nation." They felt a new love +for other Englishmen, and it was at this time that the expressions +<i>fellow-countrymen</i> and <i>mother-country</i> were first used.</p> + +<p>The seventeenth century was, of course, a period during which great +things happened to the English state. It was the period of the great +Civil War, in which the Parliament fought against the king, so that it +could have the chief part in the government of the country.</p> + +<p>All sorts of new words grew up during the Civil War. The word +<i>Royalist</i> now first began to be used, meaning the people who were on +the king's side. The Royalists called the men who fought for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> the +Parliament <i>Roundheads</i>, because of their hair being cropped short, +not hanging in ringlets, as was the fashion of the day.</p> + +<p>The people who fought against the king were all men who had broken +away from the English Church, and become much more "Protestant." They +were very strict in many ways, especially in keeping the "Sabbath," as +they called Sunday. They dressed very plainly, and they thought the +followers of the king, with their long hair and lace and ruffles, very +frivolous people indeed. It was the men of the Parliament side who +first gave the name <i>Cavalier</i> to the Royalists. It was meant by them +to show contempt, and came from the Italian word <i>cavaliere</i>, which +means literally "a horseman," coming from the Late Latin word +<i>caballus</i>, "a horse."</p> + +<p>It is a curious fact that we now use the word <i>cavalier</i> as an +adjective to mean rude and off-hand, whereas the Cavaliers of the +seventeenth century certainly had much better manners than the +Roundheads; and at the end of that century the word was sometimes used +in the general sense of gay and frank.</p> + +<p>Both sides in the Civil War invented a good many new words with which +to abuse the enemy. Milton, who wrote on the side of the Parliament, +made a great many; but the Royalists invented more, and perhaps more +expressive, words. At any rate they have been kept and used as quite +ordinary English words. The word <i>cant</i>, for instance, which every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +one understands to mean pious or sentimental words which the person +who says them does not really mean, was first used in this way by the +Royalists to describe the sayings of the Parliament men who were much +given to preaching and the singing of psalms. Before that time the +word <i>cant</i> had meant a certain kind of singing, and also the whining +sound beggars sometimes made.</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century, when Parliament was divided into two great +parties, their names were given to them in the same way. The <i>Tories</i> +were so called from the name given to some very wild, almost savage, +people who lived in the bog lands of Ireland; and the name <i>Whigs</i> was +given by the Tories, and came from a Scotch word, <i>Whigamore</i>, the +name of some very fierce Protestants in the south of Scotland. At +first these names were just words of abuse, but they came to be the +regular names of the two parties, and people forgot all about their +first meanings.</p> + +<p>The great growth in the power of the peoples of Europe since the +French Revolution has brought about great changes in the way these +countries are governed. It was the French Revolution which led to the +widespread opinion that all the people in a nation should help in the +government. It was in writing on these subjects that English writers +borrowed the words <i>aristocrat</i> and <i>democrat</i> from the French +writers. <i>Aristocracy</i> comes from an old Greek word meaning the rule +of the few; but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> French Revolution writers gave it a new meaning, +as something evil. Before the Revolution the name <i>despotism</i> had been +used for the rule of a single tyrant, but it now came to mean unjust +rule, even by several people.</p> + +<p>The French Revolution gave us several other words. We all now know the +word <i>terrorize</i>, but it only came into English from the French at the +time of the Revolution, when the French people became used to "Reigns +of Terror." But if the French Revolution gave us many of the words +which relate to democracy or government by the people, England has +always been the country of parliamentary government, and many terms +now used by the other countries of Europe have been invented in +England—words like <i>parliament</i> itself, <i>bill</i>, <i>budget</i>, and +<i>speech</i>.</p> + +<p>Nearly all the words connected with science, and especially the +"ologies," as they are called, like <i>physiology</i> and <i>zoology</i>, are +fairly new words in English. In the Middle Ages there was no real +study of science, and so naturally there were not many words connected +with it; but in the last two centuries the study of science has been +one of the most important things in history. We shall see more of +these scientific words in another chapter.</p> + +<p>Perhaps we have said enough in this chapter to show how each big +movement in history has given us a new group of words and how these +words are in a way historians of these movements.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>HOW WE GOT OUR CHRISTIAN NAMES AND SURNAMES.</h3> + + +<p>We can learn some interesting stories from the history of our own +names. Most people nowadays have one or more Christian names and a +surname, but this was not always the case. Every Christian from the +earliest days of Christianity must have had a Christian name given to +him at baptism. And before the days of Christianity every man, woman, +or child must have had some name. But the practice of giving surnames +grew up only very gradually in the countries of Europe. At first only +a few royal or noble families had sur-names, or "super" names; but +gradually, as the populations of the different countries became +larger, it became necessary for people to have surnames, so as to +distinguish those with the same Christian names from each other.</p> + +<p>In these days children are generally given for their Christian names +family names, or names which their parents think beautiful or +suitable. (Often the children afterwards do not like their own names +at all.) The Christian names of the children of European<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> countries +come to us from many different languages. Perhaps the greatest number +come to us from the Hebrew, because these Jewish names are, of course, +found in great numbers in the Bible.</p> + +<p>The conversion of the countries of Europe to Christianity united them +in their ways of thinking and believing, and they all honoured the +saints. The names of the early saints, whether they were from the +Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, or Slavonic, were soon spread +throughout all the countries of Europe, so that now French, German, +English, Italian, Spanish names, and those of the other European +countries, are for the most part the same, only spelt and pronounced a +little differently in the different countries.</p> + +<p>The English <i>William</i> is <i>Guillaume</i> in French, <i>Wilhelm</i> in German, +and so on. <i>John</i> is <i>Jean</i> in French, <i>Johann</i> in German, and so on, +with many other names.</p> + +<p>But in early times people got their names in a much more interesting +way. Sometimes something which seemed peculiar about a little new-born +baby would suggest a name. <i>Esau</i> was called by this name, which is +only the Hebrew word for "hairy," because he was already covered by +the thick growth of hair on his body which made him so different from +Jacob. The old Roman names <i>Flavius</i> and <i>Fulvius</i> merely meant +"yellow," and the French name <i>Blanche</i>, "fair," or "white." Sometimes +the fond parents would give the child a name describ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>ing some quality +which they hoped the child would possess when it grew up. The Hebrew +name <i>David</i> means "beloved."</p> + +<p>The name <i>Joseph</i> was given by Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, to +the baby who came to her after long waiting. <i>Joseph</i> means +"addition," and Rachel chose this name because she hoped another child +would yet be added to her family. She afterwards had Benjamin, the +best beloved of all Jacob's sons, and then she died.</p> + +<p>The name Joseph did not become common in Europe till after the +Reformation, when the Catholic Church appointed a feast day for St. +Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin. Towards the end of the +eighteenth century the Emperor Leopold christened his son Joseph, and +this, and the fact that Napoleon's first wife was named Josephine, +made these two names as a boy's and a girl's name very popular. We +have both Joseph and Josephine in English, and the French have Fifine +and Finette as well as Josephine, for which these are pet names. In +Italy, too, Joseph, or Giuseppe, is a common name, and Peppo, or +Beppo, are short names for it. These pet names seem very strange when +we remember Rachel's solemn choosing of the name for the first Joseph +of all.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the early nations called their children by the names of +animals. The beautiful old Hebrew name <i>Deborah</i>, which became also an +old-fashioned English name, means "bee." In several languages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> the +word for <i>wolf</i> was given as a personal name. The Greek <i>Lycos</i>, the +Latin <i>Lupus</i>, the Teutonic <i>Ulf</i>, from which came the Latin +<i>Ulphilas</i> and the Slavonic <i>Vuk</i>, all mean "wolf." The wolf was the +most common and the most treacherous of all the wild animals against +which early peoples had to fight, and this, perhaps, accounts for the +common use of its name. People were so impressed by its qualities that +they thought its name worthy to give to their sons, who, perhaps, they +hoped would possess some of its better qualities when they grew up.</p> + +<p>Sometimes early names were taken from the names of precious stones, as +<i>Margarite</i>, a Greek name meaning "pearl," and which is the origin of +all the Margarets, Marguerites, etc., to be found in nearly all the +languages of Europe.</p> + +<p>Among all early peoples many names were religious, like the Hebrew +<i>Ishmael</i>, or "heard by God;" <i>Elizabeth</i>, or the "oath of God;" +<i>John</i>, or the "grace of the Lord." The Romans had the name +<i>Jovianus</i>, which meant "belonging to Jupiter," who was the chief of +the gods in whom the Romans believed.</p> + +<p>In some languages names, especially of women, are taken from flowers, +like the Greek <i>Rhode</i>, or "rose," the English <i>Rose</i>, and <i>Lily</i> or +<i>Lilian</i>, and the Scotch <i>Lilias</i>.</p> + +<p>A great many of the Hebrew names especially come from words meaning +sorrow or trouble. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> were first given to children born in times of +sorrow. Thus we have <i>Jabez</i>, which means "sorrow;" <i>Ichabod</i>, or "the +glory is departed;" <i>Mary</i>, "bitter." The Jews, as we can see from the +Bible, suffered the greatest misfortunes, and their writers knew how +to tell of it in words. The Celtic nations, like the Irish, have the +same gift, and we get many old Celtic names with these same sad +meanings. Thus <i>Una</i> means "famine;" <i>Ita</i>, "thirsty."</p> + +<p>The Greek and Roman names were never sad like these. Some old Greek +names became Christian names when people who were called by them +became Christian in the first days of the Church. There are several +names from the Greek word <i>angelos</i>. This meant in Greek merely a +messenger, but it began to be used by the early Christian writers both +in Latin and Greek to mean a messenger from heaven, or an angel. The +Greeks gave it first as a surname, and then as a Christian name. In +the thirteenth century there was a St. Angelo in Italy, and from the +honour paid to him the name spread, chiefly as a girl's name, to the +other countries of Europe, giving the English <i>Angelina</i> and +<i>Angelica</i>, the French <i>Angelique</i>, and the German <i>Engel</i>.</p> + +<p>Besides this general name of <i>angel</i>, the name of Michael, the +archangel, and Gabriel, the angel of the Annunciation, became +favourite names among Eastern Christians. The reason <i>Michael</i> was +such a favourite was that the great Emperor Constantine dedicated a +church to St. Michael in Constantinople.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> The name is so much used in +Russia that it is quite common to speak of a Russian peasant as a +"Michael," just as people rather vulgarly speak of an Irish peasant as +a "Paddy." Michael can hardly be called an English name, but it is +almost as common in Ireland as Patrick, which, of course, is used in +honour of Ireland's patron saint. <i>Gabriel</i> is a common name in Italy, +as is also another angel's name, <i>Raphael</i>. <i>Gabriel</i> is used as a +girl's name in France—<i>Gabrielle</i>.</p> + +<p>No Christian would think of using the name of God as a personal name; +but <i>Theos</i>, the Greek word for God, was sometimes so used by the +Greeks. A Greek name formed from this, <i>Theophilos</i>, or "beloved by +the gods," became a Christian name, and the name of one of the early +saints.</p> + +<p>The name <i>Christ</i>, or "anointed," was the word which the Greek +Christians (who translated the Gospels into the Greek of their time) +used for the <i>Messiah</i>. From this word came the name <i>Christian</i>, and +from it <i>Christina</i>. One of the early martyrs, a virgin of noble Roman +birth, who died for her religion, was St. Christina. In Denmark the +name became a man's name, <i>Christiern</i>. Another English name which is +like Christina is <i>Christabel</i>. The great poet Coleridge in the +nineteenth century wrote the beginning of a beautiful poem called +"Christabel." The name was not very common before this, and was not +heard of until the sixteenth century, but it is fairly common now.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> + +<p>Another favourite Christian name from the name of <i>Christ</i> is +<i>Christopher</i>, which means the bearer or carrier of Christ, and we are +told in a legend how St. Christopher got this name. He had chosen for +his work to carry people across a stream which had no bridge over it. +One day a little boy suddenly appeared, and asked him to carry him +across. The kind saint did so, and found, as he got farther into the +stream, that the child grew heavier and heavier. When the saint put +him down on the other side he saw the figure of the man Christ before +him, and fell down and adored Him. Ever afterwards he was known as +<i>Christopher</i>, or the "Christ-bearer."</p> + +<p>Another Christian name which comes from a Greek word is <i>Peter</i>. +<i>Petros</i> is the Greek word for "stone," and <i>Petra</i> for "rock." The +name <i>Peter</i> became a favourite in honour of St. Peter, whose name was +first <i>Simon</i>, but who was called <i>Peter</i> because of the words our +Lord said to him: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my +Church."</p> + +<p>When the barbarian tribes, such as the English and Franks, broke into +the lands of the Roman Empire and settled there, afterwards being +converted to Christianity, they chose a good many Latin words as +names. In France names made from the Latin word <i>amo</i> ("I love") were +quite common. We hear of <i>Amabilis</i> ("lovable"), <i>Amadeus</i> ("loving +God"), <i>Amandus</i>, which has now become a surname in France as <i>St. +Amand</i>. In England, <i>Amabilis</i> became <i>Amabel</i>, which is not a very +common name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> now, but from which we have <i>Mabel</i>. <i>Amy</i> was first used +in England after the Norman Conquest, and comes from the French +<i>Amata</i>, or <i>Aimée</i>, which means "beloved."</p> + +<p>Another Latin word of the same kind which gave us some Christian names +was <i>Beo</i> ("I bless"). From part of this verb, <i>Beatus</i> ("blessed"), +there was an old English name, <i>Beata</i>, but no girl or woman seems to +have been called by it since the seventeenth century. <i>Beatrix</i> and +<i>Beatrice</i> also come from this. The name <i>Benedict</i>, which sometimes +became in English <i>Bennet</i>, came from another word like this, +<i>Benignus</i> ("kind"). <i>Boniface</i>, from the Latin <i>Bonifacius</i> ("doer of +good deeds"), was a favourite name in the early Church, and the name +of a great English saint; but it is not used in England now, though +there is still the Italian name, <i>Bonifazio</i>, which comes from the +same word.</p> + +<p>Both Christian names and surnames have been taken from the Latin <i>Dies +Natalis</i>, or "Birthday of our Lord." The French word for Christmas, +<i>Noël</i>, comes from this, and, as well as <i>Natalie</i>, is used as a +Christian name. <i>Noël</i> is found, too, both as a Christian name and +surname in England. At one time English babies were sometimes +christened <i>Christmas</i>, but this is never used as a Christian name +now, though a few families have it as a surname.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most peculiar Christian names that have ever been were the +long names which some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> of the English Puritans gave their children in +the seventeenth century. Often they gave them whole texts of Scripture +as names, so that at least one small boy was called "Bind their nobles +in chains and their kings in fetters of iron." Let us hope his +relatives soon found some other name to call him "for short."</p> + +<p>Everybody has heard of the famous Cromwellian Parliament, which would +do nothing but talk, and which was called the "Barebones Parliament," +after one of its members, who not only bore this peculiar surname, but +was also blessed with the "Christian" name of <i>Praise-God</i>. Cromwell +grew impatient at last, and Praise-God Barebones and the other talkers +suddenly found Parliament dissolved. These names were not, as a rule, +handed on from father to son, and soon died out, though in America +even to-day we get Christian names somewhat similar, but at least +shorter—names like <i>Willing</i>.</p> + +<p>It is often easier to see how we got our Christian names than how we +got our surnames. As we have seen, there was a time when early peoples +had only first names. The Romans had surnames, or <i>cognomina</i>, but the +barbarians who won Europe from them had not.</p> + +<p>In England surnames were not used until nearly a hundred years after +the Norman Conquest, and then only by kings and nobles. The common +people in England had, however, nearly all got them by the fourteenth +century; but in Scotland many people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> were still without surnames in +the time of James I., and even those who had them could easily change +one for another. Once a man got a surname it was handed on to all his +children, as surnames are to-day.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to see in how many different ways people got their +surnames. Sometimes this is easy, but it is more difficult in other +cases.</p> + +<p>The first surnames in England were those which the Norman nobles who +came over at the Conquest handed on from father to son. These people +generally took the name of the place from which they had come in +Normandy. In this way names like <i>Robert de Courcy</i> ("Robert of +Courcy") came in; and many of these names, which are considered very +aristocratic, still remain. We have <i>de Corbet</i>, <i>de Beauchamp</i>, <i>de +Colevilles</i>, and so on. Sometimes the <i>de</i> has been dropped. +Sometimes, again, people took their names in the same way from places +in England. We find in old writings names like <i>Adam de Kent</i>, <i>Robert +de Wiltshire</i>, etc. Here, again, the prefix has been dropped, and the +place-name has been kept as a surname. <i>Kent</i> is quite a well-known +surname, as also are <i>Derby</i>, <i>Buxton</i>, and many other names of +English places.</p> + +<p>The Normans introduced another kind of name, which became very common +too. They were a lively people, like the modern French, and were very +fond of giving nicknames, especially names referring to people's +personal appearance. We get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> the best examples of this in the +nicknames applied to the Norman kings. We have William <i>Rufus</i>, or +"the Red;" Richard <i>Cœur-de-Lion</i>, or "Lion-Hearted;" Henry +<i>Beauclerc</i>, or "the Scholar."</p> + +<p>These names of kings were not handed down in their families. But in +ordinary families it was quite natural that a nickname applied to the +father should become a surname. It is from such nicknames that we get +surnames like <i>White</i>, <i>Black</i>, <i>Long</i>, <i>Young</i>, <i>Short</i>, and so on. +All these are, of course, well-known surnames to-day, and though many +men named <i>Long</i> may be small, and many named <i>Short</i> may be tall, we +may guess that this was not the case with some far-off ancestor. +Sometimes <i>man</i> was added to these adjectives, and we get names like +<i>Longman</i>, <i>Oldman</i>, etc.</p> + +<p>Sometimes these names were used in the French of the Normans, and we +get two quite different surnames, though they really in the first +place had the same meaning. Thus we have <i>Curt</i> for <i>Short</i>, and the +quite well-known surname <i>Petit</i>, which would be <i>Short</i> or <i>Little</i> +in English. The name <i>Goodheart</i> was <i>Bun-Couer</i> in Norman-French, and +from this came <i>Bunker</i>, which, if we knew nothing of its history, +would not seem to mean <i>Goodheart</i> at all. So the name <i>Tait</i> came +from <i>Tête</i>, or <i>Head</i>; and we may guess that the first ancestor of +the numerous people with this name had something remarkable about +their heads. The name <i>Goodfellow</i> is really just the same as +<i>Bonfellow</i>. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> surname <i>Thin</i> has the same meaning as <i>Meagre</i>, +from which the common name <i>Meager</i> comes.</p> + +<p>Names like <i>Russell</i> (from the old word <i>rouselle</i>, or "red"), +<i>Brown</i>, <i>Morell</i> ("tan"), <i>Dun</i> ("dull grey"), all came from +nicknames referring to people's complexions. <i>Reed</i> and <i>Reid</i> come +from the old word <i>rede</i>, or "red." We still have the names +<i>Copperbeard</i>, <i>Greybeard</i>, and <i>Blackbeard</i>.</p> + +<p>Sometimes names were given from some peculiarity of clothing. +<i>Scarlet</i>, an old English name, probably came from the colour of the +clothing of the people who were first called by it—scarlet, like all +bright colours, being very much liked in the Middle Ages. So we hear +of the name <i>Curtmantle</i>, or "short cloak," and <i>Curthose</i>, which was +later changed to <i>Shorthose</i>, which is still a well-known name in +Derbyshire. The names <i>Woolward</i> and <i>Woolard</i> come from the old word +<i>woolard</i>, which meant wearing wool without any linen clothing +underneath. This was often done by pilgrims and others who wished to +do penance for their sins.</p> + +<p>Many surnames have come down from nicknames given to people because of +their good or bad qualities. This is the origin of names like <i>Wise</i>, +<i>Gay</i>, <i>Hardy</i>, <i>Friend</i>, <i>Truman</i>, <i>Makepeace</i>, <i>Sweet</i>, etc. The +people who have these names may well believe that the first of their +ancestors who bore them was of a gentle and amiable disposition. Names +like <i>Proud</i>, <i>Proudfoot</i>, <i>Proudman</i>, <i>Paillard</i> (French for +"lie-a-bed") show that the first people who had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> them were not so well +liked, and were considered proud or lazy.</p> + +<p>Another way of giving nicknames to people because of something +noticeable in their character or appearance was to give them the name +of some animal having this quality. The well-known name of <i>Oliphant</i> +comes from <i>elephant</i>, and was probably first given to some one very +large, and perhaps a little ungraceful. <i>Bullock</i> as a surname +probably had the same sort of origin. The names <i>Falcon</i>, <i>Hawk</i>, +<i>Buzzard</i>, must have been first given to people whose friends and +neighbours saw some resemblance to the quickness or fierceness or +sureness or some other quality of these birds in them. The names +<i>Jay</i>, <i>Peacock</i>, and <i>Parrott</i> point to showiness and pride and empty +talkativeness.</p> + +<p>A very great number of surnames are really only old Christian names +either with or without an ending added to them. A very common form of +surname is a Christian name with <i>son</i> added to it. The first man who +handed on the name <i>Wilson</i> (or <i>Willson</i>, as it is still sometimes +spelt) was himself the "son of Will." Any one can think of many names +of this kind—<i>Williamson</i>, <i>Davidson</i>, <i>Adamson</i>, etc. Sometimes the +founder of a family had taken his name from his mother. This was the +origin of names like <i>Margerison</i> ("Marjorie's son") and <i>Alison</i> +("Alice's son"). This was a very common way of inventing surnames.</p> + +<p>The Norman <i>Fitz</i> meant "son of," and the numer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>ous names beginning +with <i>Fitz</i> have this origin. <i>Fitzpatrick</i> originally meant the "son +of Patrick," <i>Fitzstephen</i> the "son of Stephen," and so on. The Irish +prefix <i>O'</i> has the same meaning. The ancestor of all the O'Neills was +himself the son of <i>Neill</i>. The Scandinavian <i>Nillson</i> is really the +same name, though it sounds so different. The Scotch <i>Mac</i> has the +same meaning, and so have the Welsh words <i>map</i>, <i>mab</i>, <i>ap</i>, and +<i>ab</i>.</p> + +<p>One very interesting way of making surnames was to take them from the +trade or occupation of the founder of the family. Perhaps the +commonest of English surnames is <i>Smith</i>. And the word for <i>Smith</i> is +the commonest surname in almost every country of Europe. In France we +have <i>Favier</i>.</p> + +<p>The reason for this is easy to see. The smith, or man who made iron +and other metals into plough-shares and swords, was one of the most +important of all the workers in the early days when surnames were +being made. There were many smiths, and John the Smith and Tom the +Smith easily became John Smith and Tom Smith, and thus had a surname +to pass on to their families.</p> + +<p>As time went on there came to be many different kinds of smiths. There +was the smith who worked in gold, and was called a "goldsmith," from +which we get the well-known surname <i>Goldsmith</i>, the name of a great +English writer. Then there was the "nail smith," from which trade came +the name <i>Nasmith</i>; the "sickle smith," from which came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> <i>Sixsmith</i>; +the "shear smith," which gave us <i>Shearsmith</i>—and so on.</p> + +<p>In mediæval England the manufacture of cloth from the wool of the +great flocks of sheep which fed on the pasture lands of the +monasteries and other great houses, was the chief industry of the +nation. This trade of wool-weaving has given us many surnames, such as +<i>Woolmer</i>, <i>Woolman</i>, <i>Carder</i>, <i>Kempster</i>, <i>Towser</i>, <i>Weaver</i>, +<i>Webster</i>, etc. Some of these referred to the general work of +wool-weaving and others to special branches.</p> + +<p>Any child can think in a moment of several names which have come in +this way from trades. We have <i>Taylor</i> for a beginning.</p> + +<p>But many surnames which are taken from the names of trades come from +Old English words which are now seldom or never used. <i>Chapman</i>, a +common name now, was the Old English word for a general dealer. +<i>Spicer</i> was the old name for grocer, and is now a fairly common +surname. The well-known name of <i>Fletcher</i> comes from the almost +forgotten word <i>flechier</i>, "an arrowmaker." <i>Coltman</i> came from the +name of the man who had charge of the colts. <i>Runciman</i> was the man +who had charge of horses too, and comes from another Old English word, +<i>rouncy</i>, "a horse." The <i>Parkers</i> are descended from a park-keeper +who used to be called by that name. The <i>Horners</i> come from a maker of +horns; the <i>Crockers</i> and <i>Crokers</i> from a "croker," or "crocker," a +maker of pottery. <i>Hogarth</i> comes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> from "hoggart," a hog-herd; +<i>Calvert</i> from "calf-herd;" and <i>Seward</i> from "sow-herd." <i>Lambert</i> +sometimes came from "lamb-herd."</p> + +<p>But we cannot always be sure of the origin of even the commonest +surnames. For instance, every person named <i>Smith</i> is not descended +from a smith, for the name also comes from the old word <i>smoth</i>, or +"smooth," and this is the origin of <i>Smith</i> in <i>Smithfield</i>.</p> + +<p>A great many English surnames were taken from places. <i>Street</i>, +<i>Ford</i>, <i>Lane</i>, <i>Brooke</i>, <i>Styles</i>, are names of this kind. Sometimes +they were prefixed by the Old English <i>atte</i> ("at") or the French <i>de +la</i> ("of the"), but these prefixes have been dropped since. <i>Geoffrey +atte Style</i> was the Geoffrey who lived near the stile—and so on.</p> + +<p>Nearly all the names ending in <i>hurst</i> and <i>shaw</i> are taken from +places. A <i>hurst</i> was a wood or grove; a <i>shaw</i> was a shelter for +fowls and animals. The chief thing about a man who got the surname of +<i>Henshaw</i> or <i>Ramshaw</i> was probably that he owned, or had the care of, +such a shelter for hens or rams.</p> + +<p>Names ending in <i>ley</i> generally came into existence in the same way, a +<i>ley</i> being also a shelter for domestic animals. So we have <i>Horsley</i>, +<i>Cowley</i>, <i>Hartley</i>, <i>Shipley</i> (from "sheep"). Sometimes the name was +taken from the kind of trees which closed such a shelter in, names +like <i>Ashley</i>, <i>Elmsley</i>, <i>Oakley</i>, <i>Lindley</i>, etc.</p> + +<p>Surnames as well as Christian names were often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> taken from the names +of saints. From such a beautiful name as <i>St. Hugh</i> the Normans had +<i>Hugon</i>, and from this we get the rather commonplace names of +<i>Huggins</i>, <i>Hutchins</i>, <i>Hutchinson</i>, and several others. So <i>St. +Clair</i> is still a surname, though often changed into <i>Sinclair</i>. St. +Gilbert is responsible for the names <i>Gibbs</i>, <i>Gibbons</i>, <i>Gibson</i>, +etc.</p> + +<p>Sometimes in Scotland people were given, as Christian names, names +meaning <i>servant</i> of Christ, or some saint. The word for servant was +<i>giollo</i>, or <i>giolla</i>. It was in this way that names like <i>Gilchrist</i>, +<i>Gilpatrick</i>, first came to be used. They were at first Christian +names, and then came to be passed on as surnames. So <i>Gillespie</i> means +"servant of the bishop."</p> + +<p>Some surnames, though they seem quite English now, show that the first +member of the family to bear the name was looked upon as a foreigner. +Such names are <i>Newman</i>, <i>Newcome</i>, <i>Cumming</i> (from <i>cumma</i>, "a +stranger"). Sometimes the nationality to which the stranger belonged +is shown by the name. The ancestors of the people called <i>Fleming</i>, +for instance, must have come from Flanders, as so many did in the +Middle Ages. The <i>Brabazons</i> must have come from Brabant.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most peculiar origin of all belongs to some surnames which +seem to have come from oaths or exclamations. The fairly common names +<i>Pardoe</i>, <i>Pardie</i>, etc., come from the older name <i>Pardieu</i>, or "By +God," a solemn form of oath.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> We have, too, the English form in the +name <i>Bigod</i>. Names like <i>Rummiley</i> come from the old cry of sailors, +<i>Rummylow</i>, which they used as sailors use "Heave-ho" now.</p> + +<p>But many chapters could be written on the history of names. This +chapter shows only some of the ways in which we got our Christian +names and surnames.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>STORIES IN THE NAMES OF PLACES.</h3> + + +<p>The stories which the names of places can tell us are many more in +number, and even more wonderful, than the stories in the names of +people. Some places have very old names, and others have quite new +ones, and the names have been given for all sorts of different +reasons. If we take the names of the continents, we find that some of +them come from far-off times, and were given by men who knew very +little of what the world was like. The names <i>Europe</i> and <i>Asia</i> were +given long ago by sailors belonging to the Semitic race (the race to +which the Jews belong), who sailed up and down the Ægean Sea, and did +not venture to leave its waters. All the land which lay to the west +they called <i>Ereb</i>, which was their word for "sunset," or "west," and +the land to the east they called <i>Acu</i>, which meant "sunrise," or +"east;" and later, when men knew more about these lands, these names, +changed a little, remained as the names of the great continents, +Europe and Asia.</p> + +<p><i>Africa</i>, too, is an old name, though not so old as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> these. We think +of Africa now as a "dark continent," the greater part of which has +only lately become known to white men, and with a native population of +negroes. But for hundreds of years the north of Africa was one of the +most civilized parts of the Roman Empire. Before that time part of it +had belonged to the Carthaginians, whom the Romans conquered. <i>Africa</i> +was a Carthaginian name, and was first used by the Romans as the name +of the district round Carthage, and in time it came to be the name of +the whole continent.</p> + +<p><i>America</i> got its name in quite a different way. It was not until the +fifteenth century that this great continent was discovered, and then +it took its name, not from the brave Spaniard, Christopher Columbus, +who first sailed across the "Sea of Darkness" to find it, but from +Amerigo Vespucci, the man who first landed on the mainland.</p> + +<p><i>Australia</i> got its name, which means "land of the south," from +Portuguese and Spanish sailors, who reached its western coasts early +in the sixteenth century. They never went inland, or made any +settlements, but in the queer, inaccurate maps which early geographers +made, they put down a <i>Terra Australis</i>, or "southern land," and +later, when Englishmen did at last explore and colonize the continent, +they kept this name <i>Australia</i>. This Latin name reminds us of the +fact that Latin was in the Middle Ages the language used by all +scholars in their writings, and names on maps were written<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> in Latin +too, and so a great modern continent like Australia came to have an +old Latin name.</p> + +<p>There is a great deal of history in the names of countries. Take the +names of the countries of Europe. <i>England</i> is the land of the +<i>Angles</i>, and from this we learn that the Angles were the chief people +of all the tribes who came over and settled in Britain after the +Romans left it. They spread farthest over the land, and gave their +name to it; just as the <i>Franks</i>, another of these Northern peoples, +gave their name to France, and the <i>Belgæ</i> gave theirs to <i>Belgium</i>. +The older name of <i>Britain</i> did not die out, but it was seldom used. +It has really been used much more in modern times than it ever was in +the Middle Ages. It is used especially in poetry or in fine writing, +just as <i>Briton</i> is instead of <i>Englishman</i>, as in the line—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Britons never, never, never shall be slaves."</p></div> + +<p>The name <i>Briton</i> is now used also to mean Irish, Scotch, and Welsh +men—in fact, any British subject. We also speak of <i>Great Britain</i>, +which means England and Scotland. When the Scottish Parliament was +joined to the English in 1702 some name had to be found to describe +the new "nation," and this was how the name <i>Great Britain</i> came into +use, just as the <i>United Kingdom</i> was the name invented to describe +Great Britain and Ireland together when the Irish Parliament too was +joined to the English in 1804.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> + +<p>We see how Gaul and Britain, as France and England were called in +Roman times, had their names changed after the fall of the Roman +Empire; but most of the countries round the Mediterranean Sea kept +their old names, just as they kept for the most part their old +languages. Italy, Greece, and Spain all kept their old names, although +new peoples flocked down into these lands too. But though new peoples +came, in all these lands they learned the ways and languages of the +older inhabitants, instead of changing everything, as the English did +in Britain. And so it was quite natural that they should keep their +own names too.</p> + +<p>Most of the other countries in Europe took their names from the people +who settled there. Germany (the Roman <i>Germania</i>) was the part of +Europe where most of the tribes of the German race settled down. The +divisions of Germany, like Saxony, Bavaria, Frisia, were the parts of +Germany where the German tribes known as Saxons, Bavarians, and +Frisians settled. The name <i>Austria</i> comes from <i>Osterreich</i>, the +German for "eastern kingdom." Holland, on the other hand, takes its +name from the character of the land. It comes from <i>holt</i>, meaning +"wood," and <i>lant</i>, meaning "land." The little country of Albania is +so called from <i>Alba</i>, or "white," because of its snowy mountains.</p> + +<p>But perhaps the names of the old towns of the old world tell us the +best stories of all. The greatest city the world has ever seen was +Rome, and many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> scholars have quarrelled about the meaning of that +great name. It seems most likely that it came from an old word meaning +"river." It would be quite natural for the people of early Rome to +give such a name to their city, for it was a most important fact to +them that they had built their city just where it was on the river +Tiber.</p> + +<p>One of the best places on which a town could be built, especially in +early days, was the banks of a river, from which the people could get +water, and by which the refuse and rubbish of the town could be +carried away. Then, again, one of the chief things which helped Rome +to greatness was her position on the river Tiber, far enough from the +sea to be safe from the enemy raiders who infested the seas in those +early days, and yet near enough to send her ships out to trade with +other lands. Thus it was, probably, that a simple word meaning "river" +came to be used as the name of the world's greatest city.</p> + +<p>Others among the great cities of the ancient world were founded in a +quite different way. The great conqueror, Alexander the Great, founded +cities in every land he conquered, and their names remain even now to +keep his memory alive. The city of <i>Alexandria</i>, on the north coast of +Africa, was, of course, called after Alexander himself, and became +after his death more civilized and important than any of the Greek +cities which Alexander admired so much, and which he tried to imitate +everywhere.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> Now Alexandria is no longer a centre of learning, but a +fairly busy port. Only its name recalls the time when it helped in the +great work for which Alexander built it—to spread Greek learning and +Greek civilization over Europe and Asia.</p> + +<p>Another city which Alexander founded, but which afterwards fell into +decay, was <i>Bucephalia</i>, which the great conqueror set up in the north +of India when he made his wonderful march across the mountains into +that continent. It was called after "<i>Bucephalus</i>," the favourite +horse of Alexander, which had been wounded, and died after the battle. +The town was built over the place where the horse was buried, and +though its story is not so interesting as that of Alexandria, as the +town so soon fell into decay, still it is worth remembering.</p> + +<p>Another of the world's ancient and greatest cities, Constantinople, +also took its name from a great ruler. In the days when the Roman +Empire was beginning to decay, and new nations from the north began to +pour into her lands, the emperor, Constantine the Great, the ruler who +made Christianity the religion of the empire, chose a new capital +instead of Rome. He loved Eastern magnificence and Eastern ways, and +he chose for his new capital the old Greek colony of Byzantium, the +beautiful city on the Golden Horn, which Constantine soon made into a +new Rome, with churches and theatres and baths, like the old Rome. The +new Rome was given a new name. Constantine had turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> Byzantium into +a new city, and it has ever since been known as <i>Constantinople</i>, or +the "city of Constantine."</p> + +<p>We can nearly always tell from the names of places something of their +history. If we think of the names of some of our English towns, we +notice that many of them end in the same way. There are several whose +names begin or end in <i>don</i>, like <i>London</i> itself. Many others end in +<i>caster</i> or <i>chester</i>, <i>ham</i>, <i>by</i>, <i>borough</i> or <i>burgh</i>.</p> + +<p>We may be sure that most of the places whose names begin or end in +<i>don</i> were already important places in the time before the Britons +were conquered by the Romans. The Britons were divided into tribes, +and lived in villages scattered over the land; but each tribe had its +little fortress or stronghold, the "dun," as it was called, with walls +and ditches round it, in which all the people of the tribe could take +shelter if attacked by a strong enemy. And so the name of London takes +us back to the time when this greatest city of the modern world, +spreading into four counties, and as big as a county itself, with its +marvellous buildings, old and new, and its immense traffic, was but a +British fort into which scantily-clothed people fled from their huts +at the approach of an enemy.</p> + +<p>But the British showed themselves wise enough in their choice of +places to build their <i>duns</i>, which, as in the case of London, often +became centres of new towns, which grew larger and larger through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +Roman times, and on into the Middle Ages and modern times.</p> + +<p>The great French fortress town of Verdun, which everybody has heard of +because of its wonderful resistance to the German attacks in 1916, is +also an old Celtic town with this Celtic ending to its name. It was +already an important town when the Romans conquered Gaul, and it has +played a notable part in history ever since. Its full name means "the +fort on the water," just as <i>Dundee</i> (from <i>Dun-tatha</i>) probably meant +"the fort on the Tay."</p> + +<p>By merely looking at a map of England, any one who knows anything of +the Latin language can pick out many names which come from that +language, and which must have been given in the days when the Romans +had conquered Britain. The ending <i>caster</i> of so many names in the +north of England, and <i>chester</i> in the Midlands, <i>xeter</i> in the west +of England, and <i>caer</i> in Wales, all come from the same Latin word, +<i>castrum</i>, which means a military camp or fortified place. So that we +might guess, if we did not know, that at Lancaster, Doncaster, +Manchester, Winchester, Exeter, and at the old capital of the famous +King Arthur, Caerleon, there were some of those Roman camps which were +dotted over England in the days when the Romans ruled the land.</p> + +<p>Here the Roman officers lived with their wives and families, and the +Roman soldiers too, and here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> they built churches and theatres and +baths, such as they were used to in their cities at home in Italy. +Here, too, it was that many of the British nobles learned Roman ways +of living and thinking; and from here the Roman priests and monks went +out to teach the Britons that the religion of the Druids was false, +and instruct them in the Christian religion.</p> + +<p>Another common Latin ending or beginning to the names of places was +<i>strat</i>, <i>stret</i>, or <i>street</i>, and wherever we find this we may know +that through these places ran some of the <i>viæ stratæ</i>, or great Roman +roads which the Romans built in all the provinces of their great +empire. There are many remains of these Roman roads still to be seen +up and down England; but even where no trace remains, the direction of +some, at least, of the great roads could be found from the names of +the towns which were dotted along them. Among these towns are +<i>Stratford</i> in Warwickshire, <i>Chester-le-Street</i> in Durham, +<i>Streatham</i>, etc.</p> + +<p>Then, again, some of the towns with <i>port</i> and <i>lynne</i> as part of +their names show us where the Romans had their ports and trading +towns.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to see the different names which the English gave to +the villages in which they dwelt when the Romans had left Britain, and +these new tribes had won it for themselves. Nearly all towns ending in +<i>ham</i> and <i>ford</i>, and <i>burgh</i> or <i>borough</i>, date from the first few +hundred years after the English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> won Britain. <i>Ham</i> and <i>ford</i> merely +meant "home," or "village." Thus <i>Buckingham</i> was the home of the +Bockings, a village in which several families all related to each +other, and bearing this name, lived. Of course the name did not change +when later the village grew into a town. Buckingham is a very +different place now from the little village in which the Bockings +settled, each household having its house and yard, but dividing the +common meadow and pasture land out between them each year.</p> + +<p><i>Wallingford</i> was the home of the Wallings. Places whose names ended +in <i>ford</i> were generally situated where a ford, or means of crossing a +river or stream, had to be made. Oxford was in Old English <i>Oxenford</i>, +or "ford of the oxen."</p> + +<p>Towns whose names end in <i>borough</i> are often very old, but not so old +as some of those ending in <i>ham</i> and <i>ford</i>. There were <i>burhs</i> in the +first days of the English Conquest, but generally they were only +single fortified houses and not villages. We first hear of the more +important <i>burghs</i> or <i>boroughs</i> in the last hundred years or so +before the Norman Conquest. <i>Edinburgh</i>, which was at first an English +town, is a very early example. Its name means "Edwin's borough or +town," and it was so called because it was founded by Edwin, who was +king of England from 617 to 633.</p> + +<p>The special point about boroughs was that they were really free towns. +They had courts of justice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> of their own, and were free from the +Hundred courts, the next court above them being the Shire court, ruled +over by the sheriff. So we know that most of the towns whose names end +in <i>burgh</i> or <i>borough</i> had for their early citizens men who loved +freedom, and worked hard to win their own courts of justice.</p> + +<p>There are other endings to the names of towns which go back to the +days before the Norman Conquest, but which are not really English. If +a child were told to pick out on the map of England all the places +whose names end in <i>by</i> or <i>thwaite</i>, he or she would find that most +of them are in the eastern part of England. The reason for this might +be guessed, perhaps, by a very thoughtful child. Both <i>by</i> and +<i>thwaite</i> are Danish words, and they are found in the eastern parts of +England, because it was in those parts that the Danes settled down +when the great King Alfred forced them to make peace in the Treaty of +Wallingford. After this, of course, the Danes lived in England for +many years, settling down, and becoming part of the English people. +Naturally they gave their own names to many villages and towns, and +many of these remain to this day to remind us of this fierce race +which helped to build up the English nation.</p> + +<p>The Normans did not make many changes in the names of places when they +won England, and most of our place-names come down to us from Roman +and old English times. The places have changed, but the names have +not. But though towns and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> counties have had their names from those +times, it is to be noticed that the names of our rivers and hills come +down to us from Celtic times. To the Britons, living a more or less +wild life, these things were of the greatest importance. There are +several rivers in England with the name of <i>Avon</i>, and this is an old +British name. The rivers <i>Usk</i>, <i>Esk</i>, and <i>Ouse</i> were all christened +by the Britons, and all these names come from a British word meaning +"water." Curiously enough, the name <i>whisky</i> comes from the same word. +From all these different ways in which places have got their names we +get glimpses of past history, and history helps us to understand the +stories that these old names tell us.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>NEW NAMES FOR NEW PLACES.</h3> + + +<p>We have seen in how many different ways many of the old places of this +world got their names. Some names go so far back that no one knows +what is their meaning, or how they first came to be used. But we know +that a great part of the world has only been discovered since the +fifteenth century, and that a great part of what was already known has +only been colonized in modern times.</p> + +<p>With the discovery of the New World and the colonization of the Dark +Continent and other far-off lands, a great many new names were +invented. We could almost write a history of North or South America +from an explanation of their place-names.</p> + +<p>In learning the geography of South America we notice the beautiful +Spanish names of most of the places. The reason for this is that it +was the Spaniards who colonized South America in the sixteenth +century. Very little of this continent now belongs to Spain, but in +those days Spain was the greatest country in Europe. The proud and +brave Spanish adventurers were in those days sailing over the seas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +and founding colonies, just as the English sailors of Queen Elizabeth +soon began to do in North America.</p> + +<p>Let us look at some of these names—<i>Los Angelos</i> ("The Angels"), +<i>Santa Cruz</i> ("The Holy Cross"), <i>Santiago</i> ("St. James"), all names +of saints and holy things. Any one who knew no history at all might +guess, from the number of places with Spanish names spread over South +America, that it was the Spaniards who colonized this land. He would +also guess that the Spaniards in those days must have been a very +great nation indeed. And he would be right.</p> + +<p>He would guess, too, that the Spaniards had clung passionately to the +Catholic religion. Here, again, he would be right. Any great +enthusiasm will make a nation great, and the Spaniards in the +sixteenth century were filled with a great love for the old Church +against which the new Protestantism was fighting. The Pope looked upon +Spain as the great bulwark of Catholicism. The new religious feeling, +which had swept over Europe, and which had made the Protestants ready +to suffer and die for their new-found faith, took the form in Spain of +this great love for the old religion. The nation seemed inspired. It +is when these things happen that a people turns to great enterprises +and adventure. The Spaniards of the sixteenth century regarded +themselves, and were almost regarded by the other nations, as +unconquerable. The great aim of Elizabethan Englishmen was to "break +the power of Spain," and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> this they did at last when they scattered +the "Invincible Armada" in 1588. But before this Spain had done great +things.</p> + +<p>The Portuguese had been the first great adventurers, but they were +soon left far behind by the Spanish sailors, who explored almost every +part of South America, settling there, and sending home great +shiploads of gold to make Spain rich. And wherever they explored and +settled they spread about these beautiful names to honour the saints +and holy things which their religion told them to love and honour.</p> + +<p>It was the great discoverer Christopher Columbus who first gave one of +these beautiful names to a place in South America. He had already +discovered North America, and made a second voyage there, when he +determined to explore the land south of the West Indies. He sailed +south through the tropical seas while the heat melted the tar of the +rigging. But Columbus never noticed danger and discomfort. He had made +a vow to call the first land he saw after the Holy Trinity, and when +at last he caught sight of three peaks jutting up from an island he +gave the island the name of <i>La Trinidad</i>, and "Trinidad" it remains +to this day, though it now belongs to the British. As he sailed south +Columbus caught sight of what was really the mainland of South +America, but he thought it was another island, and called it <i>Isla +Santa</i>, or "Holy Island."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> + +<p>It might seem curious that as Columbus had discovered both North and +South America, the continent was given the name of another man. As we +have seen, its name was taken from that of another explorer, Amerigo +Vespucci. The reason for this was that Columbus never really knew that +he had discovered a "New World." He believed that he had come by +another way to the eastern coast of Asia or Africa. The islands which +he first discovered were for this reason called the <i>Indies</i>, and the +<i>West Indies</i> they remain to this day.</p> + +<p>It was Amerigo Vespucci who first announced to the world, in a book +which he published in 1507 (three years after Christopher Columbus had +died in loneliness and poverty), that the new lands were indeed a +great new continent, and not Asia or Africa at all. People later on +said that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered a new continent, and that it +ought to be called by his name. This is how the name <i>America</i> came +into use; but of course the work of Vespucci was not to be compared +with that of the great adventurer who first sailed across the "Sea of +Darkness," and was the real discoverer of the New World.</p> + +<p>Though it was the Spaniards who discovered North America, it was the +English who chiefly colonized it.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to notice the names which the early English +colonists scattered over the northern continent. We might gather from +them that, just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> as the love of their Church was the great passion of +the sixteenth-century Spaniards, so the love of their country was the +ruling passion of the great English adventurers. (Of course the +Spaniards had shown their love for their old country in some of the +names they gave, as when Columbus called one place <i>Isabella</i>, in +honour of the noble Spanish queen who had helped and encouraged him +when other rulers of European countries had refused to listen to what +they thought were the ravings of a madman.)</p> + +<p>The English in Reformation days had a very different idea of religion +from the Spanish. Naturally they did not sprinkle the names of saints +over the new lands. But the English of Elizabeth's day were filled +with a great new love for England. The greatest of all the Elizabethan +adventurers, Sir Francis Drake, when in his voyage round the world he +put into a harbour which is now known as San Francisco, set up "a +plate of brass fast nailed to a great and firm post, whereon is +engraved Her Grace's name, and the day and the year of our arrival +there." The Indian king of these parts had freely owned himself +subject to the English, taking the crown from his own head and putting +it on Drake's head. Sir Francis called his land <i>New Albion</i>, using +the old poetic name for England.</p> + +<p>But the colonization of North America was not successfully begun until +after the death of Elizabeth, though one or two attempts at founding +colonies, or "plantations," as they were then called, were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> made in +her time. Sir Walter Raleigh tried to set up one colony in North +America, and called it <i>Virginia</i>, after the virgin queen whom all +Englishmen delighted to honour. Virginia did not prosper, and +Raleigh's colony broke up; but later another and successful attempt at +colonizing it was made, and the same name kept. Virginia—"Earth's +only Paradise," as the poet Drayton called it—was the first English +colony successfully settled in North America. This was in the year +1607, when two hundred and forty-three settlers landed, and made the +first settlement at a point which they called <i>Jamestown</i>, in honour +of the new English king, James I.</p> + +<p>The first settlers in Virginia were men whose chief aim was to become +rich, but it was not long before a new kind of settler began to seek +refuge in the lands north of Virginia, to which the great colonizer, +Captain John Smith, had by this time given the name of <i>New England</i>. +It was in 1620 that the "Pilgrim Fathers," because they were not free +to worship God as they thought right at home, sailed from Southampton +in the little <i>Mayflower</i>, and landed far to the north of Virginia, +and made a settlement at a place which Smith had already called +<i>Plymouth</i>.</p> + +<p>Before long new colonies began to spring up all over New England; and +though we find some new names, like the Indian name of the great +colony <i>Massachusetts</i>, we may read the story of the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> love which +the colonists felt for the old towns of the mother-country in the way +they gave their names to the new settlements.</p> + +<p>A curious thing is that many of these new towns, christened after +little old towns at home, became later very important and prosperous +places, while the places after which they were called are sometimes +almost forgotten. Many people to whom the name of the great American +city of Boston is familiar do not know that there still stands on the +coast of Lincolnshire the sleepy little town of Boston, from which it +took its name.</p> + +<p>Boston is the chief town of Massachusetts; but the first capital was +<i>Charlestown</i>, called after King Charles I., who had by this time +succeeded his father, James I. The place on which Charlestown was +built, on the north bank of the Charles River, was, however, found to +be unhealthy. The settlers, therefore, deserted it, and Boston was +built on the south bank.</p> + +<p>It was not long before the Massachusetts settlers built a college at a +place near Boston which had been called <i>Cambridge</i>. This is a case in +which the old town at home remained, of course, much more important +than its godchild. If a person speaks of Cambridge, one's mind +immediately flies to the English university city on the banks of the +river Cam. Still the college built at the American Cambridge, and +called "Harvard College," after John Harvard, one of the early +settlers, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> gave a great deal of money towards its building, is +famous now throughout the world.</p> + +<p>It was natural and suitable that the early settlers should use the old +English names to show their love for the mother-country; but it was +not such a wise thing to choose the names of the great historic towns +of Europe, and give them to the new settlements. To give the almost +sacred name of <i>Rome</i> to a modern American town seems almost +ridiculous. Certainly one would have always to be very careful to add +"Georgia, U.S.A." in addressing letters there. The United States has +several of these towns bearing old historic names. <i>Paris</i> as the name +of an American town seems almost as unsuitable as Rome.</p> + +<p>But this mistake was not made by the early colonists. If we think of +the names of the colonies which stretched along the east of North +America, we find nearly always that the names are chosen to do honour +to the English king or queen, or to keep the memory fresh of some +beloved spot in the old country.</p> + +<p>In 1632 the Catholic Lord Baltimore founded a new colony, the only one +where the Catholic religion was tolerated, and called it <i>Maryland</i>, +in honour of Charles I.'s queen, Henrietta Maria. Just after the +Restoration of Charles II. in 1660, when the country was full of +loyalty, a new colony, <i>Carolina</i>, was founded, taking its name from +<i>Carolus</i>, the Latin for "Charles." Afterwards this colony was divided +into two, and became North and South Carolina.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<p>To the north of Maryland lay the <i>New Netherlands</i>, for Holland had +also colonized here. In the seventeenth century this little nation was +for a time equal to the greatest nations in Europe. The Dutch had very +soon followed the example of that other little nation Portugal, which, +directed by the famous Prince Henry of Portugal, had been the first of +all the European nations to explore far-off lands. Holland was as +important on the seas as Spain or England; but this could not last +long. The Dutch and the English fought several campaigns, and in the +end the Dutch were beaten.</p> + +<p>In 1667 the New Netherlands were yielded up to England. The name of +the colony was changed to <i>New York</i>, and its capital, New Amsterdam, +was given the same name. This was in honour of the sailor prince, +James, Duke of York, afterwards the unhappy King James II. Another of +the Stuarts who gave his name to a district of North America was +Prince Rupert, the nephew of Charles I., who fought so hard for the +king against Cromwell. In 1670 the land round Hudson Bay was given the +name of <i>Rupertsland</i>.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, but not often, the new colonies were given the names of +their founders. William Penn, who founded the Quaker colony of +<i>Pennsylvania</i>, gave it this name in honour of his father, Admiral +Penn. <i>Sylvania</i> means "land of woods," and comes from the Latin +<i>sylvanus</i>, or "woody."</p> + +<p>But it is not only in America that the place-names<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> tell us the +stories of heroism and romance. All over the world, from the icy lands +round the Poles to the tropical districts of Africa, India, and +Australia, these stories can be read. The spirit in which the early +Portuguese adventurers sailed along the coast of Africa is shown in +the name they gave to what we now know as the <i>Cape of Good Hope</i>. +Bartholomew Diaz called it the <i>Cape of Storms</i>, for he had discovered +it only after terrible battlings with the waves; but when he sailed +home to tell his news the king of Portugal said that this was not a +good name, but it should instead be called the <i>Cape of Good Hope</i>, +for past it lay the sea passage to India which men had been seeking +for years. And so the <i>Cape of Good Hope</i> it remains to this day.</p> + +<p>After this it was not long before the Portuguese explored the south +and east coasts of Africa and the west coast of India to the very +south, where they took the <i>Spice Islands</i> for their own. From these +the Portuguese brought home great quantities of spices, which they +sold at high prices in Europe.</p> + +<p>It was the great explorer Ferdinand Magellan who first sailed round +the world, being sure, as he said, that he could reach the Spice +Islands by sailing west. And so he started on this expedition, sailing +through the straits which have ever since been known as the <i>Magellan +Straits</i> to the south of South America, into the Pacific, or +"Peaceful," Ocean, and then ever west, until he came round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> by the +east to Spain again, after three years of great hardship and wonderful +adventure.</p> + +<p>The adventures of the early explorers most often took the form of +seeking a new and shorter passage from one ocean to another, and so +many straits bear the names of the explorers. The Elizabethan +explorer, Martin Frobisher, sought for a "North-west Passage" from the +Atlantic to the Pacific, and for a time it was thought that he had +found it in the very north of North America. But it was afterwards +found that the "passage," which had already been given the name of +<i>Frobisher's Straits</i>, was really only an inlet, and afterwards it +became known as <i>Lumley's Inlet</i>.</p> + +<p>Frobisher never discovered a North-west Passage, for the ships of +those days were not fitted out in a way to enable the sailors to bear +the icy cold of these northern regions. Many brave explorers tried +later to discover it. Three times John Davis made a voyage for this +purpose but never succeeded, though <i>Davis Strait</i> commemorates his +heroic attempts. Hudson and Baffin explored in these waters, as the +names <i>Hudson Bay</i> and <i>Baffin Bay</i> remind us.</p> + +<p>It was nearly two hundred years later that Sir John Franklin sailed +with an expedition in two boats, the <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i>, determined +to find the passage. He found it, but died in the attempt; but, +strangely enough, his name was not given to any strait, though later +it was given to all the islands of the Arctic Archipelago.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<p>The winning of India by the British in the eighteenth century did not +give us many new English names. India was not, like the greater part +of America, a wild country inhabited by savage peoples. It had an +older civilization than the greater part of Europe, and the only +reason that it was weak enough to be conquered was that the many races +who lived there could not agree among themselves. Most of the +place-names of India are native names given by natives, for centuries +before France and England began to struggle for its possession in the +eighteenth century India had passed through a long and varied history.</p> + +<p>When we remember that the natives of India have no name to describe +the whole continent, it helps us to understand that India is in no way +a single country. The British Government have given the continent the +name <i>India</i>, taking it from the great river Indus, which itself takes +its name from an old word, <i>sindhu</i>, meaning "river."</p> + +<p>In the days of the early explorers, after the islands discovered by +Columbus were called the <i>West Indies</i>, some people began to call the +Indian continent the <i>East Indies</i>, to distinguish it; and some of the +papers about India drawn up for the information of Parliament about +Indian affairs still use this name, but it is not a familiar use to +most people.</p> + +<p>The mistake which Columbus and the early explorers made in thinking +America was India has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> caused a good deal of confusion. The natives of +North America were called Indians, and it was only long afterwards, in +fact quite lately, that people began to write and speak of the natives +of India as <i>Indians</i>. When it was printed in the newspapers that +Indians were fighting for the British Empire with the armies in +France, the use of the word <i>Indian</i> seemed wrong to a great many +people; but it is now becoming so common that it will probably soon +seem quite right. When it is used with the old meaning we shall have +to say the "Indians of North America." Some people use the word +<i>Hindu</i> to describe the natives of India; but this is not correct, as +only <i>some</i> of the natives of India are Hindus, just as the name +<i>Hindustan</i> (a Persian name meaning "land of the Hindus," as +<i>Afghanistan</i> means "land of the Afghans"), which some old writers on +geography used for India, is really the name of one part of the land +round the river Ganges, where the language known as <i>Hindi</i> is spoken.</p> + +<p>The place-names of India given by natives of the many different races +which have lived in the land could fill a book with their stories +alone. We can only mention a few. The name of the great range of +mountains which runs across the north of the continent, the +<i>Himalayas</i>, means in Sanskrit, the oldest language used in India, the +"home of snow." <i>Bombay</i> takes its name from <i>Mumba</i>, the name of a +goddess of an early tribe who occupied the dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>trict round Bombay. +<i>Calcutta</i>, which stretches over ground where there were formerly +several villages, takes its name from one of these. Its old form was +<i>Kalikuti</i>, which means the "ghauts," or passes, leading to the temple +of the goddess Kali.</p> + +<p>In Australia, where a beginning of colonization was made through the +discoveries of Captain Cook towards the end of the eighteenth century, +the place-names were sometimes given from places at home, sometimes +after persons, but they have hardly the same romance as the early +American names.</p> + +<p><i>Botany Bay</i> was the name chosen by Captain Cook in a moment of +enthusiasm for an inlet of New South Wales. He gave it this name +because of the great number of plants and flowers which grow there.</p> + +<p>In Africa a good deal of history can be learned from the place-names. +Although the north of Africa had for many hundreds of years had its +part in the civilization of the countries round the Mediterranean Sea, +the greater part of Africa had remained an unexplored region—the +"Dark Continent," as it was called. In the fifteenth century the +Portuguese sailors crept along the western coast, and afterwards along +the south, as we have seen, past the Cape of Good Hope. But the +interior of the continent remained for long an unexplored region.</p> + +<p>The Dutch had, very soon after the discovery of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> the Cape, made a +settlement there, which was known as <i>Cape Colony</i>. This was +afterwards won by the English; but many Dutchmen still stayed there, +and though, since the Boer War, when the Boers, or Dutch, in South +Africa tried to win their independence, the whole of South Africa +belongs to the British Empire, still there are naturally many Dutch +names given by the early Dutch settlers. Some of these became very +well known to English people in the Boer War. <i>Bloemfontein</i> is one of +these names, coming from the Dutch word for "spring" (<i>fontein</i>), and +that of Jan Bloem, one of the farmers who first settled there. Another +well-known place in the Transvaal, <i>Pietermaritzburg</i>, took its name +from the two leaders who led the Boers out of Cape Colony when they +felt that the English were becoming too strong there. These leaders +were Pieter Retief and Georit Maritz. This movement of the Boers into +the Transvaal was called the "Great Trek," <i>trek</i> being a Dutch word +for a journey or migration of this sort. Since the days of the Boer +War this word has been regularly used in English with this same +meaning. Like the English settlers in America, the Dutch settlers in +South Africa sometimes gave the names of places in Holland to their +new settlements. <i>Utrecht</i> is an example of this.</p> + +<p>Up to the very end of the nineteenth century no European country +besides England had any great possessions in Africa. The Portuguese +still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> held the coast lands between Zululand (so called from the +fierce black natives who lived there) and Mozambique. Egypt had come +practically under British rule soon after the days of Napoleon, and in +the middle of the nineteenth century the great explorers Livingstone +and Stanley had explored the lands along the Zambesi River and a great +part of Central Africa. Stanley went right across the centre of the +continent, and discovered the lake <i>Albert Edward Nyanza</i>. <i>Nyanza</i> is +the African word for "lake," and the name Albert Edward was given in +honour of the Prince Consort. <i>Victoria Nyanza</i>, so called after Queen +Victoria, had been discovered some years before. It was all these +discoveries which led to the colonization of Africa by the nations of +Europe.</p> + +<p>In 1884 the great German statesman, Prince Bismarck, set up the German +flag in Damaraland, the coast district to the north of the Orange +River; and soon after a German colony was set up in the lands between +the Portuguese settlements and the Equator. This was simply called +German East Africa. At the same time the other nations of Europe +suddenly realized that if they meant to have part of Africa they must +join in the scramble at once. There were soon a British East Africa, a +Portuguese East Africa, a Portuguese West Africa, a German South-west +Africa, and so on. All these are names which might have been given in +a hurry, and in them we seem to read the haste of the Euro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>pean +nations to seize on the only lands in the world which were still +available. They are very different from the descriptive names which +the early Portuguese adventurers had strewn along the coast, like +<i>Sierra Leone</i>, or "the lion mountain;" <i>Cape Verde</i>, or "the green +cape," so called from its green grass.</p> + +<p>Still, romance was not dead even yet. There is one district of South +Africa which takes its name in the old way from that of a person. +<i>Rhodesia</i>, the name given to Mashonaland and Matabeleland, was so +called after Mr. Cecil Rhodes, a young British emigrant, who went out +from England in very weak health and became perfectly strong, at the +same time winning a fortune for himself in the diamond fields of +Kimberley. He devoted himself heart and soul to the strengthening of +British power in South Africa, and it is fitting that this province +should by its name keep his memory fresh.</p> + +<p>The story of the struggle in South Africa between Boer and Briton can +be partly read in its place-names; and the story of the struggle +between old and new settlers in Canada can be similarly read in the +place-names of that land.</p> + +<p>The first settlers in Canada were the French, and the descendants of +these first settlers form a large proportion of the Canadian +population. Many places in Canada still have, of course, the names +which the first French settlers gave them.</p> + +<p>The Italian, John Cabot, had sailed to Canada a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> few years after +Columbus discovered America, sent by the English king, Henry VII., but +no settlements were made. Thirty-seven years later the French sailor, +Jacques Cartier, was sent by the French king, Francis I., to explore +there. Cartier sailed up the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far as the spot +where Montreal now stands. The name was given by Cartier, and means +"royal mount." It was Cartier, too, who gave Canada its name; but he +thought that this was already the Indian name for the land. A story is +told that some Red Indians were trying to talk to him and making +signs, and they pointed to some houses, saying, "Cannata." Cartier +thought they meant that this was the name of the country, but he was +mistaken. They were, perhaps, pointing out their village, for +<i>cannata</i> is the Indian name for "village."</p> + +<p>Cartier, like Cabot, sailed away again, and the first real founder of +a settlement in Canada was the Frenchman, Samuel de Champlain, who +made friends with the Indians, and explored the upper parts of the +river Lawrence, and gave his name to the beautiful <i>Lake Champlain</i>, +which he discovered. It was he who founded <i>Quebec</i>, giving it this +Breton name. Sailors from Brittany had ventured as far as the coast of +Canada in the time of Columbus, and had given its name to <i>Cape +Breton</i>. And so French names spread through Canada. Later, in one of +the wars of the eighteenth century, England won Canada from France; +but these French names<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> still remain to tell the tale of French +adventure and heroism in that land.</p> + +<p>We have seen many names in new lands, some of them given by people +from the Old World who settled in these lands. In the great European +War we have seen people from these new lands coming back to fight in +some of the most ancient countries of the Old World. The splendid +Australian troops who fought in Gallipoli sprinkled many new names +over the land they won and lost. One, at least, will always remain on +the maps. <i>Anzac</i>, where the Colonials made their historic landing, +will never be forgotten. It was a new name, made up of the initial +letters of the words "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps," and will +remain for ever one of the most honoured names invented in the +twentieth century.</p> + +<p>Children who like history can read whole chapters in the place-names +of the old world and the new.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>STORIES IN OLD LONDON NAMES.</h3> + + +<p>It is not only in the names of continents, countries, and towns that +stories of the past can be read. The names of the old streets and +buildings (or even of new streets which have kept their old names) in +our old towns are full of stories. Especially is this true about +London, the centre of the British Empire, and almost the centre of the +world's history. It will be interesting not only to little Londoners, +but to other children as well, to examine some of the old London +names, and see what stories they can tell.</p> + +<p>Naturally the most interesting names of all are to be found in what we +now call "the City," meaning the centre of London, which was at one +time all the London there was.</p> + +<p>We have seen that London was in the time of the Britons just a fort, +and that it became important in Roman times, and a town grew up around +it. But this town in the Middle Ages, and even so late as the +eighteenth century, was not at all like the London we know to-day. +London now is really a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> county, and stretches away far into four +counties; but mediæval London was like a small country town, though a +very important and gay and busy town, because it was the capital.</p> + +<p>Many of the names in the City take us back to the very earliest days +of the capital. This part of London stands on slightly rising ground, +and near the river Thames, just the sort of ground which early people +would choose upon which to build a fortress or a village. The names of +two of the chief City streets, the Strand and Fleet Street, help to +show us something of what London was like in its earliest days. A few +years ago, in a famous case in a court of law, one of the lawyers +asked a witness what he was doing in the Strand at a certain time. The +witness, a witty Irishman, answered with a solemn face, "Picking +seaweed." Everybody laughed, because the idea of picking seaweed in +the very centre of London was so funny. But a strand <i>is</i> a shore, and +when the name was given to the London <i>Strand</i> it was not a paved +street at all, but the muddy shore of the river Thames.</p> + +<p>Then <i>Fleet Street</i> marks the path by which the little river Fleet ran +into the Thames. The river had several tributaries, which were covered +over in this way, and several of them are used as sewers to carry away +the sewage of the city. There is a <i>Fleet Street</i>, too, in Hampstead, +in the north-west of London, and this marks the beginning of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +course of the same little river Fleet which got its water from the +high ground of Hampstead.</p> + +<p>This river has given us still another famous London name. It flowed +past what is now called King's Cross, and here its banks were so steep +that it was called <i>Hollow</i>, or <i>Hole-bourne</i>, and from this we get +the name <i>Holborn</i>.</p> + +<p>The City being the centre of London had a certain amount of trading +and bargaining from the earliest times. In those times there were no +such things as shops. People bought and sold in markets, and the name +of the busy City street, <i>Cheapside</i>, reminds us of this. It was +called in early times the <i>Chepe</i>, and took its name from the Old +English word <i>ceap</i>, "a bargain."</p> + +<p>At the end of Cheapside runs the street called <i>Poultry</i>, and this, so +an old chronicler tells us, has its name from the fact that a fowl or +poultry market was regularly held there up to the sixteenth century. +The name of another famous City street, <i>Cornhill</i>, tells us that a +corn market used to be held there. Another name, <i>Gracechurch Street</i>, +reminds us of an old grass market. It took its name from an old +church, St. Benet Grasschurch, which was probably so called because +the grass market was held under its walls.</p> + +<p><i>Smithfield</i> is the great London meat market now; but its name means +"smooth field," and in the Middle Ages it was used as a cattle and hay +market, and on days which were not market days games<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> and tournaments +took place there. Later its name became famous in English history for +the "fires of Smithfield," when men and women were burned to death +there for refusing to accept the state religion.</p> + +<p>Many London names come from churches and buildings which no longer +exist. The names help us to picture a London very different from the +London of to-day. One of the busiest streets in that part of the City +round Fleet Street where editors and journalists, and printers and +messengers are working day and night to produce the newspapers which +carry the news of the day far and wide over England, is <i>Blackfriars</i>. +This is a very different place from the spot where the Dominicans, or +"Black Friars," built their priory in the thirteenth century.</p> + +<p>In those days the friars chose the busiest parts of the little English +towns to build their houses in, so that they could preach and help the +people. They thought that the earlier monks had chosen places for +their monasteries too far from the people. There were grey friars and +white friars, Austin friars and crutched friars, all of whose names +remain in the London of to-day.</p> + +<p>There were many monasteries and convents in the larger London which +soon grew up round the City, and in the City itself we have a street +whose name keeps the memory of one convent of nuns. The street called +the <i>Minories</i> marks the place where a convent of nuns of St. Clare +was founded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> in the thirteenth century. The Latin name for these nuns +is <i>Sorores Minores</i>, or "Lesser Sisters," just as the Franciscans, or +grey friars, were <i>Fratres Minores</i>, or "Lesser Brethren." And so from +the Latin <i>minores</i> we get the name Minories as the name of a London +street, standing where this convent once stood.</p> + +<p>The name of the street <i>London Wall</i> reminds us of the time when +London was a walled city with its gates, which were closed at night +and opened every morning. Many streets keep the names of the old +gates, like <i>Ludgate Hill</i>, <i>Aldersgate</i>, <i>Bishopsgate</i>.</p> + +<p>The great <i>Tower of London</i> still stands to show us how London was +defended in the old feudal days; but <i>Tower Bridge</i>, the bridge which +crosses the river at that point, is a modern bridge, built in 1894. +The name <i>Cripplegate</i> still remains, and the story it has to tell us +is that in the Middle Ages there stood outside the city walls beyond +this gate the hospital of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. It was a hospital +for lepers; but St. Giles is the patron saint of cripples, and so this +gate of the city got the name of Cripplegate, because it was the +nearest to the church of the patron saint of cripples.</p> + +<p>This church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields no longer remains; but we have +<i>St. Martin's-in-the-Fields</i>, to remind us of the difference between +Trafalgar Square to-day and its condition not quite two hundred years +ago, when this church was built.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that even at the very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> end of the eighteenth +century London was just a tiny town lying along the river. At that +time many of the nobles and rich merchants were building their +mansions in what is now the West Central district of London. The north +side of Queen Square, Bloomsbury, was left open, so that the people +who lived there could enjoy the view of the Highgate and Hampstead +hills, to which the open country stretched. Even now this end of Queen +Square is closed only by a railing, but a great mass of streets and +houses stretches far beyond Hampstead and Highgate now.</p> + +<p><i>Trafalgar Square</i> itself got its name in honour of Nelson, the hero +of the great victory of Trafalgar. The great column with the statue of +Nelson stands in the square.</p> + +<p>This brings us to one of the most interesting of old London names. On +one side of the square stands <i>Charing Cross</i>, the busiest spot in +London. At this point there once stood the last of the nine beautiful +crosses which King Edward III. set up at the places where the coffin +of his wife, Eleanor, was set to rest in the long journey from +Lincolnshire, where she died, to her grave in Westminster Abbey; and +so it got its name. A fine modern cross has been set up in memory of +Edward's cross, which has long since disappeared.</p> + +<p>The district of Westminster takes its name, of course, from the abbey; +and the name <i>Broad Sanctuary</i> remains to remind us of the sanctuary +in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> which, as in many churches of the Middle Ages, people could take +refuge even from the Law. <i>Covent Garden</i> took its name from a convent +garden belonging to the abbey.</p> + +<p>One of the oldest parts of London is <i>Charterhouse Square</i>, where, +until a year or two ago, there stood the famous boys' school of this +name. The school took its name from the old monastery of the +Charterhouse, which King Henry VIII. brought to an end because the +monks would not own that he was head of the Church instead of the +Pope. They suffered a dreadful death, being hanged, drawn, and +quartered as traitors. The monastery was taken, like so many others, +by the king, and afterwards became a school. But the school was +removed in 1872 to an airier district at Godalming. Part of the old +building is still used as a boys' day school.</p> + +<p>The word <i>Charterhouse</i> was the English name for a house of +Carthusians, a very strict order of monks, whose first house was the +Grande Chartreuse in France.</p> + +<p>Not far from the Charterhouse is <i>Ely Place</i>, with the beautiful old +church of St. Ethelreda. This was, in the Middle Ages, a chapel used +by the Bishop of Ely when he came to London, and that is how Ely +Place, still one of the quietest and quaintest spots in London, got +its name.</p> + +<p>People who go along Ludgate Hill to St. Paul's must have noticed many +curious names. Perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> the quaintest of all is <i>Paternoster Row</i>. +This street, which takes its name from the Latin name of the "Our +Father," or Lord's Prayer, got its name from the fact that in the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries many sellers of prayer-books and +texts collected at this spot, on account of it being near the great +church of St. Paul's. Paternoster Row is still full of booksellers.</p> + +<p><i>Ave Maria Lane</i> and <i>Amen Corner</i>, just near, got their names in +imitation of Paternoster Row, the <i>Ave Maria</i>, or "Hail, Mary!" being +the words used by the angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin at the +Annunciation, and <i>Amen</i> being, of course, the ending to the +<i>paternoster</i>, as to most prayers.</p> + +<p>Not far from St. Paul's is the Church of <i>St. Mary-le-Bow</i>. It used to +be said that the true Londoner had to be born within the sound of +Bow-bells, and the old story tells us that it was these bells which +Dick Whittington heard telling him to turn back when he had lost hope +of making his fortune, and was leaving London for the country again. +The present Church of St. Mary-le-Bow was built by Sir Christopher +Wren, the great seventeenth-century architect, who built St. Paul's +and several other of the most beautiful London churches after they had +been destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. But underneath the present +Church of St. Mary-le-Bow is the crypt, which was not destroyed in the +fire. This crypt was built, like the former church, in Norman times, +and the church took its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> name of <i>bow</i> from the arches upon which it +was built in the Norman way, it being the first church in London to be +built in this way. The church is generally called "Bow Church."</p> + +<p>Another famous old London church, the <i>Temple Church</i>, which is now +used as the chapel of the lawyers at the Inns of Court, got its name +from the fact that it belonged to and was built by the Knights +Templars in the twelfth century. These knights were one of those +peculiar religious orders which joined the life of a soldier to that +of a monk, and played a great part in the Crusades. King Edward III. +brought the order to an end, and took their property; but the Temple +Church, with its tombs and figures of armoured knights in brass, +remains to keep their memory fresh.</p> + +<p>We may mention two other names of old London streets which take us +back to the Middle Ages. In the City we have the street called <i>Old +Jewry</i>, and this reminds us of the time when in all the more important +towns of England in the early Middle Ages a part was put aside for the +Jews. This was called the <i>Ghetto</i>. The Jews were much disliked in the +Middle Ages because of the treatment of Our Lord by their forefathers; +but the kings often protected them because, in spite of everything, +the Jews grew rich, and the kings were able to borrow money of them. +In 1290, however, Edward I. banished all the Jews from England, and +they did not return until the days of Cromwell. But the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> name of the +Old Jewry reminds us of the ghetto which was an important part of old +London.</p> + +<p>Another famous City street, <i>Lombard Street</i>, the street of bankers, +got its name from the Italian merchants from Lombardy who set up their +business there, and who became the bankers and money-lenders when +there were no longer any Jews to lend money to the English king and +nobles.</p> + +<p>As time went on London began to grow in a way which seemed alarming to +the people of the seventeenth century, though even then it was but a +tiny town in comparison with the London of to-day. The fashionable +people and courtiers began to build houses in the western "suburbs," +as they were then called, though now they are looked upon as very +central districts. It was chiefly in the seventeenth century that what +we now know as the <i>West End</i> became a residential quarter. Some parts +of the West End are, of course, still the most fashionable parts of +London; but some, like Covent Garden and Lincoln's Inn Fields, have +been given over to business.</p> + +<p>Most of the best-known names in the West End date from the seventeenth +and eighteenth centuries. The most fashionable street of all, +<i>Piccadilly</i>, probably got its name from the very fashionable collar +called a <i>pickadil</i> (from the Spanish word <i>picca</i>, "a spear") which +the fine gentlemen wore as they swaggered through the West End in the +early seventeenth century. <i>Pall Mall</i> and the <i>Mall</i> in St.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> James's +Park took their names from a game which was very fashionable after the +Restoration, but which was already known in the time of Charles I. The +game was called <i>pall-mall</i>, from the French <i>paille-maille</i>. After +the Restoration Charles II. allowed the people to use St. James's +Park, which was a royal park, and Londoners used to watch respectfully +and admiringly as Charles and his brother James played this game.</p> + +<p><i>Spring Gardens</i>, also in St. James's Park, reminds us of the lively +spirits of Restoration times. It was so called because of a fountain +which stood there, and which was so arranged that when a passer-by +trod by accident on a certain valve the waters spurted forth and +drenched him. We should not think this so funny now as people did +then.</p> + +<p>At the same time that the West End was growing, poorer districts were +spreading to the north and east of the City. <i>Moorfields</i> (which tells +us by its name what it was like in the early London days) was built +over. <i>Spitalfields</i> (which took its name from one of the many +hospitals which religious people built in and near mediæval London) +and <i>Whitechapel</i> also filled up, and became centres of trade and +manufacture. The games and sports which amused the people in these +poorer quarters were not so refined as the ball-throwing of the +princes and courtiers. In the name <i>Balls Pond Road</i>, Islington, we +are reminded of the duck-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>hunting which was one of the sports of the +common people.</p> + +<p>As time went on and London became larger and more crowded, the +fashionable people began to go away each summer to drink the waters at +Bath and Tunbridge Wells. But in London itself there were several +springs and wells whose waters were supposed to be good for people's +health, and these have given us some of the best-known London names. +Near <i>Holywell Street</i> there were several of these wells; and along +<i>Well Walk</i>, in the north-west suburb of Hampstead, a procession of +gaily-dressed people might regularly be seen in Charles II.'s time +going to drink the waters. <i>Clerkenwell</i> also took its name from a +well which was believed to be mediæval and even miraculous. +<i>Bridewell</i>, the name of the famous prison, also came from the name of +a well dedicated to St. Bride.</p> + +<p>Many of the great streets and squares of the West End of London have +taken their names from the houses of noblemen who have lived there, or +from the names of the rich owners of property in these parts. +<i>Northumberland Avenue</i>, opening off Trafalgar Square, takes its name +from Northumberland House, built there in the time of James I. +<i>Arundel Street</i>, running down to the Embankment from the Strand, is +so called in memory of Arundel House, the home of the Earl of Arundel, +which used to stand here. It was there that the famous collection of +statues known as the "Arundel Marbles" was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> first collected. They were +presented to Oxford University in 1667.</p> + +<p>Just near Charing Cross there is a part of old London called the +<i>Adelphi</i>. This district takes its name from a fine group of buildings +put up there in the middle of the eighteenth century by the two famous +brother architects Robert and William Adam. <i>Adelphi</i> is the Greek +word for "brothers," but the name seems very peculiar applied in this +way.</p> + +<p>The name of <i>Mayfair</i>, the very centre of fashion in the West End, +reminds us that in this magnificent quarter of London a fair used to +be held in May in the time of Charles II. This gives us an idea of how +the district must have changed since then. <i>Farm Street</i>, in Mayfair, +has its name from a farm which was still there in the middle of the +eighteenth century. The ground is now taken up by stables and +coach-houses. <i>Half-Moon Street</i>, another fashionable street running +out of Piccadilly, takes its name from a public house which was built +on this corner in 1730.</p> + +<p>These old names give us some idea of what London was like at different +times in the past; but another very interesting group of names are +those which are being made in the greater London of to-day. One of the +commonest words used by Londoners to-day is the <i>Underground</i>. If an +eighteenth-century Londoner could come back and talk to us to-day he +would not know what we meant by this word.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> For the great system of +underground railways to which it refers was only made in the later +years of the nineteenth century. The <i>Twopenny Tube</i> was the name of +one of the first lines of these underground railways. It was so called +because the trains ran through great circular tunnels, like the +underground railways which connect all parts of London to-day. It has +now become quite a habit of Londoners to talk of going "by Tube" when +they mean by any of the underground railways.</p> + +<p>One of these lines has a very peculiar and rather ugly name. It is +called the <i>Bakerloo Railway</i>, because it runs from Baker Street to +Waterloo. It certainly makes us think that the Londoners of long ago +showed much better taste in the names they invented.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>WORDS MADE BY GREAT WRITERS.</h3> + + +<p>As we have seen, languages while they are living are always growing +and changing. We have seen how new names have been made as time went +on. But many new words besides names are constantly being added to a +language; for just as grown-up people use more words than children, +and educated people use more words than uneducated or less educated +people, so, too, <i>nations</i> use more words as time goes on. Every word +must have been used a first time by some one; but of course it is +impossible to know who were the makers of most words. Even new words +cannot often be traced to their makers. Some one uses a new word, and +others pick it up, and it passes into general use, while everybody has +forgotten who made it.</p> + +<p>But one very common way in which people learn to use new words is +through reading the books of great writers. Sometimes these writers +have made new words which their readers have seen to be very good, and +have then begun to use themselves. Sometimes these great writers have +made use of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> words which, though not new, were very rare, and +immediately these words have become popular and ordinary words.</p> + +<p>The first great English poet was Chaucer, and the great English +philologists feel sure that he must have made many new words and made +many rare words common; but it is not easy to say that Chaucer made +any particular word, because we do not know enough of the language +which was in use at that time to say so. One famous phrase of Chaucer +is often quoted now: "after the schole of Stratford-atte-Bowe," which +he used in describing the French spoken by one of the Canterbury +Pilgrims in his great poem. He meant that this was not pure French, +but French spoken in the way and with the peculiar accent used at +Stratford (a part of London near Bow Church). We now often use the +phrase to describe any accent which is not perfect.</p> + +<p>But though we do not know for certain which words Chaucer introduced, +we do know that this first great English poet must have introduced +many, especially French words; while Wyclif, the first great English +prose writer, who translated part of the Bible from Latin into +English, must also have given us many new words, especially from the +Latin. The English language never changed so much after the time of +Chaucer and Wyclif as it had done before.</p> + +<p>The next really great English poet, Edmund<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> Spenser, who wrote his +wonderful poem, "The Faerie Queene," in the days of Queen Elizabeth, +invented a great many new words. Some of these were seldom or never +used afterwards, but some became ordinary English words. Sometimes his +new words were partly formed out of old words which were no longer +used. The word <i>elfin</i>, which became quite a common word, seems to +have been invented by Spenser. He called a boasting knight by the name +<i>Braggadocio</i>, and we still use the word <i>braggadocio</i> for vain +boasting. A common expression which we often find used in romantic +tales, and especially in the novels of Sir Walter Scott, <i>derring-do</i>, +meaning "adventurous action," was first used by Spenser. He, however, +took it from Chaucer, who had used it as a <i>verb</i>, speaking of the +<i>dorring-do</i> (or "daring to do") that belonged to a knight. Spenser +made a mistake in thinking Chaucer had used it as a noun, and used it +so himself, making in this way quite a new and very well-sounding +word.</p> + +<p>Another word which Spenser made, and which is still sometimes used, +was <i>fool-happy</i>; but other words, like <i>idlesse</i>, <i>dreariment</i>, +<i>drowsihead</i>, are hardly seen outside his poetry. One reason for this +is that Spenser was telling stories of quaint and curious things, and +he used quaint and curious words which would not naturally pass into +ordinary language.</p> + +<p>The next great name in English literature, and the greatest name of +all, is Shakespeare. Shake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>speare influenced the English language more +than any writer before or since. First of all he made a great many new +words, some very simple and others more elaborate, but all of them so +suitable that they have become a part of the language. Such a common +word as <i>bump</i>, which it would be difficult to imagine ourselves +without, is first found in Shakespeare's writings. <i>Hurry</i>, which +seems to be the only word to express what it stands for, seems also to +have been made by Shakespeare, and also the common word <i>dwindle</i>. +Some other words which Shakespeare made are <i>lonely</i>, <i>orb</i> (meaning +"globe"), <i>illumine</i>, and <i>home-keeping</i>.</p> + +<p>Many others might be quoted, but the great influence which Shakespeare +had on the English language was not through the new words he made, but +in the way his expressions and phrases came to be used as ordinary +expressions. Many people are constantly speaking Shakespeare without +knowing it, for the phrases he used were so exactly right and +expressive that they have been repeated ever since, and often, of +course, by people who do not know where they first came from. We can +only mention a few of these phrases, such as "a Daniel come to +judgment," which Shylock says to Portia in the "Merchant of Venice," +and which is often used now sarcastically. From the same play comes +the expression "pound of flesh," which is now often used to mean what +a person knows to be due to him and is determined to have. "Full of +sound and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> fury, signifying nothing," "to gild refined gold," "to wear +one's heart upon one's sleeve,"—these and hundreds of other phrases +are known by most people to come from Shakespeare; they are used by +many who do not. They describe so splendidly so many things which are +constantly happening that they seem to be the only or at least the +best way of expressing the meanings they signify.</p> + +<p>But not only have hundreds of Shakespeare's own words and phrases +passed into everyday English, but the way in which he turned his +phrases is often imitated. It was Shakespeare who used the phrase to +"out-Herod Herod," and now this is a common form of speech. A +statesman could now quite suitably use the phrase to "out-Asquith +Asquith."</p> + +<p>The next great poet after Shakespeare was Milton. He also gave us a +great many new words and phrases, but not nearly so many as +Shakespeare. Still there are a few phrases which are now so common +that many people use them without even knowing that they come from +Milton's writings. Some of these are "the human face divine," "to hide +one's diminished head," "a dim religious light," "the light fantastic +toe." It was Milton who invented the name <i>pandemonium</i> for the home +of the devils, and now people regularly speak of a state of horrible +noise and disorder as "a pandemonium." Many of those who use the +expression have not the slightest idea of where it came from. The few +words which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> we know were made by Milton are very expressive words. It +was he who invented <i>anarch</i> for the spirit of anarchy or disorder, +and no one has found a better word to express the idea. <i>Satanic</i>, +<i>moon-struck</i>, <i>gloom</i> (to mean "darkness"), <i>echoing</i>, and <i>bannered</i> +are some more well-known words invented by Milton.</p> + +<p>It is not always the greatest writers who have given us the greatest +number of new words. A great prose writer of the seventeenth century, +Sir Thomas Browne, is looked upon as a classical writer, but his works +are only read by a few, not like the great works of Shakespeare and +Milton. Yet Sir Thomas Browne has given many new words to the English +language. This is partly because he deliberately made many new words. +One book of his gave us several hundreds of these words. The reason +his new words remained in the language was that there was a real need +of them.</p> + +<p>Many seventeenth-century writers of plays invented hundreds of new +words, but they tried to invent curious and queer-sounding words, and +very few people liked them. These words never really became part of +the English language. They are "one-man" words, to be found only in +the writings of their inventors. Yet it was one of these fanciful +writers who invented the very useful word <i>dramatist</i> for "a writer of +plays."</p> + +<p>But the words made by Sir Thomas Browne were quite different. Such +ordinary words as <i>medical</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> <i>literary</i>, and <i>electricity</i> were first +used by him. He made many others too, not quite so common, but words +which later writers and speakers could hardly do without.</p> + +<p>Another seventeenth-century writer, John Evelyn, the author of the +famous <i>Diary</i> which has taught us so much about the times in which he +lived, was a great maker of words. Most of his new words were made +from foreign words, and as he was much interested in art and music, +many of his words relate to these things. It was Evelyn who introduced +the word <i>opera</i> into English, and also <i>outline</i>, <i>altitude</i>, +<i>monochrome</i> ("a painting in one shade"), and <i>pastel</i>, besides many +other less common words.</p> + +<p>Robert Boyle, a great seventeenth-century writer on science, gave many +new scientific words to the English language. The words <i>pendulum</i> and +<i>intensity</i> were first used by him, and it was he who first used +<i>fluid</i> as a noun.</p> + +<p>The poets Dryden and Pope gave us many new words too.</p> + +<p>Dr. Johnson, the maker of the first great English dictionary, added +some words to the language. As everybody knows who has read that +famous book, Boswell's <i>Life of Johnson</i>, Dr. Johnson was a man who +always said just what he thought, and had no patience with anything +like stupidity. The expression <i>fiddlededee</i>, another way of telling a +person that he is talking nonsense, was made by him. <i>Irascibility</i>, +which means "tendency to be easily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> made cross or angry," is also one +of his words, and so are the words <i>literature</i> and <i>comic</i>.</p> + +<p>The great statesman and political writer, Edmund Burke, was the +inventor of many of our commonest words relating to politics. +<i>Colonial</i>, <i>colonization</i>, <i>electioneering</i>, <i>diplomacy</i>, +<i>financial</i>, and many other words which are in everyday use now, were +made by him.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a great revival +in English literature, since known as the "Romantic Movement." After +the rather stiff manners and writing of the eighteenth century, people +began to have an enthusiasm for all sorts of old and adventurous +things, and a new love for nature and beauty. Sir Walter Scott was the +great novelist of the movement, and also wrote some fine, stirring +ballads and poems. In these writings, which dealt chiefly with the +adventurous deeds of the Middle Ages, Scott used again many old words +which had been forgotten and fallen out of use. He made them everyday +words again.</p> + +<p>The old word <i>chivalrous</i>, which had formerly been used to describe +the institutions connected with knighthood, he used in a new way, and +the word has kept this meaning ever since. It has now always the +meaning of courtesy and gentleness towards the weak, but before Sir +Walter Scott used it it had not this meaning at all. Scott also +revived words like <i>raid</i> and <i>foray</i>, his novels, of course, being +full of descriptions of fighting on the borders of England<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> and +Scotland. It was this same writer who introduced the Scottish word +<i>gruesome</i> into the language.</p> + +<p>Later in the century another Scotsman, Thomas Carlyle, made many new +words which later writers and speakers have used. They are generally +rather forcible and not very dignified words, for Carlyle's writings +were critical of almost everything and everybody, and he seemed to +love rather ugly words, which made the faults he described seem +contemptible or ridiculous. It was he who made the words <i>croakery</i>, +<i>dry-as-dust</i>, and <i>grumbly</i>, and he introduced also the Scottish word +<i>feckless</i>, which describes a person who is a terribly bad manager, +careless and disorderly in his affairs, the sort of person whom +Carlyle so much despised.</p> + +<p>The great writers of the present time seem to be unwilling to make new +words. The chief word-makers of to-day are the people who talk a new +slang (and of these we shall see something in another chapter), and +the scientific writers, who, as they are constantly making new +discoveries, have to find words to describe them.</p> + +<p>Some of the poets of the present day have used new words and phrases, +but they are generally strange words, which no one thinks of using for +himself. The poet John Masefield used the word <i>waps</i> and the phrase +<i>bee-loud</i>, which is very expressive, but which we cannot imagine +passing into ordinary speech. Two poets of the Romantic Movement, +Southey and Coleridge, used many new and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> strange words just in this +way, but these, again, never passed into the ordinary speech of +English people.</p> + +<p>One maker of new words in the nineteenth century must not be +forgotten. This was Lewis Carroll, the author of "Alice in Wonderland" +and "Through the Looking-Glass." He made many new and rather queer +words; but they expressed so well the meaning he gave to them that +some of them have become quite common. This writer generally made +these curious words out of two others. The word <i>galumph</i> (which is +now put as an ordinary word in English dictionaries) he made out of +<i>gallop</i> and <i>triumph</i>. It means "to go galloping in triumph." Another +of Lewis Carroll's words, <i>chortle</i>, is even more used. It also has +the idea of "triumphing," and is generally used to mean "chuckling +(either inwardly or outwardly) in triumph." It was probably made out +of the words <i>chuckle</i> and <i>snort</i>.</p> + +<p>But great writers have not only added new words and phrases to the +language by inventing them; sometimes the name of a book itself has +taken on a general meaning. Sir Thomas More in the time of Henry VIII. +wrote his famous book, "Utopia," to describe a country in which +everything was done as it should be. <i>Utopia</i> (which means "Nowhere," +More making the word out of two Greek words, <i>ou</i>, "not," and <i>topos</i>, +"place") was the name of the ideal state he described, and ever since +such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> imaginary states where all goes well have been described as +"Utopias."</p> + +<p>Then, again, a scene or place in a great book may be so splendidly +described, and interest people so much, that it, too, comes to be used +in a general way. People often use the name <i>Vanity Fair</i> to describe +a frivolous way of life. But the original <i>Vanity Fair</i> was, of +course, one of the places of temptation through which Christian had to +pass on his way to the Heavenly City in John Bunyan's famous book, the +"Pilgrim's Progress." Another of these places was the <i>Slough of +Despond</i>, which is now quite generally used to describe a condition of +great discouragement and depression. The adjective <i>Lilliputian</i>, +meaning "very small," comes from <i>Lilliput</i>, the land of little people +in which Gulliver found himself in Swift's famous book, "Gulliver's +Travels."</p> + +<p>Then many common expressions are taken from characters in well-known +books. We often speak of some one's <i>Man Friday</i>, meaning a right-hand +man or general helper; but the original Man Friday was, of course, the +savage whom Robinson Crusoe found on his desert island, and who acted +afterwards as his servant.</p> + +<p>In describing a person as <i>quixotic</i> we do not necessarily think of +the original Don Quixote in the novel of the great Spanish writer, +Cervantes. Don Quixote was always doing generous but rather foolish +things, and the adjective <i>quixotic</i> now describes this sort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> of +action. A quite different character, the Jew in Shakespeare's play, +"The Merchant of Venice," has given us the expression "a Shylock." +From Dickens's famous character Mrs. Gamp in "Martin Chuzzlewit," who +always carried a bulgy umbrella, we get the word <i>gamp</i>, rather a +vulgar name for "umbrella."</p> + +<p>We speak of "a Sherlock Holmes" when we mean to describe some one who +is very quick at finding out things. Sherlock Holmes is the hero of +the famous detective stories of Conan Doyle.</p> + +<p>It is a very great testimony to the power of a writer when the names +of persons or places in his books become in this way part of the +English language.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>WORDS THE BIBLE HAS GIVEN US.</h3> + + +<p>A great English historian, writing of the sixteenth century, once +said, "The English people became the people of a book." The book he +meant was, of course, the Bible. When England became Protestant the +people found a new interest in the Bible. In Catholic times educated +people, like priests, had read the Bible chiefly in Latin, though the +New Testament had been translated into English. But most of the people +could not even read. They knew the Bible stories only from the sermons +and teaching of the priests, and from the great number of statues of +Biblical kings and prophets which covered the beautiful churches of +the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>But the new Protestant teachers were much more enthusiastic about the +Bible. Many of them found the whole of their religion in its pages, +and were constantly quoting texts of Scripture. New translations of +the New Testament were made, and at last, in 1611, the wonderful +translation of the whole Bible known as the "Authorised Version," +because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> it was the translation ordered and approved by the +Government, was published. About the same time a translation into +English was made for Catholics, and this was hardly less beautiful. It +is known as the "Douai Bible" because it was published at Douai by +Catholics who had fled from England.</p> + +<p>From that time the Bible has been the book which English people have +read most, and it has had an immense influence on the English +language.</p> + +<p>Even in the Middle Ages the Bible had given many new words to the +language. Names of Eastern animals, trees, and plants, etc., like +<i>lion</i>, <i>camel</i>, <i>cedar</i>, <i>palm</i>, <i>myrrh</i>, <i>hyssop</i>, <i>gem</i>, are +examples of new words learned from the Bible at this time.</p> + +<p>But the translations of the Bible in the Reformation period had a much +greater effect than this. Many words which were already dying out were +used by the translators, and so kept their place in the English +language. Examples of such words are <i>apparel</i> and <i>raiment</i> for +"clothes." These words are not used so often as the more ordinary word +<i>clothes</i> even now, but it is quite probable that they would have +passed out of use altogether if the translators of the Bible had not +saved them.</p> + +<p>There are many words of this sort which were saved in this way, but +they are chiefly used in poetry and "fine" writing. We do not speak of +the "firmament" in an ordinary way; but this word, taken from the +first chapter of the Bible, is still used as a more poetical name for +<i>sky</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the translators of the Bible must also be put among the makers of +new English words. Sometimes the translator could not find what he +considered a satisfactory word to express the meaning of the Greek +word he wished to translate. He, therefore, made a new word, or put +two old words together to express exactly what he thought the Greek +word meant. The word <i>beautiful</i> may not have been actually invented +by the translator, William Tyndale, but it is not found in any book +earlier than his translation of the New Testament. It seems a very +natural and necessary word to us now. It was Tyndale who first used +the words <i>peacemaker</i> and <i>scapegoat</i> and the compound word +<i>long-suffering</i>; and another famous translator, Miles Coverdale, who +invented the expressions <i>loving-kindness</i> and <i>tender mercy</i>.</p> + +<p>But the great effect which the Bible has had on the English language +is not in the preserving of old words and the making of new. Its chief +effect has been in the way many of its expressions and phrases have +passed into everyday use, so that people often use Biblical phrases +without even knowing that they are doing so, just as we saw was the +case with many phrases taken from Shakespeare's works.</p> + +<p>Every one knows the expression to <i>cast pearls before swine</i>, and its +meaning, "to give good things to people who are too ignorant to +appreciate them." This expression, taken from the Gospel of St. +Matthew, has now become an ordinary English expres<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>sion. The same is +the case with the expression, <i>the eleventh hour</i>, meaning "just in +time." But perhaps not every one who uses it remembers that it comes +from the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, though, of course, +most people would.</p> + +<p>Other common Biblical expressions are, <i>a labour of love</i>, <i>to hope +against hope</i>, <i>the shadow of death</i>, and so on. When a child is +described as the <i>Benjamin</i> of the family, we know that this means the +youngest and best loved, because the story of Jacob's love for +Benjamin is familiar to every one. Again, when a person is described +as a <i>Pharisee</i> no one needs to have a description of his qualities, +for every one knows the story of the Pharisee and the Publican.</p> + +<p>The Bible is, of course, full of the most poetical ideas and the most +vivid language, and the fact that this language has become the +everyday speech of Englishmen has been most important in the +development of the English language. Without the Bible, which is full +of the richness and colour of Eastern things and early peoples, the +English language might have been much duller and less expressive.</p> + +<p>But the religious writers of the Reformation period gave us another +kind of word besides those found in the translations of the Bible. +Many of these writers thought it was their duty to abuse the people +who did not agree with them on the subject of religion. Tyndale +himself, who invented such beautiful words in his translations, was +the first to use the word<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> <i>dunce</i>. He called the Catholics by this +name, which he made out of the name of a philosopher of the Middle +Ages called Duns Scotus. The Protestants despised the Catholic or +scholastic philosophy. But Duns Scotus was quite a clever man in his +day, and it is curious that his name should have given us the word +<i>dunce</i>, which became quite a common word as time went on.</p> + +<p>Other new words which the Protestants used against the Catholics were +<i>Romish</i>, <i>Romanist</i> (which Luther had used, but which Coverdale was +the first to use in English), <i>popery</i>, <i>popishness</i>, <i>papistical</i>, +<i>monkish</i>, all of which are still used to-day, and still have an +anti-Catholic meaning. It was then that Rome was first described as +<i>Babylon</i>, the meaning of the Protestants being that the city was as +wicked as ancient Babylon, the name of which is used as a type of all +wickedness in the Apocalypse, and these writers often used the words +<i>Babylonian</i> and <i>Babylonish</i> instead of <i>Roman</i>. The name <i>Scarlet +Woman</i>, also taken from the Apocalypse, was also often used to +describe the Catholic Church.</p> + +<p>The expression <i>Roman Catholic</i>, to which no one objects, was invented +later, at the time that it was thought that Charles I. was going to +marry a Spanish princess, and, of course, a Catholic. It was invented +as being more polite than the terms by which the Protestants had so +often abused the Catholics, and it has been used ever since.</p> + +<p>Other new words came from the breaking up of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> Protestantism into +different sects. <i>Puritan</i> was the name given to those who wished to +"purify" the Protestant religion from all the old ceremonies of +Catholicism. The Calvinists (or followers of the French reformer, John +Calvin) believed that souls were "predestined" to go to heaven or to +be lost. The people who were predestined to be lost they described as +<i>reprobate</i>, and this word we still use, but with a different meaning. +A reprobate nowadays is a person who is looked upon as hopelessly bad, +and the word is also sometimes used jokingly.</p> + +<p>The name <i>Protestant</i> itself is interesting. It was first used to +describe the Lutherans, who "protested" against, and would not agree +with, the decisions made by the Emperor Charles V. on the subject of +religion.</p> + +<p>The names of the different forms of Protestantism are often very +interesting, and were, of course, new words invented to describe the +different forms of belief. The first great division was between the +<i>Lutherans</i> and the <i>Calvinists</i>. The meaning of these names is plain. +They were merely the followers of Martin Luther and John Calvin.</p> + +<p>But later on there were many divisions, such as the <i>Baptists</i>, who +were so called because they thought that people should not be baptized +until they were grown up. They also administered the sacrament in a +different way from most other Churches, the person baptized being +dipped in the water. At one time these people were called +<i>Anabaptists</i>, <i>ana</i> being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> the Greek word for "again." But this was +supposed to be a term of abuse similar to those showered on the Roman +Catholics, and in time it died out.</p> + +<p>Then there were the <i>Independents</i>, who were so called because they +believed that each congregation should be independent of every other.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most peculiar name applied to one of the many sects in the +England of the seventeenth century was that of the <i>Quakers</i>. This, +too, was a name of abuse at first; but the "Society of Friends," to +whom it was applied, came sometimes to use it themselves. They were a +people who believed in great simplicity of life and manners and dress, +and had no priests. At their religious meetings silence was kept until +some one was moved to speak. The name was taken from the text, +"quaking at the word of the Lord."</p> + +<p>The names chosen by religious leaders, and those applied to the sects +by their enemies, can teach us a great deal of history.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF PEOPLE.</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>inventor</i> itself means a "finder," and comes to us from the +Latin word <i>invenio</i>, "I find."</p> + +<p>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 +<i>printing-press</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Aldines</i> and <i>Elzevirs</i>—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.</p> + +<p>We speak of a <i>Bradshaw</i> and a <i>Baedeker</i> 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>The famous series of guides now called <i>Baedekers</i> take their name +from Karl Baedeker, a German publisher, who in the first half of the +nineteenth century began to publish this famous series.</p> + +<p>Members of Parliament still speak of the volumes containing the +printed record of what goes on in Parliament as <i>Hansard</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> made +violins in the sixteenth century, and Antonio Stradivari, who was +their pupil. An <i>Amati</i> and a <i>Stradivarius</i>, often called a "Strad" +for short, are the names now given by musicians to the splendid old +violins made by these people.</p> + +<p>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 <i>dahlia</i>, 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 <i>Linnæan Society</i>, is called. The <i>lobelia</i> was so +called after Matthias de Lobel, a Flemish botanist and physician to +King James I. The <i>fuchsia</i> took its name from Leonard Fuchs, a +sixteenth-century botanist, the first German who really studied +botany.</p> + +<p>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 <i>aeroplanes</i> and the +different kinds of aeroplanes, such as the <i>monoplane</i>, <i>biplane</i>, +etc. But these are new names invented in the last twenty years. Some +of the names of airships and aeroplanes are very interesting. The +<i>Taube</i>, for instance, is so called from the German word meaning +"dove," because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> it looks very like a bird when it is up in the sky. +The great German airships called <i>Zeppelins</i> took their name from the +German Count Zeppelin, who invented them; and the splendid French +airships called <i>Fokkers</i> also take their name from their inventor, +and so does the <i>Gotha</i>—name of ill-fame.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Gatling gun</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Another famous gun of which we have heard a great deal in the Great +War is the <i>Maxim gun</i>, which again took its name from its inventor, +Sir Hiram Maxim. The <i>shrapnel</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>ing 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 <i>macadam</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Another useful article, the homely <i>mackintosh</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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. <i>Galvanism</i>, 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.</p> + +<p><i>Mesmerism</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>Another famous discoverer of the powers of electricity, and one who is +still a young man, is Gugli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>elmo 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 +<i>Marconigram</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>sandwich</i>.</p> + +<p>Not unlike the origin of the name sandwich is that of <i>Abernethy</i> +biscuits, so called after the doctor who invented the recipe for +making them.</p> + +<p>It was another doctor, the French physician, Joseph Ignace Guillotin, +who gave his name to the <i>guillotine</i>, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Chesterfield</i> +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 <i>Raglan</i> 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. <i>Bluchers</i> are strong leather +half boots or high shoes, and <i>Wellingtons</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Another article of clothing which was very popular with ladies at one +time was the <i>Garibaldi</i> blouse, which was so called after the red +shirts which were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> worn by the followers of the famous soldier who won +liberty for Italy, Garibaldi.</p> + +<p>The rather vulgar name for ladies' divided skirts—<i>bloomers</i>—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.</p> + +<p>A great many different kinds of carriages and vehicles have been +called by the names of people. The <i>brougham</i>, 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 <i>Victoria</i> 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 <i>hansom</i> 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 <i>stanhope</i>, also called +after its inventor. The general name for a two-wheeled carriage of +this sort used to be the <i>phaeton</i>, 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> + +<p>The names of old Greeks and Romans have given us many words. We speak +of a very rich man as a <i>Crœsus</i>, 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 <i>epicure</i>, from the old Greek philosopher Epicurus, who +taught that the chief aim of life was to feel pleasure. The word +<i>cynic</i>, 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 <i>kunos</i>, "dog."</p> + +<p>We describe a person who chooses to live a very hard life as a +<i>Spartan</i>, 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 <i>Draconian</i> 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.</p> + +<p>The word <i>mausoleum</i>, 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 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +tomb itself, which rises to a height of over one hundred and twelve +feet, is now to be seen in the British Museum.</p> + +<p>The verb <i>to hector</i>, 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 <i>mentor</i> is a person who gives us wise advice, but the original +Mentor was a character in this great poem, the wise counsellor of +Telemachus.</p> + +<p>From the names of great Romans, too, we have many words. If we +describe a person as a <i>Nero</i>, 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. <i>Cæsar</i> came to mean "an emperor;" and the +modern German <i>Kaiser</i> and the Russian <i>Tsar</i> come from this name of +the "noblest Roman of them all."</p> + +<p>An earlier Roman was Fabius Cunctator (or "Fabius the +Procrastinator"), a general who, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>stead 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 <i>Fabian</i>, to describe this kind of tactics.</p> + +<p>The name by which people often describe an unscrupulous politician now +is <i>Machiavellian</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>Another common word taken at first from politics, but now used in a +general sense, is <i>boycott</i>. 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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>boycotter</i>, and the Germans +<i>boycottieren</i>.</p> + +<p>Another Irish name which has given us a common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> word is Burke. +Sometimes in a discussion one person will tell another that he +<i>burkes</i> the question. This means that he is avoiding the real subject +of debate. Or a rumour may be <i>burked</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>bowdlerize</i>. 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."</p> + +<p>Sometimes a badly-dressed or peculiar-looking person is described as a +<i>guy</i>. 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p> + +<p>Certain Christian names have, for reasons which it is not easy to see, +given us words which mean "fool" or "stupid person." The word <i>ninny</i> +comes from Innocent. <i>Noddy</i> probably comes from Nicodemus or +Nicholas. Both these names are used to mean "foolish person" in +France, and so is <i>benêt</i>, which comes from Benedict.</p> + +<p>Some saints' names have given us words which do not seem at first +sight to have any connection with them. The word <i>maudlin</i>, 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 <i>maudlin</i> 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.</p> + +<p>The word <i>tawdry</i>, 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 <i>tawdry</i> came.</p> + +<p><i>St. Anthony's fire</i> is a well-known name for erysipelas, and <i>St. +Vitus's dance</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> the <i>King's Evil</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF ANIMALS.</h3> + + +<p>It is easy to see how names of persons have sometimes changed into +general words. But we have also a great number of general words which +are taken from animals' names. Most often these words are used to +describe people's characters. Sometimes people are merely compared +with the animals whose qualities they are supposed to have, and +sometimes they are actually called by the names of these animals. Thus +we may say that a person is "as sly as a fox," or we may call him an +"old fox," and every one understands the same thing by both +expressions.</p> + +<p>The cause of this continual comparison of human beings with animals is +that long ago, when these expressions first began to be used, animals, +and especially wild animals, played a great part in the lives of the +people. In the Middle Ages great parts of England, now dotted over +with big towns, were covered with forest land. Wolves roamed in the +woods, and the fighting of some wild animals and the taming of others +formed a most important part of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> people's lives. The same thing was, +of course, the case in other countries. So familiar were people in +those days with animals that they thought of them almost as human +beings and believed that they had their own languages. It was people +who believed these things who made up many of the old fairy tales +about animals—stories like "Red Riding Hood" and the "Three Bears."</p> + +<p>We often say that we are "as hungry as a wolf;" but we who have never +seen wolves except behind the bars of their cages at the Zoological +Gardens do not know how hungry a wild wolf can be. Those, however, who +first used this expression thought of the lean and hungry wolves who +prowled round the farms and cottages in the hard winter weather, +driven by starvation to men's very doors. We also have the expression, +"a wolf in sheep's clothing." By this we mean a person who is really +dangerous and harmful, but who puts on a harmless and gentle manner to +deceive his victim.</p> + +<p>Another use of the word <i>wolf</i> is as a verb, meaning to eat in a very +quick and greedy manner, as we might imagine a hungry wolf would do, +and as our forefathers knew by experience that they did do. Most of +the people who use the names of the wolf and the fox in these ways do +not know anything of the habits of these animals, but the expressions +have become part of the common language.</p> + +<p>The same thing is, of course, true about the lion, with which even our +far-off English ancestors had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> never to fight. But the lion is such a +fierce and magnificent animal that it naturally appeals to our +imagination, and we find numerous comparisons with it, chiefly in +poetical language. We say a soldier is as "brave as a lion," or +describe him as a "lion in the fight."</p> + +<p>A less complimentary comparison is an expression we often hear, "as +stubborn as a mule." Only a few of the people who use this expression +can have had any experience of the stubbornness of mules. Sometimes a +stubborn person is described quite simply as a "mule." Another +compliment of the same sort is to call a person who seems to us to be +acting stupidly a "donkey."</p> + +<p>We may say a person is as "greedy as a pig," or describe him with +disgust as a "pig," which may mean either that they are very greedy or +that they are behaving in a very ungracious or unmannerly way. A more +common description of a person of this sort is "a hog." Every one has +heard of the "road hogs," who drive their motors regardless of other +people's convenience or safety; and of the "food hogs," who tried to +store up food, or refused to ration themselves, and so shortened other +people's supplies of food in the Great War.</p> + +<p>Other common expressions comparing people with animals are—"sulky as +a bear," "gay as a lark," "busy as a bee." We might also call a cross +person a "bear," but should not without some explanation call a person +a "lark" or a "bee."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<p>We may say a person "chatters like a magpie," or we may call him or +her a "magpie." A person who talks without thinking, merely repeating +what other people have said, is often called a "parrot."</p> + +<p>Sometimes names of common animals or birds used to describe people are +complimentary, but more often they are not. It seems as though the +people who made these metaphors were more eloquent in anger than in +love. A very nice child will be described by its friends as a "little +duck." A mischievous child may also be described good-temperedly as a +"monkey;" but there are far more words of abuse taken from the names +of animals than more or less amiable words like these.</p> + +<p>A bad-tempered woman is described as a "vixen," or female fox; a lazy +person as a "drone," or the bee which does no work. A stupid person +may be called a "sheep" or a "goose" (which is not quite so +insulting). <i>Dog</i>, <i>hound</i>, <i>cur</i>, and <i>puppy</i> are all used as words +of abuse; and contempt for some one who is regarded as very +mean-spirited is sometimes shown by describing such a person as a +"worm," or worse, if possible, a "reptile." A "bookworm," on the other +hand, the name of a little insect which lives in books and eats away +at paper and bindings, is applied to people who love books in another +way—great readers—and is, of course, not at all an uncomplimentary +word.</p> + +<p>A foolish person who has been easily deceived in some matter is often +described as a "gull," or is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> said to have been "gulled." <i>Gull</i> is +now the name of a sea-bird, but in Early English it was used to +describe any young bird, and from the idea that it is easy to deceive +such youngsters came the use of the word to describe foolish people.</p> + +<p>Another name of a bird used with almost the opposite meaning is +<i>rook</i>. This name is given to people who are constantly cheating +others, especially at card games. It was earlier used, like <i>gull</i>, to +describe the person cheated. It then came to be used as a verb meaning +"to cheat," and from this was used to describe the person cheating +instead of the person cheated.</p> + +<p>Other names of birds not quite so common used to describe stupid +people are <i>dotterel</i> and <i>dodo</i>. The dotterel is a bird which is very +easily caught, and it was from this fact that it got its name, which +comes from <i>dote</i>, to be "silly" or "feeble-minded." When the name of +the bird is used to describe a silly person, the word is really, as an +interesting writer on the history of words says, turning "a complete +somersault." The same is the case with <i>dodo</i>, which is also used, but +not so often, to describe a stupid person. This bird also got its name +from a word which meant "foolish." It comes from the Portuguese word +<i>doudo</i>, which means "simpleton."</p> + +<p>We have a few verbs also taken from the names of animals and birds. We +say a person "apes" another when he tries to imitate him. This word +comes, of course, from the fact that the ape is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> always imitating any +action performed by other people.</p> + +<p>A person who follows another persistently is said to "dog" his steps. +This expression comes, of course, from the fact of dogs following +their masters. Another expression is to "hound" a person to do +something, by which we mean persecute him. This comes from the idea of +a hound tracking its victim down. Another of these words which has the +idea of persecution is <i>badger</i>. When some one constantly talks about +a subject which is unpleasant to another, or continually tries to +persuade him to do something against his will, he is said to be +"badgering" him. The badger is an animal which burrows into the ground +in winter, and dogs are set to worry it out of its hiding-place. The +badger is the victim and not the persecutor, as we might think from +the use of the verb.</p> + +<p>The verb <i>henpeck</i>, to describe the teasing of her husband by a +disagreeable wife, comes, of course, from the idea of the continual +pecking of a hen.</p> + +<p>Many common articles are named after animals which they resemble in +some way. A "ram" is an instrument, generally of wood, used to drive +things into place by pressure. In olden days war-ships used to have a +"battering-ram," or projecting beak, at their prow, with which to +"ram" other vessels. The Romans called such a beak an <i>aries</i>, which +is the Latin for "ram," a male sheep. This was probably from the habit +of rams butting an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> enemy with their horns. The Romans often had the +ends of their battering-rams carved into the shape of the head of a +ram. A "ramrod" gets its name from the same idea. It is an instrument +for pressing in the ammunition when loading the muzzle of a gun.</p> + +<p>The word "ram" has now several more general uses. We speak of a person +"ramming" things into a drawer or bag when we mean pushing them +hastily and untidily into too small a place. Or a man may "ram" his +hat down on his head. Again, we may have a lesson or unpleasant fact +"rammed" into us by some one who is determined to make the subject +clear whether we want to hear about it or not. And all this comes from +the simple idea of the ram butting people whom it considers +unpleasant.</p> + +<p>More commonplace instruments having animals' names are the +"clothes'-horse" and "fire-dogs."</p> + +<p>We have other words, which we should not guess to be from animals' +names, but which really are so. We say that a person who is always +changing his mind, and wanting first one thing and then another, is +"capricious." Or we speak of a curious or unreasonable desire as a +"caprice." These words really come from the Latin name for a +goat—<i>caper</i>. The mind of the capricious person skips about just like +a goat. At least that is what the word <i>capricious</i> literally says +about him. The word <i>caper</i>, meaning to "jump about playing tricks," +comes from the Latin word <i>capra</i>, a "she-goat."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p> + +<p>The word <i>coward</i> comes from the name of an animal, but <i>not</i> the cow. +In a famous French story of the Middle Ages, in which all the +characters are animals, the "Roman de Renard," the hare is called +<i>couard</i>, and it is from this that the word <i>coward</i> ("one who runs +away from danger") comes.</p> + +<p>All these words from the names of animals take us back, then, to the +days when every man was a kind of naturalist. In those early days, +when town life hardly existed, everybody knew all about animals and +their habits. Their conversation was full of this sort of thing. And +so it is that in hundreds of our words which we use to-day, without +thinking of the literal meaning at all, we have a picture of the lives +of our ancestors preserved.</p> + +<p>We have, too, words taken from the names of some animals which never +existed at all. The writers of the Middle Ages told many tales or +fables of animals and monsters which were purely imaginary, but in +which the people of those days firmly believed. We sometimes hear +people use the expression a "basilisk glare," which other people would +describe as a "look that kills," meaning a look of great severity or +displeasure. There is a little American lizard which zoologists call +the "basilisk," but this is not the basilisk from which this +expression comes. The basilisk which the people of the Middle Ages +imagined, but which never existed, was a monstrous reptile hatched by +a serpent from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> a cock's egg. By its breath or even its look it could +destroy all who approached it.</p> + +<p>Another invention of the Middle Ages was the bird called the +"phœnix." We now use the word <i>phœnix</i> to describe some one who +is unique in some good quality. A commoner way of expressing the same +idea would be that "there is no one like him." It was believed in the +Middle Ages that only one of these wonderful birds could exist in the +world at one time. The story was that the phœnix, after living +through five or six hundred years in the Arabian desert, prepared a +funeral pile for itself, and was burned to death, but rose again, +youthful and strong as ever, from the ashes.</p> + +<p>In these words we are reminded once again of another side of the life +of our ancestors.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF PLACES.</h3> + + +<p>We have already seen something of the stories which the names of +places, old and new, can tell us. But the names of places themselves +often give us new words, and from these, too, we can learn many +interesting facts.</p> + +<p>Many manufactured things, and especially woven cloths, silks, etc., +are called by the name of the place from which they come, or from +which they first came. <i>Cashmere</i>, a favourite smooth woollen +material, is called after Cashmir, in India. <i>Damask</i>, the material of +which table linen is generally made, takes its name from Damascus; as +does <i>holland</i>, the light brownish cotton stuff used so much for +children's frocks and overalls, from Holland, and the rough woollen +material known as <i>frieze</i> from Friesland. <i>Cambric</i>, the fine white +material often used for handkerchiefs, takes its name from Cambrai in +France, the place where it was first made. The word <i>cambric</i>, +however, came into English from <i>Kamerijk</i>, the Dutch name for +Cambrai. So the other fine material known as <i>lawn</i> got its name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> from +Laon, another French town. Another fine material of this kind, +<i>muslin</i>, takes its name from Mussolo, a town in Mesopotamia, from +which this kind of material first came.</p> + +<p>Another commoner kind of stuff is <i>fustian</i>, made of cotton, but +thick, with a short nap, and generally dyed a dark colour. The word +<i>fustian</i> has also come to be used figuratively to describe a showy +manner of speaking or writing, or anything which tries to appear +better than it is. The word comes from Fustat, a suburb of Cairo.</p> + +<p>A more substantial material, <i>tweed</i>, which is largely made in +Scotland, really takes its name from people pronouncing <i>twill</i> badly; +but the form <i>tweed</i> spread more quickly because people associated the +material with the country beyond the river Tweed.</p> + +<p>Another kind of stuff which we generally associate with Scotland is +<i>tartan</i>, because this woollen stuff, with its crossed stripes of +different colours, is chiefly used for Scottish plaids and kilts, +especially of the Highland regiments. But the word <i>tartan</i> does not +seem to be a Scottish word, and probably comes from <i>Tartar</i>, which +was formerly used to describe almost any Eastern people. Perhaps the +fact that Eastern peoples love bright colours caused this name to be +given to these bright materials, though there is nothing at all +Eastern in the designs of the Scottish tartans. Another material with +an Eastern name is <i>sarcenet</i>, or <i>sarsenet</i>, a soft, silky stuff now +chiefly used for linings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<p>Often in tales of olden times we read of people hiding behind the +"arras." This was a wall covering of tapestry, often hung sufficiently +far from the wall to leave room for a person to pass. The word <i>arras</i> +comes from Arras, a town in France, which was famous for its beautiful +tapestries.</p> + +<p>We know the word <i>tabby</i> chiefly as the name of a kind of striped cat, +but this use of the word came from the Old French word <i>tabis</i>, and +described a material with marks which the markings on a "tabby" cat +resemble. The French word came from the Arab word <i>utabi</i>, which +perhaps came from the name of a suburb of the famous city of Baghdad.</p> + +<p><i>Worsted</i>, the name of a certain kind of knitting-wool, comes from the +name of the town of Worstead, in Norfolk. The close-fitting woollen +garments worn by sailors and often by children are known as +<i>jerseys</i>—a word which is taken from the name of one of the Channel +Islands, Jersey. Sometimes, but not so commonly, they are called +<i>guernseys</i>, from the name of the chief of the other Channel Islands, +Guernsey. Another piece of wearing apparel, the Turkish cap known as a +<i>fez</i>, gets its name, perhaps, from Fez, a town in Morocco.</p> + +<p>Besides woven stuffs, many other things are called by the names of the +places from which they come. <i>China</i>, the general name for very fine +earthenware, is the same name as that of the great Eastern country +which is famous for its beautiful pottery. Another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> kind of ornamented +earthenware is the Italian <i>majolica</i>, and this probably gets its name +from the island of Majorca; while <i>delf</i> is the name of the glazed +earthenware made at Delft (which in earlier times was called "Delf"), +in Holland.</p> + +<p>The beautiful leather much used for the bindings of books, <i>morocco</i>, +takes its name from Morocco, where it was first made by tanning +goatskins. It is now made in several countries of Europe, but it keeps +its old name. Another old kind of leather, but whose name is no longer +used, was <i>cordwain</i>, a Spanish leather for the making of shoes, which +took its name from Cordova in Spain. <i>Cordwainer</i> was the old name for +"shoemaker," and is still kept in the names of shoemakers' guilds and +societies.</p> + +<p>Many wines are simply called by the names (sometimes altered a little +through people mispronouncing them) of the places from which they +come. <i>Champagne</i> is the wine of Champagne, <i>Burgundy</i> of Burgundy, +<i>Sauterne</i> of Sauterne, <i>Chablis</i> of Chablis—all French wines. <i>Port</i> +takes its name from Oporto, in Portugal; and <i>sherry</i>, which used to +be called "sherris," comes from the name of Xeres, a Spanish town.</p> + +<p>Many less well-known wines have merely the name of the place where +they are produced printed on the label, and they tend to be called by +these names—such as <i>Capri bianco Vesuvio</i>, etc. <i>Malmsey</i>, the old +wine in which the Duke of Clarence was sup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>posed to have been drowned +when his murder was ordered by his brother, and which is also called +<i>malvoisie</i>, got its name from Monemvasia, a town in the peninsula of +Morea.</p> + +<p>Not only wine but other liquids are sometimes called after the places +from which they come. The oil known as <i>macassar</i> comes from +Maugkasara, the name of a district in the island of Celebes. This oil +was at one time very much used as a dressing for the hair, and from +this we get the name <i>antimacassar</i> for the coverings which used to be +(and are sometimes still) thrown over the backs of easy-chairs and +couches to prevent their being soiled by such aids to beauty. +<i>Antimacassar</i> means literally a "protection against macassar oil," +<i>anti</i> being the Latin word for "against."</p> + +<p>The tobacco known as <i>Latakia</i> takes its name from the town called by +the Turks Latakia, the old town of Laodicea. (Laodicea also gives us +another common expression. We describe an indifferent person who has +no enthusiasm for anything as "a Laodicean," from the reproach to the +Church of the Laodiceans, in the Book of Revelation in the Bible, that +they were "neither cold nor hot" in their religion.)</p> + +<p>Both the words <i>bronze</i> and <i>copper</i> come from the names of places. +<i>Bronze</i> is from <i>Brundusium</i>, the ancient name of the South Italian +town which we now call Brindisi. The Latin name for this metal was +<i>aes Brundusinum</i>, or "brass of Brindisi."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> <i>Copper</i> was in Latin <i>aes +Cyprium</i>, or "brass of Cyprus."</p> + +<p>Some coins take their names from the names of places. The <i>florin</i>, or +two-shilling piece, takes its name from Florence. <i>Dollar</i> is the same +word as the German <i>thaler</i>, the name of a silver coin which was +formerly called a <i>Joachimstaler</i>, from the silver-mine of +Joachimstal, or "Joachim's Dale," in Bohemia. The <i>ducat</i>, a gold coin +which was used in nearly all the countries of Europe in the Middle +Ages, and which was worth about nine shillings, got its name from the +duchy (in Italian, <i>ducato</i>) of Apulia, where it was first coined in +the twelfth century.</p> + +<p>It was an Italian town, Milan, which gave us our word <i>milliner</i>. This +came from the fact that many fancy materials and ornaments used in +millinery were imported from Milan.</p> + +<p>Many old dances take their names from places. We hear a great deal +nowadays of the "morris dances" which used to be danced in England in +olden times. But <i>morris</i> comes from <i>morys</i>, an old word for +"Moorish." In the Middle Ages this word was used, like "Turk" or +"Tartar," to describe almost any Eastern people, and the name came, +perhaps, from the fact that in these dances people dressed up, and so +looked strange and foreign. The name of a very well-known dance, the +<i>polka</i>, really means "Polish woman." <i>Mazurka</i>, the name of another +dance, means "woman of Masovia." The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> old-fashioned slow dance known +as the <i>polonaise</i> took its name from Poland, and was really a Polish +dance. The well-known Italian dance called the <i>tarantella</i> took its +name from the South Italian town Tarento.</p> + +<p>The word <i>canter</i>, which describes another kind of movement, comes +from Canterbury. <i>Canter</i> is only the short for "Canterbury gallop," +an expression which was used to describe the slow jogging pace at +which many pilgrims in the Middle Ages rode along the Canterbury road +to pray at the famous shrine of St. Thomas Becket in that city.</p> + +<p>Several fruits take their names from places. The <i>damson</i>, which used +in the Middle Ages to be called the "damascene," was called in Latin +<i>prunum damascenum</i>, or "plum of Damascus." The name <i>peach</i> comes to +us from the Late Latin word <i>pessica</i>, which was a bad way of saying +"Persica." <i>Currants</i> used to be known as "raisins of Corauntz," or +Corinth raisins.</p> + +<p><i>Parchment</i> gets its name from Pergamum, a city in Asia Minor. +<i>Pistol</i> came into English from the Old French word <i>pistole</i>, and +this came from an Italian word, <i>pistolese</i>, which meant "made at +Pistoja." We do not think of <i>spaniels</i> as foreign dogs; but the name +means "Spanish," having come into English from the Old French word +<i>espagneul</i>, with that meaning.</p> + +<p>A derivation which it would be even harder to guess is that of the +word <i>spruce</i>. We now use this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> word to describe a kind of leather, a +kind of ginger beer, and a variety of the fir tree, and also in the +same sense as "spick and span." The word used to be <i>pruce</i>, and meant +"Prussia."</p> + +<p>The name of the famous London fish-market, <i>Billingsgate</i>, has long +been used to mean very violent and abusive language supposed to +resemble the scoldings of the fishwomen in the market.</p> + +<p>Another word describing a certain kind of speaking, and which also +comes from the name of a place, is <i>bunkum</i>. When a person tells a +story which we feel sure is not true, or tells a long tale to excuse +himself from doing something, we often say it is all "bunkum." This +word comes from the name of the American town of Buncombe, in North +Carolina, and came into use through the member for Buncombe in the +House of Representatives insisting on making a speech just when every +one else wanted to proceed with the voting on a bill. He knew that he +had nothing of importance to say, but explained that he must make a +speech "for Buncombe"—that is, so that the people of Buncombe, who +had elected him, might know that he was doing his duty by them. And so +the expression <i>bunkum</i> came into use.</p> + +<p>Another word which may go with these, because it also begins with the +letter <i>b</i>, is <i>bedlam</i>. We describe a scene of great noise and +confusion, as when a number of children insist on talking all +together, as a "perfect bedlam." The word <i>bedlam</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> comes from +Bethlehem. In the Middle Ages there was a hospital in London kept by +monks of the Order of St. Mary of Bethlehem. In time this house came +to be known as "Bedlam," and as after a while the hospital came to be +an asylum for mad people, this name came to be used for any lunatic +asylum. From that it came to have its modern use of any great noise or +confusion.</p> + +<p>The sport of shooting pheasants is very English, and few people think +that the pheasant is a foreign bird, introduced into England, just as +in fact the turkey, which seems to belong especially to the English +Christmas, came to us from America. The <i>pheasant</i> gets its name from +the river Phasis, in the Eastern country of Pontus. It may seem +peculiar that a bird coming from America should be called a <i>turkey</i>; +but we saw in an earlier chapter how vague the people of the fifteenth +and sixteenth centuries were about America. When Columbus reached the +shore of that continent, people thought he had sailed round by another +way to the "Indies." In nearly all European countries the turkey got +names which show that most people thought it came from India, or at +least from some part of the "Indies." Even in England it was called +for a time "cok off Inde." In Italy it was <i>gallina d'India</i> (or +"Indian hen"). The modern French words for male and female turkeys +come from this mistake. In French the bird was at first known as +<i>pouille d'Inde</i> (or "Indian fowl"). The name came to be shortened +into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> one word <i>dinde</i>, and then, as people thought this must mean +the female turkey, they made a new word for the male, <i>dindon</i>.</p> + +<p>But though so many words come from the names of places, and some of +these would not seem to do so at first sight, there are other words +which seem to come from place-names which do not do so at all. +<i>Brazil</i> wood is found in large quantities in Brazil, but the wood is +not called after the country. On the contrary, the country is called +after the wood. This kind of wood was already used in Europe in the +twelfth century, and its name is found in several European languages. +When the Portuguese adventurers found such large quantities in this +part of South America they gave it the name of <i>Brazil</i> from the wood. +The island of <i>Madeira</i> got its name in the same way, this being the +word for "timber," from the Latin word <i>materia</i>.</p> + +<p>Again, guinea-pigs do not come from Guinea, on the west coast of +Africa, though guinea-fowls do so. Guinea-pigs really come from +Brazil. The name <i>guinea-pig</i> was given to these little animals +because, when the sailors brought them home, people thought they had +come from Africa. But in the seventeenth century a common voyage for +ships was to sail from English or other European ports to the west +coast of Africa, where bands of poor negroes were seized or bought, +and carried over the Atlantic to be sold as slaves in the American +"plantations." The ships naturally did not come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> home empty, but often +people were not very clear as to whether the articles they brought +back came from Africa or America.</p> + +<p>Again, <i>India ink</i> comes, not from India, but from China. <i>Indian +corn</i> comes from America. <i>Sedan chairs</i> had nothing to do with Sedan +in France, but probably take their name from the Latin verb <i>sedere</i>, +"to sit."</p> + +<p>In these words, as in many others, we can see that it is never safe to +<i>guess</i> the derivation of words. Many of the old philologists used to +do this, and then write down their guesses as facts. This caused a +great deal of extra work for modern scholars, who will not, of course, +accept any "derivation" for a word until they have clear proof that it +is true.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>PICTURES IN WORDS.</h3> + + +<p>Everybody who has thought at all about our ways of speech must have +noticed that we are all constantly saying things in a way which is not +literally true. We say a child is a "sunbeam in the house;" but, of +course, we only mean that she is gay and happy, and cheers every one +up by her merriment. Or we describe some one as a "pearl among women," +meaning that by her splendid qualities she is superior to most women +as a pearl is to common stones.</p> + +<p>Or, again, we may read in the newspaper that a statesman "spoke with +sudden fire;" by which, of course, we understand that in the course of +a calm speech he suddenly broke out passionately into words which +showed how keenly he felt on the subject of which he was speaking.</p> + +<p>Our language is full of this kind of speaking and writing, which is +called "metaphorical." The word metaphor comes from two Greek words +meaning "to carry over." In "metaphorical" speech a name or +description of one thing is transferred to another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> thing to which it +could not apply in ordinary commonplace language.</p> + +<p>By means of metaphors we express more vividly and strikingly our +feelings on any subject. We draw our metaphors from many different +sources. Many of them naturally come from Nature, for the facts of +Nature are all around us. We speak of a "sea of trouble" when we feel +that the spirit is overwhelmed by sadness so great that it suggests +the vastness of the sea swallowing up all that it meets. Or we speak +of a "storm of anger," because what takes place in a person's soul in +such a state is similar in some way to the confusion and force of a +storm in Nature. Again, an expression like a "torrent of words" is +made possible by our familiarity with the quick pouring forth of water +in a torrent. By this expression, of course, we wish to suggest a +similar quick rushing of words. Other expressions of this kind are "a +wave of anguish," the "sun of good fortune," and there are hundreds of +which every one can think.</p> + +<p>Another source from which many metaphors have come is war, which has +given men some of the most vivid action possible to humankind. Thus we +speak of "a war of words," of a person "plunging into the fray," when +we mean that he or she joins in a keen argument or quarrel. Or we +speak more generally of the "battle of life," picturing the troubles +and difficulties of life as the obstacles against which soldiers have +to fight in battle. Shake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>speare has the expression, "the slings and +arrows of outrageous fortune."</p> + +<p>We have a great many metaphorical expressions taken from painting, +sculpture, and other arts. Thus we speak of "moulding" one's own life, +picturing ourselves as sculptors, with our lives as the clay to be +shaped as we will. Shakespeare has a similar metaphor,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There's a divinity which shapes our ends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rough-hew them how we will."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We may, he says, roughly arrange our way of life, but the final result +belongs to a greater artist—God.</p> + +<p>Again, we speak of "building our hopes" on a thing, of "moulding" a +person's character, of the "canvas of history," imagining history as a +picture of things past. We speak of a person describing something very +enthusiastically as "painting it in glowing colours," and so on. We +also describe the making of new words as "coining them."</p> + +<p>But not only are the sentences we make full of metaphors, but most of +our words—all, in fact, except the names of the simplest things—are +really metaphors themselves. The first makers of such words were +speaking "in metaphor," as we should say now; but when the words +passed into general use this fact was not noticed.</p> + +<p>A great many of the metaphors found in words are the same in many +languages. Many of them are taken from agriculture, which is, of +course,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> after hunting, the earliest occupation of all peoples. We can +easily think of many words now used in a general sense which +originally applied to some simple country practice. We speak of being +"goaded" to do a thing when some one persuades or threatens or +irritates us into doing it. But a <i>goad</i> was originally a spiked stick +used to drive cattle forward. The word <i>goad</i>, then, as we use it now, +is a real metaphor.</p> + +<p>Again, we speak of our feelings being "harrowed." The word <i>harrow</i> +first meant, and still means, the drawing of a frame with iron teeth +(itself called a <i>harrow</i>) over ploughed land to break up the clods. +From this meaning it has come to have the figurative meaning of +wounding or ruffling the feelings.</p> + +<p>Another word connected with agriculture which has passed into a +general sense is <i>glean</i>. We may now speak of "gleaning" certain facts +or news, but to glean was originally (and still means in its literal +sense) to gather the ears of corn remaining after the reapers have got +in the harvest.</p> + +<p>We speak of a nation groaning under the "yoke" of a foreign tyrant, or +again of the "yoke" of matrimony, and in the Bible we have the text, +"My yoke is easy." In these and in many other cases the word <i>yoke</i> is +used figuratively to denote something weighing on the spirit; but the +original use of <i>yoke</i>, and again one which remains, was to name the +wooden cross-piece fastened over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> necks of two oxen, and attached +to a plough or wagon which they have to draw.</p> + +<p>The word <i>earn</i> reminds us of a time when the chief way of earning +money or payment of any kind was field-labour; for this word, which +means so many things now, comes from an old Teutonic word meaning +field-labour. The same word became in German <i>ernte</i>, which means +"harvest."</p> + +<p>Another common word with somewhat the same meaning as <i>earn</i> is +<i>gain</i>; and this, again, takes us back to a time when our early +ancestors won their profits by the grazing of their flocks. The word +<i>gain</i> came into English from an Old French word, but this word in its +turn came from a Teutonic word meaning to graze or pasture. The first +people who used the word <i>earn</i> for other ways of getting payment than +field-labour, and the word <i>gain</i> in a general sense, were really +making metaphors.</p> + +<p>Some of our commonest words take us back to a time before our +ancestors even settled down to cultivate the land, or perhaps even +before the days when they had learned to tame and give pasturage to +their flocks. Some of our simplest words contain the idea of +<i>travelling</i> or <i>wandering</i>. The word <i>fear</i>, which would not seem to +have anything to do with journeying, comes from the same root-word as +<i>fare</i>, the Old English word for "travel." Probably it came to be used +because people travelling through the wild forests and swamps of +Europe in those far-off days found much to terrify them, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> so the +word <i>fear</i> was made, containing this idea of moving from place to +place. But again this was a metaphor. Until after the Norman Conquest +the word <i>fear</i> meant a sudden or terrible happening. Only later it +came to mean the feeling which such an event or the expectation of it +would cause.</p> + +<p>We may become tired in mind or body from many causes; but when we say +we are "weary" we are literally saying that we have travelled far over +difficult ground, for the word <i>weary</i> comes from an Old English word +meaning this.</p> + +<p>Some of our words are really metaphors showing the effect which +different aspects of Nature had on the men who made them. When we say +we are astonished we do not mean that we are "struck by thunder," but +that is what the word literally means. It comes from the Latin word +<i>attonare</i>, which means this. The words <i>astound</i> and <i>stun</i> contain +the same hidden metaphor, which we use in a plainer way when we say we +are "thunder-struck," meaning that we are very much surprised.</p> + +<p>In the Middle Ages people believed that the stars had a great effect +on the lives of men. If the stars were in a certain position at the +time of a person's birth, he would be lucky all his life; if in +another, he was doomed to unhappiness. From this belief we still use +the expression "born under a lucky star" to describe a person who +seems always to be fortunate. But the same metaphor is contained in +single words. We speak of an unfortunate enter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>prise as "ill-starred," +and the metaphor is clear. But when the newspapers speak of a railway +"disaster," very few people realize that they are speaking the +language of the mediæval astrologers, men who studied the fortunes of +nations and individuals from the stars. <i>Disaster</i> literally means +such a misfortune as would be caused by adverse stars, and comes from +the Greek word for star, <i>astron</i>, and the Latin <i>dis</i>.</p> + +<p>The words <i>jovial</i> and <i>mercurial</i>, used to describe people of merry +and lively temper, are metaphors of the same kind. A person born under +the planet Jupiter (the star called after the Roman god Jupiter or +Jove) was supposed to be of a merry disposition, and a person born +when the planet Mercury was visible in the heavens was expected to be +lively and ready-witted. When we use these words now to describe +people, we do not, of course, mean that they were born under any +particular star, but the words are metaphors which literally do mean +this.</p> + +<p>The word <i>auspicious</i> comes from a similar source. We speak of an +"inauspicious" undertaking, meaning one which seems destined to be +unlucky. But really what the word <i>inauspicious</i> says is that the +"auspices are against" the undertaking. And this takes us back to +Roman times, when no important thing was done in the state without the +magistrates "taking the auspices." This they did from observing the +flight of certain birds. In war the commander-in-chief of the Roman +armies alone had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> the right to "take the auspices." We should think +such a proceeding very foolish now, but in the words <i>auspicious</i> and +<i>inauspicious</i> we are literally saying that the auspices have been +favourable or unfavourable.</p> + +<p>One of the common practices of the scholars who studied astrology and +other sciences in the Middle Ages was the search for the philosopher's +stone, which they believed had the power of giving eternal youth. They +would melt metals in pots for this purpose. These pots were called by +the Old Latin name of <i>test</i>. From this word we now have the modern +word <i>test</i>, used in the sense of <i>trial</i>—another metaphor from the +Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>Many common English words are really metaphors made from old English +sports, such as hunting and hawking. It is curious to think how these +words are chiefly used to-day by people who know nothing of these +pastimes, while the people who made the words were so familiar with +them that they naturally expressed themselves in this way. We speak of +a person being in another's "toils," when we mean in his "power." The +word <i>toils</i> comes from the French <i>toiles</i>, meaning "cloths," and +also used for the nets put round part of a wood, in which birds are +being preserved for shooting, to prevent their escaping. The +expression to "turn" or be "at bay," by which we mean that there is no +chance of escape, but that the person in such a situation must either +give in or fight, comes from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> hunting. The hare or the fox is said to +be "at bay" when it comes to a wall or other object which prevents its +running farther, and so turns and faces its pursuers. <i>Bay</i> is the +deep barking of the hounds.</p> + +<p>The word <i>crestfallen</i>, by which we mean looking ashamed and +depressed, comes from the old sport of cock-fighting. The bird whose +crest (or tuft of hair on the head) drooped after the fight was +naturally the one which had been beaten. The word <i>pounce</i> comes from +hawking, <i>pounces</i> being the old word for a hawk's claws. The word +<i>haggard</i>, which now generally means worn and sometimes a little +wild-looking through grief or anxiety, was originally the name given +to a hawk caught, not, like most hawks used for hawking, when it was +quite young, but when it was already grown up. Such a hawk would +naturally have a wild look, and would never become so tame as the +birds caught young.</p> + +<p>Several words meaning to entice a person come from fowling. We speak +of persons being "decoyed" when we mean that they are deceived into +going to some dangerous place. The person who entices them away is +called a "decoy;" but the first use of the word was to describe a duck +trained to induce other ducks to fly or walk into nets laid over ponds +by trappers. Another word of this kind is <i>allure</i>, which means to +persuade a person to do something by making it seem very attractive. +This word really means to bring a person (originally an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> animal) to +the "lure" or "bait" prepared to catch him.</p> + +<p>The word <i>trap</i>, which may now mean to show a person to be guilty by a +trick, or to put him in the wrong in some way, is a metaphorical use. +The word literally means to catch an animal in a trap.</p> + +<p>Many words contain metaphors drawn from the older and simpler trades. +We speak of a thing being "brand-new"—that is, as new as though just +stamped with a "brand" or iron stamp. Another expression which has +changed its meaning a little with time used to have exactly the same +meaning. We now say a person looks "spick and span" when he or she is +very neatly dressed. Formerly the expression was "spick and span +new"—that is, as new as a spike (or spoon) just made or a chip newly +cut. We may safely say that very few people who now use the expression +"spick and span" have any idea of what it means literally. The +metaphor is well hidden, but it is there.</p> + +<p>Another metaphor, connected with metals and coins, is contained in the +word <i>sterling</i>. We speak of "sterling qualities" or a "sterling +character" in praising people for being straightforward and truthful, +and not boastful. But the expression originally applied only to metals +and coins. Sterling gold or silver is gold or silver of a certain +standard of purity and not mixed with too much of any base metal.</p> + +<p>Even the art of the baker has given us a word<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> with a hidden metaphor. +We speak of sending out another "batch" of men to the front; but +<i>batch</i> originally meant, and still means, the loaves of bread +produced at one baking. It is now used generally to describe a number +of things coming together or in a set.</p> + +<p>The butcher's shop has given us the word <i>shambles</i>, by which we now +mean a place of slaughter. Thus we speak of a terrible battlefield as +a "shambles." This metaphor is really due to a mistake. People came to +think that a shambles was a singular noun meaning slaughter-house, or +place where cattle were killed; but really the shambles were the +benches on which the meat was spread for sale.</p> + +<p>We speak of a person being the "tool" of another, and this is a +metaphor taken from the general idea of work. The "tool" is merely +used by the other person for some purpose of his own, just as a +workman uses his tools. The greatest poem, or book, or picture of a +poet, writer, or painter is often described as a "masterpiece." This +word now means a "splendid piece of work," but in the Middle Ages a +"masterpiece" was a piece of work by which a person working at a trade +showed himself sufficiently good to be allowed to be a "master." +Before that he was a "journeyman," and worked for a master himself, +and, earlier still, an apprentice merely learning his trade. We often +now use the expression to try one's "'prentice hand" on a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> thing when +we mean that we are going to do a thing for the first time.</p> + +<p>The commonest actions have naturally given us most metaphorical words, +for these were the actions of which the word-makers were most easily +reminded. We speak of our passions or emotions being "kindled," taking +the metaphor from the common action of lighting a fire.</p> + +<p>The two words <i>lord</i> and <i>lady</i> contain very homely metaphors. The +lord was the "loaf-keeper," in Old English <i>hlaford</i>, the person on +whom the household depended for their food. The lady might even make +the bread, and often did so; and the word lady comes from +<i>hlæfdige</i>—<i>dig</i> being the Old English word for <i>knead</i>.</p> + +<p>The common word <i>maul</i> may mean to beat and bruise a person, but it +means more often merely to handle something carelessly and roughly. +Literally it means "to hit with a hammer," and comes from <i>maul</i> or +<i>mall</i>, the name of a certain very heavy kind of hammer; so that when +a child is told not to "maul" a book, it is literally being told not +to hit it with a heavy hammer.</p> + +<p>We have made many metaphorical words from joining together two Latin +words and making a new meaning. We speak of a person having an +"obsession" about something when he is always thinking of one thing. +But the word <i>obsession</i> comes from the Latin word <i>obsidere</i>, "to +besiege;" and so in the word <i>obsession</i> the constant thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> is +pictured as continually trying to gain entrance into the mind. We use +the word <i>besiege</i> in the same metaphorical sense. We speak of being +"besieged" with questions, and so on.</p> + +<p>Another word used now most often metaphorically comes also from this +idea of siege warfare. In all fortified places there are holes at +intervals along the walls of defence, through which the defenders may +shoot at the attackers. These are called "loop-holes." This word is +now used much oftener in a figurative sense than to describe the +actual thing. When two persons are arguing and one has plainly shown +the other to be wrong, we say he has "not a loophole" of escape from +the other's reasoning. Or if a person objects very much to doing +something, and makes many excuses, every one of which is shown to be +worthless, we again say he has "no loophole for escape."</p> + +<p>Every child has heard of the Crusades, in which the nobles and knights +and soldiers of the Middle Ages went to fight against the Turks to win +back the Holy Sepulchre. These wars were called "crusades," from the +cross which the Crusaders wore as badges. The word was made from the +Latin word <i>crux</i>, which means "cross." But <i>crusade</i> has now become a +general word. We speak of a "temperance crusade," of a "peace +crusade," and so on. The word has come to have the general meaning of +efforts made by people for something which they believe to be good; +but literally every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> person who works for such a "crusade" is a knight +buckling on his armour, signed with the cross, and sallying forth to +the East.</p> + +<p>This word <i>sally</i> also comes from siege warfare. A "sally" means a +rush of defenders from a besieged place, attempting to get past the +besiegers by taking them by surprise. It also has the more general +meaning of an excursion, such as the going forth to a crusade. It +means literally a "leaping out," and comes from the Latin word +<i>salire</i>, "to leap." The word <i>sally</i> is also used to mean a sudden +lively remark generally rather against some person or thing. It is +interesting to notice that the fish salmon also probably takes its +name from this Latin word meaning "to leap."</p> + +<p>Any child with a dictionary can find for himself many hidden metaphors +in the commonest words; and he will learn a great deal and amuse +himself at the same time.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>WORDS FROM NATIONAL CHARACTER.</h3> + + +<p>There is one group of metaphorical words which is specially +interesting for the stories of the past which they tell us if we +examine into their meaning. Many names of ancient tribes and nations, +and some names of modern peoples, have come to be used as general +words; but the new meanings they have now tell us what other peoples +have thought of the nations bearing these names in history.</p> + +<p>One of the best things that can be said about a boy or a girl is that +he or she is "frank," by which we mean open and straightforward. The +Franks were, of course, the Teutonic tribe which conquered Gaul (the +country we now call France) in the sixth century. Unlike the English +when they conquered the Britons, the Franks mixed with the Gauls and +the Roman population which they conquered; but for a long time the +Franks were the only people who were altogether free. From this fact +the word <i>frank</i> came into use, meaning "free." A "frank" person is +one who speaks out freely and without restraint.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<p>The name <i>Frank</i> has given us a word with a very pleasant meaning, but +this was not the case with all the Teutonic tribes which broke in upon +the Roman Empire. A person who is very uncivilized in his manners is +sometimes called a "Goth." The word is often especially used to +describe a person who does not appreciate pictures and books and works +of art. Sometimes architects will pull down beautiful old buildings to +make place for new, and the people who appreciate beautiful things +describe them as "Goths." More often, perhaps, the word <i>Vandal</i> is +used to describe such people. The Goths and Vandals were two of the +fiercest and most barbaric of the German tribes which overran the +Roman Empire from the third to the fifth century. They showed no +respect for the beautiful buildings and the great works of art which +were spread over the empire. They robbed and burned like savages, and +in a few years destroyed many of the beautiful things which had been +made with so much care and skill by the Greek and Roman artists. So +deep an impression did their destructiveness make on the world of that +time that their names have been handed down through sixteen centuries, +and are used to-day in the unpleasant sense of wilful destroyers of +beautiful things.</p> + +<p>The words <i>barbarian</i> and <i>barbarous</i> are used in the same way. We +describe a child who behaves in a rough way as "a little barbarian," +or a grown-up person without ordinary good manners as "a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> mere +barbarian." And the word <i>barbarous</i> has an even worse meaning. It is +used to describe very coarse, uncivilized behaviour; but most often it +has also the sense of cruelty as well as coarseness. Thus we speak of +the barbarous behaviour of the Germans in Belgium. But when the word +<i>barbarous</i> was first used it meant merely "foreign."</p> + +<p>To the Greeks there were only two classes of people—Greeks, and +non-Greeks or "barbarians." The name <i>barbarian</i> meant a bearded man, +and came from the Greek word <i>barbaros</i>. The Greeks were clean-shaven, +and distinguished themselves from the "bearded" peoples who knew +nothing of Greek civilization. The Romans conquered Greece, and +learned much from its civilization. To them all who were not Greeks or +Romans were "barbarians." Some Roman writers, like Cicero, use the +word in the modern sense of unmannerly or even savage, but this was +not a common use. St. Paul was a Roman citizen, for he belonged to +Tarsus, a city in Asia Minor which had been given full Roman rights; +but he was a Greek by birth, and he uses the word in the Greek way. He +speaks of all men being equal according to the Christian religion, +saying, "There is neither Greek nor ... barbarian, bond nor free."</p> + +<p>The word <i>slave</i>, again, contains in itself whole chapters of European +history. It comes from the word <i>Slav</i>. The Slavs are the race of +people to which the Russians, Poles, and many other nations in the +East of Europe belong. The Great War has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> been partly fought for the +freedom of the small Slav nations, of which Serbia is one. The Slavs +have a long history of oppression and tyranny behind them. They have +been subject to stronger nations, such as the Turks, and, in Hungary, +the Magyars. The first "slaves" in mediæval Europe belonged to this +race, and the word "slave" is only another form of <i>Slav</i>. The word +gives us an idea of the impression which the misfortunes of the Slavs +made on the people of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>The words <i>Turk</i> and <i>Tartar</i> have almost the opposite meaning to +<i>slave</i> when they are used in a general sense. We call an unmanageable +baby a "young Turk," and in this expression we have the idea of all +the trouble the Turks have given the people of Europe since they +swarmed in from the East in the twelfth century. The word <i>Turk</i> in +this sense is now generally used amusingly to describe a troublesome +child; but a grown-up person with a very quick temper or very +difficult to get on with is often described also, chiefly in fun, as a +"Tartar." Tartar is the name of the race of people to which the Turks, +Cossacks, and several other peoples belong. The name by which they +called themselves was <i>Tatar</i>; but Europeans changed it to <i>Tartar</i>, +from the Latin word <i>Tartarus</i>, which means "hell." This gives us some +idea of the impression these fierce people made on mediæval Europe—an +impression which is kept in memory by the present humorous use of the +word.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is chiefly Eastern peoples whose names have passed into common +words meaning fierce and cruel people. Our fairy tales are full of +tales of "ogres." It is not quite certain, but it is probable that +this word comes from <i>Hungarian</i>. The chief people of Hungary are the +Magyars; but the first person who used the name <i>Hungarian</i> in the +sense of "ogre" probably did not know this, but thought of them as +Huns, or perhaps Tartars, and therefore as very fierce, cruel people. +The first person who is known to have used it is Perrault, a French +writer of fairy tales in the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p>The Great War has given us another of these national names used in a +new way. Many people referred to the Germans all through the war as +the "Huns." The Huns were half-savage people, who in the early Middle +Ages moved about in great hordes over Europe killing and burning. They +were at last conquered in East and West, and finally disappeared from +history. But their name remained as a synonym for cruelty. The Kaiser, +in an unfortunate speech, exhorted his soldiers to make themselves as +terrible as Huns; and when people heard of the ill-treatment of the +Belgians when their country was invaded at the beginning of the war, +they said that the Germans had indeed behaved like the Huns of long +ago. The name clung to them, and during the war, when people spoke of +the "Huns," they generally meant the Germans, and not the fierce, +half-savage little men who fol<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>lowed their famous chief Attila, +plundering and burning through Europe about fifteen centuries ago.</p> + +<p>Another name with a somewhat similar meaning is <i>assassin</i>, which most +people would not guess to have ever been the name of a collection of +people. An assassin is a person who arranges beforehand to take some +one by surprise and kill him. But the original assassins were an +Eastern people who believed that the murder of people of a religion +other than their own was pleasing to their God. The Arabs first called +this sect by the name <i>hashshash</i>, which the scholars of the Middle +Ages translated into the Latin <i>assassinus</i>. The Arab name was given +because these people were great eaters of "hashish" or dry herbs.</p> + +<p>The name <i>Arab</i> itself has come to be used with a special meaning +which has nothing to do with the people whose name it is. A rough +little boy who spends most of his time in the streets is described as +a "street Arab," and this comes from the fact that we think of the +Arabs as a wandering people. The "street Arab" is a wanderer also, of +another sort.</p> + +<p>Another name of a wandering people has also come to have a special +meaning in English. The French word for gipsy is <i>bohemien</i>, and from +this we have the English word <i>Bohemian</i>. When we say a person is "a +Bohemian," we mean that he lives in the way he really likes, and does +not care whether other people think he is quite respectable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> or not. +It was the novelist Thackeray who first used the word <i>Bohemian</i> in +this sense.</p> + +<p><i>Bohemia</i> is, of course, the name of a country in Germany, but it is +also used figuratively to describe the region or community in which +"Bohemian" or unconventional people live.</p> + +<p>The word <i>gipsy</i> itself is used to describe a very dark person, or +almost any kind of people travelling round the country in caravans. +But <i>gipsy</i> really means "Egyptian." When the real gipsies first +appeared in England, in the sixteenth century, people thought they +came from Egypt, and so gave them this name.</p> + +<p>Another name often given to very dark people is <i>blackamoor</i>, a name +by which negroes are sometimes described. This really means "Black +Moor," and shows us how confused the people who first used the word +were about different races of people. The Moors were a quite different +people from the negroes, being related to the Arabs. But to some +people every one who is not white is a "nigger." <i>Nigger</i> comes, of +course, from <i>negro</i>.</p> + +<p>The Moors inhabited a part of North-west Africa. It was also a North +African people, the Algerians, who gave us the word <i>Zouave</i>. Every +one has seen since the Great War began pictures of the handsome and +quaintly-dressed French soldiers called "Zouaves." Perhaps some +children wondered why they wore such a strange Eastern dress. It is +because the Zouave regiments, which are now chiefly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> composed of +Frenchmen, were originally formed from an Algerian mountain tribe +called the Zouaves—Algeria being a French possession. The name is +almost forgotten as that of a foreign tribe, but has become instead +the name of these light infantry French regiments.</p> + +<p>The name of the most famous of Eastern nations now spread all over the +world, the Jews, has become a term of reproach. For hundreds of years +after the spread of Christianity over Europe the Jews were looked upon +as a wicked and hateful people. In many countries they were not +allowed to live at all; in others a portion of the towns was set apart +for them, and they were allowed to live there because they were useful +as money-lenders.</p> + +<p>Naturally the Jews, persecuted and distrusted, made as much profit as +they could out of the people who treated them in this way. Perhaps +with the growth of their wealth they grew to love money for its own +sake. In any case, before long the Jews were looked upon as people who +were decidedly ungenerous in the matter of money. Everybody knows the +story of the Jew Shylock in Shakespeare's great play "The Merchant of +Venice." Nowadays a person who is not really a Jew is often described +contemptuously as a "Jew" if he shows himself mean in money matters; +and some people even use a slang expression, "to jew," meaning to +cheat or be very mean over a money affair.</p> + +<p>Another name of a nation which stands for dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>honesty of another sort +(and much more excusable) is <i>Gascon</i>. The Gascons are the natives of +Gascony, a province in the south of France. It is proverbial among +other Frenchmen that the Gascons are always boasting, and even in +English we sometimes use the word <i>Gascon</i> to describe a great +boaster, while <i>gasconade</i> is now a common term for a boastful story.</p> + +<p>Another word which we use to describe this sort of thing is <i>romance</i>. +We often hear the expression, "Oh, he is only romancing," by which we +mean that a person is saying what is not true, inventing harmless +details to improve his story. The word <i>romance</i> has now many +meanings, generally containing the idea of <i>imagination</i>. A person is +called "romantic" when he or she is full of imaginings of great deeds +and events. Or we say a person is a "romantic figure" when we mean +that from his looks or speech, or from some other qualities, he seems +fit for adventures.</p> + +<p>But <i>romance</i>, from which we get romantic, was at first merely an +adjective used to describe the languages which are descended from the +Latin language, like French, Italian, and Spanish. In the Middle Ages +scholars wrote in Latin, but poets and taletellers began to write in +the language of the people—the <i>romance</i> languages in France and +Italy. The tales of adventure and things which we should now call +"romantic" were written in the "romance" languages; and from being +used to describe the language, the word came to be used to describe +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> kind of story contained in these poems and tales. Gradually the +words <i>romantic</i> and <i>romance</i> got the meaning which they have to-day.</p> + +<p>We have seen in another chapter that we have a number of words taken +from the names of persons in ancient history. We have also a modern +and special use of words formed from the names of some of the ancient +nations. We saw that we use the word <i>Spartan</i> to describe any very +severe discipline, or a person who willingly uses such discipline for +himself.</p> + +<p>There are several other such names used in a more or less +complimentary way. We speak of "Roman" firmness, and every one who has +read Roman history will agree that this is a good use of the word. On +the other hand, we have the expression "Punic faith" to describe +treachery. The Romans had had many reasons for mistrusting their great +enemy, the Carthaginians, and they used this expression, <i>Fides +Punica</i>, which we have simply borrowed from the Latin.</p> + +<p>We use the expression "Attic (or Athenian) salt" to describe a very +refined wit or humour. The Romans used the word <i>sal</i>, or "salt," in +this sense of <i>wit</i>, and their expression <i>sal Atticum</i> shows the high +opinion they had of the Athenians, from whom, indeed, they learned +much in art and in literature. It is this same expression which we use +to-day, having borrowed and translated it also from the Latin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p> + +<p>We speak of a "Parthian shot" when some one finishes a conversation or +an argument with a sharp or witty remark, leaving no chance for an +answer. This expression comes from the story of the Parthians, a +people who lived on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and were famous as +good archers among the ancient nations.</p> + +<p>The way in which the names of nations and peoples have taken on more +general meanings gives us many glimpses into history.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>WORDS MADE BY WAR.</h3> + + +<p>Since the earliest ages men have made war on one another, and we have +a great crowd of words, new and old, connected with war. Some of these +are very simple words, especially the names of early weapons; some are +more elaborate and more interesting in their derivation.</p> + +<p>The chief of all weapons, the sword, has its simple name from the Old +English language itself, and so has the spear. But it was after the +Norman conquest of England that war became more elaborate, with +armoured knights and fortified towers, and nearly all the names +connected with war of this sort come to us from the French of that +time. The word <i>war</i> itself comes from the Old French word <i>werre</i>. +<i>Battle</i>, too, comes from the French of this time; and so do <i>armour</i>, +<i>arms</i>, <i>fortress</i>, <i>siege</i>, <i>conquer</i>, <i>pursue</i>, <i>tower</i>, <i>banner</i>, +and many other words. All of these words came into French originally +from Latin. <i>Knight</i>, however, is an Old English word. The French word +for knight, <i>chevalier</i>, never passed into English, but from it we got +the word <i>chivalry</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p> + +<p>The great weapons of modern warfare are the gun and the bayonet. There +are, of course, many kinds of guns, small and large. Formerly it was +the fashion to call the big guns by the name of <i>cannon</i>, but in the +great European war this word has hardly been used at all. They are all +"guns," from the rifles carried by the foot soldiers to the Maxims and +the great howitzers which each require a company of men to serve them. +The word <i>cannon</i> comes from the French <i>canon</i>, and is sometimes +spelt in this way in English too. It means "great tube."</p> + +<p>The derivation of the word <i>gun</i> is more interesting. Gunpowder was +not really discovered until the fifteenth century, but long before +this a kind of machine, or gun, for hurling great stones, or sometimes +arrows, had been used. These instruments were called by the Latin word +<i>ballista</i> (for the Romans had also had machines of this sort), which +comes from the Greek word <i>ballo</i>, meaning "throw." In the Middle Ages +weapons of this sort were called by proper names, just as ships are +now. A common name for them was the woman's name <i>Gunhilda</i>, which +would be turned into <i>Gunna</i> for short. It is probably from this that +we get the word <i>gun</i>. The most interesting of all the guns used in +the Great War has only a number for its name. It is the famous French +'75, and takes this name merely from a measurement.</p> + +<p>The special weapon of the foot soldier, or infantryman, is the +bayonet. This is a short blade<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> which the foot soldier fixes on the +muzzle of his rifle before he advances to an attack. In the trenches +his weapon is the rifle; before the order is given to go "over the +parapet"—that is, to climb out of the trenches, to run forward and +attack the enemy at close quarters—he "fixes his bayonet." The word +<i>bayonet</i> probably comes from <i>Bayonne</i>, the name of a town in France.</p> + +<p>The word <i>infantry</i> itself, now used to describe regiments of foot +soldiers armed with the ordinary weapons, comes to us, like most of +our words connected with war, from the French. We have already seen +that the words of this sort which we borrowed in the Middle Ages were +Norman-French words descended from Latin. But after the use of +gunpowder in war became general there were many new terms; and as at +this time the Italians were the people who fought most, and wrote most +about fighting, many words relating to the methods of war after the +close of the Middle Ages were Italian words. It is true that we +learned them from the French, for the great writers on military +matters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were Frenchmen. But +they borrowed many words from the Italian writers of the fifteenth +century. One of these words is <i>infantry</i>, which means a number of +junior soldiers or "infants"—the regiments of foot soldiers being +made up of young men, while the older and more experienced soldiers +made up the cavalry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p> + +<p>This, again, is a word which we borrowed from the French, and which +the French had borrowed from the Italians. <i>Cavalry</i> is, of course, +the name for horse soldiers, and the Italian word <i>cavalleria</i>, from +which it comes, was itself derived from the Latin word <i>caballus</i>, "a +horse." The general weapon for a cavalryman is the "sabre," a sword +with a curved blade. This, again, comes to us from the French, but was +probably originally an Eastern word. It is quite common for officers, +in reckoning the number of men in an army, to speak of so many +"bayonets" and so many "sabres," instead of "infantry" and "cavalry."</p> + +<p>Many of the words which people began to use familiarly during the +great European war first came into English in the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, a time when it seemed to be the ordinary state +of affairs for some, at least, of the European countries to be at war +with one another. <i>Bivouac</i> is a word which was used a good deal in +descriptions of earlier wars. It is a German word, which came into +English at the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) in Germany. +It means an encampment for a short time only (often for the night), +without tents. It plainly has not much connection with modern trench +warfare.</p> + +<p>Another word which came from the German at the same time may serve to +remind us that the German soldier of to-day is not very much unlike +his ancestors of three hundred years ago. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> word <i>plunder</i> was +originally a German word meaning "bed-clothes" or other household +furnishing. From the fact that so much of this kind of thing was +carried off in the fighting of this terrible war, the word came to +have its present sense of anything taken violently from its rightful +owner. It must be confessed that the word was also used a great deal +in the English Civil War, which was, of course, fought at the same +time as the end of the Thirty Years' War.</p> + +<p>It was also in the English Civil War that we first find the word +<i>capitulation</i>, which now generally means to surrender on certain +conditions. Before this, <i>capitulation</i> had more the meaning which it +still keeps in <i>recapitulation</i>. It meant an arrangement under +headings, and the word probably was transferred from describing the +terms of surrender to describing the surrender itself.</p> + +<p>One of the many words connected with war which came into the English +language from the French in the seventeenth century was <i>parade</i>, +which means the showing off of troops, and came into French from an +Italian word which itself came from the Latin word <i>parare</i>, "to +prepare." Another of these words which has been much used in +descriptions of the battles of the Great War, and especially in the +"Battle of the Rivers" in the autumn of 1914, is <i>pontoon</i>. Pontoons +are flat-bottomed boats by means of which soldiers make a temporary +bridge across rivers, generally when the permanent bridges have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> been +destroyed by the enemy. The word is <i>ponton</i> in French, and comes from +the Latin <i>pons</i>, "a bridge." Most words of this sort in French ending +in <i>on</i> take the ending <i>oon</i> in English. Thus <i>ballon</i> in French +becomes <i>balloon</i> in English. <i>Barracks</i> also comes from the French +<i>baraque</i>, and the French had it from the Spanish or Italian <i>barraca</i> +or <i>baraca</i>; but no one knows whence these languages got the word.</p> + +<p>The word <i>bombard</i>, also much used during the Great War, came into +English at the end of the seventeenth century from the French word +<i>bombarder</i>, which came from the Latin word <i>bombarda</i>, an engine for +throwing stones, and which in its turn came from the Latin word +<i>bombus</i>, meaning "hum." Even a stone hurled with great force through +the air makes a humming noise, and the "singing" of the bombs and +shells hurled through the air became a very familiar sound to the +soldiers who fought in the Great War. The word <i>bomb</i>, too, comes from +the French <i>bombe</i>.</p> + +<p>The words <i>brigade</i> and <i>brigadier</i> also came from the French at this +time. So, too, did the word <i>fusilier</i>, a name which some British +regiments still keep (for example, the Royal Fusiliers), though they +are no longer armed with the old-fashioned musket known as the +<i>fusil</i>, the name of which also came from the French, which had it +from the Latin word <i>focus</i>, "a hearth" or "fire." It is curious how +the names of modern British regiments, not even carry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>ing the weapons +from which they have their names, should take us back in this way to +the days of early Rome.</p> + +<p>The word <i>patrol</i>, which was used very much especially in the early +days of the Great War, has an interesting origin. It may mean a small +body of soldiers or police sent out to go round a garrison, or camp, +or town, to keep watch; or, again, it may mean a small body of troops +sent on before an advancing army to "reconnoitre"—that is, to spy out +the land, the position of the enemy, etc. The word <i>patrol</i> literally +means to "paddle in mud," for the French word, <i>patrouille</i>, from +which it came into English in the seventeenth century, came from an +earlier word with this meaning.</p> + +<p>The word <i>campaign</i>, by which we mean a number of battles fought +within a certain time, and generally according to a plan arranged +beforehand, also came from the French word <i>campagne</i> at the beginning +of the eighteenth century—a century of great wars and many campaigns. +The word was more used in those earlier wars than it is now, because +in those days the armies used practically never to fight in the +winter, and so each summer during a war had its "campaign." The +earlier meaning of the French word <i>campagne</i>, and one which it still +keeps besides this later meaning, is "open country," the kind of +country over which battles were generally fought.</p> + +<p><i>Recruit</i> is another word which came into English from the French at +this time. It, again, is a word<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> which has been used a great deal in +the European war. It came from the French word <i>recrue</i>, which also +means a newly-enlisted soldier. The French word <i>croître</i>, from which +<i>recrue</i> came, was derived from the Latin word <i>crescere</i>, "to +increase."</p> + +<p>All these words, we should notice, have now a figurative use. We speak +of "recruits" not only to the army, but to any society. Thus we may +say a person is a valuable "recruit" to the cause of temperance, etc. +A "campaign" can be fought not only on the field of battle, but +through newspapers, meetings, etc. It is in this sense that we speak +of the "campaign" for women's suffrage, etc.</p> + +<p>Many words relating to the dress and habits of our soldiers have +curious origins. We say now quite naturally that a man is "in khaki" +when we mean that he is a soldier, because the peculiar yellow-brown +colour which is known as "khaki" is now the regular colour of the +uniform of the British soldier. In earlier days the British soldier +was generally a "redcoat," but in modern trench warfare it is so +important that the enemy should not be able to pick out easily the +position of groups of men in order to "shell" them, that the armies of +all nations use gray or brown or other dull shades. <i>Khaki</i> is a word +which came into English through the South African War, when the policy +of clothing the soldiers in this way was first begun on a large scale. +It comes from a Hindu word, <i>khak</i>, which means "dust." The object of +this kind of clothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> for our soldiers is that they shall not be +easily distinguished from the soil of the trenches and battle-fields.</p> + +<p>When a soldier or officer or any other person who is generally in +uniform wears ordinary clothes we say he is "in mufti." This, again, +is an Arab word meaning "Mohammedan priest."</p> + +<p>The soldiers in the Great War used many new words which became a +regular part of their speech. They were chiefly "slang," but it is +quite possible that some of them may pass into good English. We shall +see something of them in a later chapter.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>PROVERBS.</h3> + + +<p>Every child knows what a proverb is, though every child may not, +perhaps, be able to say in its own words just what makes a proverb. A +proverb has been defined as "a wise saying in a few words." At any +rate, if it is not always wise, the person who first said it and the +people who repeat it think it is. Most proverbs are very old, and take +us back, just as we saw that words formed from the names of animals +do, to the early days before the growth of large towns.</p> + +<p>In those days life was simple, and people thought chiefly of simple +things. When they thought children or young persons were going to do +something foolish they gave them good advice, and tried to teach them +a little lesson from their own experience of what happened among the +common things around them.</p> + +<p>A boy or a girl who was very enthusiastic about some new thing was +warned that "new brooms sweep clean." When several people were anxious +to help in doing one thing, they were pushed aside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> (just as they are +now) with the remark that "too many cooks spoil the broth." The people +who use this proverb now generally know very little about broth and +still less about cooking. They say it because it expresses a certain +truth in a striking way; but the first person who said it knew all +about cooks and kitchens, and spoke out of the fullness of her (it +must have been a woman) experience.</p> + +<p>Again, a person who is discontented with the way in which he lives and +is anxious to change it is warned lest he jump "out of the frying-pan +into the fire." Again the wisdom comes from the kitchen. And we may +remark that these sayings are difficult to contradict.</p> + +<p>But there are other proverbs which contain statements about birds and +animals and things connected with nature, and sometimes these seem +only half true to the people who think about them. We sometimes hear +it said of a person who is very quiet and does not speak much that +"still waters run deep." This is true in Nature. A little shallow +brook will babble along, while the surface of a deep pool will have +hardly a ripple on it. But a quiet person is not necessarily a person +of great character or lofty thoughts. Some people hardly speak at all, +because, as a matter of fact, they find nothing to say. They are +quiet, not because they are "deep," but because they are shallow. +Still, the proverb is not altogether foolish, for when people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> use it +about some one they generally mean that they think this particular +quiet person is one with so much going on in his or her mind that +there is no temptation to speak much. "Empty vessels make most sound" +is another of these proverbs which is literally true, but is not +always true when applied to people. A person who talks a great deal +with very little to say quite deserves to have this proverb quoted +about him or her. But there are some people who are great talkers just +because they are so full of ideas, and to them the proverb does not +apply.</p> + +<p>Another of these nature proverbs, and one which has exasperated many a +late riser, is, "The early bird catches the worm." Many people have +inquired in their turn, "And what about the worm?" But the proverb is +quite true, all the same.</p> + +<p>Again, "A rolling stone gathers no moss" is a proverb which has been +repeated over and over again with many a headshake when young people +have refused to settle down, but have changed from one thing to +another and roamed from place to place. And this is quite true. But we +may ask, "Is it a good thing for stones to gather moss?" After all, +the adventurous people sometimes win fortunes which they could never +have won if they had been afraid to move about. And the adventurous +people, too, win other things—knowledge and experience—which are +better than money. Of course the proverb is wise to a certain degree, +for mere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> foolish changing without any reason cannot benefit any one. +But things can gather <i>rust</i> as well as moss by keeping still, and +this is certainly not a good thing.</p> + +<p>"Where there's a will there's a way." So the old proverb says, and +this is probably nearly always true, except that no one can do what is +impossible. "Look before you leap" is also good advice for impetuous +people, who are apt to do a thing rashly and wonder afterwards whether +they have done wisely.</p> + +<p>The most interesting thing about proverbs to the student of words is +that they are always made up of simple words such as early peoples +always used. But we go on repeating them, using sometimes words which +we should never choose in ordinary speech, and yet never noticing that +they are old-fashioned and quaint.</p> + +<p>It is true that there are some sayings which are so often quoted that +they seem almost like proverbs. But a line of poetry or prose, however +often it may be quoted, is not a proverb if it is taken from the +writings of a person whom we know to have used it for the first time. +These are merely quotations. No one can say who was the first person +to use any particular proverb. Even so long ago as the days of the +great Greek philosopher Aristotle many proverbs which are used in +nearly every land to-day were ages old. Aristotle describes them as +"fragments of an elder wisdom."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> + +<p>Clearly, then, however true some quotations from Shakespeare and Pope +and Milton may be, and however often repeated, they are not proverbs.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A little learning is a dangerous thing."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This line expresses a deep truth, and is as simply expressed as any +proverb, but it is merely a quotation from Pope. Again,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>is true enough, and well enough expressed to bear frequent quotation, +but it is not a "fragment of elder wisdom." It is merely Pope's +excellent way of saying that foolish people will interfere in delicate +matters in which wise people would never think of meddling. Here, +again, the language is not particularly simple as in proverbs, and +this will help us to remember that quotations are not proverbs. There +is, however, a quotation from a poem by Patrick A. Chalmers, a +present-day poet, which has become as common as a proverb:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What's lost upon the roundabouts<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We pulls up on the swings."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The fact that this is expressed simply and even ungrammatically does +not, of course, turn it into a proverb.</p> + +<p>Though many of the proverbs which are repeated in nearly all the +languages of the world are without date, we know the times when a few +of them were first quoted. In Greek writings we already<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> find the +half-true proverb, "Rolling stones gather no moss;" and, "There's many +a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," which warned the Greeks, as it +still warns us, of the uncertainty of human things. We can never be +sure of anything until it has actually happened. In Latin writings we +find almost the same idea expressed in the familiar proverb, "A bird +in hand is worth two in the bush"—a fact which no one will deny.</p> + +<p>St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from Greek into Latin in the +fourth century and wrote many wise books besides, quotes two proverbs +which we know well: "It is not wise to look a gift horse in the +mouth," and, "Liars must have good memories." The first again deals, +like so many of the early proverbs, with the knowledge of animals. A +person who knows about horses can tell from the state of their mouths +much about their age, health, and general value. But, the proverb +warns us, it is neither gracious nor wise to examine too closely what +is given to us freely. It may not be quite to our liking, but after +all it is a present.</p> + +<p>The proverb, "Liars must have good memories," means, of course, that +people who tell lies are liable to forget just what tale they have +told on any particular occasion, and may easily contradict themselves, +and so show that they have been untruthful. It is necessary, then, for +such a person, unless he wishes to be found out, to remember exactly +what lies he has told.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p> + +<p>Many proverbs have remained in the English language, not so much for +the wisdom they contain as for the way in which they express it. Some +are in the form of a rhyme—as, "Birds of a feather flock together," +and "East and west, home is best." These are always favourites.</p> + +<p>Others catch the ear because of their alliteration; that is to say, +two or three of their words begin with the same letter. Examples of +this are: "Look before you leap." The proverb "A stitch in time saves +nine" has something of both these attractions, though it is not +exactly a rhyme. Other examples of alliteration in proverbs are: +"Delays are dangerous," "Speech is silvern, silence is golden."</p> + +<p>A few proverbs are witty as well as wise, and these are, perhaps, the +best of all, since they do not, as a rule, exasperate the people to +whom they are quoted, as many proverbs are apt to do. Usually these +witty proverbs are metaphors.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>SLANG.</h3> + + +<p>Every child has some idea of what is meant by "slang," because most +schoolboys and schoolgirls have been corrected for using it. By slang +we mean words and expressions which are not the ordinary words for the +ideas which they express, but which are invented as new names or +phrases for these ideas, and are at first known and used only by a few +people who use them just among themselves. There are all kinds of +slang—slang used by schoolboys and schoolgirls in general, slang used +by the pupils of each special school, slang used by soldiers, a +different slang used by their officers, and even slang used by members +of Parliament.</p> + +<p>The chief value of slang to the people who use it is that at first, at +any rate, it is only understood by the inventors and their friends. +The slang of any public school is continually changing, because as +soon as the expressions become known and used by other people the +inventors begin to invent once more, and get a new set of slang terms. +Sometimes a slang word will be used for years by one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> class of people +without becoming common because it describes something of which +ordinary people have no experience, and therefore do not mention.</p> + +<p>The making of slang is really the making of language. Early men must +have invented new words just as the slang-makers do to-day. The +difference is that there are already words to describe the things +which the slang words describe. It may seem curious, then, that people +should trouble to find new words. The reason they do so is often that +they want to be different from other people, and sometimes because the +slang word is much more expressive than the ordinary word.</p> + +<p>This is one reason that the slang of a small number of people spreads +and becomes general. Sometimes the slang word is so much better in +this way than the old word that it becomes more generally used than +it, and finds its way into the ordinary dictionaries. When this +happens it is no longer slang.</p> + +<p>But, as a rule, slang is ugly or meaningless, and it is very often +vulgar. However common its use may become, the best judges will not +use such expressions, and they remain mere slang.</p> + +<p>A writer on the subject of slang has given us two good examples of +meaningless and expressive slang. The people who first called +marmalade "swish" could have no reason for inventing the new name +except to seem odd and different from other people. <i>Swish</i> is +certainly not a more expressive or descriptive word than <i>marmalade</i>. +The one means noth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>ing, while the other has an interesting history +coming to us through the French from two old Greek words meaning +"apple" and "honey."</p> + +<p>The expressive word which this writer quotes is <i>swag</i>, a slang word +for "stolen goods." There is no doubt that <i>swag</i> is a much more +expressive word than any of the ordinary words used to describe the +same thing. One gets a much more vivid picture from the sentence, "The +thieves got off with the <i>swag</i>," than he would had the word <i>prize</i> +or even <i>plunder</i> or <i>booty</i> been used. Yet there is no sign that the +word <i>swag</i> will become good English. Expressive as it is, there is a +vulgar flavour about it which would make people who are at all +fastidious in their language very unwilling to use it.</p> + +<p>Yet many words and phrases which must have seemed equally vulgar when +first used have come to be accepted as good English. And in fact much +of our language, and especially metaphorical words and phrases, were +once slang. It will be interesting to examine some examples of old +slang which have now become good English.</p> + +<p>One common form of slang is the use of expressions connected with +sport as metaphors in speaking of other things. Thus it is slang to +say that we were "in at the death" when we mean that we stayed to the +end of a meeting or performance. This is, of course, a metaphor from +hunting. People who follow the hounds until the fox is caught and +killed are "in at the death." Another such expression is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> to "toe the +mark." We say a person is made to "toe the line" or "toe the mark" +when he or she is subjected to discipline; but it is a slang phrase, +and only good English in its literal meaning of standing with the toes +touching a line in starting a race, etc., so that all may have an +equal chance.</p> + +<p>We say a person has "hit below the belt" if we think he has done or +said something unfair in an argument or quarrel. This is a real slang +phrase, and is only good English in the literal sense in which it is +used in boxing, where it is against the rules to "hit below the belt." +The term "up to you," by which is expressed in a slang way that the +person so addressed is expected to do something, is a slang expression +borrowed from cards.</p> + +<p>Even from these few examples we can see that there are various degrees +in slang. A person who would be content to use the expression "toe the +line" might easily think it rather coarse to accuse an opponent of +"hitting below the belt." There comes a time when some slang almost +ceases to be slang, and though good writers will not use it in +writing, quite serious people will use it in merely speaking. It has +passed out of the stage of mere slang to become a "colloquialism."</p> + +<p>The phrases we have quoted from present-day sport when used in a +general sense are still for the most part slang; but many phrases +taken from old sports and games, and which must have been slang<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> in +their time, are now quite good English and even dignified style. We +speak of "wrestling with a difficulty" or "parrying a thrust" (a +metaphor taken, of course, from fencing), of "winning the palm," and +so on, all of which are not only picturesque but quite dignified +English.</p> + +<p>A very common form of slang is what are called "clipped" words. Such +words are <i>gov</i> for "governor," <i>bike</i> for "bicycle," <i>flu</i> for +"influenza," <i>indi</i> for "indigestion," <i>rec</i> for "recreation," <i>loony</i> +for "lunatic," <i>pub</i> for "public house," <i>exam</i> for "examination," +<i>maths</i> for "mathematics." All of these words are real slang, and most +of them are quite vulgar. There is no sign that any of them will +become good English. The most likely to survive in ordinary speech is +perhaps <i>exam</i>.</p> + +<p>Yet we have numbers of short words which have now become the ordinary +names for certain articles, and yet which are only short forms of the +original names of those articles. The first man who said <i>bus</i> for +"omnibus" must have seemed quite an adventurer. He probably struck +those who heard him as a little vulgar; but hardly any one now uses +the word <i>omnibus</i> (which is in itself an interesting word, being the +Latin word meaning "for all"), except, perhaps, the omnibus companies +in their posters. Again, very few people use the full phrase +"Zoological Gardens" now. Children are taken to the <i>Zoo</i>. <i>Cycle</i> for +"bicycle" is quite dignified and proper, though <i>bike</i> is certainly +vulgar. In the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> hurry of life to-day people more frequently <i>phone</i> +than "telephone" to each other, and we can send a wire instead of a +"telegram" without any risk of vulgarity. The word <i>cab</i> replaced the +more magnificent "cabriolet," and then with the progress of invention +we got the "taxicab." It is now the turn of <i>cab</i> to be dropped, and +when we are in haste we hail a <i>taxi</i>. No one nowadays, except the +people who sell them, speaks of "pianofortes." They have all become +<i>pianos</i> in ordinary speech.</p> + +<p>The way in which good English becomes slang is well illustrated by an +essay of the great English writer Dean Swift, in the famous paper +called "The Tatler," in 1710. He, as a fastidious user of English, was +much vexed by what he called the "continual corruption of the English +tongue." He objected especially to the clipping of words—the use of +the first syllable of a word instead of the whole word. "We cram one +syllable and cut off the rest," he said, "as the owl fattened her mice +after she had cut off their legs to prevent their running away." One +word the Dean seemed especially to hate—<i>mob</i>, which, indeed, was +richer by one letter in his day, for he sometimes wrote it <i>mobb</i>. +<i>Mob</i> is, of course, quite good English now to describe a disorderly +crowd of people, and we should think it very curious if any one used +the full expression for which it stands. <i>Mob</i> is short for the Latin +phrase <i>mobile vulgus</i>, which means "excitable crowd."</p> + +<p>Other words to which Swift objected, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> most of them are not the +words of one syllable with which he declared we were "overloaded," and +which he considered the "disgrace of our language," were <i>banter</i>, +<i>sham</i>, <i>bamboozle</i>, <i>bubble</i>, <i>bully</i>, <i>cutting</i>, <i>shuffling</i>, and +<i>palming</i>. We may notice that some of these words, such as <i>banter</i> +and <i>sham</i>, are now quite good English, and most of the others have at +least passed from the stage of slang into that of colloquialism.</p> + +<p>The word <i>bamboozle</i> is still almost slang, though perhaps more common +than it was two hundred years ago, when Swift attacked it. Even now we +do not know where it came from. There was a slang word used at the +time but now forgotten—<i>bam</i>, which meant a trick or practical joke; +and some scholars have thought that <i>bamboozle</i> (which, of course, +means "to deceive") came from this. On the other hand, it may have +been the other way about, and that the shorter word came from the +longer. The word <i>bamboozle</i> shows us how hard it is for meaningless +slang to become good English even after a struggle of two hundred +years.</p> + +<p>We have seen how many slang words in English have become good English, +so that people use with propriety expressions that would have seemed +improper or vulgar fifty or ten or even five years ago. Other +interesting words are some which are perfectly good English as now +used, but which have been borrowed from other languages, and in those +languages are or were mere slang. The word<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> <i>bizarre</i>, which we +borrowed from the French, and which means "curious," in a fantastic or +half-savage way, is a perfectly dignified word in English; but it must +have been a slang word at one time in French. It meant long ago in +French "soldierly," and literally "bearded"—that is, if it came from +the Spanish word <i>bizarra</i>, "beard."</p> + +<p>Another word which we use in English has a much less dignified use in +French. We can speak of the <i>calibre</i> of a person, meaning the quality +of his character or intellect; but in French the word <i>calibre</i> is +only in ordinary speech applied to things. To speak of a "person of a +certain calibre" in French is very bad slang indeed.</p> + +<p>Again, the word <i>fiasco</i>, which we borrowed from the Italian, and +which means the complete failure of something from which we had hoped +much, was at first slang in Italian. It was applied especially to the +failure of a play in a theatre. To break down was <i>far fiasco</i>, which +literally means "make a bottle." The phrase does not seem to have any +very clear meaning, but at any rate it is far removed from the +dignified word <i>fiasco</i> as used in English.</p> + +<p>The word <i>sack</i> as used in describing the sack of a town in war is a +picturesque and even poetic word; but as it comes from the French +<i>sac</i>, meaning "pack" or "plunder," it is really a kind of slang.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, words which belong to quite good and ordinary +speech in their own languages often become slang when adopted into +another. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> slang word much used in America and sometimes in England +(for American expressions are constantly finding their way into the +English language) is <i>vamoose</i>, which means "depart." <i>Vamoose</i> comes +from a quite ordinary Mexican word, <i>vamos</i>, which is Spanish for "let +us go."</p> + +<p>It is very interesting to find that many of our most respectable words +borrowed from Latin have a slang origin. Sometimes these words were +slang in Latin itself; sometimes they were used as slang only after +they passed into English. The French word <i>tête</i>, which means "head," +comes from the Latin <i>testa</i>, "a pot." (We have seen that this is the +word from which we get our word <i>test</i>.) Some Romans, instead of using +<i>caput</i>, the real Latin word for "head," would sometimes in slang +fashion speak of some one's <i>testa</i>, or "pot," and from this slang +word the French got their regular word for head.</p> + +<p>The word <i>insult</i> comes from the Latin <i>insultarc</i>, which meant at +first "to spring or leap at," and afterwards came to have the same +meaning as it has with us. The persons who first used this expression +in the second sense were really using slang, picturing a person who +said something unpleasant to them as "jumping at them."</p> + +<p>We have the same kind of slang in the expression "to jump down one's +throat," when we mean "to complain violently of some one's behaviour." +The word <i>effrontery</i>, which comes to us from the French +<i>effronterie</i>, is really the same expression as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> vulgar terms +<i>face</i> and <i>cheek</i>, meaning "impudence." For the word comes from the +Latin <i>frons</i>, "the forehead."</p> + +<p>An example of a word which was quite good English, and then came to be +used as slang in a special sense, and then in this same special sense +became good English again, is <i>grit</i>. The word used to mean in English +merely "sand" or "gravel," and it came to mean especially the texture +or grain of stones used for grinding. Then in American slang it came +to be used to mean all that we mean now when we say a person has +"grit"—namely, courage, and strength, and firmness. This use of the +word seemed so good that it rapidly became good English; but the +American slang-makers soon found another word to replace it, and now +talk of people having "sand," which is not by any means so expressive, +and will probably never pass out of the realm of slang.</p> + +<p>An example of a word which was at first used as slang not many years +ago, and is now, if not the most elegant English, at least a quite +respectable word for newspaper use, is <i>maffick</i>. This word means to +make a noisy show of joy over news of a victory. It dates from the +relief of Mafeking by the British in 1900. When news of its relief +came people at home seemed to go mad with joy. They rushed into the +streets shouting and cheering, and there was a great deal of noise and +confusion. It was noticed over and over again that there was no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +"mafficking" over successes in the Great War. People felt it too +seriously to make a great noise about it.</p> + +<p>A slang word which has become common in England during the Great War +is <i>sträfe</i>. This is the German word for "punish," and became quite +familiar to English people through the hope and prayer to which the +Germans were always giving expression that God would "sträfe" England. +The soldiers caught hold of the word, and it was very much used in a +humorous way both at home and abroad. But it is not at all likely to +become a regular English word, and perhaps will not even remain as +slang after the war.</p> + +<p>Besides the fact that slang often becomes good English, we have to +notice that good English often becomes slang. One of the most common +forms of slang is to use words, and especially adjectives, which mean +a great deal in themselves to describe quite small and ordinary +things. To speak of a "splendid" or "magnificent" breakfast, for +instance, is to use words out of proportion to the subject, though of +course they are excellent words in themselves; but this is a mild form +of slang.</p> + +<p>There are many people now who fill their conversation with +superlatives, although they speak of the most commonplace things. A +theatrical performance will be "perfectly heavenly," an actress +"perfectly divine." Apart from the fact that nothing and no one merely +human can be "divine,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> divinity itself is perfection, and it is +therefore not only unnecessary but actually incorrect to add +"perfectly." A scene or landscape may very properly be described as +"enchanting," but when the adjective is applied too easily it is a +case of good English becoming slang.</p> + +<p>Then, besides the use of superlative adjectives to describe things +which do not deserve such descriptions, there is a crowd of rarer +words used in a special sense to praise things.</p> + +<p>Every one knows what a "stunning blow" is, but few people can ever +have been stunned by the beauty of another's clothes. Yet the +expression "stunning hat" or "stunning tie" is quite common. +Expressions like a "ripping time" are even more objectionable, because +they are even more meaningless.</p> + +<p>Then, besides the slang use of terms of praise, there are also many +superlatives expressing disgust which the slangmongers use instead of +ordinary mild expressions of displeasure. To such people it is not +simply "annoying" to have to wait for a lift on the underground +railways; for them it is "perfectly sickening."</p> + +<p><i>Horrid</i>, a word which means so much if used properly, is applied to +all sorts of slightly unpleasant things and people. When one thinks of +the literal Latin meaning of this word ("so dreadful as to cause us to +shudder"), the foolishness of using it so lightly is plain. People +frequently now declare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> that they have a "shocking cold"—a +description which, again, is too violent for the subject.</p> + +<p>Another form of slang is to combine a word which generally expresses +unpleasant with one which expresses pleasant ideas. So we get such +expressions as "awfully nice" and "frightfully pleased," which are +actually contradictions in terms.</p> + +<p>This kind of slang is the worst kind of all. It soon loses any spice +of novelty. It is not really expressive, like some of the quaint terms +of school or university slang, and it does a great deal of harm by +tending to spoil the full force of some of our best and finest words. +It is very difficult to avoid the use of slang if one is constantly +hearing it, but, at any rate, any one who feels the beauty of language +must soon be disgusted by this particular kind of slang.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>WORDS WHICH HAVE CHANGED THEIR MEANING.</h3> + + +<p>We have seen in the chapter on "slang" how people are continually +using old words in new ways, and how, through this, slang often +becomes good English and good English becomes slang. The same thing +has been going on all through the history of language. Other words +besides those used as slang have been constantly getting new uses. +Many English words to-day have quite different meanings from those +which they had in the Middle Ages; some even have exactly opposite +meanings to their original sense. Sometimes words keep both the old +meaning and the new.</p> + +<p>In this matter the English language is very different from the German. +The English language has many words which the Germans have too, but +their meanings are different. The Germans have kept the original +meanings which these words had hundreds of years ago; but the +thousands of words which have come down to us from the English +language of a thousand years ago have nearly all changed their +meanings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p> + +<p>We have two of these old words which have now each two exactly +opposite meanings. The word <i>fast</i> means sometimes "immovable," and +sometimes it means the exact opposite—"moving rapidly." We say a key +is "fast" in a lock when we cannot get it out, and we say a person +runs "fast" when we mean that he runs quickly. The first meaning of +steadiness is the original meaning; then the word came to be used to +mean "moving steadily." A person who ran on, keeping up a steady +movement, was said to run fast, and then it was easy to use the word +for rapidity as well as steadiness in motion or position. This is how +the word <i>fast</i> came to have two opposite meanings.</p> + +<p>Another word, <i>fine</i>, has the same sort of history. We speak of a +"fine needle" when we mean that it is thin, and a "fine baby" when we +mean that it is fat. The first meaning is nearer to the original, +which was "well finished off." Often a thing which had a great deal of +"fine" workmanship spent on it would be delicate and "fine" in the +first sense, and so the word came to have this meaning. On the other +hand, the thing finished off in this way would generally be beautiful. +People came to think of "fine" things as things to be admired, and as +they like their babies to be fat, a fat baby will generally be +considered a fine baby. It was in this kind of way that "fine" came to +have its second meaning of "large."</p> + +<p>The common adjectives <i>glad</i> and <i>sad</i> had quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> different meanings +in Old English from those they have now. In Old English glad meant +"shining," or "bright," but in a very short time it came to mean +"cheerful." Now it means something rather different from this, for +though we may speak of a "glad heart" or "glad spirit," such +expressions are chiefly used in poetry. Generally in ordinary speech +when we say that we are "glad" we mean that we are pleased about some +special thing, as "glad that you have come."</p> + +<p><i>Sad</i> in Old English meant to have as much as one wanted of anything. +Then it came to mean "calm" and "serious," perhaps from the idea that +people who have all they want are in a mood to settle down and attend +to things seriously. Already in Shakespeare's writings we find the +word with its present meaning of "sorrowful." It has quite lost its +earlier meaning, but has several special new meanings besides the +general one of "sorrowful." A "sad tint," or colour, is one which is +dull. "Sad bread" in the north of England is "heavy" bread which has +not risen properly. Again, we describe as "sad" some people who are +not at all sorrowful. We say a person is a "sad" liar when we mean +that he is a hopeless liar.</p> + +<p>The word <i>tide</i>, which we now apply to the regular rise and fall of +the sea, used to mean in Old English "time;" and it still keeps this +meaning in the words <i>Christmastide</i>, <i>Whitsuntide</i>, etc.</p> + +<p>One common way in which words change is in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> going from a general to a +more special meaning. Thus in Old English the word <i>chest</i> meant "box" +in general, but has come now to be used as the name of a special kind +of box only, and also as the name of a part of the body. The first +person who used the word in this sense must have thought of the +"chest" as a box containing the lungs and the heart.</p> + +<p><i>Glass</i> is, of course, the name of the substance out of which we make +our windows and some of our drinking vessels, etc., and this was at +one time its only use; but we now use the name <i>glass</i> for several +special articles—for example, a drinking-vessel, a telescope, a +barometer, a mirror (or "looking-glass"), and so on. <i>Copper</i> is +another word the meaning of which has become specialized in this way +as time has gone on. From being merely the name of a metal it has come +to be used for a copper coin and for a large cauldron especially used +in laundry work. Another example of a rather different kind of this +"specialization" which changes the meaning of words is the word +<i>congregation</i>. <i>Congregation</i> used to mean "any gathering together of +people in one place," and we still use the word <i>congregate</i> in this +sense. Thus we might say "the people congregated in Trafalgar Square," +but we should never think of speaking of a crowd listening to a +lecturer there as a "congregation." The word has now come to mean an +assembly for religious worship in a chapel or church.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p> + +<p>Some words have changed their meaning in just the opposite way. From +having one special meaning they have come by degrees to have a much +more general sense. The word <i>bureau</i>, which came into English from +the French, meant at first merely a "desk" in both languages. It still +has this meaning in both languages, but a wider meaning as well. It +can now be used to describe an office (a place associated with the +idea of desks). Thus we have "employment bureau," and can get English +money for foreign at a "bureau de change." From this use of the word +we have the word <i>bureaucracy</i>, by which we describe a government +which is carried on by a great number of officials.</p> + +<p>A better example of how a word containing one special idea can extend +its meaning is the word <i>bend</i>. This word originally meant to pull the +string of a bow in order to let fly an arrow. The expression "bend a +bow" was used, and as the result of pulling the string was to curve +the wooden part of the arrow, people came in time to think that +"bending the bow" was this making the wood to curve. From this came +our general use of "bend" to mean forcing a thing which is straight +into a curve or angle. We have, of course, also the metaphorical use +of the word, as when we speak of bending our will to another's.</p> + +<p>Another word which has had a similar history is <i>carry</i>. When this +word was first borrowed from Old French it meant to move something +from place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> to place in a cart or other wheeled vehicle. The general +word for our modern <i>carry</i> was <i>bear</i>, which we still use, but +chiefly in poetry. In time <i>carry</i> came to have its modern general +sense of lifting a thing from one place and removing it to another. A +well-known writer on the history of the English language has suggested +that this came about first through people using the word in this sense +half in fun, just as the word <i>cart</i> is now sometimes used. A person +may say (a little vulgarly), "Do you expect me to cart all these +things to another room?" instead of using the ordinary word carry. If +history were to repeat itself in this case, <i>cart</i> might in time +become the generally used word, and <i>carry</i> in its turn be relegated +to the realm of poetry.</p> + +<p>Words often come to have several meanings through being used to +describe things which are connected in some way with the things for +which they were originally used. The word <i>house</i> originally had one +meaning, which it still keeps, but to which several others have been +added. It was a building merely, but came in time to be used to mean +the building and the people living in it. Thus we say one person +"disturbs the whole house." From this sense it got the meaning of a +royal family, and we speak of the House of York, Lancaster, Tudor, or +Stuart. We also use the word in a large sense when we speak of the +"House of Lords" and the "House of Commons," by which we hardly ever +mean the actual buildings known generally as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> the "Houses of +Parliament," but the members of the two Houses. The word <i>world</i> has +had almost the opposite history to the word <i>house</i>. World originally +applied only to persons and not to any place. It meant a "generation +of men," and then came to mean men and the earth they live on, and +then the earth itself; until it has a quite general sense, as when we +speak of "other worlds than ours."</p> + +<p>Many words which are used at present to describe bad or disagreeable +things were used quite differently originally. The word <i>villain</i> is, +perhaps, the most expressive we can use to show our opinion of the +depths of a person's wickedness. Yet in the Middle Ages a villain, or +"villein," was merely a serf or labourer bound to work on the land of +a particular lord. The word in Saxon times would have been <i>churl</i>. As +time went on both these words became terms of contempt. The lords in +the Middle Ages were certainly often more wicked than the serfs, as we +see in the stories of the days of Robin Hood; but by degrees the +people of the higher classes began to use the word <i>villain</i> more and +more contemptuously. Many of them imagined that only people of their +own class were capable of high thoughts and noble conduct. Gradually +"villainy" came to mean all that was low and vulgar, and by degrees it +came to have the meaning it has now of "sheer wickedness." At the end +of the Middle Ages there were practically no longer any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> serfs in +England; but the word <i>villain</i> has remained in this new sense, and +gives us a complete story of the misunderstanding and dislike which +must have existed between "noble" and "simple" to cause such a change +in the meaning of the word.</p> + +<p>The word <i>churl</i> has a somewhat similar history. We say now that a +sulky, ungracious person is a "mere churl," or behaves in a "churlish" +manner, never thinking of the original meaning of the word. Here, +again, is a little story of injustice. The present use of the word +comes from the supposition that only the mere labourer could behave in +a sulky or bad-tempered way.</p> + +<p><i>Knave</i> is another of those words which originally described persons +of poor condition and have now come to mean a wicked or deceitful +person. A knave, as we now understand the word, means a person who +cheats in a particularly mean way, but formerly the word meant merely +"boy." It then came to mean "servant," just as the word <i>garçon</i> +("boy") is used for all waiters in French restaurants. Another word +which now means, as a rule, some one unutterably wicked, is <i>wretch</i>, +though it is also used rather contemptuously to describe some one who +is not wicked but unutterably miserable. Yet in Old English this word +merely meant an "exile." An exile was a person to be pitied, and also +sometimes a person who had done something wrong, and we get both these +ideas in the modern uses of the word. The word <i>blackguard</i>, which now +means a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> "scoundrel," was also once a word for "scullion;" but it does +not go back as far as "knave" and "villain," being found chiefly in +writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.</p> + +<p>Another word in which the "villeins" and "knaves" and "churls" seem to +have their revenge on the "upper classes" is <i>surly</i>. This word used +to be spelt <i>sirly</i>, and meant behaving as a "sire," or gentleman, +behaves. Originally this meant "haughty" or "arrogant," but by degrees +came to have the idea of sulkiness and ungraciousness, much like +<i>churlish</i>.</p> + +<p>Several adjectives which are now used as terms of blame were not only +harmless descriptions originally, but were actually terms of praise. +No one likes to be called "cunning," "sly," or "crafty" to-day; but +these were all complimentary adjectives once. A <i>cunning</i> man was one +who knew his work well, a <i>sly</i> person was wise and skilful, and a +<i>crafty</i> person was one who could work well at his trade or "craft." +Two words which we use to-day with a better sense than any of these, +and yet which have a slightly uncomplimentary sense, are <i>knowing</i> and +<i>artful</i>. It is surely good to "know" things, and to be full of art; +but both words have already an idea of slyness, and may in time come +to have quite as unpleasant a meaning as these three which have the +same literal meaning.</p> + +<p><i>Fellow</i>, a word which has now nearly always a slightly contemptuous +sense, had originally the quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> good sense of <i>partner</i>. It came from +an Old English word which meant the man who marked out his land next +to yours. The word still has this good sense in <i>fellowship</i>, +<i>fellow-feeling</i>, etc., and as used to describe a "fellow" of a +college or society. But the more general use is as a less respectful +word for man. One man may say of another that he is a "nice fellow" +without any disrespect; but the word has no dignity, and people, even +though they use it of an equal, would not think of using it to +describe a superior, and the more general use is that of blame or +contempt, as in the expressions, "a disagreeable fellow" or "a stupid +fellow." The word <i>bully</i> was at one time a word which showed +affection, and meant even "lover." In English now, of course, a bully +is a person, especially a boy, who tyrannizes over people weaker than +himself; but the Americans still use the word in a good sense when +they say "bully for you," meaning "bravo."</p> + +<p>We have seen many words whose meanings have become less dignified than +their original meaning; but sometimes the opposite happens. Every one +now speaks with respect of a "pioneer," whether we mean by that people +who are the first to venture into strange lands, or, in a more +figurative sense, people who make some new discovery in science or +introduce some new way of thinking or acting. Yet "pioneers" were +originally merely the soldiers who did the hard work of clearing the +way for an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> advancing army. They were looked upon as belonging to a +lower class than the ordinary soldiers. But this new and at first +figurative use of the word, applied first to geographical and then to +scientific and moral explorers, has given the word a new dignity.</p> + +<p>A group of words which had originally very humble meanings, and have +been elevated in an even more accidental way, are the names of the +officials of royal courts. The word <i>steward</i> originally meant, as it +still means, a person who manages property for some one else. The +steward on a ship is a servant; but the steward of the king's +household was no mean person, and was dignified with the title of the +"Lord High Steward of England." The royal house of Stuart took its +name from the fact that the heads of the family were in earlier times +hereditary stewards of the Scottish kings. So <i>marshal</i>, the name of +another high official at court, means "horse boy;" <i>seneschal</i>, "old +servant;" <i>constable</i>, "an attendant to horses' stalls," and so on. +Some of these words have kept both a dignified and a commoner meaning. +<i>Constable</i>, besides being the name of a court official, is also +another term for "policeman."</p> + +<p>The word <i>silly</i> meant in Old English "blessed" or "happy," but of +course has wandered far from this meaning. On the other hand, several +words which once meant "foolish" have now quite different meanings. +<i>Giddy</i> and <i>dizzy</i> both had this sense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> in Old English, and so had +the word <i>nice</i>. But later the French word <i>fol</i>, from which we get +<i>foolish</i>, was introduced into English, and these words soon ceased to +be used in this sense. Before this the two words <i>dizzy</i> and <i>giddy</i> +had occasionally been used in the sense in which they are used now, to +describe the condition of a person whose head "swims;" this now became +their general meaning, though <i>giddy</i> has gone back again to something +of its old meaning in its later use to describe a person's conduct. A +<i>giddy</i> person is another description for one of frivolous character.</p> + +<p>The word <i>nice</i> has had a rather more varied history. It had its +original meaning of "foolish" from the literal meaning of the Latin +word <i>nescius</i>, "ignorant," from which it was derived. Gradually it +came to mean "foolishly particular about small things;" and we still +have a similar use of the word, as when we say a person has a "nice +taste in wines," or is a "nice observer," or speak of a "nice +distinction," by which we mean a subtle distinction not very easily +observed. But this is, of course, not the commonest sense in which we +use the word. By <i>nice</i> we generally mean the opposite of <i>nasty</i>. A +"nice" observer was a good observer, and from this kind of idea the +word <i>nice</i> came to have the general sense of "good" in some way. +<i>Nice</i> is not a particularly dignified word, and is little used by +good writers, except in its more special and earlier sense. It is, +perhaps, less used in America than in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> England, and it is interesting +to notice that <i>nasty</i>, the word which in English always seems to be +the opposite of <i>nice</i>, is not considered a respectable word in +America, where it has kept its earlier meaning of "filthy," or +absolutely disgusting in some way.</p> + +<p>Again, the word <i>disgust</i>, by which we express complete loathing for +anything, used merely to mean "dislike" or "distaste." In the same +way, the word <i>loathe</i>, by which we mean "to hate" or feel the +greatest disgust for, originally meant merely "to dislike." The +stronger meaning came from the fact that the word was often used to +describe the dislike a sick person feels for food. Every one knows how +strong this feeling can be, and it is from this that <i>loathe</i> and +<i>loathsome</i> took the strong meaning they now have. Curiously enough, +the adjective <i>loath</i> or <i>loth</i>, from the same word, has kept the old +mild meaning. When we say we are "loth" to do a thing, we do not mean +that we hate doing it, but merely that we feel rather unwilling to do +it. In Old English, too, the word <i>filth</i> and its derivative <i>foul</i> +were not quite such strong words as <i>dirt</i> and <i>dirty</i>.</p> + +<p>Again, the words <i>stench</i> and <i>stink</i> in Old English meant merely +"smell" or "odour." One could then speak of the "sweet stench" of a +flower; but in the later Middle Ages these words came to have their +present meaning of "smelling most disagreeably."</p> + +<p>We saw how the taking of the word <i>fol</i> from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> French, meaning +"foolish," caused the meaning of several English words which before +had this meaning to be changed. The coming in of foreign words has +been a very common cause for such changes of meaning. The word <i>fiend</i> +in English has now a quite different meaning from its original meaning +in English, when it simply meant "enemy," the opposite to "friend." +When the word "enemy" itself was borrowed from the French, the word +<i>fiend</i> came to be less and less often used in this sense. In time +<i>fiend</i> came to be another word for <i>devil</i>, the chief enemy of +mankind. But in modern times we do not use the word much in this +sense. It is most often now applied to persons. It sounds rather +milder than calling a person a "devil," but it means exactly the same +thing.</p> + +<p>The word <i>stool</i> came to have its present special meaning through the +coming into English from the French of the word <i>chair</i>. Before the +Norman Conquest any kind of seat for one person was a "stool," even +sometimes a royal throne. The word <i>deer</i> also had in Old English the +meaning of "beast" in general, but the coming in of the word <i>beast</i> +from the French led to its falling into disuse, and by degrees it +became the special name of the chief beast of chase.</p> + +<p>Again, the Latin word <i>spirit</i> led to the less frequent use of the +word <i>ghost</i>, which was previously the general word for <i>spirit</i>. When +spirit came to be generally used, <i>ghost</i> came to have the special<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +meaning which it has for us now—that of the apparition of a dead +person.</p> + +<p>A great many words have changed their meaning even since the time of +Shakespeare through being transferred from the subject of the feeling +they describe to the object, or from the object to the subject. Thus +one example of this is the word <i>grievous</i>. We speak now of a +"grievous wrong," or a "grievous sin," or a "grievous mistake," and +all these phrases suggest a certain sorrow in ourselves for the fact +described. But this was not the case in the time of Queen Elizabeth, +when it was decreed that a "sturdy beggar," a man who could work but +begged instead, should be "grievously whipped." In this case +<i>grievously</i> merely meant "severely." On the other hand, the word +<i>pitiful</i>, which used to mean "compassionate," is no longer applied to +what we feel at seeing a sad thing, but to the sadness of the thing +itself. We do not now say a person is pitiful when he feels sorry for +some one, but we speak of a "pitiful sight" or a "pitiful plight."</p> + +<p>The word <i>pity</i> itself is used still in both ways, subjectively and +objectively. A person can feel "pity," and there is "pity" in the +thing for which we feel sorry. This is the sense in which it is used +in such expressions as "Oh, the pity of it!"</p> + +<p>The word <i>hateful</i> once meant "full of hate," but came to be used for +the thing inspiring hate instead of for the people feeling it. So, +<i>painful</i> used to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> mean "painstaking," but of course has no longer +this meaning.</p> + +<p>One very common way in which words have changed their meanings is +through the name of one thing being given to another which resembles +it. The word <i>pen</i> comes from the Latin <i>penna</i>, "a feather;" and as +in olden days the ordinary pens were "quills" of birds, the name was +very good. We still keep it, of course, for the steel pens and gold +pens of to-day, which we thus literally speak of as feathers. <i>Pencil</i> +is a word with a somewhat similar history. It comes from the Latin +<i>penicillus</i>, which itself came from <i>peniculus</i>, or "little tail," a +kind of cleaning instrument which the Romans used as we use brushes. +<i>Pencil</i> was originally the name of a very fine painter's brush, and +from this it became the name of an instrument made of lead which was +used for making marks. Then it was passed on to various kinds of +pencils, including what we know as a lead-pencil, in which, as a +writer on words has pointed out, there is really neither lead nor +pencil.</p> + +<p>The word <i>handkerchief</i> is also an interesting word. The word +<i>kerchief</i> came from the French <i>couvre-chef</i>, "a covering for the +head." Another similar word is one which the Normans brought into +England, <i>curfew</i>, which means "cover fire." When the curfew bell rang +the people were obliged to extinguish all lights and fires. The +"kerchief" was originally a covering for the head. Then the fashion +arose of carrying a square of similar material in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> hand, and so we +get <i>handkerchief</i>, and later <i>pocket-handkerchief</i>, which, if we +analyse it, is rather a clumsy word, "pocket-hand-cover-head." The +reason it is so is that the people who added <i>pocket</i> and <i>hand</i> knew +nothing of the real meaning of <i>kerchief</i>.</p> + +<p>There are several words which used to mean "at the present time" which +have now come to mean "at a future time." This can only have come +about through the people who used them not keeping their promises, but +putting off doing things until later. The word <i>soon</i> in Old English +meant "immediately," so that when a person said that he would do a +thing soon he meant that he would do it "instantly." The trouble was +that often he did <i>not</i>, and so often did this happen that the meaning +of the word changed, and <i>soon</i> came to have its present meaning of +"in a short time." The same thing happened with the words <i>presently</i> +and <i>directly</i>, and the phrase <i>by-and-by</i>, all of which used to mean +"instantly." <i>Presently</i> and <i>directly</i> seem to promise things in a +shorter time than <i>soon</i>, but <i>by-and-by</i> is a very uncertain phrase +indeed. It is perhaps because Scotch people are superior to the +English in the matter of doing things to time that with them +<i>presently</i> still really means "instantly."</p> + +<p>In all the examples we have seen of changes in the meaning of words it +is fairly easy to see how the changes have come about. But there are +some words which have changed so much in meaning that their present +sense seems to have no connec<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>tion with their earlier meaning. The +word <i>treacle</i> is a splendid example of this. It comes from a Greek +word meaning "having to do with a wild beast," and this seems to have +no connection whatever with our present use of the word <i>treacle</i> as +another word for <i>syrup of sugar</i>. The steps by which this word came +to change its meaning so enormously were these. From the general +meaning of "having to do with a wild beast," it came to mean "remedy +for the bite of a wild beast." As remedies for wounds and bites were, +in the old days, generally thick syrups, the word came in time to mean +merely "syrup," and lastly the sweet syrup which we now know as +"treacle."</p> + +<p>Another word which has changed immensely in its meaning is <i>premises</i>. +By the word <i>premises</i> we generally mean a house or shop and the land +just round it. But the real meaning of the word <i>premises</i> is the +"things already mentioned." It came to have its present sense from the +frequent use of the word in documents drawn up by lawyers. In these, +which very frequently dealt with business relating to houses, the +"things before mentioned" meant the "house, etc.," and in time people +came to think that this was the actual meaning of <i>premises</i>, and so +we get the present use of the word.</p> + +<p>The word <i>humour</i> is one which has changed its meaning very much in +the course of its history. It comes to us from the Latin word <i>humor</i>, +which means a "fluid" or "liquid." By "humour" we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> now mean either +"temper," as when we speak of being in a "good" or "bad" humour, or +that quality in a person which makes him very quick to find "fun" in +things. And from the first meaning of "temper" we have the verb "to +humour," by which we mean to give in to or indulge a person's whims. +But in the Middle Ages "humour" was a word used by writers on +philosophy to describe the four liquids which they believed (like the +Greek philosophers) that the human body contained. These four +"humours" were blood, phlegm, yellow bile (or choler), and black bile +(or melancholy). According to the balance of these humours a man's +character showed itself. From this belief we get the adjectives—which +we still use without any thought of their origin—<i>sanguine</i> +("hopeful"), <i>phlegmatic</i> ("indifferent and not easily excited"), +<i>choleric</i> ("easily roused to anger"), and <i>melancholy</i> ("inclined to +sadness"). A person had these various temperaments according as the +amount of blood, phlegm, yellow or black bile was uppermost in his +composition. From the idea that having too much of any of the +"humours" would make a person diseased or odd in character, we got the +use of the word <i>humours</i> to describe odd and queer things; and from +this it came to have its modern meaning, which takes us very far from +the original Latin.</p> + +<p>It was from this same curious idea of the formation of the human body +that we get two different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> uses of the word <i>temper</i>. <i>Temper</i> was +originally the word used to describe the right mixture of the four +"humours." From this we got the words <i>good-tempered</i> and +<i>bad-tempered</i>. Perhaps because it is natural to notice more when +people are bad-tempered rather than good, not more than a hundred +years ago the word <i>temper</i> came to mean in one use "bad temper." For +this is what we mean when we say we "give way to temper." But we have +the original sense of "good temper" in the expression to "keep one's +temper." So here we have the same word meaning two opposite things.</p> + +<p>Several words which used to have a meaning connected with religion +have now come to have a more general meaning which seems very +different from the original. A word of this sort in English is +<i>order</i>, which came through the French word <i>ordre</i>, from the Latin +<i>ordo</i>. Though the Latin word had the meaning which we now give to the +word <i>order</i>, in the English of the thirteenth century it had only the +special meaning (which it still keeps as one of its meanings) of an +"order" or "society" of monks. In the fourteenth century it began to +have the meaning of "fixed arrangement," but the adjective <i>orderly</i> +and the noun <i>orderliness</i> did not come into use until the sixteenth +century. The word <i>regular</i> has a similar history. Coming from the +Latin <i>regula</i>, "a rule," its modern general meaning in English of +"according to rule" seems very natural; but the word which began to be +used in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> English in the fourteenth century did not take the modern +meaning until the end of the sixteenth century. Before this, it too +was used as a word to describe monastic orders. The "regular" clergy +were priests who were also monks, while the "secular" clergy were +priests but not monks. The words <i>regularity</i>, <i>regulation</i>, and +<i>regulate</i> did not come into use until the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p>Another word which has now a quite different meaning from its original +meaning is <i>clerk</i>. A "clerk" nowadays is a person who is employed in +an office to keep accounts, write letters, etc. But a "clerk" in the +Middle Ages was what we should now more generally call a "cleric," a +man in Holy Orders. As the "clerks" in the Middle Ages were +practically the only people who could read and write, it is, perhaps, +not unnatural that the name should be now used to describe a class of +people whose chief occupation is writing (whether with the hand or a +typewriter). People in the Middle Ages would have wondered what could +possibly be meant by a word which is common in Scotland for a "woman +clerk"—<i>clerkess</i>.</p> + +<p>The words which change their meanings in this way tell us the longest, +and perhaps the best, stories of all.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>DIFFERENT WORDS WITH THE SAME MEANING, AND THE SAME WORDS WITH DIFFERENT MEANINGS.</h3> + + +<p>We have seen that there are great numbers of words in English which +come from the Latin language. Sometimes they have come to us through +Old French words borrowed from the Latin, and sometimes from the Latin +words directly, or modern French words taken from the Latin. The fact +that we have borrowed from the Latin in these two ways has led +sometimes to our borrowing twice over from the same word. Different +forms going back in this way to the same origin are known as +"doublets." The English language is full of them, and they, too, can +tell us some interesting stories.</p> + +<p>Many of these pairs of words seem to have no relation at all with each +other, so much has one or the other, or both, changed in meaning from +that of the original word from which they come. A familiar pair of +doublets is <i>dainty</i> and <i>dignity</i>, both of which come from the Latin +word <i>dignitas</i>. <i>Dignity</i>, which came into the English language +either directly from the Latin or through the modern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> French word +<i>dignité</i>, has not wandered at all from the meaning of the Latin word, +which had first the idea of "merit" or "value," and then that of +honourable position or character which the word <i>dignity</i> has in +English. <i>Dainty</i> has a quite different meaning; though it, too, came +from <i>dignitas</i>, but through the less dignified way of the Old French +word <i>daintie</i>.</p> + +<p>The English words <i>dish</i>, <i>dais</i>, <i>desk</i>, and <i>disc</i> all come from the +Latin word <i>discus</i>, by which the Romans meant first a round flat +plate thrown in certain games (a "quoit"), and secondly a plate or +dish. In Old English this word became <i>dish</i>. In Old French it became +<i>deis</i>, and from this we have the English <i>dais</i>—the raised platform +of a throne. In Italian it became <i>desco</i>, from which we got <i>desk</i>; +and the scientific men of modern times, in their need of a word to +describe exactly a round, flat object, have gone back as near as +possible to the Latin and given us <i>disc</i>. It is to be noticed that +the original idea of the Latin word—"having a flat surface"—is kept +in these four descendants of a remote ancestor.</p> + +<p>The words <i>chieftain</i> and <i>captain</i> are doublets coming from the Late +Latin word <i>capitaneus</i>, "chief;" the former through the Old French +word <i>chevetaine</i>, and the latter more directly from the Latin. +<i>Frail</i> and <i>fragile</i> are another pair, coming from the Latin word +<i>fragilis</i>, "easily broken;" the one through Old French, and the other +through Modern French.</p> + +<p>Both these pairs of words have kept fairly close<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> to the original +meaning; but <i>caitiff</i> and <i>captive</i>, another pair of doublets, have +quite different meanings from each other. Both come from the Latin +word <i>captivus</i>, "captive," the one indirectly and the other directly. +<i>Caitiff</i>, which is not a word used now except occasionally in poetry, +means a "base, cowardly person;" but <i>captive</i> has, of course, the +original meaning of the Latin word.</p> + +<p>Another pair of doublets, which are quite different in form and almost +opposite to each other in meaning, are <i>guest</i> and <i>hostile</i>. These +two words come from the same root word; but this goes further back +than Latin, to the language known as the Aryan, from which nearly all +the languages of Europe and the chief language of India come. +<i>Hostile</i> comes from the Latin <i>hostis</i>, "an enemy;" but <i>hostis</i> +itself comes from the same Aryan word as that from which <i>guest</i> +comes, and so these two words are doublets in English. They express +very different ideas: we are not generally "hostile" or "full of +enmity" against a "guest," one who partakes of our hospitality.</p> + +<p>Another pair of doublets not from the Latin are <i>shirt</i> and <i>skirt</i>, +which are both old Germanic words. <i>Skirt</i> came later into the +language, being from the Scandinavian, while <i>shirt</i> is an Old English +word.</p> + +<p>The word <i>cross</i> and the many words in English beginning with +<i>cruci</i>—such as <i>crucial</i>, <i>crucifix</i>, and <i>cruciform</i>—the adverb +<i>across</i>, as well as the less common word <i>crux</i>, all come from the +Latin word<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> <i>crux</i>, "a cross." The word <i>cross</i> first came into the +English language with Christianity itself, for the death of our Lord +on the cross was, of course, the first story which converts to +Christianity were told. It came through the Irish from the Norwegian +word <i>cros</i>, which came direct from the Latin. All the words beginning +with <i>cruci</i> come straight from the Latin. <i>Cruciform</i> and <i>crucifix</i> +refer to the form of a cross, and so sometimes does the word +<i>crucial</i>. But, as a rule, <i>crucial</i> is used as the adjective of the +word <i>crux</i>, which means the "test," or "difficult point," in deciding +or doing something. The Romans did not use <i>crux</i> in this sense; but +it is interesting to notice that they did use it in the figurative +sense of "trouble" just as we do. This came from the fact that the +common form of execution for all subjects of the Roman Empire except +Roman citizens was crucifixion.</p> + +<p>Two such different words as <i>tavern</i> and <i>tabernacle</i>, the one meaning +an inn and the other the most sacred part of the sanctuary in a +church, are doublets from the Latin word <i>tabernaculum</i>, "tent." The +first comes from the French <i>taverne</i>, and the second directly from +the Latin.</p> + +<p>The words <i>mint</i> and <i>money</i> both come from the Latin word <i>moneta</i>, +which was an adjective attached by the Romans to the name of the +goddess Juno. The place where the Romans coined their money was +attached to the temple of Juno Moneta, or Juno the Adviser. From this +fact the Romans<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> themselves came to use <i>moneta</i> as the name for +coins, or what we call money. The word passed into French as +<i>monnaie</i>, which is still the French word both for <i>money</i> and <i>mint</i>, +the place where we coin our money. In German it became <i>munze</i>, which +has the same meanings. In English it became <i>mint</i>. But the English +language, as we have seen, has a fine gift for borrowing. In time it +acquired the French word <i>monnaie</i>, which became <i>money</i> as the name +for coins, while it kept the word <i>mint</i> to describe the place where +coins are made.</p> + +<p>The words <i>bower</i>, formerly the name of a sleeping-place for ladies +and now generally meaning a summer-house, and <i>byre</i>, the place where +cows sleep, both come from the Old English word <i>bur</i>, "a bower." The +word <i>flour</i> (which so late as the eighteenth century Dr. Johnson did +not include in his great dictionary) is the same word as <i>flower</i>. +Flour is merely the flower of wheat. Again, <i>poesy</i> and <i>posy</i> are +really the same word, <i>posy</i> being derived from <i>poesy</i>. <i>Posy</i> used +to mean a copy of verses presented to some one with a bouquet. Now it +stands either for verses, as when we speak of the "posy of a ring," or +more commonly a bunch of flowers without any verses.</p> + +<p>The words <i>bench</i> and <i>bank</i> both come from the same Teutonic word +which became <i>benc</i> in Old English and <i>banc</i> in French. <i>Bench</i> comes +from <i>benc</i>, but <i>bank</i> has a more complicated history. From the +French <i>banc</i> we borrowed the word to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> use in the old expression a +"bank of oars." From the Scandinavians, who also had the word, we got +<i>bank</i>, used for the "bank of a river." Meanwhile the Italians had +also borrowed the old Germanic word which became with them <i>banca</i> or +<i>banco</i>, the bench or table of a money-changer. From this the French +got <i>banque</i>, and this became in English <i>bank</i> as we use it in +connection with money.</p> + +<p>The Latin word <i>ratio</i>, "reckoning," has given three words to the +English language. It passed into Old French as <i>resoun</i>, and from this +we got the word <i>reason</i>. Later on the French made a new word direct +from the Latin—<i>ration</i>; which, again, passed into English as a +convenient name for the allowance of food to a soldier. It has now a +more general sense, as when in the Great War people talk of the whole +nation being put "on rations." Then again, as every child who is old +enough to study mathematics knows, we use the Latin word itself, +<i>ratio</i>, as a mathematical term.</p> + +<p>Another Latin word which has given three different words to the +English language is <i>gentilis</i>. From it we have <i>gentile</i>, <i>gentle</i>, +and <i>genteel</i>. Yet the Latin word had not the same meaning as any of +these words. <i>Gentilis</i> meant "belonging to the same <i>gens</i> or +'clan.'" It became later a distinguishing term from <i>Jew</i>. All who +were not Jews were <i>Gentiles</i>, and this is still the meaning of the +word <i>gentile</i> in English. It came directly from the Latin. But +<i>gentilis</i> became <i>gentil</i> in French; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> we have borrowed twice from +this word, getting <i>gentle</i>, which expresses one idea contained in the +French word, though the French word means more than our word <i>gentle</i>. +It has the sense of "very amiable and attractive." The last word of +the three, <i>genteel</i>, is rather a vulgar word. It means "like +gentlemen and ladies have to do," and only rather ignorant people use +the word seriously.</p> + +<p>Doublets from Latin words for the most part resemble each other in +meaning and form, though, as we have seen, this is not always the +case. We could give a long list of examples where both sense and form +are similar, but there is only space to mention a few. <i>Poor</i> and +<i>pauper</i> (a miserably poor person) both come from the Latin <i>pauper</i>, +"poor." <i>Story</i> and <i>history</i> both come from <i>historia</i>, a word which +had both meanings in Latin. <i>Human</i> and <i>humane</i> are both from the +Latin <i>humanus</i>, "belonging to mankind." <i>Sure</i> and <i>secure</i> are both +from the Latin <i>securus</i>, "safe." <i>Nourishment</i> and <i>nutriment</i> are +both from the Latin <i>nutrimentum</i>. <i>Amiable</i> and <i>amicable</i> are both +from the Latin <i>amicabilis</i>, "friendly."</p> + +<p>Examples of doublets which are similar in form but not in sense are +<i>chant</i> and <i>cant</i>, which both come from the Latin <i>cantare</i>, "to +sing." <i>Chant</i> has the original idea, being a form of singing, +especially in church; but <i>cant</i> has wandered far from the original +sense, meaning insincere words, especially such as are used by people +pretending to be religious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> or pious. The word <i>cant</i> was first used +in describing the chanting or whining of beggars, who were supposed +often to be telling lies; and from this it got its present use, which +has nothing to do with singing.</p> + +<p><i>Blame</i> and <i>blaspheme</i>, both coming from the Latin <i>blasphemare</i>, +itself taken from a Hebrew word, are not, perhaps, quite so different +in sense; but <i>blame</i> means merely to find fault with a person, while +<i>blaspheme</i> means to speak against God.</p> + +<p><i>Chance</i> and <i>cadence</i> both come from the Latin <i>cadere</i>, "to fall," +but have very little resemblance in meaning. <i>Chance</i> is what happens +or befalls, and <i>cadence</i> is movement measured by the fall of the +voice in speaking or singing.</p> + +<p>But the most interesting doublets of all are those which have neither +form nor sense in common. No one would guess that the words <i>hyena</i> +and <i>sow</i>, the names of two such different animals, are doublets. Both +come from the Greek word <i>sus</i> or <i>hus</i>, "sow." The Saxons, when they +first settled in England, had the words <i>su</i>, "pig," and <i>sugu</i>, +"sow;" and later the word <i>hyena</i> was taken from the Latin word +<i>hyaena</i>, itself derived from the Greek <i>huaina</i>, "sow."</p> + +<p>The words <i>furnish</i> and <i>veneer</i>, again, are doublets which do not +resemble each other very closely either in sound or in sense. Both +come from the Old French word <i>furnir</i>, which has become <i>fournir</i> in +Modern French, and means "to furnish." The English word <i>furnish</i> was +taken direct from the French, while the word <i>veneer</i>, which used to +be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> spelt <i>fineer</i>, came into English from a German word also borrowed +from the French <i>furnir</i>.</p> + +<p>No one would easily guess that the name <i>nutmeg</i> had anything to do +with <i>musk</i>; but the word comes from the name which Latin writers in +the Middle Ages gave to this useful seed—<i>nux muscata</i>, "musky nut."</p> + +<p>It seems strange, when we come to think of it, that great English +sailors like Admiral Jellicoe and Admiral Beatty are called by a title +which is really the same as the name of an Arabian chieftain—<i>Emir</i>. +<i>Admiral</i> comes from the Arab phrase <i>amir al bahr</i>, "emir on the +sea."</p> + +<p>Just the opposite to doublets which do not resemble each other are +many pairs of words which are pronounced alike and sometimes spelled +alike. Very often these words come from two different languages, and +there are many of them in English through the habit the language has +always had of borrowing freely whenever the need of a new word has +been felt.</p> + +<p>The word <i>weed</i>, "a wild plant," comes from an Old English word, +<i>weod</i>; while "widows' weeds" take their name from the Old English +word <i>wœde</i>, "garment." The word <i>vice</i>, meaning the opposite of +<i>virtue</i>, comes through the French from the Latin <i>vitium</i>, "a fault;" +while a "<i>vice</i>," the instrument for taking a perfectly tight hold on +anything, comes from the Latin <i>vitis</i>, "a vine," through the French +<i>vis</i>, "a screw." Yet another <i>vice</i>, as in <i>viceroy</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +<i>vice-president</i>, etc., comes from the Latin <i>vice</i>, "in the place +of." <i>Angle</i>, meaning the sport of fishermen, comes from an Old +English word, <i>angel</i>, "fish-hook;" while <i>angle</i>, "a corner," comes +from the Latin word <i>angulus</i>, which had the same meaning.</p> + +<p>We might imagine that the word <i>temple</i>, as the name of a part of the +head, was a metaphor describing the head as the temple of the mind, +but it has no such romantic meaning. <i>Temple</i>, the name of a place of +worship, comes from the Latin <i>templum</i>, "a temple;" but <i>temple</i>, the +name of a part of the head, is from the Latin word <i>tempus</i>, which had +the same meaning in Latin, and also the earlier meaning of "the +fitting time." It has been suggested that in Latin <i>tempus</i> came to +mean "the temple," because it is "the fitting place" for a fatal blow, +the temple being the most delicate part of the head.</p> + +<p><i>Tattoo</i>, meaning a "drum beat," comes from the Dutch <i>tap-toe</i>, +"tap-to," an order for drinking-houses to shut. But <i>tattoo</i>, +describing the cutting away of the skin and dyeing of the flesh so +common among sailors, is a word borrowed from the South Sea Islanders.</p> + +<p><i>Sound</i> meaning "a noise," and <i>sound</i> meaning "to find out the depth +of," as in <i>sounding-rod</i>, are two quite different words. The one +comes from the word <i>son</i>, found both in Old English and French, and +the other from the Old English words <i>sundgyrd</i>, <i>sund line</i>, "a +sounding line;" while <i>sound</i> meaning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> "healthy" or "uninjured," as in +the expression "safe and sound," comes from the Old English word +<i>sund</i>, and perhaps from the Latin <i>sanus</i>, "healthy."</p> + +<p>The existence of so many pairs of words of this sort, which have the +same sound and which yet come from such different origins—origins as +far apart as the speech of the people of Holland and that of the South +Sea Islanders, as we saw in the word <i>tattoo</i>—illustrates in a very +interesting way the wonderful history of the English language.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>NICE WORDS FOR NASTY THINGS.</h3> + + +<p>In the days of Queen Elizabeth there were in England certain writers +who were called "Euphuists." They got this name from the title of a +book, "Euphues," written by one of them, John Lyly. The chief +characteristic of the writings of these Euphuists was the grandiose +way in which they wrote of the simplest things. Their writings were +full of metaphors and figures of speech. The first Euphuists were +looked upon as "refiners of speech," and Queen Elizabeth and the +ladies at her court did their best to speak as much in the manner of +Euphues as they could.</p> + +<p>But all men at all times are unconscious Euphuists, in so far as they +try to say ugly and unpleasant things in a way which will make them +sound pleasant. This tendency in speech is called "euphemism," a word +which is made from two Greek words meaning "to speak well." It is a +true description of what the word means if by "well" we understand "as +pleasantly as possible." The word <i>euphēmeîte</i>, "speak fair," was +used as a warning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> to worshippers in Greek temples, in the belief that +the speaking of an unfortunate word might bring disaster instead of +blessing from the sacrifice.</p> + +<p>Every day, and often in a day, we use euphemisms. How often do we hear +people say, "if anything should happen to him," meaning "if he died;" +and on tombstones the plain fact of a person's death is nearly always +stated in phrases such as "he passed away," "fell asleep," or +"departed this life." People often refer to a dead person as the +"deceased" or the "departed," or as the "<i>late</i> so-and-so." The fact +is that, death being to most people the unpleasantest thing in the +world, there is a general tendency to mention it as little as +possible, and, when the subject cannot be avoided, to use vague and +less realistic phrases than the words <i>death</i>, <i>dead</i>, or <i>die</i>.</p> + +<p>One reason for this avoidance of an unpleasant subject is the +superstitious feeling that mentioning a thing will bring it to pass. +Or, again, if a misfortune has happened, many people feel that it only +makes it worse to talk about it. While everybody avoids speaking on +the subject, we can half pretend to ourselves that it is not true.</p> + +<p>We might imagine that this kind of "refinement of speech" (which when +carried to excess really becomes vulgar) was the result of modern +people being so "nervous." But this is not the case. Complete savages +have the same custom. If civilized people have a superstitious feeling +that to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> mention a misfortune may bring it to pass, savages firmly +believe that this is the case. Not only will they not mention the +subject of death in plain words, but some will not even mention the +name of a dead person or give that name to a new-born child, so that +in some tribes names die out in this way. Many civilized people have +this same idea that it is unlucky for a new-born child to be called by +the name of a brother or sister who has already died.</p> + +<p>The subject of death has gathered more euphemisms around it than +almost any other. Some of them are ugly and almost vulgar, while +others, from the way in which they have been used, are almost +poetical. To speak of the "casualties" in a battle, meaning the number +of killed and wounded men, seems almost heartless; but to say a man +"fell in battle," though it means the same thing, is almost poetical, +because it suggests an idea of courage and sacrifice. The expression, +"Roll of Honour," is a euphemism, but poetical. It suggests the one +consoling thought which relieves the horror of the bald expression, +"list of casualties."</p> + +<p>Another cause of the use of euphemisms, besides the superstitious fear +of bringing misfortune by mentioning it too plainly, is the fear of +being vulgar or indecent. Through this feeling words which are quite +proper at one time pass out of use among refined people. English +people do not freely use the word "stomach" in conversation, and are +often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> a little shocked when they hear French people describing their +ailments in this region of the body. In the same way, names of +articles of underclothing pass out of use. The old word for the +garment which is now generally called a "chemise" was <i>smock</i>; but +this in time became tinged with vulgarity, and the word <i>shift</i> was +used. This in its turn fell out of use among refined people, who began +to use the French word <i>chemise</i>. Even this, and the word <i>drawers</i>, +which was also once a most refined expression, are falling into +disuse, and people talk vaguely of "underlinen" in speaking of these +garments. The shops which are always refined to the verge of vulgarity +only allow themselves to use the French word <i>lingerie</i>.</p> + +<p>Again, the faults of our friends and acquaintances, and even the +graver offences of criminals, are matters with which we tend to deal +lightly. Such offences have gathered a whole throng of euphemisms +about them. When we do not like to say boldly that a person is a liar, +we say the same thing by means of the euphemism a "stranger to the +truth." Other lighter ways of saying that a person is lying is to say +that he is "romancing," or "drawing the long bow," or "drawing on the +imagination," or "telling a fairy tale." A thief will be described as +a "defaulter," and we may say of a man who has stolen his employer's +money as it passed through his hands that he is "short in his +accounts."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p> + +<p>Especially among the poorer or less respectable people, to whom the +idea of crime becomes familiar, the use of slang euphemisms on this +subject grows up. A person for whom the police are searching is +"wanted." A man who is hanged "swings." These expressions may seem +very dreadful to more refined people, but their use really comes from +the same desire to be indulgent which leads more educated people to +use euphemisms to cover up as far as possible the faults of their +friends.</p> + +<p>Again, misfortunes which come not from outside happenings but from +some defect in a person's mind and body are often the subject of +euphemisms. In Scotland a person who is quite an imbecile will be +described as an "innocent"—a milder way of saying the same thing. +<i>Insane</i> and <i>crazy</i> were originally euphemisms for <i>mad</i>, but now +have come to be equally unpleasant descriptions. So for <i>drunken</i> the +euphemism <i>intemperate</i> came to be used, but is now hardly a more +polite description. We would not willingly speak of a person being +"fat" in his presence. If it is necessary to touch on the subject, the +word "stout" is more favoured. In the absence of the fat person the +humorous euphemism may be used by which he or she is said to "have a +good deal of <i>embonpoint</i>."</p> + +<p>Many words are euphemisms in themselves, just as many words are +complete metaphors in themselves. The word <i>ill</i> means literally +"uncomfortable," but has come to have a much more serious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> meaning. +<i>Disease</i> means literally "not being at ease," but the sense in which +we use it describes something much more serious than the literal +meaning. The word <i>ruin</i> is literally merely a "falling."</p> + +<p>One result of words being used euphemistically is that they often +cease to have their milder original meaning, and cease therefore to +seem euphemistic at all. <i>Vile</i>, which now means everything that is +bad, is in its literal and earlier use merely "cheap." <i>Base</i>, which +has the meaning of unutterable meanness, is literally merely "low." +<i>Mercenary</i> is not exactly a complimentary description now. It means +that a person thinks far too much of money, but originally it merely +meant "serving for pay," a thing which most men are obliged to do. +<i>Transgression</i> is generally used now to describe some rather serious +offence, but it literally means only a "stepping across." The "step" +which it describes being, however, in the wrong direction, the word +has come to have a more and more serious meaning. The study of +euphemisms can teach us much about men's thoughts and manners in the +past and the present.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>THE MORAL OF THESE STORIES.</h3> + + +<p>Most stories have a moral. At least grown-up people have a habit of +tacking a little lesson on to the end of the stories they tell to +children. And as a rule the children will listen to the moral for the +sake of the story. And so even the stories which words tell us have +their lessons for us too, and, let us hope, the stories are +sufficiently interesting to pay for the moral.</p> + +<p>One thing that these stories must have shown us is that the English +language is a very ancient and wonderful thing. We have only been able +to get mere glimpses of its wonderful development since the days when +the ancestors of the peoples of Europe and many of the peoples of +India spoke the one Aryan tongue. All the history of Europe and of +India—we might almost say of the world—is contained in the languages +which have descended from that Aryan tongue.</p> + +<p>Another point which these stories have impressed upon us is that +language is a kind of mirror to thought. For every new idea people +must find a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> word, and as ideas change words change with them. These +stories have given us some idea of the wonderful growth of ideas in +the minds of men in the past; they have shown us men daring all +dangers for the sake of adventure and discovery and for pride of +country; they have shown us the growth of new ideas of religion and +kindness, new notions about science and learning: in fact, they have +given us glimpses of the whole story of human progress.</p> + +<p>The great lesson which these stories ought to teach us is respect for +words. Seeing as we do what a beautiful and wonderful thing the +English language has become, it ought to be the resolution of each one +of us never to do anything to spoil that beauty. Every writer ought to +choose his words carefully, neither inventing nor copying ugly forms +of speech. We have seen also from these stories, especially in the +chapter on "Slang," how people have misused certain words, until +speakers and writers of good taste can no longer use them in their +original sense, and therefore do not use them at all.</p> + +<p>There are many other faults in speaking and in writing which take away +from the beauty and dignity of the language. We shall see what some of +these faults are; but one golden rule can be laid down which, if +people keep it, will help them to avoid all these faults. No one +should ever try to write in a fine style. The chief aim which all +young writers should keep before them is to say exactly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> what they +mean, and in as few and simple words as possible. If on reading what +they have written they find that it is not perfectly clear, they +should not immediately begin to rewrite, but instead set themselves to +find out whether their <i>thoughts</i> are perfectly clear.</p> + +<p>There is no idea which has no word to fit it. Of course some writers +must use difficult language. The ordinary reader can sometimes not +understand a sentence of a book of philosophy. This is not because the +philosophers do not write clearly, but because the ideas with which +they have to deal are very subtle, and hard for the ordinary person to +understand.</p> + +<p>But for ordinary people writing on ordinary things there is no excuse +for writing so as not to be clearly understood, or for writing in such +a long and round-about way that people are tired instead of refreshed +by reading. Nor is there any excuse for the use of words and phrases +which are vulgar or too colloquial for the subject; yet how often is +this done in the modern newspaper. It may seem unnecessary to speak to +boys and girls of the faults of newspaper writers. But the boys and +girls of to-day are the newspaper writers and readers of the future, +and the habits which young writers form cling to them afterwards. Of +course many of the faults which the worse kind of journalists commit +in writing would not occur to boys and girls; but one fault leads to +another. The motive at the root<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> of most poor and showy writing is the +desire to "shine." The faults which seem so detestable to the critical +reader seem very ingenious and brilliant to the writer of poor taste. +To the journalist, as to the schoolboy and the schoolgirl, the golden +rule is, "Be simple."</p> + +<p>Let us see what some of the commonest faults of showy and poor writers +of English are—always with the moral before us that they are to be +avoided.</p> + +<p>One great fault of newspaper writers and of young writers in general +is to sprinkle their compositions thickly with quotations, until some +beautiful and expressive lines from the greatest poetry and prose have +almost lost their force through the ear having become tired by hearing +them too often. Some such phrases are—</p> + +<p>"Tell it not in Gath;"</p> + +<p>"Heap coals of fire upon his head;"</p> + +<p>"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof:"</p> + +<p>all fine and picturesque lines, the apt quotation of which must have +been very impressive, until, through frequent repetition, they have +become almost commonplace.</p> + +<p>A similar hackneyed fault is the too frequent application of the name +of some historical or Biblical personage to describe the character of +some person of whom we are writing. It is much more expressive now to +describe a person as a "doubter" than as a "doubting Thomas," though +the latter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> phrase may serve to show that the writer knows something +of his New Testament. The first man who called a sceptic a "doubting +Thomas" was certainly a witty and cultivated person; but this cannot +now be said of the use of this hackneyed phrase. Again, it is better +to say a "traitor" than a "Judas," a "wise man" than a "Solomon," a +"tyrant" than a "Nero," a "great general" than a "Napoleon;" for all +these names used in this way have lost their force.</p> + +<p>A similar fault is the describing of a person by some abstract noun +such as a "joy," a "delight," an "inspiration"—a way of speaking +which savours both of slang and affectation, and which is not likely +to appeal to people of good taste. Of course it is quite different +when the poet writes—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"She was a vision of delight;"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>for poetry has its own rules, just as it has its own range of ideas +and inspiration, and we are speaking now of the writing of mere prose.</p> + +<p>Another bad fault of the same kind, but more colloquial, and more +often met with in speaking than in writing, is the too frequent use of +a word or phrase. Some people say "I mean," or "personally," or "I +see," or "you see," or similar expressions, at nearly every second +sentence, until people listening to them begin to count the number of +times these expressions occur, instead of attending to the subject of +conversation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p> + +<p>Another very common fault in writing made by newspaper writers, and +even more so by young beginners in composition, is the use of long +words derived from Latin instead of the simpler words which have come +down from the Old English. This does not mean that these words are not +so good or so beautiful as the Old English words. As we have seen, +these words were borrowed by our language to express ideas for which +no native word could be found. But a person who deliberately chooses +long Latin words because they are longer, and, as he thinks, sound +grander, is sure to write a poor style. A saying which is perhaps +becoming almost as "hackneyed" as some of the quotations already +mentioned in this chapter is, "The style is the man." This means that +if a person thinks clearly and sincerely he will write clearly and +sincerely. If a person's thoughts are lofty, he will naturally find +dignified words to express them. No good writer will deliberately +choose "high-sounding" words to express his ideas. All young writers +should avoid what have been called "flowery flourishes."</p> + +<p>Again, young writers should be very careful not to use really foreign +words to express an idea for which we have already a good word in +English. Sometimes the foreign word comes first to our pen, but this +may be because of the bad habit which has grown up of using these +words in place of the English words which are quite as correct and +expressive.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> Sometimes, on the other hand, the foreign word expresses +a shade of meaning which the English word misses, and then, of course, +it is quite right to use it. For instance, <i>amour propre</i> is not in +any way better than "self-love," <i>bêtise</i> than "stupid action," +<i>camaraderie</i> than "comradeship," <i>savoir faire</i> than "knowledge of +the world," <i>chef d'œuvre</i> than "masterpiece," and so on.</p> + +<p>One disadvantage of borrowing such words is that they often come to be +used in a different sense from their use in their native language; and +people with an imperfect knowledge of these languages will say rather +vulgar or shocking things when using them in the English manner in +those languages. Thus, to speak of a person of a certain "calibre" in +French is exceedingly vulgar; and refined people do not use the word +<i>chic</i> as freely as the English use of it would suggest. Examples of +foreign words which we could hardly replace by English expressions are +<i>blasé</i>, <i>tête-à-tête</i>, <i>brusque</i>, <i>bourgeois</i>, <i>deshabille</i>. These +have been borrowed, just as words have been borrowed all through its +history, by the English language to fill gaps. They have really become +English words. But there are many foreign expressions now scattered +freely through newspapers the sense of which can only be plain to +those who have had a classical education. Unfortunately it is only the +minority of readers who have had this. The effect is to make whole +passages unintelligible or only half intelligible to the majority of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +readers. This is not writing good English. Thus people will write <i>le +tout Paris</i> instead of "all Paris," <i>mémoires pour servir</i> instead of +"documents," <i>ipsis Hibernis Hiberniores</i> for "more Irish than the +Irish." Such phrases are quite unsuitable to the general reader, and +as perfect equivalents can be found in English, there would be no +point in using them, even if writing for a learned society.</p> + +<p>Modern English, and especially colloquial English, has borrowed a +great deal from the American way of speaking English. The people of +the United States, though their language is that of the +mother-country, have modified it so that it is, as it were, a mirror +of the difference between American and English life. In America there +is more hurry and bustle and less dignity. It is this difference which +makes Americans and the American way of speaking appear interesting +and piquant to English people. But this is no good reason for the +adoption of American mannerisms into the English language. A typically +American word is <i>boom</i>, meaning a sudden coming into popularity of +something. Thus one may speak of a "boom" in motors, and the word has +become quite common in English; but it is not beautiful, and we could +easily have done without it. Words which sound quite natural when used +by Americans often seem unnecessarily "slangy" when used by English +people.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Stories That Words Tell Us, by Elizabeth O'Neill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES THAT WORDS TELL US *** + +***** This file should be named 19052-h.htm or 19052-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/5/19052/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Stories That Words Tell Us + +Author: Elizabeth O'Neill + +Release Date: August 15, 2006 [EBook #19052] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES THAT WORDS TELL US *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + STORIES THAT + + WORDS TELL US + + + + BY + + ELIZABETH O'NEILL, M.A. + + AUTHOR OF "THE WORLD'S STORY," + + "A NURSERY HISTORY + + OF ENGLAND," ETC. + + + + + LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, LTD. + + 35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + AND EDINBURGH + + 1918 + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. SOME STORIES OF BRITISH HISTORY TOLD FROM ENGLISH WORDS + +II. HOW WE GOT OUR CHRISTIAN NAMES AND SURNAMES + +III. STORIES IN THE NAMES OF PLACES + +IV. NEW NAMES FOR NEW PLACES + +V. STORIES IN OLD LONDON NAMES + +VI. WORDS MADE BY GREAT WRITERS + +VII. WORDS THE BIBLE HAS GIVEN US + +VIII. WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF PEOPLE + +IX. WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF ANIMALS + +X. WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF PLACES + +XI. PICTURES IN WORDS + +XII. WORDS FROM NATIONAL CHARACTER + +XIII. WORDS MADE BY WAR + +XIV. PROVERBS + +XV. SLANG + +XVI. WORDS WHICH HAVE CHANGED THEIR MEANING + +XVII. DIFFERENT WORDS WITH THE SAME MEANING, AND THE SAME WORDS WITH + DIFFERENT MEANINGS + +XVIII. NICE WORDS FOR NASTY THINGS + +XIX. THE MORAL OF THESE STORIES + + * * * * * + + + + +STORIES THAT WORDS TELL US. + +CHAPTER I. + +SOME STORIES OF BRITISH HISTORY TOLD FROM ENGLISH WORDS. + + +Nearly all children must remember times when a word they know quite +well and use often has suddenly seemed very strange to them. Perhaps +they began repeating the word half to themselves again and again, and +wondered why they had never noticed before what a queer word it is. +Then generally they have forgotten all about it, and the next time +they have used the word it has not seemed strange at all. + +But as a matter of fact words _are_ very strange things. Every word we +use has its own story, and has changed, sometimes many times since +some man or woman or child first used it. Some words are very old and +some are quite new, for every living language--that is, every language +used regularly by some nation--is always growing, and having new words +added to it. The only languages which do not grow in this way are the +"dead" languages which were spoken long ago by nations which are dead +too. + +Latin is a "dead" language. When it was spoken by the old Romans it +was, of course, a living language, and grew and changed; but though it +is a very beautiful language, it is no longer used as the regular +speech of a nation, and so does not change any more. + +But it is quite different with a living language. Just as a baby when +it begins to speak uses only a few words, and learns more and more as +it grows older, so nations use more words as they grow older and +become more and more civilized. Savages use only a few words, not many +more, perhaps, than a baby, and not as many as a child belonging to a +civilized nation. But the people of great civilizations like England +and France use many thousands of words, and the more educated a person +is the more words he is able to choose from to express his thoughts. + +We do not know how the first words which men and women spoke were +made. People who study the history of languages, and who are called +_Philologists_, or "Lovers of Words," say that words may have come to +be used in any one of three different ways; but of course this is only +guessing, for though we know a great deal about the way words and +languages grow, we do not really know how they first began. Some +people used to think that the earliest men had a language all +ready-made for them, but this could not be. We know at least that the +millions of words in use in the world to-day have grown out of quite a +few simple sounds or "root" words. Every word we use contains a story +about some man or woman or child of the past or the present. In this +chapter we shall see how some common English words can tell us stories +of the past. + +In reading British history we learn how different peoples have at +different times owned the land: how the Britons were conquered by the +English; how the Danes tried to conquer the English in their turn, and +how great numbers of them settled down in the _Danelaw_, in the east +of England; how, later on, the Norman duke and his followers overcame +Harold, and became the rulers of England, and so on. But suppose we +knew nothing at all about British history, and had to guess what had +happened in the past, we might guess a great deal of British history +from the words used by English people to-day. For the English language +has itself been growing, and borrowing words from other languages all +through British history. Scholars who have studied many languages can +easily pick out these borrowed words and say from which language they +were taken. + +Of course these scholars know a great deal about British history; but +let us imagine one who does not. He would notice in the English +language some words (though not many) which must have come from the +language which the Britons spoke. He would know, too, that the name +_Welsh_, which was given to the Britons who were driven into the +western parts of England, comes from an Old English word, _wealh_, +which meant "slave." He might then guess that, besides the Britons who +were driven away into the west of the country, there were others whom +the English conquered and made to work as slaves. From the name +_wealh_, or "slave," given to these, all the Britons who remained came +to be known as _Welsh_. + +Yet though the English conquered the Britons, the two peoples could +not have mixed much or married very often with each other; for if they +had done so, many more British words would have been borrowed by the +English language. To the English the Britons were strangers and +"slaves." + +We could, too, guess some of the things which these old English +conquerors of Britain did and believed from examining some common +English words. If we think of the days of the week besides _Sunday_, +or the "Sun's day," and _Monday_, the "Moon's day," we find _Tuesday_, +"Tew's day," _Wednesday_, "Woden's day," _Thursday_, "Thor's day," +_Friday_, "Freya's day," _Saturday_, "Saturn's day," and it would not +be hard to guess that most of the days are called after gods or +goddesses whom the English worshipped while they were still heathen, +Tew was in the old English religion the bravest of all the gods, for +he gave up his own arm to save the other gods. Woden, the wisest of +the gods, had given up not an arm but an eye, which he had sold for +the waters of wisdom. Thor was the fierce god of thunder, who hurled +lightning at the giants. Freya was a beautiful goddess who wore a +magic necklace which had the power to make men love. We might then +guess from the way in which our old English forefathers named the days +of the week what sort of gods they worshipped, and what kind of men +they were--great fighters, admiring courage and strength above all +things, but poetical, too, loving grace and beauty. + +But, as everybody knows, the English people soon changed their +religion and became Christians; and any student of the English +language would soon guess this, even if he knew nothing of English +history. He would be able to guess, too, that the English got their +Christianity from a people who spoke Latin, for so many of the English +words connected with religion come from the Latin language. It was, of +course, the Roman monk St. Augustine who brought the Christian +religion to the English. Latin was the language of the Romans. The +word _religion_ itself is a Latin word meaning reverence for the gods; +and _Mass_, the name given to the chief service of the Catholic +religion, comes from the Latin _missa_, taken from the words, _Ite +missa est_ ("Go; the Mass is ended"), with which the priest finishes +the Mass. _Missa_ is only a part of the verb _mittere_, "to finish." + +The words _priest_, _bishop_, _monk_, _altar_, _vestment_, and many +others, came into the English language from the Latin with the +Christian religion. + +Even, again, if a student of the English language knew nothing about +the invasions of England by the fierce Danes, he might guess something +about them from the fact that there are many Danish words in the +English language, and especially the names of places. Such common +words as _husband_, _knife_, _root_, _skin_, came into English from +the Danish. + +But many more words were added to the English language through the +Norman Conquest. It is quite easy to see, from the great number of +French words in the English language, that France and England must at +one time have had a great deal to do with each other. But it was the +English who used French words, and not the French who used English. +This was quite natural when a Norman, or North French, duke became +king of England, and Norman nobles came in great numbers to live in +England and help to rule her. + +Sir Walter Scott, in his great book "Ivanhoe," makes one man say that +all the names of living animals are English, like _ox_, _sheep_, +_deer_, and _swine_, but their flesh when it becomes meat is given +French names--_beef_, _mutton_, _venison_, and _pork_. The reason for +this is easy to see: Englishmen worked hard looking after the animals +while they were alive, and the rich Normans ate their flesh when they +were dead. + +England never, of course, became really Norman. Although the English +were not so learned or polite or at that time so civilized as the +Normans, there were so many more of them that in time the Normans +became English, and spoke the English language. But when we remember +that for three hundred years French was spoken in the law courts and +by the nobility of England, and all the English kings were really +Frenchmen, it is easy to understand that a great many French words +found their way into the English language. + +As it was the Normans who governed England, many of our words about +law and government came from the French. Englishmen are very proud of +the "jury system," by which every British subject is tried by his +equals. It was England who really began this system, but the name +_jury_ is French, as are also _judge_, _court_, _justice_, _prison_, +_gaol_. The English Parliament, too, is called the "Mother of +Parliaments," but _parliament_ is a French word, and means really a +meeting for the purpose of talking. + +Nearly all titles, like _duke_, _baron_, _marquis_, are French, for it +was Frenchmen who first got and gave these titles; though _earl_ +remains from the Danish _eorl_. It is a rather peculiar thing that +nearly all our names for _relatives_ outside one's own family come +from the French used by the Normans--_uncle_, _aunt_, _nephew_, +_niece_, _cousin_; while _father_, _mother_, _brother_, and _sister_ +come from the Old English words. + +In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the real "Middle Ages," the +French poets, scholars, and writers were the greatest in Europe. The +greatest doctors, lawyers, and scholars of the western lands of Europe +had often been educated at schools or universities in France. Those +who wrote about medicine and law often used French words to describe +things for which no English word was known. The French writers +borrowed many words from Latin, and the English writers did the same. +Sometimes they took Latin words from the French, but sometimes they +only imitated the French writers, and took a Latin word and changed it +to seem like a French word. + +If we were to count the words used by English writers in the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries, we should find that quite one-tenth of these +are words borrowed from other languages. After this time fewer words +were borrowed, but still the English language has borrowed much more +than most languages. + +Some people think that it is a pity that we have borrowed so many +words, and say that we should speak and write "pure English." But we +must remember that Britain has had the most wonderful history of all +the nations. She has had the greatest explorers, adventurers, and +sailors. She has built up the greatest empire the world has ever seen. +It is only natural that her language should have borrowed from the +languages of nearly every nation in the world, even from the Chinese +and from the native languages of Australia and Africa. + +Ever since the middle of the sixteenth century England has been a +great sea-going nation. Her sailors have explored and traded all over +the world, and naturally they have brought back many new words from +East and West. Sometimes these are the names of new things brought +from strange lands. Thus _calico_ was given that name from _Calicut_, +because the cotton used to make calico came from there. From Arabia we +got the words _harem_ and _magazine_, and from Turkey the name +_coffee_, though this is really an Arabian word. We had already +learned the words _cotton_, _sugar_, and _orange_ from the Arabs at +the time of the Crusades. From the West Indies and from South America +many words came, though the English learned these first from the +Spaniards, who were the first to discover these lands. Among these +words are the names of such common things as _chocolate_, _cocoa, +tomato_. The words _canoe_, _tobacco_, and _potato_ come to us from +the island of Hayti. The words _hammock_ and _hurricane_ come to us +from the Caribbean Islands, and so did the word _cannibal_, which came +from _Caniba_, which was sometimes used instead of Carib. + +Even the common word _breeze_, by which we now mean a light wind, +first came to us from the Spanish word _briza_, which meant the +north-east trade wind. The name _alligator_, an animal which +Englishmen saw for the first time in these far-off voyages, is really +only an attempt to use the Spanish words for the lizard--_al lagarto_. + +When the English at length settled themselves in North America they +took many words from the native Indians, such as _tomahawk_, +_moccasin_, and _hickory_. + +In England and in Europe generally history shows us that there were a +great many changes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This new +love for adventure, which gave us so many new words, was one sign of +the times. Then there were changes in manners, in religion, and in the +way people thought about things. People had quite a new idea of the +world. They now knew that, instead of being the centre of the +universe, the earth was but one of many worlds whirling through space. + +The minds of men became more lively. They began to criticize all sorts +of things which they had believed in and reverenced before. During the +Middle Ages many things which the Romans and Greeks had loved had been +forgotten and despised; but now there was a sudden new enthusiasm for +the beautiful statues and fine writings of the ancient Greeks and +Romans. It was not long before this new great change got a name. It +was called the _Renaissance_, or "New Birth," because so many old and +forgotten things seemed to come to life again, and it looked as though +men had been born again into a new time. + +One of the chief results of the Renaissance was a change in religion. +The Protestants declared that they had reformed or changed religion +for the better, and the change in religion is now always spoken of as +the Reformation; just as the reform of the Catholic Church which soon +followed was called the _Counter-Reformation_, or movement against the +Reformation--_counter_ coming from the Latin word for "against." + +In England the Renaissance and Reformation led to great changes not +only in religion but in government, and the way people thought of +their country and their rulers. People came to have a new love for and +pride in their country. It was in the sixteenth century that the old +word _nation_, which before had meant a race or band of peoples, came +to be used as we use it now, to mean the people of one country under +one government. In the sixteenth century Englishmen became prouder +than ever of belonging to the English "nation." They felt a new love +for other Englishmen, and it was at this time that the expressions +_fellow-countrymen_ and _mother-country_ were first used. + +The seventeenth century was, of course, a period during which great +things happened to the English state. It was the period of the great +Civil War, in which the Parliament fought against the king, so that it +could have the chief part in the government of the country. + +All sorts of new words grew up during the Civil War. The word +_Royalist_ now first began to be used, meaning the people who were on +the king's side. The Royalists called the men who fought for the +Parliament _Roundheads_, because of their hair being cropped short, +not hanging in ringlets, as was the fashion of the day. + +The people who fought against the king were all men who had broken +away from the English Church, and become much more "Protestant." They +were very strict in many ways, especially in keeping the "Sabbath," as +they called Sunday. They dressed very plainly, and they thought the +followers of the king, with their long hair and lace and ruffles, very +frivolous people indeed. It was the men of the Parliament side who +first gave the name _Cavalier_ to the Royalists. It was meant by them +to show contempt, and came from the Italian word _cavaliere_, which +means literally "a horseman," coming from the Late Latin word +_caballus_, "a horse." + +It is a curious fact that we now use the word _cavalier_ as an +adjective to mean rude and off-hand, whereas the Cavaliers of the +seventeenth century certainly had much better manners than the +Roundheads; and at the end of that century the word was sometimes used +in the general sense of gay and frank. + +Both sides in the Civil War invented a good many new words with which +to abuse the enemy. Milton, who wrote on the side of the Parliament, +made a great many; but the Royalists invented more, and perhaps more +expressive, words. At any rate they have been kept and used as quite +ordinary English words. The word _cant_, for instance, which every +one understands to mean pious or sentimental words which the person +who says them does not really mean, was first used in this way by the +Royalists to describe the sayings of the Parliament men who were much +given to preaching and the singing of psalms. Before that time the +word _cant_ had meant a certain kind of singing, and also the whining +sound beggars sometimes made. + +In the eighteenth century, when Parliament was divided into two great +parties, their names were given to them in the same way. The _Tories_ +were so called from the name given to some very wild, almost savage, +people who lived in the bog lands of Ireland; and the name _Whigs_ was +given by the Tories, and came from a Scotch word, _Whigamore_, the +name of some very fierce Protestants in the south of Scotland. At +first these names were just words of abuse, but they came to be the +regular names of the two parties, and people forgot all about their +first meanings. + +The great growth in the power of the peoples of Europe since the +French Revolution has brought about great changes in the way these +countries are governed. It was the French Revolution which led to the +widespread opinion that all the people in a nation should help in the +government. It was in writing on these subjects that English writers +borrowed the words _aristocrat_ and _democrat_ from the French +writers. _Aristocracy_ comes from an old Greek word meaning the rule +of the few; but the French Revolution writers gave it a new meaning, +as something evil. Before the Revolution the name _despotism_ had been +used for the rule of a single tyrant, but it now came to mean unjust +rule, even by several people. + +The French Revolution gave us several other words. We all now know the +word _terrorize_, but it only came into English from the French at the +time of the Revolution, when the French people became used to "Reigns +of Terror." But if the French Revolution gave us many of the words +which relate to democracy or government by the people, England has +always been the country of parliamentary government, and many terms +now used by the other countries of Europe have been invented in +England--words like _parliament_ itself, _bill_, _budget_, and +_speech_. + +Nearly all the words connected with science, and especially the +"ologies," as they are called, like _physiology_ and _zoology_, are +fairly new words in English. In the Middle Ages there was no real +study of science, and so naturally there were not many words connected +with it; but in the last two centuries the study of science has been +one of the most important things in history. We shall see more of +these scientific words in another chapter. + +Perhaps we have said enough in this chapter to show how each big +movement in history has given us a new group of words and how these +words are in a way historians of these movements. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +HOW WE GOT OUR CHRISTIAN NAMES AND SURNAMES. + + +We can learn some interesting stories from the history of our own +names. Most people nowadays have one or more Christian names and a +surname, but this was not always the case. Every Christian from the +earliest days of Christianity must have had a Christian name given to +him at baptism. And before the days of Christianity every man, woman, +or child must have had some name. But the practice of giving surnames +grew up only very gradually in the countries of Europe. At first only +a few royal or noble families had sur-names, or "super" names; but +gradually, as the populations of the different countries became +larger, it became necessary for people to have surnames, so as to +distinguish those with the same Christian names from each other. + +In these days children are generally given for their Christian names +family names, or names which their parents think beautiful or +suitable. (Often the children afterwards do not like their own names +at all.) The Christian names of the children of European countries +come to us from many different languages. Perhaps the greatest number +come to us from the Hebrew, because these Jewish names are, of course, +found in great numbers in the Bible. + +The conversion of the countries of Europe to Christianity united them +in their ways of thinking and believing, and they all honoured the +saints. The names of the early saints, whether they were from the +Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, or Slavonic, were soon spread +throughout all the countries of Europe, so that now French, German, +English, Italian, Spanish names, and those of the other European +countries, are for the most part the same, only spelt and pronounced a +little differently in the different countries. + +The English _William_ is _Guillaume_ in French, _Wilhelm_ in German, +and so on. _John_ is _Jean_ in French, _Johann_ in German, and so on, +with many other names. + +But in early times people got their names in a much more interesting +way. Sometimes something which seemed peculiar about a little new-born +baby would suggest a name. _Esau_ was called by this name, which is +only the Hebrew word for "hairy," because he was already covered by +the thick growth of hair on his body which made him so different from +Jacob. The old Roman names _Flavius_ and _Fulvius_ merely meant +"yellow," and the French name _Blanche_, "fair," or "white." Sometimes +the fond parents would give the child a name describing some quality +which they hoped the child would possess when it grew up. The Hebrew +name _David_ means "beloved." + +The name _Joseph_ was given by Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, to +the baby who came to her after long waiting. _Joseph_ means +"addition," and Rachel chose this name because she hoped another child +would yet be added to her family. She afterwards had Benjamin, the +best beloved of all Jacob's sons, and then she died. + +The name Joseph did not become common in Europe till after the +Reformation, when the Catholic Church appointed a feast day for St. +Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin. Towards the end of the +eighteenth century the Emperor Leopold christened his son Joseph, and +this, and the fact that Napoleon's first wife was named Josephine, +made these two names as a boy's and a girl's name very popular. We +have both Joseph and Josephine in English, and the French have Fifine +and Finette as well as Josephine, for which these are pet names. In +Italy, too, Joseph, or Giuseppe, is a common name, and Peppo, or +Beppo, are short names for it. These pet names seem very strange when +we remember Rachel's solemn choosing of the name for the first Joseph +of all. + +Sometimes the early nations called their children by the names of +animals. The beautiful old Hebrew name _Deborah_, which became also an +old-fashioned English name, means "bee." In several languages the +word for _wolf_ was given as a personal name. The Greek _Lycos_, the +Latin _Lupus_, the Teutonic _Ulf_, from which came the Latin +_Ulphilas_ and the Slavonic _Vuk_, all mean "wolf." The wolf was the +most common and the most treacherous of all the wild animals against +which early peoples had to fight, and this, perhaps, accounts for the +common use of its name. People were so impressed by its qualities that +they thought its name worthy to give to their sons, who, perhaps, they +hoped would possess some of its better qualities when they grew up. + +Sometimes early names were taken from the names of precious stones, as +_Margarite_, a Greek name meaning "pearl," and which is the origin of +all the Margarets, Marguerites, etc., to be found in nearly all the +languages of Europe. + +Among all early peoples many names were religious, like the Hebrew +_Ishmael_, or "heard by God;" _Elizabeth_, or the "oath of God;" +_John_, or the "grace of the Lord." The Romans had the name +_Jovianus_, which meant "belonging to Jupiter," who was the chief of +the gods in whom the Romans believed. + +In some languages names, especially of women, are taken from flowers, +like the Greek _Rhode_, or "rose," the English _Rose_, and _Lily_ or +_Lilian_, and the Scotch _Lilias_. + +A great many of the Hebrew names especially come from words meaning +sorrow or trouble. They were first given to children born in times of +sorrow. Thus we have _Jabez_, which means "sorrow;" _Ichabod_, or "the +glory is departed;" _Mary_, "bitter." The Jews, as we can see from the +Bible, suffered the greatest misfortunes, and their writers knew how +to tell of it in words. The Celtic nations, like the Irish, have the +same gift, and we get many old Celtic names with these same sad +meanings. Thus _Una_ means "famine;" _Ita_, "thirsty." + +The Greek and Roman names were never sad like these. Some old Greek +names became Christian names when people who were called by them +became Christian in the first days of the Church. There are several +names from the Greek word _angelos_. This meant in Greek merely a +messenger, but it began to be used by the early Christian writers both +in Latin and Greek to mean a messenger from heaven, or an angel. The +Greeks gave it first as a surname, and then as a Christian name. In +the thirteenth century there was a St. Angelo in Italy, and from the +honour paid to him the name spread, chiefly as a girl's name, to the +other countries of Europe, giving the English _Angelina_ and +_Angelica_, the French _Angelique_, and the German _Engel_. + +Besides this general name of _angel_, the name of Michael, the +archangel, and Gabriel, the angel of the Annunciation, became +favourite names among Eastern Christians. The reason _Michael_ was +such a favourite was that the great Emperor Constantine dedicated a +church to St. Michael in Constantinople. The name is so much used in +Russia that it is quite common to speak of a Russian peasant as a +"Michael," just as people rather vulgarly speak of an Irish peasant as +a "Paddy." Michael can hardly be called an English name, but it is +almost as common in Ireland as Patrick, which, of course, is used in +honour of Ireland's patron saint. _Gabriel_ is a common name in Italy, +as is also another angel's name, _Raphael_. _Gabriel_ is used as a +girl's name in France--_Gabrielle_. + +No Christian would think of using the name of God as a personal name; +but _Theos_, the Greek word for God, was sometimes so used by the +Greeks. A Greek name formed from this, _Theophilos_, or "beloved by +the gods," became a Christian name, and the name of one of the early +saints. + +The name _Christ_, or "anointed," was the word which the Greek +Christians (who translated the Gospels into the Greek of their time) +used for the _Messiah_. From this word came the name _Christian_, and +from it _Christina_. One of the early martyrs, a virgin of noble Roman +birth, who died for her religion, was St. Christina. In Denmark the +name became a man's name, _Christiern_. Another English name which is +like Christina is _Christabel_. The great poet Coleridge in the +nineteenth century wrote the beginning of a beautiful poem called +"Christabel." The name was not very common before this, and was not +heard of until the sixteenth century, but it is fairly common now. + +Another favourite Christian name from the name of _Christ_ is +_Christopher_, which means the bearer or carrier of Christ, and we are +told in a legend how St. Christopher got this name. He had chosen for +his work to carry people across a stream which had no bridge over it. +One day a little boy suddenly appeared, and asked him to carry him +across. The kind saint did so, and found, as he got farther into the +stream, that the child grew heavier and heavier. When the saint put +him down on the other side he saw the figure of the man Christ before +him, and fell down and adored Him. Ever afterwards he was known as +_Christopher_, or the "Christ-bearer." + +Another Christian name which comes from a Greek word is _Peter_. +_Petros_ is the Greek word for "stone," and _Petra_ for "rock." The +name _Peter_ became a favourite in honour of St. Peter, whose name was +first _Simon_, but who was called _Peter_ because of the words our +Lord said to him: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my +Church." + +When the barbarian tribes, such as the English and Franks, broke into +the lands of the Roman Empire and settled there, afterwards being +converted to Christianity, they chose a good many Latin words as +names. In France names made from the Latin word _amo_ ("I love") were +quite common. We hear of _Amabilis_ ("lovable"), _Amadeus_ ("loving +God"), _Amandus_, which has now become a surname in France as _St. +Amand_. In England, _Amabilis_ became _Amabel_, which is not a very +common name now, but from which we have _Mabel_. _Amy_ was first used +in England after the Norman Conquest, and comes from the French +_Amata_, or _Aimee_, which means "beloved." + +Another Latin word of the same kind which gave us some Christian names +was _Beo_ ("I bless"). From part of this verb, _Beatus_ ("blessed"), +there was an old English name, _Beata_, but no girl or woman seems to +have been called by it since the seventeenth century. _Beatrix_ and +_Beatrice_ also come from this. The name _Benedict_, which sometimes +became in English _Bennet_, came from another word like this, +_Benignus_ ("kind"). _Boniface_, from the Latin _Bonifacius_ ("doer of +good deeds"), was a favourite name in the early Church, and the name +of a great English saint; but it is not used in England now, though +there is still the Italian name, _Bonifazio_, which comes from the +same word. + +Both Christian names and surnames have been taken from the Latin _Dies +Natalis_, or "Birthday of our Lord." The French word for Christmas, +_Noel_, comes from this, and, as well as _Natalie_, is used as a +Christian name. _Noel_ is found, too, both as a Christian name and +surname in England. At one time English babies were sometimes +christened _Christmas_, but this is never used as a Christian name +now, though a few families have it as a surname. + +Perhaps the most peculiar Christian names that have ever been were the +long names which some of the English Puritans gave their children in +the seventeenth century. Often they gave them whole texts of Scripture +as names, so that at least one small boy was called "Bind their nobles +in chains and their kings in fetters of iron." Let us hope his +relatives soon found some other name to call him "for short." + +Everybody has heard of the famous Cromwellian Parliament, which would +do nothing but talk, and which was called the "Barebones Parliament," +after one of its members, who not only bore this peculiar surname, but +was also blessed with the "Christian" name of _Praise-God_. Cromwell +grew impatient at last, and Praise-God Barebones and the other talkers +suddenly found Parliament dissolved. These names were not, as a rule, +handed on from father to son, and soon died out, though in America +even to-day we get Christian names somewhat similar, but at least +shorter--names like _Willing_. + +It is often easier to see how we got our Christian names than how we +got our surnames. As we have seen, there was a time when early peoples +had only first names. The Romans had surnames, or _cognomina_, but the +barbarians who won Europe from them had not. + +In England surnames were not used until nearly a hundred years after +the Norman Conquest, and then only by kings and nobles. The common +people in England had, however, nearly all got them by the fourteenth +century; but in Scotland many people were still without surnames in +the time of James I., and even those who had them could easily change +one for another. Once a man got a surname it was handed on to all his +children, as surnames are to-day. + +It is interesting to see in how many different ways people got their +surnames. Sometimes this is easy, but it is more difficult in other +cases. + +The first surnames in England were those which the Norman nobles who +came over at the Conquest handed on from father to son. These people +generally took the name of the place from which they had come in +Normandy. In this way names like _Robert de Courcy_ ("Robert of +Courcy") came in; and many of these names, which are considered very +aristocratic, still remain. We have _de Corbet_, _de Beauchamp_, _de +Colevilles_, and so on. Sometimes the _de_ has been dropped. +Sometimes, again, people took their names in the same way from places +in England. We find in old writings names like _Adam de Kent_, _Robert +de Wiltshire_, etc. Here, again, the prefix has been dropped, and the +place-name has been kept as a surname. _Kent_ is quite a well-known +surname, as also are _Derby_, _Buxton_, and many other names of +English places. + +The Normans introduced another kind of name, which became very common +too. They were a lively people, like the modern French, and were very +fond of giving nicknames, especially names referring to people's +personal appearance. We get the best examples of this in the +nicknames applied to the Norman kings. We have William _Rufus_, or +"the Red;" Richard _Coeur-de-Lion_, or "Lion-Hearted;" Henry +_Beauclerc_, or "the Scholar." + +These names of kings were not handed down in their families. But in +ordinary families it was quite natural that a nickname applied to the +father should become a surname. It is from such nicknames that we get +surnames like _White_, _Black_, _Long_, _Young_, _Short_, and so on. +All these are, of course, well-known surnames to-day, and though many +men named _Long_ may be small, and many named _Short_ may be tall, we +may guess that this was not the case with some far-off ancestor. +Sometimes _man_ was added to these adjectives, and we get names like +_Longman_, _Oldman_, etc. + +Sometimes these names were used in the French of the Normans, and we +get two quite different surnames, though they really in the first +place had the same meaning. Thus we have _Curt_ for _Short_, and the +quite well-known surname _Petit_, which would be _Short_ or _Little_ +in English. The name _Goodheart_ was _Bun-Couer_ in Norman-French, and +from this came _Bunker_, which, if we knew nothing of its history, +would not seem to mean _Goodheart_ at all. So the name _Tait_ came +from _Tete_, or _Head_; and we may guess that the first ancestor of +the numerous people with this name had something remarkable about +their heads. The name _Goodfellow_ is really just the same as +_Bonfellow_. The surname _Thin_ has the same meaning as _Meagre_, +from which the common name _Meager_ comes. + +Names like _Russell_ (from the old word _rouselle_, or "red"), +_Brown_, _Morell_ ("tan"), _Dun_ ("dull grey"), all came from +nicknames referring to people's complexions. _Reed_ and _Reid_ come +from the old word _rede_, or "red." We still have the names +_Copperbeard_, _Greybeard_, and _Blackbeard_. + +Sometimes names were given from some peculiarity of clothing. +_Scarlet_, an old English name, probably came from the colour of the +clothing of the people who were first called by it--scarlet, like all +bright colours, being very much liked in the Middle Ages. So we hear +of the name _Curtmantle_, or "short cloak," and _Curthose_, which was +later changed to _Shorthose_, which is still a well-known name in +Derbyshire. The names _Woolward_ and _Woolard_ come from the old word +_woolard_, which meant wearing wool without any linen clothing +underneath. This was often done by pilgrims and others who wished to +do penance for their sins. + +Many surnames have come down from nicknames given to people because of +their good or bad qualities. This is the origin of names like _Wise_, +_Gay_, _Hardy_, _Friend_, _Truman_, _Makepeace_, _Sweet_, etc. The +people who have these names may well believe that the first of their +ancestors who bore them was of a gentle and amiable disposition. Names +like _Proud_, _Proudfoot_, _Proudman_, _Paillard_ (French for +"lie-a-bed") show that the first people who had them were not so well +liked, and were considered proud or lazy. + +Another way of giving nicknames to people because of something +noticeable in their character or appearance was to give them the name +of some animal having this quality. The well-known name of _Oliphant_ +comes from _elephant_, and was probably first given to some one very +large, and perhaps a little ungraceful. _Bullock_ as a surname +probably had the same sort of origin. The names _Falcon_, _Hawk_, +_Buzzard_, must have been first given to people whose friends and +neighbours saw some resemblance to the quickness or fierceness or +sureness or some other quality of these birds in them. The names +_Jay_, _Peacock_, and _Parrott_ point to showiness and pride and empty +talkativeness. + +A very great number of surnames are really only old Christian names +either with or without an ending added to them. A very common form of +surname is a Christian name with _son_ added to it. The first man who +handed on the name _Wilson_ (or _Willson_, as it is still sometimes +spelt) was himself the "son of Will." Any one can think of many names +of this kind--_Williamson_, _Davidson_, _Adamson_, etc. Sometimes the +founder of a family had taken his name from his mother. This was the +origin of names like _Margerison_ ("Marjorie's son") and _Alison_ +("Alice's son"). This was a very common way of inventing surnames. + +The Norman _Fitz_ meant "son of," and the numerous names beginning +with _Fitz_ have this origin. _Fitzpatrick_ originally meant the "son +of Patrick," _Fitzstephen_ the "son of Stephen," and so on. The Irish +prefix _O'_ has the same meaning. The ancestor of all the O'Neills was +himself the son of _Neill_. The Scandinavian _Nillson_ is really the +same name, though it sounds so different. The Scotch _Mac_ has the +same meaning, and so have the Welsh words _map_, _mab_, _ap_, and +_ab_. + +One very interesting way of making surnames was to take them from the +trade or occupation of the founder of the family. Perhaps the +commonest of English surnames is _Smith_. And the word for _Smith_ is +the commonest surname in almost every country of Europe. In France we +have _Favier_. + +The reason for this is easy to see. The smith, or man who made iron +and other metals into plough-shares and swords, was one of the most +important of all the workers in the early days when surnames were +being made. There were many smiths, and John the Smith and Tom the +Smith easily became John Smith and Tom Smith, and thus had a surname +to pass on to their families. + +As time went on there came to be many different kinds of smiths. There +was the smith who worked in gold, and was called a "goldsmith," from +which we get the well-known surname _Goldsmith_, the name of a great +English writer. Then there was the "nail smith," from which trade came +the name _Nasmith_; the "sickle smith," from which came _Sixsmith_; +the "shear smith," which gave us _Shearsmith_--and so on. + +In mediaeval England the manufacture of cloth from the wool of the +great flocks of sheep which fed on the pasture lands of the +monasteries and other great houses, was the chief industry of the +nation. This trade of wool-weaving has given us many surnames, such as +_Woolmer_, _Woolman_, _Carder_, _Kempster_, _Towser_, _Weaver_, +_Webster_, etc. Some of these referred to the general work of +wool-weaving and others to special branches. + +Any child can think in a moment of several names which have come in +this way from trades. We have _Taylor_ for a beginning. + +But many surnames which are taken from the names of trades come from +Old English words which are now seldom or never used. _Chapman_, a +common name now, was the Old English word for a general dealer. +_Spicer_ was the old name for grocer, and is now a fairly common +surname. The well-known name of _Fletcher_ comes from the almost +forgotten word _flechier_, "an arrowmaker." _Coltman_ came from the +name of the man who had charge of the colts. _Runciman_ was the man +who had charge of horses too, and comes from another Old English word, +_rouncy_, "a horse." The _Parkers_ are descended from a park-keeper +who used to be called by that name. The _Horners_ come from a maker of +horns; the _Crockers_ and _Crokers_ from a "croker," or "crocker," a +maker of pottery. _Hogarth_ comes from "hoggart," a hog-herd; +_Calvert_ from "calf-herd;" and _Seward_ from "sow-herd." _Lambert_ +sometimes came from "lamb-herd." + +But we cannot always be sure of the origin of even the commonest +surnames. For instance, every person named _Smith_ is not descended +from a smith, for the name also comes from the old word _smoth_, or +"smooth," and this is the origin of _Smith_ in _Smithfield_. + +A great many English surnames were taken from places. _Street_, +_Ford_, _Lane_, _Brooke_, _Styles_, are names of this kind. Sometimes +they were prefixed by the Old English _atte_ ("at") or the French _de +la_ ("of the"), but these prefixes have been dropped since. _Geoffrey +atte Style_ was the Geoffrey who lived near the stile--and so on. + +Nearly all the names ending in _hurst_ and _shaw_ are taken from +places. A _hurst_ was a wood or grove; a _shaw_ was a shelter for +fowls and animals. The chief thing about a man who got the surname of +_Henshaw_ or _Ramshaw_ was probably that he owned, or had the care of, +such a shelter for hens or rams. + +Names ending in _ley_ generally came into existence in the same way, a +_ley_ being also a shelter for domestic animals. So we have _Horsley_, +_Cowley_, _Hartley_, _Shipley_ (from "sheep"). Sometimes the name was +taken from the kind of trees which closed such a shelter in, names +like _Ashley_, _Elmsley_, _Oakley_, _Lindley_, etc. + +Surnames as well as Christian names were often taken from the names +of saints. From such a beautiful name as _St. Hugh_ the Normans had +_Hugon_, and from this we get the rather commonplace names of +_Huggins_, _Hutchins_, _Hutchinson_, and several others. So _St. +Clair_ is still a surname, though often changed into _Sinclair_. St. +Gilbert is responsible for the names _Gibbs_, _Gibbons_, _Gibson_, +etc. + +Sometimes in Scotland people were given, as Christian names, names +meaning _servant_ of Christ, or some saint. The word for servant was +_giollo_, or _giolla_. It was in this way that names like _Gilchrist_, +_Gilpatrick_, first came to be used. They were at first Christian +names, and then came to be passed on as surnames. So _Gillespie_ means +"servant of the bishop." + +Some surnames, though they seem quite English now, show that the first +member of the family to bear the name was looked upon as a foreigner. +Such names are _Newman_, _Newcome_, _Cumming_ (from _cumma_, "a +stranger"). Sometimes the nationality to which the stranger belonged +is shown by the name. The ancestors of the people called _Fleming_, +for instance, must have come from Flanders, as so many did in the +Middle Ages. The _Brabazons_ must have come from Brabant. + +Perhaps the most peculiar origin of all belongs to some surnames which +seem to have come from oaths or exclamations. The fairly common names +_Pardoe_, _Pardie_, etc., come from the older name _Pardieu_, or "By +God," a solemn form of oath. We have, too, the English form in the +name _Bigod_. Names like _Rummiley_ come from the old cry of sailors, +_Rummylow_, which they used as sailors use "Heave-ho" now. + +But many chapters could be written on the history of names. This +chapter shows only some of the ways in which we got our Christian +names and surnames. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +STORIES IN THE NAMES OF PLACES. + + +The stories which the names of places can tell us are many more in +number, and even more wonderful, than the stories in the names of +people. Some places have very old names, and others have quite new +ones, and the names have been given for all sorts of different +reasons. If we take the names of the continents, we find that some of +them come from far-off times, and were given by men who knew very +little of what the world was like. The names _Europe_ and _Asia_ were +given long ago by sailors belonging to the Semitic race (the race to +which the Jews belong), who sailed up and down the AEgean Sea, and did +not venture to leave its waters. All the land which lay to the west +they called _Ereb_, which was their word for "sunset," or "west," and +the land to the east they called _Acu_, which meant "sunrise," or +"east;" and later, when men knew more about these lands, these names, +changed a little, remained as the names of the great continents, +Europe and Asia. + +_Africa_, too, is an old name, though not so old as these. We think +of Africa now as a "dark continent," the greater part of which has +only lately become known to white men, and with a native population of +negroes. But for hundreds of years the north of Africa was one of the +most civilized parts of the Roman Empire. Before that time part of it +had belonged to the Carthaginians, whom the Romans conquered. _Africa_ +was a Carthaginian name, and was first used by the Romans as the name +of the district round Carthage, and in time it came to be the name of +the whole continent. + +_America_ got its name in quite a different way. It was not until the +fifteenth century that this great continent was discovered, and then +it took its name, not from the brave Spaniard, Christopher Columbus, +who first sailed across the "Sea of Darkness" to find it, but from +Amerigo Vespucci, the man who first landed on the mainland. + +_Australia_ got its name, which means "land of the south," from +Portuguese and Spanish sailors, who reached its western coasts early +in the sixteenth century. They never went inland, or made any +settlements, but in the queer, inaccurate maps which early geographers +made, they put down a _Terra Australis_, or "southern land," and +later, when Englishmen did at last explore and colonize the continent, +they kept this name _Australia_. This Latin name reminds us of the +fact that Latin was in the Middle Ages the language used by all +scholars in their writings, and names on maps were written in Latin +too, and so a great modern continent like Australia came to have an +old Latin name. + +There is a great deal of history in the names of countries. Take the +names of the countries of Europe. _England_ is the land of the +_Angles_, and from this we learn that the Angles were the chief people +of all the tribes who came over and settled in Britain after the +Romans left it. They spread farthest over the land, and gave their +name to it; just as the _Franks_, another of these Northern peoples, +gave their name to France, and the _Belgae_ gave theirs to _Belgium_. +The older name of _Britain_ did not die out, but it was seldom used. +It has really been used much more in modern times than it ever was in +the Middle Ages. It is used especially in poetry or in fine writing, +just as _Briton_ is instead of _Englishman_, as in the line-- + + "Britons never, never, never shall be slaves." + +The name _Briton_ is now used also to mean Irish, Scotch, and Welsh +men--in fact, any British subject. We also speak of _Great Britain_, +which means England and Scotland. When the Scottish Parliament was +joined to the English in 1702 some name had to be found to describe +the new "nation," and this was how the name _Great Britain_ came into +use, just as the _United Kingdom_ was the name invented to describe +Great Britain and Ireland together when the Irish Parliament too was +joined to the English in 1804. + +We see how Gaul and Britain, as France and England were called in +Roman times, had their names changed after the fall of the Roman +Empire; but most of the countries round the Mediterranean Sea kept +their old names, just as they kept for the most part their old +languages. Italy, Greece, and Spain all kept their old names, although +new peoples flocked down into these lands too. But though new peoples +came, in all these lands they learned the ways and languages of the +older inhabitants, instead of changing everything, as the English did +in Britain. And so it was quite natural that they should keep their +own names too. + +Most of the other countries in Europe took their names from the people +who settled there. Germany (the Roman _Germania_) was the part of +Europe where most of the tribes of the German race settled down. The +divisions of Germany, like Saxony, Bavaria, Frisia, were the parts of +Germany where the German tribes known as Saxons, Bavarians, and +Frisians settled. The name _Austria_ comes from _Osterreich_, the +German for "eastern kingdom." Holland, on the other hand, takes its +name from the character of the land. It comes from _holt_, meaning +"wood," and _lant_, meaning "land." The little country of Albania is +so called from _Alba_, or "white," because of its snowy mountains. + +But perhaps the names of the old towns of the old world tell us the +best stories of all. The greatest city the world has ever seen was +Rome, and many scholars have quarrelled about the meaning of that +great name. It seems most likely that it came from an old word meaning +"river." It would be quite natural for the people of early Rome to +give such a name to their city, for it was a most important fact to +them that they had built their city just where it was on the river +Tiber. + +One of the best places on which a town could be built, especially in +early days, was the banks of a river, from which the people could get +water, and by which the refuse and rubbish of the town could be +carried away. Then, again, one of the chief things which helped Rome +to greatness was her position on the river Tiber, far enough from the +sea to be safe from the enemy raiders who infested the seas in those +early days, and yet near enough to send her ships out to trade with +other lands. Thus it was, probably, that a simple word meaning "river" +came to be used as the name of the world's greatest city. + +Others among the great cities of the ancient world were founded in a +quite different way. The great conqueror, Alexander the Great, founded +cities in every land he conquered, and their names remain even now to +keep his memory alive. The city of _Alexandria_, on the north coast of +Africa, was, of course, called after Alexander himself, and became +after his death more civilized and important than any of the Greek +cities which Alexander admired so much, and which he tried to imitate +everywhere. Now Alexandria is no longer a centre of learning, but a +fairly busy port. Only its name recalls the time when it helped in the +great work for which Alexander built it--to spread Greek learning and +Greek civilization over Europe and Asia. + +Another city which Alexander founded, but which afterwards fell into +decay, was _Bucephalia_, which the great conqueror set up in the north +of India when he made his wonderful march across the mountains into +that continent. It was called after "_Bucephalus_," the favourite +horse of Alexander, which had been wounded, and died after the battle. +The town was built over the place where the horse was buried, and +though its story is not so interesting as that of Alexandria, as the +town so soon fell into decay, still it is worth remembering. + +Another of the world's ancient and greatest cities, Constantinople, +also took its name from a great ruler. In the days when the Roman +Empire was beginning to decay, and new nations from the north began to +pour into her lands, the emperor, Constantine the Great, the ruler who +made Christianity the religion of the empire, chose a new capital +instead of Rome. He loved Eastern magnificence and Eastern ways, and +he chose for his new capital the old Greek colony of Byzantium, the +beautiful city on the Golden Horn, which Constantine soon made into a +new Rome, with churches and theatres and baths, like the old Rome. The +new Rome was given a new name. Constantine had turned Byzantium into +a new city, and it has ever since been known as _Constantinople_, or +the "city of Constantine." + +We can nearly always tell from the names of places something of their +history. If we think of the names of some of our English towns, we +notice that many of them end in the same way. There are several whose +names begin or end in _don_, like _London_ itself. Many others end in +_caster_ or _chester_, _ham_, _by_, _borough_ or _burgh_. + +We may be sure that most of the places whose names begin or end in +_don_ were already important places in the time before the Britons +were conquered by the Romans. The Britons were divided into tribes, +and lived in villages scattered over the land; but each tribe had its +little fortress or stronghold, the "dun," as it was called, with walls +and ditches round it, in which all the people of the tribe could take +shelter if attacked by a strong enemy. And so the name of London takes +us back to the time when this greatest city of the modern world, +spreading into four counties, and as big as a county itself, with its +marvellous buildings, old and new, and its immense traffic, was but a +British fort into which scantily-clothed people fled from their huts +at the approach of an enemy. + +But the British showed themselves wise enough in their choice of +places to build their _duns_, which, as in the case of London, often +became centres of new towns, which grew larger and larger through +Roman times, and on into the Middle Ages and modern times. + +The great French fortress town of Verdun, which everybody has heard of +because of its wonderful resistance to the German attacks in 1916, is +also an old Celtic town with this Celtic ending to its name. It was +already an important town when the Romans conquered Gaul, and it has +played a notable part in history ever since. Its full name means "the +fort on the water," just as _Dundee_ (from _Dun-tatha_) probably meant +"the fort on the Tay." + +By merely looking at a map of England, any one who knows anything of +the Latin language can pick out many names which come from that +language, and which must have been given in the days when the Romans +had conquered Britain. The ending _caster_ of so many names in the +north of England, and _chester_ in the Midlands, _xeter_ in the west +of England, and _caer_ in Wales, all come from the same Latin word, +_castrum_, which means a military camp or fortified place. So that we +might guess, if we did not know, that at Lancaster, Doncaster, +Manchester, Winchester, Exeter, and at the old capital of the famous +King Arthur, Caerleon, there were some of those Roman camps which were +dotted over England in the days when the Romans ruled the land. + +Here the Roman officers lived with their wives and families, and the +Roman soldiers too, and here they built churches and theatres and +baths, such as they were used to in their cities at home in Italy. +Here, too, it was that many of the British nobles learned Roman ways +of living and thinking; and from here the Roman priests and monks went +out to teach the Britons that the religion of the Druids was false, +and instruct them in the Christian religion. + +Another common Latin ending or beginning to the names of places was +_strat_, _stret_, or _street_, and wherever we find this we may know +that through these places ran some of the _viae stratae_, or great Roman +roads which the Romans built in all the provinces of their great +empire. There are many remains of these Roman roads still to be seen +up and down England; but even where no trace remains, the direction of +some, at least, of the great roads could be found from the names of +the towns which were dotted along them. Among these towns are +_Stratford_ in Warwickshire, _Chester-le-Street_ in Durham, +_Streatham_, etc. + +Then, again, some of the towns with _port_ and _lynne_ as part of +their names show us where the Romans had their ports and trading +towns. + +It is interesting to see the different names which the English gave to +the villages in which they dwelt when the Romans had left Britain, and +these new tribes had won it for themselves. Nearly all towns ending in +_ham_ and _ford_, and _burgh_ or _borough_, date from the first few +hundred years after the English won Britain. _Ham_ and _ford_ merely +meant "home," or "village." Thus _Buckingham_ was the home of the +Bockings, a village in which several families all related to each +other, and bearing this name, lived. Of course the name did not change +when later the village grew into a town. Buckingham is a very +different place now from the little village in which the Bockings +settled, each household having its house and yard, but dividing the +common meadow and pasture land out between them each year. + +_Wallingford_ was the home of the Wallings. Places whose names ended +in _ford_ were generally situated where a ford, or means of crossing a +river or stream, had to be made. Oxford was in Old English _Oxenford_, +or "ford of the oxen." + +Towns whose names end in _borough_ are often very old, but not so old +as some of those ending in _ham_ and _ford_. There were _burhs_ in the +first days of the English Conquest, but generally they were only +single fortified houses and not villages. We first hear of the more +important _burghs_ or _boroughs_ in the last hundred years or so +before the Norman Conquest. _Edinburgh_, which was at first an English +town, is a very early example. Its name means "Edwin's borough or +town," and it was so called because it was founded by Edwin, who was +king of England from 617 to 633. + +The special point about boroughs was that they were really free towns. +They had courts of justice of their own, and were free from the +Hundred courts, the next court above them being the Shire court, ruled +over by the sheriff. So we know that most of the towns whose names end +in _burgh_ or _borough_ had for their early citizens men who loved +freedom, and worked hard to win their own courts of justice. + +There are other endings to the names of towns which go back to the +days before the Norman Conquest, but which are not really English. If +a child were told to pick out on the map of England all the places +whose names end in _by_ or _thwaite_, he or she would find that most +of them are in the eastern part of England. The reason for this might +be guessed, perhaps, by a very thoughtful child. Both _by_ and +_thwaite_ are Danish words, and they are found in the eastern parts of +England, because it was in those parts that the Danes settled down +when the great King Alfred forced them to make peace in the Treaty of +Wallingford. After this, of course, the Danes lived in England for +many years, settling down, and becoming part of the English people. +Naturally they gave their own names to many villages and towns, and +many of these remain to this day to remind us of this fierce race +which helped to build up the English nation. + +The Normans did not make many changes in the names of places when they +won England, and most of our place-names come down to us from Roman +and old English times. The places have changed, but the names have +not. But though towns and counties have had their names from those +times, it is to be noticed that the names of our rivers and hills come +down to us from Celtic times. To the Britons, living a more or less +wild life, these things were of the greatest importance. There are +several rivers in England with the name of _Avon_, and this is an old +British name. The rivers _Usk_, _Esk_, and _Ouse_ were all christened +by the Britons, and all these names come from a British word meaning +"water." Curiously enough, the name _whisky_ comes from the same word. +From all these different ways in which places have got their names we +get glimpses of past history, and history helps us to understand the +stories that these old names tell us. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +NEW NAMES FOR NEW PLACES. + + +We have seen in how many different ways many of the old places of this +world got their names. Some names go so far back that no one knows +what is their meaning, or how they first came to be used. But we know +that a great part of the world has only been discovered since the +fifteenth century, and that a great part of what was already known has +only been colonized in modern times. + +With the discovery of the New World and the colonization of the Dark +Continent and other far-off lands, a great many new names were +invented. We could almost write a history of North or South America +from an explanation of their place-names. + +In learning the geography of South America we notice the beautiful +Spanish names of most of the places. The reason for this is that it +was the Spaniards who colonized South America in the sixteenth +century. Very little of this continent now belongs to Spain, but in +those days Spain was the greatest country in Europe. The proud and +brave Spanish adventurers were in those days sailing over the seas +and founding colonies, just as the English sailors of Queen Elizabeth +soon began to do in North America. + +Let us look at some of these names--_Los Angelos_ ("The Angels"), +_Santa Cruz_ ("The Holy Cross"), _Santiago_ ("St. James"), all names +of saints and holy things. Any one who knew no history at all might +guess, from the number of places with Spanish names spread over South +America, that it was the Spaniards who colonized this land. He would +also guess that the Spaniards in those days must have been a very +great nation indeed. And he would be right. + +He would guess, too, that the Spaniards had clung passionately to the +Catholic religion. Here, again, he would be right. Any great +enthusiasm will make a nation great, and the Spaniards in the +sixteenth century were filled with a great love for the old Church +against which the new Protestantism was fighting. The Pope looked upon +Spain as the great bulwark of Catholicism. The new religious feeling, +which had swept over Europe, and which had made the Protestants ready +to suffer and die for their new-found faith, took the form in Spain of +this great love for the old religion. The nation seemed inspired. It +is when these things happen that a people turns to great enterprises +and adventure. The Spaniards of the sixteenth century regarded +themselves, and were almost regarded by the other nations, as +unconquerable. The great aim of Elizabethan Englishmen was to "break +the power of Spain," and this they did at last when they scattered +the "Invincible Armada" in 1588. But before this Spain had done great +things. + +The Portuguese had been the first great adventurers, but they were +soon left far behind by the Spanish sailors, who explored almost every +part of South America, settling there, and sending home great +shiploads of gold to make Spain rich. And wherever they explored and +settled they spread about these beautiful names to honour the saints +and holy things which their religion told them to love and honour. + +It was the great discoverer Christopher Columbus who first gave one of +these beautiful names to a place in South America. He had already +discovered North America, and made a second voyage there, when he +determined to explore the land south of the West Indies. He sailed +south through the tropical seas while the heat melted the tar of the +rigging. But Columbus never noticed danger and discomfort. He had made +a vow to call the first land he saw after the Holy Trinity, and when +at last he caught sight of three peaks jutting up from an island he +gave the island the name of _La Trinidad_, and "Trinidad" it remains +to this day, though it now belongs to the British. As he sailed south +Columbus caught sight of what was really the mainland of South +America, but he thought it was another island, and called it _Isla +Santa_, or "Holy Island." + +It might seem curious that as Columbus had discovered both North and +South America, the continent was given the name of another man. As we +have seen, its name was taken from that of another explorer, Amerigo +Vespucci. The reason for this was that Columbus never really knew that +he had discovered a "New World." He believed that he had come by +another way to the eastern coast of Asia or Africa. The islands which +he first discovered were for this reason called the _Indies_, and the +_West Indies_ they remain to this day. + +It was Amerigo Vespucci who first announced to the world, in a book +which he published in 1507 (three years after Christopher Columbus had +died in loneliness and poverty), that the new lands were indeed a +great new continent, and not Asia or Africa at all. People later on +said that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered a new continent, and that it +ought to be called by his name. This is how the name _America_ came +into use; but of course the work of Vespucci was not to be compared +with that of the great adventurer who first sailed across the "Sea of +Darkness," and was the real discoverer of the New World. + +Though it was the Spaniards who discovered North America, it was the +English who chiefly colonized it. + +It is interesting to notice the names which the early English +colonists scattered over the northern continent. We might gather from +them that, just as the love of their Church was the great passion of +the sixteenth-century Spaniards, so the love of their country was the +ruling passion of the great English adventurers. (Of course the +Spaniards had shown their love for their old country in some of the +names they gave, as when Columbus called one place _Isabella_, in +honour of the noble Spanish queen who had helped and encouraged him +when other rulers of European countries had refused to listen to what +they thought were the ravings of a madman.) + +The English in Reformation days had a very different idea of religion +from the Spanish. Naturally they did not sprinkle the names of saints +over the new lands. But the English of Elizabeth's day were filled +with a great new love for England. The greatest of all the Elizabethan +adventurers, Sir Francis Drake, when in his voyage round the world he +put into a harbour which is now known as San Francisco, set up "a +plate of brass fast nailed to a great and firm post, whereon is +engraved Her Grace's name, and the day and the year of our arrival +there." The Indian king of these parts had freely owned himself +subject to the English, taking the crown from his own head and putting +it on Drake's head. Sir Francis called his land _New Albion_, using +the old poetic name for England. + +But the colonization of North America was not successfully begun until +after the death of Elizabeth, though one or two attempts at founding +colonies, or "plantations," as they were then called, were made in +her time. Sir Walter Raleigh tried to set up one colony in North +America, and called it _Virginia_, after the virgin queen whom all +Englishmen delighted to honour. Virginia did not prosper, and +Raleigh's colony broke up; but later another and successful attempt at +colonizing it was made, and the same name kept. Virginia--"Earth's +only Paradise," as the poet Drayton called it--was the first English +colony successfully settled in North America. This was in the year +1607, when two hundred and forty-three settlers landed, and made the +first settlement at a point which they called _Jamestown_, in honour +of the new English king, James I. + +The first settlers in Virginia were men whose chief aim was to become +rich, but it was not long before a new kind of settler began to seek +refuge in the lands north of Virginia, to which the great colonizer, +Captain John Smith, had by this time given the name of _New England_. +It was in 1620 that the "Pilgrim Fathers," because they were not free +to worship God as they thought right at home, sailed from Southampton +in the little _Mayflower_, and landed far to the north of Virginia, +and made a settlement at a place which Smith had already called +_Plymouth_. + +Before long new colonies began to spring up all over New England; and +though we find some new names, like the Indian name of the great +colony _Massachusetts_, we may read the story of the great love which +the colonists felt for the old towns of the mother-country in the way +they gave their names to the new settlements. + +A curious thing is that many of these new towns, christened after +little old towns at home, became later very important and prosperous +places, while the places after which they were called are sometimes +almost forgotten. Many people to whom the name of the great American +city of Boston is familiar do not know that there still stands on the +coast of Lincolnshire the sleepy little town of Boston, from which it +took its name. + +Boston is the chief town of Massachusetts; but the first capital was +_Charlestown_, called after King Charles I., who had by this time +succeeded his father, James I. The place on which Charlestown was +built, on the north bank of the Charles River, was, however, found to +be unhealthy. The settlers, therefore, deserted it, and Boston was +built on the south bank. + +It was not long before the Massachusetts settlers built a college at a +place near Boston which had been called _Cambridge_. This is a case in +which the old town at home remained, of course, much more important +than its godchild. If a person speaks of Cambridge, one's mind +immediately flies to the English university city on the banks of the +river Cam. Still the college built at the American Cambridge, and +called "Harvard College," after John Harvard, one of the early +settlers, who gave a great deal of money towards its building, is +famous now throughout the world. + +It was natural and suitable that the early settlers should use the old +English names to show their love for the mother-country; but it was +not such a wise thing to choose the names of the great historic towns +of Europe, and give them to the new settlements. To give the almost +sacred name of _Rome_ to a modern American town seems almost +ridiculous. Certainly one would have always to be very careful to add +"Georgia, U.S.A." in addressing letters there. The United States has +several of these towns bearing old historic names. _Paris_ as the name +of an American town seems almost as unsuitable as Rome. + +But this mistake was not made by the early colonists. If we think of +the names of the colonies which stretched along the east of North +America, we find nearly always that the names are chosen to do honour +to the English king or queen, or to keep the memory fresh of some +beloved spot in the old country. + +In 1632 the Catholic Lord Baltimore founded a new colony, the only one +where the Catholic religion was tolerated, and called it _Maryland_, +in honour of Charles I.'s queen, Henrietta Maria. Just after the +Restoration of Charles II. in 1660, when the country was full of +loyalty, a new colony, _Carolina_, was founded, taking its name from +_Carolus_, the Latin for "Charles." Afterwards this colony was divided +into two, and became North and South Carolina. + +To the north of Maryland lay the _New Netherlands_, for Holland had +also colonized here. In the seventeenth century this little nation was +for a time equal to the greatest nations in Europe. The Dutch had very +soon followed the example of that other little nation Portugal, which, +directed by the famous Prince Henry of Portugal, had been the first of +all the European nations to explore far-off lands. Holland was as +important on the seas as Spain or England; but this could not last +long. The Dutch and the English fought several campaigns, and in the +end the Dutch were beaten. + +In 1667 the New Netherlands were yielded up to England. The name of +the colony was changed to _New York_, and its capital, New Amsterdam, +was given the same name. This was in honour of the sailor prince, +James, Duke of York, afterwards the unhappy King James II. Another of +the Stuarts who gave his name to a district of North America was +Prince Rupert, the nephew of Charles I., who fought so hard for the +king against Cromwell. In 1670 the land round Hudson Bay was given the +name of _Rupertsland_. + +Sometimes, but not often, the new colonies were given the names of +their founders. William Penn, who founded the Quaker colony of +_Pennsylvania_, gave it this name in honour of his father, Admiral +Penn. _Sylvania_ means "land of woods," and comes from the Latin +_sylvanus_, or "woody." + +But it is not only in America that the place-names tell us the +stories of heroism and romance. All over the world, from the icy lands +round the Poles to the tropical districts of Africa, India, and +Australia, these stories can be read. The spirit in which the early +Portuguese adventurers sailed along the coast of Africa is shown in +the name they gave to what we now know as the _Cape of Good Hope_. +Bartholomew Diaz called it the _Cape of Storms_, for he had discovered +it only after terrible battlings with the waves; but when he sailed +home to tell his news the king of Portugal said that this was not a +good name, but it should instead be called the _Cape of Good Hope_, +for past it lay the sea passage to India which men had been seeking +for years. And so the _Cape of Good Hope_ it remains to this day. + +After this it was not long before the Portuguese explored the south +and east coasts of Africa and the west coast of India to the very +south, where they took the _Spice Islands_ for their own. From these +the Portuguese brought home great quantities of spices, which they +sold at high prices in Europe. + +It was the great explorer Ferdinand Magellan who first sailed round +the world, being sure, as he said, that he could reach the Spice +Islands by sailing west. And so he started on this expedition, sailing +through the straits which have ever since been known as the _Magellan +Straits_ to the south of South America, into the Pacific, or +"Peaceful," Ocean, and then ever west, until he came round by the +east to Spain again, after three years of great hardship and wonderful +adventure. + +The adventures of the early explorers most often took the form of +seeking a new and shorter passage from one ocean to another, and so +many straits bear the names of the explorers. The Elizabethan +explorer, Martin Frobisher, sought for a "North-west Passage" from the +Atlantic to the Pacific, and for a time it was thought that he had +found it in the very north of North America. But it was afterwards +found that the "passage," which had already been given the name of +_Frobisher's Straits_, was really only an inlet, and afterwards it +became known as _Lumley's Inlet_. + +Frobisher never discovered a North-west Passage, for the ships of +those days were not fitted out in a way to enable the sailors to bear +the icy cold of these northern regions. Many brave explorers tried +later to discover it. Three times John Davis made a voyage for this +purpose but never succeeded, though _Davis Strait_ commemorates his +heroic attempts. Hudson and Baffin explored in these waters, as the +names _Hudson Bay_ and _Baffin Bay_ remind us. + +It was nearly two hundred years later that Sir John Franklin sailed +with an expedition in two boats, the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, determined +to find the passage. He found it, but died in the attempt; but, +strangely enough, his name was not given to any strait, though later +it was given to all the islands of the Arctic Archipelago. + +The winning of India by the British in the eighteenth century did not +give us many new English names. India was not, like the greater part +of America, a wild country inhabited by savage peoples. It had an +older civilization than the greater part of Europe, and the only +reason that it was weak enough to be conquered was that the many races +who lived there could not agree among themselves. Most of the +place-names of India are native names given by natives, for centuries +before France and England began to struggle for its possession in the +eighteenth century India had passed through a long and varied history. + +When we remember that the natives of India have no name to describe +the whole continent, it helps us to understand that India is in no way +a single country. The British Government have given the continent the +name _India_, taking it from the great river Indus, which itself takes +its name from an old word, _sindhu_, meaning "river." + +In the days of the early explorers, after the islands discovered by +Columbus were called the _West Indies_, some people began to call the +Indian continent the _East Indies_, to distinguish it; and some of the +papers about India drawn up for the information of Parliament about +Indian affairs still use this name, but it is not a familiar use to +most people. + +The mistake which Columbus and the early explorers made in thinking +America was India has caused a good deal of confusion. The natives of +North America were called Indians, and it was only long afterwards, in +fact quite lately, that people began to write and speak of the natives +of India as _Indians_. When it was printed in the newspapers that +Indians were fighting for the British Empire with the armies in +France, the use of the word _Indian_ seemed wrong to a great many +people; but it is now becoming so common that it will probably soon +seem quite right. When it is used with the old meaning we shall have +to say the "Indians of North America." Some people use the word +_Hindu_ to describe the natives of India; but this is not correct, as +only _some_ of the natives of India are Hindus, just as the name +_Hindustan_ (a Persian name meaning "land of the Hindus," as +_Afghanistan_ means "land of the Afghans"), which some old writers on +geography used for India, is really the name of one part of the land +round the river Ganges, where the language known as _Hindi_ is spoken. + +The place-names of India given by natives of the many different races +which have lived in the land could fill a book with their stories +alone. We can only mention a few. The name of the great range of +mountains which runs across the north of the continent, the +_Himalayas_, means in Sanskrit, the oldest language used in India, the +"home of snow." _Bombay_ takes its name from _Mumba_, the name of a +goddess of an early tribe who occupied the district round Bombay. +_Calcutta_, which stretches over ground where there were formerly +several villages, takes its name from one of these. Its old form was +_Kalikuti_, which means the "ghauts," or passes, leading to the temple +of the goddess Kali. + +In Australia, where a beginning of colonization was made through the +discoveries of Captain Cook towards the end of the eighteenth century, +the place-names were sometimes given from places at home, sometimes +after persons, but they have hardly the same romance as the early +American names. + +_Botany Bay_ was the name chosen by Captain Cook in a moment of +enthusiasm for an inlet of New South Wales. He gave it this name +because of the great number of plants and flowers which grow there. + +In Africa a good deal of history can be learned from the place-names. +Although the north of Africa had for many hundreds of years had its +part in the civilization of the countries round the Mediterranean Sea, +the greater part of Africa had remained an unexplored region--the +"Dark Continent," as it was called. In the fifteenth century the +Portuguese sailors crept along the western coast, and afterwards along +the south, as we have seen, past the Cape of Good Hope. But the +interior of the continent remained for long an unexplored region. + +The Dutch had, very soon after the discovery of the Cape, made a +settlement there, which was known as _Cape Colony_. This was +afterwards won by the English; but many Dutchmen still stayed there, +and though, since the Boer War, when the Boers, or Dutch, in South +Africa tried to win their independence, the whole of South Africa +belongs to the British Empire, still there are naturally many Dutch +names given by the early Dutch settlers. Some of these became very +well known to English people in the Boer War. _Bloemfontein_ is one of +these names, coming from the Dutch word for "spring" (_fontein_), and +that of Jan Bloem, one of the farmers who first settled there. Another +well-known place in the Transvaal, _Pietermaritzburg_, took its name +from the two leaders who led the Boers out of Cape Colony when they +felt that the English were becoming too strong there. These leaders +were Pieter Retief and Georit Maritz. This movement of the Boers into +the Transvaal was called the "Great Trek," _trek_ being a Dutch word +for a journey or migration of this sort. Since the days of the Boer +War this word has been regularly used in English with this same +meaning. Like the English settlers in America, the Dutch settlers in +South Africa sometimes gave the names of places in Holland to their +new settlements. _Utrecht_ is an example of this. + +Up to the very end of the nineteenth century no European country +besides England had any great possessions in Africa. The Portuguese +still held the coast lands between Zululand (so called from the +fierce black natives who lived there) and Mozambique. Egypt had come +practically under British rule soon after the days of Napoleon, and in +the middle of the nineteenth century the great explorers Livingstone +and Stanley had explored the lands along the Zambesi River and a great +part of Central Africa. Stanley went right across the centre of the +continent, and discovered the lake _Albert Edward Nyanza_. _Nyanza_ is +the African word for "lake," and the name Albert Edward was given in +honour of the Prince Consort. _Victoria Nyanza_, so called after Queen +Victoria, had been discovered some years before. It was all these +discoveries which led to the colonization of Africa by the nations of +Europe. + +In 1884 the great German statesman, Prince Bismarck, set up the German +flag in Damaraland, the coast district to the north of the Orange +River; and soon after a German colony was set up in the lands between +the Portuguese settlements and the Equator. This was simply called +German East Africa. At the same time the other nations of Europe +suddenly realized that if they meant to have part of Africa they must +join in the scramble at once. There were soon a British East Africa, a +Portuguese East Africa, a Portuguese West Africa, a German South-west +Africa, and so on. All these are names which might have been given in +a hurry, and in them we seem to read the haste of the European +nations to seize on the only lands in the world which were still +available. They are very different from the descriptive names which +the early Portuguese adventurers had strewn along the coast, like +_Sierra Leone_, or "the lion mountain;" _Cape Verde_, or "the green +cape," so called from its green grass. + +Still, romance was not dead even yet. There is one district of South +Africa which takes its name in the old way from that of a person. +_Rhodesia_, the name given to Mashonaland and Matabeleland, was so +called after Mr. Cecil Rhodes, a young British emigrant, who went out +from England in very weak health and became perfectly strong, at the +same time winning a fortune for himself in the diamond fields of +Kimberley. He devoted himself heart and soul to the strengthening of +British power in South Africa, and it is fitting that this province +should by its name keep his memory fresh. + +The story of the struggle in South Africa between Boer and Briton can +be partly read in its place-names; and the story of the struggle +between old and new settlers in Canada can be similarly read in the +place-names of that land. + +The first settlers in Canada were the French, and the descendants of +these first settlers form a large proportion of the Canadian +population. Many places in Canada still have, of course, the names +which the first French settlers gave them. + +The Italian, John Cabot, had sailed to Canada a few years after +Columbus discovered America, sent by the English king, Henry VII., but +no settlements were made. Thirty-seven years later the French sailor, +Jacques Cartier, was sent by the French king, Francis I., to explore +there. Cartier sailed up the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far as the spot +where Montreal now stands. The name was given by Cartier, and means +"royal mount." It was Cartier, too, who gave Canada its name; but he +thought that this was already the Indian name for the land. A story is +told that some Red Indians were trying to talk to him and making +signs, and they pointed to some houses, saying, "Cannata." Cartier +thought they meant that this was the name of the country, but he was +mistaken. They were, perhaps, pointing out their village, for +_cannata_ is the Indian name for "village." + +Cartier, like Cabot, sailed away again, and the first real founder of +a settlement in Canada was the Frenchman, Samuel de Champlain, who +made friends with the Indians, and explored the upper parts of the +river Lawrence, and gave his name to the beautiful _Lake Champlain_, +which he discovered. It was he who founded _Quebec_, giving it this +Breton name. Sailors from Brittany had ventured as far as the coast of +Canada in the time of Columbus, and had given its name to _Cape +Breton_. And so French names spread through Canada. Later, in one of +the wars of the eighteenth century, England won Canada from France; +but these French names still remain to tell the tale of French +adventure and heroism in that land. + +We have seen many names in new lands, some of them given by people +from the Old World who settled in these lands. In the great European +War we have seen people from these new lands coming back to fight in +some of the most ancient countries of the Old World. The splendid +Australian troops who fought in Gallipoli sprinkled many new names +over the land they won and lost. One, at least, will always remain on +the maps. _Anzac_, where the Colonials made their historic landing, +will never be forgotten. It was a new name, made up of the initial +letters of the words "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps," and will +remain for ever one of the most honoured names invented in the +twentieth century. + +Children who like history can read whole chapters in the place-names +of the old world and the new. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +STORIES IN OLD LONDON NAMES. + + +It is not only in the names of continents, countries, and towns that +stories of the past can be read. The names of the old streets and +buildings (or even of new streets which have kept their old names) in +our old towns are full of stories. Especially is this true about +London, the centre of the British Empire, and almost the centre of the +world's history. It will be interesting not only to little Londoners, +but to other children as well, to examine some of the old London +names, and see what stories they can tell. + +Naturally the most interesting names of all are to be found in what we +now call "the City," meaning the centre of London, which was at one +time all the London there was. + +We have seen that London was in the time of the Britons just a fort, +and that it became important in Roman times, and a town grew up around +it. But this town in the Middle Ages, and even so late as the +eighteenth century, was not at all like the London we know to-day. +London now is really a county, and stretches away far into four +counties; but mediaeval London was like a small country town, though a +very important and gay and busy town, because it was the capital. + +Many of the names in the City take us back to the very earliest days +of the capital. This part of London stands on slightly rising ground, +and near the river Thames, just the sort of ground which early people +would choose upon which to build a fortress or a village. The names of +two of the chief City streets, the Strand and Fleet Street, help to +show us something of what London was like in its earliest days. A few +years ago, in a famous case in a court of law, one of the lawyers +asked a witness what he was doing in the Strand at a certain time. The +witness, a witty Irishman, answered with a solemn face, "Picking +seaweed." Everybody laughed, because the idea of picking seaweed in +the very centre of London was so funny. But a strand _is_ a shore, and +when the name was given to the London _Strand_ it was not a paved +street at all, but the muddy shore of the river Thames. + +Then _Fleet Street_ marks the path by which the little river Fleet ran +into the Thames. The river had several tributaries, which were covered +over in this way, and several of them are used as sewers to carry away +the sewage of the city. There is a _Fleet Street_, too, in Hampstead, +in the north-west of London, and this marks the beginning of the +course of the same little river Fleet which got its water from the +high ground of Hampstead. + +This river has given us still another famous London name. It flowed +past what is now called King's Cross, and here its banks were so steep +that it was called _Hollow_, or _Hole-bourne_, and from this we get +the name _Holborn_. + +The City being the centre of London had a certain amount of trading +and bargaining from the earliest times. In those times there were no +such things as shops. People bought and sold in markets, and the name +of the busy City street, _Cheapside_, reminds us of this. It was +called in early times the _Chepe_, and took its name from the Old +English word _ceap_, "a bargain." + +At the end of Cheapside runs the street called _Poultry_, and this, so +an old chronicler tells us, has its name from the fact that a fowl or +poultry market was regularly held there up to the sixteenth century. +The name of another famous City street, _Cornhill_, tells us that a +corn market used to be held there. Another name, _Gracechurch Street_, +reminds us of an old grass market. It took its name from an old +church, St. Benet Grasschurch, which was probably so called because +the grass market was held under its walls. + +_Smithfield_ is the great London meat market now; but its name means +"smooth field," and in the Middle Ages it was used as a cattle and hay +market, and on days which were not market days games and tournaments +took place there. Later its name became famous in English history for +the "fires of Smithfield," when men and women were burned to death +there for refusing to accept the state religion. + +Many London names come from churches and buildings which no longer +exist. The names help us to picture a London very different from the +London of to-day. One of the busiest streets in that part of the City +round Fleet Street where editors and journalists, and printers and +messengers are working day and night to produce the newspapers which +carry the news of the day far and wide over England, is _Blackfriars_. +This is a very different place from the spot where the Dominicans, or +"Black Friars," built their priory in the thirteenth century. + +In those days the friars chose the busiest parts of the little English +towns to build their houses in, so that they could preach and help the +people. They thought that the earlier monks had chosen places for +their monasteries too far from the people. There were grey friars and +white friars, Austin friars and crutched friars, all of whose names +remain in the London of to-day. + +There were many monasteries and convents in the larger London which +soon grew up round the City, and in the City itself we have a street +whose name keeps the memory of one convent of nuns. The street called +the _Minories_ marks the place where a convent of nuns of St. Clare +was founded in the thirteenth century. The Latin name for these nuns +is _Sorores Minores_, or "Lesser Sisters," just as the Franciscans, or +grey friars, were _Fratres Minores_, or "Lesser Brethren." And so from +the Latin _minores_ we get the name Minories as the name of a London +street, standing where this convent once stood. + +The name of the street _London Wall_ reminds us of the time when +London was a walled city with its gates, which were closed at night +and opened every morning. Many streets keep the names of the old +gates, like _Ludgate Hill_, _Aldersgate_, _Bishopsgate_. + +The great _Tower of London_ still stands to show us how London was +defended in the old feudal days; but _Tower Bridge_, the bridge which +crosses the river at that point, is a modern bridge, built in 1894. +The name _Cripplegate_ still remains, and the story it has to tell us +is that in the Middle Ages there stood outside the city walls beyond +this gate the hospital of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. It was a hospital +for lepers; but St. Giles is the patron saint of cripples, and so this +gate of the city got the name of Cripplegate, because it was the +nearest to the church of the patron saint of cripples. + +This church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields no longer remains; but we have +_St. Martin's-in-the-Fields_, to remind us of the difference between +Trafalgar Square to-day and its condition not quite two hundred years +ago, when this church was built. + +It must be remembered that even at the very end of the eighteenth +century London was just a tiny town lying along the river. At that +time many of the nobles and rich merchants were building their +mansions in what is now the West Central district of London. The north +side of Queen Square, Bloomsbury, was left open, so that the people +who lived there could enjoy the view of the Highgate and Hampstead +hills, to which the open country stretched. Even now this end of Queen +Square is closed only by a railing, but a great mass of streets and +houses stretches far beyond Hampstead and Highgate now. + +_Trafalgar Square_ itself got its name in honour of Nelson, the hero +of the great victory of Trafalgar. The great column with the statue of +Nelson stands in the square. + +This brings us to one of the most interesting of old London names. On +one side of the square stands _Charing Cross_, the busiest spot in +London. At this point there once stood the last of the nine beautiful +crosses which King Edward III. set up at the places where the coffin +of his wife, Eleanor, was set to rest in the long journey from +Lincolnshire, where she died, to her grave in Westminster Abbey; and +so it got its name. A fine modern cross has been set up in memory of +Edward's cross, which has long since disappeared. + +The district of Westminster takes its name, of course, from the abbey; +and the name _Broad Sanctuary_ remains to remind us of the sanctuary +in which, as in many churches of the Middle Ages, people could take +refuge even from the Law. _Covent Garden_ took its name from a convent +garden belonging to the abbey. + +One of the oldest parts of London is _Charterhouse Square_, where, +until a year or two ago, there stood the famous boys' school of this +name. The school took its name from the old monastery of the +Charterhouse, which King Henry VIII. brought to an end because the +monks would not own that he was head of the Church instead of the +Pope. They suffered a dreadful death, being hanged, drawn, and +quartered as traitors. The monastery was taken, like so many others, +by the king, and afterwards became a school. But the school was +removed in 1872 to an airier district at Godalming. Part of the old +building is still used as a boys' day school. + +The word _Charterhouse_ was the English name for a house of +Carthusians, a very strict order of monks, whose first house was the +Grande Chartreuse in France. + +Not far from the Charterhouse is _Ely Place_, with the beautiful old +church of St. Ethelreda. This was, in the Middle Ages, a chapel used +by the Bishop of Ely when he came to London, and that is how Ely +Place, still one of the quietest and quaintest spots in London, got +its name. + +People who go along Ludgate Hill to St. Paul's must have noticed many +curious names. Perhaps the quaintest of all is _Paternoster Row_. +This street, which takes its name from the Latin name of the "Our +Father," or Lord's Prayer, got its name from the fact that in the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries many sellers of prayer-books and +texts collected at this spot, on account of it being near the great +church of St. Paul's. Paternoster Row is still full of booksellers. + +_Ave Maria Lane_ and _Amen Corner_, just near, got their names in +imitation of Paternoster Row, the _Ave Maria_, or "Hail, Mary!" being +the words used by the angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin at the +Annunciation, and _Amen_ being, of course, the ending to the +_paternoster_, as to most prayers. + +Not far from St. Paul's is the Church of _St. Mary-le-Bow_. It used to +be said that the true Londoner had to be born within the sound of +Bow-bells, and the old story tells us that it was these bells which +Dick Whittington heard telling him to turn back when he had lost hope +of making his fortune, and was leaving London for the country again. +The present Church of St. Mary-le-Bow was built by Sir Christopher +Wren, the great seventeenth-century architect, who built St. Paul's +and several other of the most beautiful London churches after they had +been destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. But underneath the present +Church of St. Mary-le-Bow is the crypt, which was not destroyed in the +fire. This crypt was built, like the former church, in Norman times, +and the church took its name of _bow_ from the arches upon which it +was built in the Norman way, it being the first church in London to be +built in this way. The church is generally called "Bow Church." + +Another famous old London church, the _Temple Church_, which is now +used as the chapel of the lawyers at the Inns of Court, got its name +from the fact that it belonged to and was built by the Knights +Templars in the twelfth century. These knights were one of those +peculiar religious orders which joined the life of a soldier to that +of a monk, and played a great part in the Crusades. King Edward III. +brought the order to an end, and took their property; but the Temple +Church, with its tombs and figures of armoured knights in brass, +remains to keep their memory fresh. + +We may mention two other names of old London streets which take us +back to the Middle Ages. In the City we have the street called _Old +Jewry_, and this reminds us of the time when in all the more important +towns of England in the early Middle Ages a part was put aside for the +Jews. This was called the _Ghetto_. The Jews were much disliked in the +Middle Ages because of the treatment of Our Lord by their forefathers; +but the kings often protected them because, in spite of everything, +the Jews grew rich, and the kings were able to borrow money of them. +In 1290, however, Edward I. banished all the Jews from England, and +they did not return until the days of Cromwell. But the name of the +Old Jewry reminds us of the ghetto which was an important part of old +London. + +Another famous City street, _Lombard Street_, the street of bankers, +got its name from the Italian merchants from Lombardy who set up their +business there, and who became the bankers and money-lenders when +there were no longer any Jews to lend money to the English king and +nobles. + +As time went on London began to grow in a way which seemed alarming to +the people of the seventeenth century, though even then it was but a +tiny town in comparison with the London of to-day. The fashionable +people and courtiers began to build houses in the western "suburbs," +as they were then called, though now they are looked upon as very +central districts. It was chiefly in the seventeenth century that what +we now know as the _West End_ became a residential quarter. Some parts +of the West End are, of course, still the most fashionable parts of +London; but some, like Covent Garden and Lincoln's Inn Fields, have +been given over to business. + +Most of the best-known names in the West End date from the seventeenth +and eighteenth centuries. The most fashionable street of all, +_Piccadilly_, probably got its name from the very fashionable collar +called a _pickadil_ (from the Spanish word _picca_, "a spear") which +the fine gentlemen wore as they swaggered through the West End in the +early seventeenth century. _Pall Mall_ and the _Mall_ in St. James's +Park took their names from a game which was very fashionable after the +Restoration, but which was already known in the time of Charles I. The +game was called _pall-mall_, from the French _paille-maille_. After +the Restoration Charles II. allowed the people to use St. James's +Park, which was a royal park, and Londoners used to watch respectfully +and admiringly as Charles and his brother James played this game. + +_Spring Gardens_, also in St. James's Park, reminds us of the lively +spirits of Restoration times. It was so called because of a fountain +which stood there, and which was so arranged that when a passer-by +trod by accident on a certain valve the waters spurted forth and +drenched him. We should not think this so funny now as people did +then. + +At the same time that the West End was growing, poorer districts were +spreading to the north and east of the City. _Moorfields_ (which tells +us by its name what it was like in the early London days) was built +over. _Spitalfields_ (which took its name from one of the many +hospitals which religious people built in and near mediaeval London) +and _Whitechapel_ also filled up, and became centres of trade and +manufacture. The games and sports which amused the people in these +poorer quarters were not so refined as the ball-throwing of the +princes and courtiers. In the name _Balls Pond Road_, Islington, we +are reminded of the duck-hunting which was one of the sports of the +common people. + +As time went on and London became larger and more crowded, the +fashionable people began to go away each summer to drink the waters at +Bath and Tunbridge Wells. But in London itself there were several +springs and wells whose waters were supposed to be good for people's +health, and these have given us some of the best-known London names. +Near _Holywell Street_ there were several of these wells; and along +_Well Walk_, in the north-west suburb of Hampstead, a procession of +gaily-dressed people might regularly be seen in Charles II.'s time +going to drink the waters. _Clerkenwell_ also took its name from a +well which was believed to be mediaeval and even miraculous. +_Bridewell_, the name of the famous prison, also came from the name of +a well dedicated to St. Bride. + +Many of the great streets and squares of the West End of London have +taken their names from the houses of noblemen who have lived there, or +from the names of the rich owners of property in these parts. +_Northumberland Avenue_, opening off Trafalgar Square, takes its name +from Northumberland House, built there in the time of James I. +_Arundel Street_, running down to the Embankment from the Strand, is +so called in memory of Arundel House, the home of the Earl of Arundel, +which used to stand here. It was there that the famous collection of +statues known as the "Arundel Marbles" was first collected. They were +presented to Oxford University in 1667. + +Just near Charing Cross there is a part of old London called the +_Adelphi_. This district takes its name from a fine group of buildings +put up there in the middle of the eighteenth century by the two famous +brother architects Robert and William Adam. _Adelphi_ is the Greek +word for "brothers," but the name seems very peculiar applied in this +way. + +The name of _Mayfair_, the very centre of fashion in the West End, +reminds us that in this magnificent quarter of London a fair used to +be held in May in the time of Charles II. This gives us an idea of how +the district must have changed since then. _Farm Street_, in Mayfair, +has its name from a farm which was still there in the middle of the +eighteenth century. The ground is now taken up by stables and +coach-houses. _Half-Moon Street_, another fashionable street running +out of Piccadilly, takes its name from a public house which was built +on this corner in 1730. + +These old names give us some idea of what London was like at different +times in the past; but another very interesting group of names are +those which are being made in the greater London of to-day. One of the +commonest words used by Londoners to-day is the _Underground_. If an +eighteenth-century Londoner could come back and talk to us to-day he +would not know what we meant by this word. For the great system of +underground railways to which it refers was only made in the later +years of the nineteenth century. The _Twopenny Tube_ was the name of +one of the first lines of these underground railways. It was so called +because the trains ran through great circular tunnels, like the +underground railways which connect all parts of London to-day. It has +now become quite a habit of Londoners to talk of going "by Tube" when +they mean by any of the underground railways. + +One of these lines has a very peculiar and rather ugly name. It is +called the _Bakerloo Railway_, because it runs from Baker Street to +Waterloo. It certainly makes us think that the Londoners of long ago +showed much better taste in the names they invented. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +WORDS MADE BY GREAT WRITERS. + + +As we have seen, languages while they are living are always growing +and changing. We have seen how new names have been made as time went +on. But many new words besides names are constantly being added to a +language; for just as grown-up people use more words than children, +and educated people use more words than uneducated or less educated +people, so, too, _nations_ use more words as time goes on. Every word +must have been used a first time by some one; but of course it is +impossible to know who were the makers of most words. Even new words +cannot often be traced to their makers. Some one uses a new word, and +others pick it up, and it passes into general use, while everybody has +forgotten who made it. + +But one very common way in which people learn to use new words is +through reading the books of great writers. Sometimes these writers +have made new words which their readers have seen to be very good, and +have then begun to use themselves. Sometimes these great writers have +made use of words which, though not new, were very rare, and +immediately these words have become popular and ordinary words. + +The first great English poet was Chaucer, and the great English +philologists feel sure that he must have made many new words and made +many rare words common; but it is not easy to say that Chaucer made +any particular word, because we do not know enough of the language +which was in use at that time to say so. One famous phrase of Chaucer +is often quoted now: "after the schole of Stratford-atte-Bowe," which +he used in describing the French spoken by one of the Canterbury +Pilgrims in his great poem. He meant that this was not pure French, +but French spoken in the way and with the peculiar accent used at +Stratford (a part of London near Bow Church). We now often use the +phrase to describe any accent which is not perfect. + +But though we do not know for certain which words Chaucer introduced, +we do know that this first great English poet must have introduced +many, especially French words; while Wyclif, the first great English +prose writer, who translated part of the Bible from Latin into +English, must also have given us many new words, especially from the +Latin. The English language never changed so much after the time of +Chaucer and Wyclif as it had done before. + +The next really great English poet, Edmund Spenser, who wrote his +wonderful poem, "The Faerie Queene," in the days of Queen Elizabeth, +invented a great many new words. Some of these were seldom or never +used afterwards, but some became ordinary English words. Sometimes his +new words were partly formed out of old words which were no longer +used. The word _elfin_, which became quite a common word, seems to +have been invented by Spenser. He called a boasting knight by the name +_Braggadocio_, and we still use the word _braggadocio_ for vain +boasting. A common expression which we often find used in romantic +tales, and especially in the novels of Sir Walter Scott, _derring-do_, +meaning "adventurous action," was first used by Spenser. He, however, +took it from Chaucer, who had used it as a _verb_, speaking of the +_dorring-do_ (or "daring to do") that belonged to a knight. Spenser +made a mistake in thinking Chaucer had used it as a noun, and used it +so himself, making in this way quite a new and very well-sounding +word. + +Another word which Spenser made, and which is still sometimes used, +was _fool-happy_; but other words, like _idlesse_, _dreariment_, +_drowsihead_, are hardly seen outside his poetry. One reason for this +is that Spenser was telling stories of quaint and curious things, and +he used quaint and curious words which would not naturally pass into +ordinary language. + +The next great name in English literature, and the greatest name of +all, is Shakespeare. Shakespeare influenced the English language more +than any writer before or since. First of all he made a great many new +words, some very simple and others more elaborate, but all of them so +suitable that they have become a part of the language. Such a common +word as _bump_, which it would be difficult to imagine ourselves +without, is first found in Shakespeare's writings. _Hurry_, which +seems to be the only word to express what it stands for, seems also to +have been made by Shakespeare, and also the common word _dwindle_. +Some other words which Shakespeare made are _lonely_, _orb_ (meaning +"globe"), _illumine_, and _home-keeping_. + +Many others might be quoted, but the great influence which Shakespeare +had on the English language was not through the new words he made, but +in the way his expressions and phrases came to be used as ordinary +expressions. Many people are constantly speaking Shakespeare without +knowing it, for the phrases he used were so exactly right and +expressive that they have been repeated ever since, and often, of +course, by people who do not know where they first came from. We can +only mention a few of these phrases, such as "a Daniel come to +judgment," which Shylock says to Portia in the "Merchant of Venice," +and which is often used now sarcastically. From the same play comes +the expression "pound of flesh," which is now often used to mean what +a person knows to be due to him and is determined to have. "Full of +sound and fury, signifying nothing," "to gild refined gold," "to wear +one's heart upon one's sleeve,"--these and hundreds of other phrases +are known by most people to come from Shakespeare; they are used by +many who do not. They describe so splendidly so many things which are +constantly happening that they seem to be the only or at least the +best way of expressing the meanings they signify. + +But not only have hundreds of Shakespeare's own words and phrases +passed into everyday English, but the way in which he turned his +phrases is often imitated. It was Shakespeare who used the phrase to +"out-Herod Herod," and now this is a common form of speech. A +statesman could now quite suitably use the phrase to "out-Asquith +Asquith." + +The next great poet after Shakespeare was Milton. He also gave us a +great many new words and phrases, but not nearly so many as +Shakespeare. Still there are a few phrases which are now so common +that many people use them without even knowing that they come from +Milton's writings. Some of these are "the human face divine," "to hide +one's diminished head," "a dim religious light," "the light fantastic +toe." It was Milton who invented the name _pandemonium_ for the home +of the devils, and now people regularly speak of a state of horrible +noise and disorder as "a pandemonium." Many of those who use the +expression have not the slightest idea of where it came from. The few +words which we know were made by Milton are very expressive words. It +was he who invented _anarch_ for the spirit of anarchy or disorder, +and no one has found a better word to express the idea. _Satanic_, +_moon-struck_, _gloom_ (to mean "darkness"), _echoing_, and _bannered_ +are some more well-known words invented by Milton. + +It is not always the greatest writers who have given us the greatest +number of new words. A great prose writer of the seventeenth century, +Sir Thomas Browne, is looked upon as a classical writer, but his works +are only read by a few, not like the great works of Shakespeare and +Milton. Yet Sir Thomas Browne has given many new words to the English +language. This is partly because he deliberately made many new words. +One book of his gave us several hundreds of these words. The reason +his new words remained in the language was that there was a real need +of them. + +Many seventeenth-century writers of plays invented hundreds of new +words, but they tried to invent curious and queer-sounding words, and +very few people liked them. These words never really became part of +the English language. They are "one-man" words, to be found only in +the writings of their inventors. Yet it was one of these fanciful +writers who invented the very useful word _dramatist_ for "a writer of +plays." + +But the words made by Sir Thomas Browne were quite different. Such +ordinary words as _medical_, _literary_, and _electricity_ were first +used by him. He made many others too, not quite so common, but words +which later writers and speakers could hardly do without. + +Another seventeenth-century writer, John Evelyn, the author of the +famous _Diary_ which has taught us so much about the times in which he +lived, was a great maker of words. Most of his new words were made +from foreign words, and as he was much interested in art and music, +many of his words relate to these things. It was Evelyn who introduced +the word _opera_ into English, and also _outline_, _altitude_, +_monochrome_ ("a painting in one shade"), and _pastel_, besides many +other less common words. + +Robert Boyle, a great seventeenth-century writer on science, gave many +new scientific words to the English language. The words _pendulum_ and +_intensity_ were first used by him, and it was he who first used +_fluid_ as a noun. + +The poets Dryden and Pope gave us many new words too. + +Dr. Johnson, the maker of the first great English dictionary, added +some words to the language. As everybody knows who has read that +famous book, Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, Dr. Johnson was a man who +always said just what he thought, and had no patience with anything +like stupidity. The expression _fiddlededee_, another way of telling a +person that he is talking nonsense, was made by him. _Irascibility_, +which means "tendency to be easily made cross or angry," is also one +of his words, and so are the words _literature_ and _comic_. + +The great statesman and political writer, Edmund Burke, was the +inventor of many of our commonest words relating to politics. +_Colonial_, _colonization_, _electioneering_, _diplomacy_, +_financial_, and many other words which are in everyday use now, were +made by him. + +At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a great revival +in English literature, since known as the "Romantic Movement." After +the rather stiff manners and writing of the eighteenth century, people +began to have an enthusiasm for all sorts of old and adventurous +things, and a new love for nature and beauty. Sir Walter Scott was the +great novelist of the movement, and also wrote some fine, stirring +ballads and poems. In these writings, which dealt chiefly with the +adventurous deeds of the Middle Ages, Scott used again many old words +which had been forgotten and fallen out of use. He made them everyday +words again. + +The old word _chivalrous_, which had formerly been used to describe +the institutions connected with knighthood, he used in a new way, and +the word has kept this meaning ever since. It has now always the +meaning of courtesy and gentleness towards the weak, but before Sir +Walter Scott used it it had not this meaning at all. Scott also +revived words like _raid_ and _foray_, his novels, of course, being +full of descriptions of fighting on the borders of England and +Scotland. It was this same writer who introduced the Scottish word +_gruesome_ into the language. + +Later in the century another Scotsman, Thomas Carlyle, made many new +words which later writers and speakers have used. They are generally +rather forcible and not very dignified words, for Carlyle's writings +were critical of almost everything and everybody, and he seemed to +love rather ugly words, which made the faults he described seem +contemptible or ridiculous. It was he who made the words _croakery_, +_dry-as-dust_, and _grumbly_, and he introduced also the Scottish word +_feckless_, which describes a person who is a terribly bad manager, +careless and disorderly in his affairs, the sort of person whom +Carlyle so much despised. + +The great writers of the present time seem to be unwilling to make new +words. The chief word-makers of to-day are the people who talk a new +slang (and of these we shall see something in another chapter), and +the scientific writers, who, as they are constantly making new +discoveries, have to find words to describe them. + +Some of the poets of the present day have used new words and phrases, +but they are generally strange words, which no one thinks of using for +himself. The poet John Masefield used the word _waps_ and the phrase +_bee-loud_, which is very expressive, but which we cannot imagine +passing into ordinary speech. Two poets of the Romantic Movement, +Southey and Coleridge, used many new and strange words just in this +way, but these, again, never passed into the ordinary speech of +English people. + +One maker of new words in the nineteenth century must not be +forgotten. This was Lewis Carroll, the author of "Alice in Wonderland" +and "Through the Looking-Glass." He made many new and rather queer +words; but they expressed so well the meaning he gave to them that +some of them have become quite common. This writer generally made +these curious words out of two others. The word _galumph_ (which is +now put as an ordinary word in English dictionaries) he made out of +_gallop_ and _triumph_. It means "to go galloping in triumph." Another +of Lewis Carroll's words, _chortle_, is even more used. It also has +the idea of "triumphing," and is generally used to mean "chuckling +(either inwardly or outwardly) in triumph." It was probably made out +of the words _chuckle_ and _snort_. + +But great writers have not only added new words and phrases to the +language by inventing them; sometimes the name of a book itself has +taken on a general meaning. Sir Thomas More in the time of Henry VIII. +wrote his famous book, "Utopia," to describe a country in which +everything was done as it should be. _Utopia_ (which means "Nowhere," +More making the word out of two Greek words, _ou_, "not," and _topos_, +"place") was the name of the ideal state he described, and ever since +such imaginary states where all goes well have been described as +"Utopias." + +Then, again, a scene or place in a great book may be so splendidly +described, and interest people so much, that it, too, comes to be used +in a general way. People often use the name _Vanity Fair_ to describe +a frivolous way of life. But the original _Vanity Fair_ was, of +course, one of the places of temptation through which Christian had to +pass on his way to the Heavenly City in John Bunyan's famous book, the +"Pilgrim's Progress." Another of these places was the _Slough of +Despond_, which is now quite generally used to describe a condition of +great discouragement and depression. The adjective _Lilliputian_, +meaning "very small," comes from _Lilliput_, the land of little people +in which Gulliver found himself in Swift's famous book, "Gulliver's +Travels." + +Then many common expressions are taken from characters in well-known +books. We often speak of some one's _Man Friday_, meaning a right-hand +man or general helper; but the original Man Friday was, of course, the +savage whom Robinson Crusoe found on his desert island, and who acted +afterwards as his servant. + +In describing a person as _quixotic_ we do not necessarily think of +the original Don Quixote in the novel of the great Spanish writer, +Cervantes. Don Quixote was always doing generous but rather foolish +things, and the adjective _quixotic_ now describes this sort of +action. A quite different character, the Jew in Shakespeare's play, +"The Merchant of Venice," has given us the expression "a Shylock." +From Dickens's famous character Mrs. Gamp in "Martin Chuzzlewit," who +always carried a bulgy umbrella, we get the word _gamp_, rather a +vulgar name for "umbrella." + +We speak of "a Sherlock Holmes" when we mean to describe some one who +is very quick at finding out things. Sherlock Holmes is the hero of +the famous detective stories of Conan Doyle. + +It is a very great testimony to the power of a writer when the names +of persons or places in his books become in this way part of the +English language. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WORDS THE BIBLE HAS GIVEN US. + + +A great English historian, writing of the sixteenth century, once +said, "The English people became the people of a book." The book he +meant was, of course, the Bible. When England became Protestant the +people found a new interest in the Bible. In Catholic times educated +people, like priests, had read the Bible chiefly in Latin, though the +New Testament had been translated into English. But most of the people +could not even read. They knew the Bible stories only from the sermons +and teaching of the priests, and from the great number of statues of +Biblical kings and prophets which covered the beautiful churches of +the Middle Ages. + +But the new Protestant teachers were much more enthusiastic about the +Bible. Many of them found the whole of their religion in its pages, +and were constantly quoting texts of Scripture. New translations of +the New Testament were made, and at last, in 1611, the wonderful +translation of the whole Bible known as the "Authorised Version," +because it was the translation ordered and approved by the +Government, was published. About the same time a translation into +English was made for Catholics, and this was hardly less beautiful. It +is known as the "Douai Bible" because it was published at Douai by +Catholics who had fled from England. + +From that time the Bible has been the book which English people have +read most, and it has had an immense influence on the English +language. + +Even in the Middle Ages the Bible had given many new words to the +language. Names of Eastern animals, trees, and plants, etc., like +_lion_, _camel_, _cedar_, _palm_, _myrrh_, _hyssop_, _gem_, are +examples of new words learned from the Bible at this time. + +But the translations of the Bible in the Reformation period had a much +greater effect than this. Many words which were already dying out were +used by the translators, and so kept their place in the English +language. Examples of such words are _apparel_ and _raiment_ for +"clothes." These words are not used so often as the more ordinary word +_clothes_ even now, but it is quite probable that they would have +passed out of use altogether if the translators of the Bible had not +saved them. + +There are many words of this sort which were saved in this way, but +they are chiefly used in poetry and "fine" writing. We do not speak of +the "firmament" in an ordinary way; but this word, taken from the +first chapter of the Bible, is still used as a more poetical name for +_sky_. + +But the translators of the Bible must also be put among the makers of +new English words. Sometimes the translator could not find what he +considered a satisfactory word to express the meaning of the Greek +word he wished to translate. He, therefore, made a new word, or put +two old words together to express exactly what he thought the Greek +word meant. The word _beautiful_ may not have been actually invented +by the translator, William Tyndale, but it is not found in any book +earlier than his translation of the New Testament. It seems a very +natural and necessary word to us now. It was Tyndale who first used +the words _peacemaker_ and _scapegoat_ and the compound word +_long-suffering_; and another famous translator, Miles Coverdale, who +invented the expressions _loving-kindness_ and _tender mercy_. + +But the great effect which the Bible has had on the English language +is not in the preserving of old words and the making of new. Its chief +effect has been in the way many of its expressions and phrases have +passed into everyday use, so that people often use Biblical phrases +without even knowing that they are doing so, just as we saw was the +case with many phrases taken from Shakespeare's works. + +Every one knows the expression to _cast pearls before swine_, and its +meaning, "to give good things to people who are too ignorant to +appreciate them." This expression, taken from the Gospel of St. +Matthew, has now become an ordinary English expression. The same is +the case with the expression, _the eleventh hour_, meaning "just in +time." But perhaps not every one who uses it remembers that it comes +from the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, though, of course, +most people would. + +Other common Biblical expressions are, _a labour of love_, _to hope +against hope_, _the shadow of death_, and so on. When a child is +described as the _Benjamin_ of the family, we know that this means the +youngest and best loved, because the story of Jacob's love for +Benjamin is familiar to every one. Again, when a person is described +as a _Pharisee_ no one needs to have a description of his qualities, +for every one knows the story of the Pharisee and the Publican. + +The Bible is, of course, full of the most poetical ideas and the most +vivid language, and the fact that this language has become the +everyday speech of Englishmen has been most important in the +development of the English language. Without the Bible, which is full +of the richness and colour of Eastern things and early peoples, the +English language might have been much duller and less expressive. + +But the religious writers of the Reformation period gave us another +kind of word besides those found in the translations of the Bible. +Many of these writers thought it was their duty to abuse the people +who did not agree with them on the subject of religion. Tyndale +himself, who invented such beautiful words in his translations, was +the first to use the word _dunce_. He called the Catholics by this +name, which he made out of the name of a philosopher of the Middle +Ages called Duns Scotus. The Protestants despised the Catholic or +scholastic philosophy. But Duns Scotus was quite a clever man in his +day, and it is curious that his name should have given us the word +_dunce_, which became quite a common word as time went on. + +Other new words which the Protestants used against the Catholics were +_Romish_, _Romanist_ (which Luther had used, but which Coverdale was +the first to use in English), _popery_, _popishness_, _papistical_, +_monkish_, all of which are still used to-day, and still have an +anti-Catholic meaning. It was then that Rome was first described as +_Babylon_, the meaning of the Protestants being that the city was as +wicked as ancient Babylon, the name of which is used as a type of all +wickedness in the Apocalypse, and these writers often used the words +_Babylonian_ and _Babylonish_ instead of _Roman_. The name _Scarlet +Woman_, also taken from the Apocalypse, was also often used to +describe the Catholic Church. + +The expression _Roman Catholic_, to which no one objects, was invented +later, at the time that it was thought that Charles I. was going to +marry a Spanish princess, and, of course, a Catholic. It was invented +as being more polite than the terms by which the Protestants had so +often abused the Catholics, and it has been used ever since. + +Other new words came from the breaking up of Protestantism into +different sects. _Puritan_ was the name given to those who wished to +"purify" the Protestant religion from all the old ceremonies of +Catholicism. The Calvinists (or followers of the French reformer, John +Calvin) believed that souls were "predestined" to go to heaven or to +be lost. The people who were predestined to be lost they described as +_reprobate_, and this word we still use, but with a different meaning. +A reprobate nowadays is a person who is looked upon as hopelessly bad, +and the word is also sometimes used jokingly. + +The name _Protestant_ itself is interesting. It was first used to +describe the Lutherans, who "protested" against, and would not agree +with, the decisions made by the Emperor Charles V. on the subject of +religion. + +The names of the different forms of Protestantism are often very +interesting, and were, of course, new words invented to describe the +different forms of belief. The first great division was between the +_Lutherans_ and the _Calvinists_. The meaning of these names is plain. +They were merely the followers of Martin Luther and John Calvin. + +But later on there were many divisions, such as the _Baptists_, who +were so called because they thought that people should not be baptized +until they were grown up. They also administered the sacrament in a +different way from most other Churches, the person baptized being +dipped in the water. At one time these people were called +_Anabaptists_, _ana_ being the Greek word for "again." But this was +supposed to be a term of abuse similar to those showered on the Roman +Catholics, and in time it died out. + +Then there were the _Independents_, who were so called because they +believed that each congregation should be independent of every other. + +Perhaps the most peculiar name applied to one of the many sects in the +England of the seventeenth century was that of the _Quakers_. This, +too, was a name of abuse at first; but the "Society of Friends," to +whom it was applied, came sometimes to use it themselves. They were a +people who believed in great simplicity of life and manners and dress, +and had no priests. At their religious meetings silence was kept until +some one was moved to speak. The name was taken from the text, +"quaking at the word of the Lord." + +The names chosen by religious leaders, and those applied to the sects +by their enemies, can teach us a great deal of history. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +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 Linnaeus, after whom the chief botanical society +in England, the _Linnaean 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 Bluecher, 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 Caesar, who was the +first imperial governor of Rome, though he was never called emperor, +has given us a common name. _Caesar_ 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 _benet_, 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. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF ANIMALS. + + +It is easy to see how names of persons have sometimes changed into +general words. But we have also a great number of general words which +are taken from animals' names. Most often these words are used to +describe people's characters. Sometimes people are merely compared +with the animals whose qualities they are supposed to have, and +sometimes they are actually called by the names of these animals. Thus +we may say that a person is "as sly as a fox," or we may call him an +"old fox," and every one understands the same thing by both +expressions. + +The cause of this continual comparison of human beings with animals is +that long ago, when these expressions first began to be used, animals, +and especially wild animals, played a great part in the lives of the +people. In the Middle Ages great parts of England, now dotted over +with big towns, were covered with forest land. Wolves roamed in the +woods, and the fighting of some wild animals and the taming of others +formed a most important part of people's lives. The same thing was, +of course, the case in other countries. So familiar were people in +those days with animals that they thought of them almost as human +beings and believed that they had their own languages. It was people +who believed these things who made up many of the old fairy tales +about animals--stories like "Red Riding Hood" and the "Three Bears." + +We often say that we are "as hungry as a wolf;" but we who have never +seen wolves except behind the bars of their cages at the Zoological +Gardens do not know how hungry a wild wolf can be. Those, however, who +first used this expression thought of the lean and hungry wolves who +prowled round the farms and cottages in the hard winter weather, +driven by starvation to men's very doors. We also have the expression, +"a wolf in sheep's clothing." By this we mean a person who is really +dangerous and harmful, but who puts on a harmless and gentle manner to +deceive his victim. + +Another use of the word _wolf_ is as a verb, meaning to eat in a very +quick and greedy manner, as we might imagine a hungry wolf would do, +and as our forefathers knew by experience that they did do. Most of +the people who use the names of the wolf and the fox in these ways do +not know anything of the habits of these animals, but the expressions +have become part of the common language. + +The same thing is, of course, true about the lion, with which even our +far-off English ancestors had never to fight. But the lion is such a +fierce and magnificent animal that it naturally appeals to our +imagination, and we find numerous comparisons with it, chiefly in +poetical language. We say a soldier is as "brave as a lion," or +describe him as a "lion in the fight." + +A less complimentary comparison is an expression we often hear, "as +stubborn as a mule." Only a few of the people who use this expression +can have had any experience of the stubbornness of mules. Sometimes a +stubborn person is described quite simply as a "mule." Another +compliment of the same sort is to call a person who seems to us to be +acting stupidly a "donkey." + +We may say a person is as "greedy as a pig," or describe him with +disgust as a "pig," which may mean either that they are very greedy or +that they are behaving in a very ungracious or unmannerly way. A more +common description of a person of this sort is "a hog." Every one has +heard of the "road hogs," who drive their motors regardless of other +people's convenience or safety; and of the "food hogs," who tried to +store up food, or refused to ration themselves, and so shortened other +people's supplies of food in the Great War. + +Other common expressions comparing people with animals are--"sulky as +a bear," "gay as a lark," "busy as a bee." We might also call a cross +person a "bear," but should not without some explanation call a person +a "lark" or a "bee." + +We may say a person "chatters like a magpie," or we may call him or +her a "magpie." A person who talks without thinking, merely repeating +what other people have said, is often called a "parrot." + +Sometimes names of common animals or birds used to describe people are +complimentary, but more often they are not. It seems as though the +people who made these metaphors were more eloquent in anger than in +love. A very nice child will be described by its friends as a "little +duck." A mischievous child may also be described good-temperedly as a +"monkey;" but there are far more words of abuse taken from the names +of animals than more or less amiable words like these. + +A bad-tempered woman is described as a "vixen," or female fox; a lazy +person as a "drone," or the bee which does no work. A stupid person +may be called a "sheep" or a "goose" (which is not quite so +insulting). _Dog_, _hound_, _cur_, and _puppy_ are all used as words +of abuse; and contempt for some one who is regarded as very +mean-spirited is sometimes shown by describing such a person as a +"worm," or worse, if possible, a "reptile." A "bookworm," on the other +hand, the name of a little insect which lives in books and eats away +at paper and bindings, is applied to people who love books in another +way--great readers--and is, of course, not at all an uncomplimentary +word. + +A foolish person who has been easily deceived in some matter is often +described as a "gull," or is said to have been "gulled." _Gull_ is +now the name of a sea-bird, but in Early English it was used to +describe any young bird, and from the idea that it is easy to deceive +such youngsters came the use of the word to describe foolish people. + +Another name of a bird used with almost the opposite meaning is +_rook_. This name is given to people who are constantly cheating +others, especially at card games. It was earlier used, like _gull_, to +describe the person cheated. It then came to be used as a verb meaning +"to cheat," and from this was used to describe the person cheating +instead of the person cheated. + +Other names of birds not quite so common used to describe stupid +people are _dotterel_ and _dodo_. The dotterel is a bird which is very +easily caught, and it was from this fact that it got its name, which +comes from _dote_, to be "silly" or "feeble-minded." When the name of +the bird is used to describe a silly person, the word is really, as an +interesting writer on the history of words says, turning "a complete +somersault." The same is the case with _dodo_, which is also used, but +not so often, to describe a stupid person. This bird also got its name +from a word which meant "foolish." It comes from the Portuguese word +_doudo_, which means "simpleton." + +We have a few verbs also taken from the names of animals and birds. We +say a person "apes" another when he tries to imitate him. This word +comes, of course, from the fact that the ape is always imitating any +action performed by other people. + +A person who follows another persistently is said to "dog" his steps. +This expression comes, of course, from the fact of dogs following +their masters. Another expression is to "hound" a person to do +something, by which we mean persecute him. This comes from the idea of +a hound tracking its victim down. Another of these words which has the +idea of persecution is _badger_. When some one constantly talks about +a subject which is unpleasant to another, or continually tries to +persuade him to do something against his will, he is said to be +"badgering" him. The badger is an animal which burrows into the ground +in winter, and dogs are set to worry it out of its hiding-place. The +badger is the victim and not the persecutor, as we might think from +the use of the verb. + +The verb _henpeck_, to describe the teasing of her husband by a +disagreeable wife, comes, of course, from the idea of the continual +pecking of a hen. + +Many common articles are named after animals which they resemble in +some way. A "ram" is an instrument, generally of wood, used to drive +things into place by pressure. In olden days war-ships used to have a +"battering-ram," or projecting beak, at their prow, with which to +"ram" other vessels. The Romans called such a beak an _aries_, which +is the Latin for "ram," a male sheep. This was probably from the habit +of rams butting an enemy with their horns. The Romans often had the +ends of their battering-rams carved into the shape of the head of a +ram. A "ramrod" gets its name from the same idea. It is an instrument +for pressing in the ammunition when loading the muzzle of a gun. + +The word "ram" has now several more general uses. We speak of a person +"ramming" things into a drawer or bag when we mean pushing them +hastily and untidily into too small a place. Or a man may "ram" his +hat down on his head. Again, we may have a lesson or unpleasant fact +"rammed" into us by some one who is determined to make the subject +clear whether we want to hear about it or not. And all this comes from +the simple idea of the ram butting people whom it considers +unpleasant. + +More commonplace instruments having animals' names are the +"clothes'-horse" and "fire-dogs." + +We have other words, which we should not guess to be from animals' +names, but which really are so. We say that a person who is always +changing his mind, and wanting first one thing and then another, is +"capricious." Or we speak of a curious or unreasonable desire as a +"caprice." These words really come from the Latin name for a +goat--_caper_. The mind of the capricious person skips about just like +a goat. At least that is what the word _capricious_ literally says +about him. The word _caper_, meaning to "jump about playing tricks," +comes from the Latin word _capra_, a "she-goat." + +The word _coward_ comes from the name of an animal, but _not_ the cow. +In a famous French story of the Middle Ages, in which all the +characters are animals, the "Roman de Renard," the hare is called +_couard_, and it is from this that the word _coward_ ("one who runs +away from danger") comes. + +All these words from the names of animals take us back, then, to the +days when every man was a kind of naturalist. In those early days, +when town life hardly existed, everybody knew all about animals and +their habits. Their conversation was full of this sort of thing. And +so it is that in hundreds of our words which we use to-day, without +thinking of the literal meaning at all, we have a picture of the lives +of our ancestors preserved. + +We have, too, words taken from the names of some animals which never +existed at all. The writers of the Middle Ages told many tales or +fables of animals and monsters which were purely imaginary, but in +which the people of those days firmly believed. We sometimes hear +people use the expression a "basilisk glare," which other people would +describe as a "look that kills," meaning a look of great severity or +displeasure. There is a little American lizard which zoologists call +the "basilisk," but this is not the basilisk from which this +expression comes. The basilisk which the people of the Middle Ages +imagined, but which never existed, was a monstrous reptile hatched by +a serpent from a cock's egg. By its breath or even its look it could +destroy all who approached it. + +Another invention of the Middle Ages was the bird called the +"phoenix." We now use the word _phoenix_ to describe some one who +is unique in some good quality. A commoner way of expressing the same +idea would be that "there is no one like him." It was believed in the +Middle Ages that only one of these wonderful birds could exist in the +world at one time. The story was that the phoenix, after living +through five or six hundred years in the Arabian desert, prepared a +funeral pile for itself, and was burned to death, but rose again, +youthful and strong as ever, from the ashes. + +In these words we are reminded once again of another side of the life +of our ancestors. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF PLACES. + + +We have already seen something of the stories which the names of +places, old and new, can tell us. But the names of places themselves +often give us new words, and from these, too, we can learn many +interesting facts. + +Many manufactured things, and especially woven cloths, silks, etc., +are called by the name of the place from which they come, or from +which they first came. _Cashmere_, a favourite smooth woollen +material, is called after Cashmir, in India. _Damask_, the material of +which table linen is generally made, takes its name from Damascus; as +does _holland_, the light brownish cotton stuff used so much for +children's frocks and overalls, from Holland, and the rough woollen +material known as _frieze_ from Friesland. _Cambric_, the fine white +material often used for handkerchiefs, takes its name from Cambrai in +France, the place where it was first made. The word _cambric_, +however, came into English from _Kamerijk_, the Dutch name for +Cambrai. So the other fine material known as _lawn_ got its name from +Laon, another French town. Another fine material of this kind, +_muslin_, takes its name from Mussolo, a town in Mesopotamia, from +which this kind of material first came. + +Another commoner kind of stuff is _fustian_, made of cotton, but +thick, with a short nap, and generally dyed a dark colour. The word +_fustian_ has also come to be used figuratively to describe a showy +manner of speaking or writing, or anything which tries to appear +better than it is. The word comes from Fustat, a suburb of Cairo. + +A more substantial material, _tweed_, which is largely made in +Scotland, really takes its name from people pronouncing _twill_ badly; +but the form _tweed_ spread more quickly because people associated the +material with the country beyond the river Tweed. + +Another kind of stuff which we generally associate with Scotland is +_tartan_, because this woollen stuff, with its crossed stripes of +different colours, is chiefly used for Scottish plaids and kilts, +especially of the Highland regiments. But the word _tartan_ does not +seem to be a Scottish word, and probably comes from _Tartar_, which +was formerly used to describe almost any Eastern people. Perhaps the +fact that Eastern peoples love bright colours caused this name to be +given to these bright materials, though there is nothing at all +Eastern in the designs of the Scottish tartans. Another material with +an Eastern name is _sarcenet_, or _sarsenet_, a soft, silky stuff now +chiefly used for linings. + +Often in tales of olden times we read of people hiding behind the +"arras." This was a wall covering of tapestry, often hung sufficiently +far from the wall to leave room for a person to pass. The word _arras_ +comes from Arras, a town in France, which was famous for its beautiful +tapestries. + +We know the word _tabby_ chiefly as the name of a kind of striped cat, +but this use of the word came from the Old French word _tabis_, and +described a material with marks which the markings on a "tabby" cat +resemble. The French word came from the Arab word _utabi_, which +perhaps came from the name of a suburb of the famous city of Baghdad. + +_Worsted_, the name of a certain kind of knitting-wool, comes from the +name of the town of Worstead, in Norfolk. The close-fitting woollen +garments worn by sailors and often by children are known as +_jerseys_--a word which is taken from the name of one of the Channel +Islands, Jersey. Sometimes, but not so commonly, they are called +_guernseys_, from the name of the chief of the other Channel Islands, +Guernsey. Another piece of wearing apparel, the Turkish cap known as a +_fez_, gets its name, perhaps, from Fez, a town in Morocco. + +Besides woven stuffs, many other things are called by the names of the +places from which they come. _China_, the general name for very fine +earthenware, is the same name as that of the great Eastern country +which is famous for its beautiful pottery. Another kind of ornamented +earthenware is the Italian _majolica_, and this probably gets its name +from the island of Majorca; while _delf_ is the name of the glazed +earthenware made at Delft (which in earlier times was called "Delf"), +in Holland. + +The beautiful leather much used for the bindings of books, _morocco_, +takes its name from Morocco, where it was first made by tanning +goatskins. It is now made in several countries of Europe, but it keeps +its old name. Another old kind of leather, but whose name is no longer +used, was _cordwain_, a Spanish leather for the making of shoes, which +took its name from Cordova in Spain. _Cordwainer_ was the old name for +"shoemaker," and is still kept in the names of shoemakers' guilds and +societies. + +Many wines are simply called by the names (sometimes altered a little +through people mispronouncing them) of the places from which they +come. _Champagne_ is the wine of Champagne, _Burgundy_ of Burgundy, +_Sauterne_ of Sauterne, _Chablis_ of Chablis--all French wines. _Port_ +takes its name from Oporto, in Portugal; and _sherry_, which used to +be called "sherris," comes from the name of Xeres, a Spanish town. + +Many less well-known wines have merely the name of the place where +they are produced printed on the label, and they tend to be called by +these names--such as _Capri bianco Vesuvio_, etc. _Malmsey_, the old +wine in which the Duke of Clarence was supposed to have been drowned +when his murder was ordered by his brother, and which is also called +_malvoisie_, got its name from Monemvasia, a town in the peninsula of +Morea. + +Not only wine but other liquids are sometimes called after the places +from which they come. The oil known as _macassar_ comes from +Maugkasara, the name of a district in the island of Celebes. This oil +was at one time very much used as a dressing for the hair, and from +this we get the name _antimacassar_ for the coverings which used to be +(and are sometimes still) thrown over the backs of easy-chairs and +couches to prevent their being soiled by such aids to beauty. +_Antimacassar_ means literally a "protection against macassar oil," +_anti_ being the Latin word for "against." + +The tobacco known as _Latakia_ takes its name from the town called by +the Turks Latakia, the old town of Laodicea. (Laodicea also gives us +another common expression. We describe an indifferent person who has +no enthusiasm for anything as "a Laodicean," from the reproach to the +Church of the Laodiceans, in the Book of Revelation in the Bible, that +they were "neither cold nor hot" in their religion.) + +Both the words _bronze_ and _copper_ come from the names of places. +_Bronze_ is from _Brundusium_, the ancient name of the South Italian +town which we now call Brindisi. The Latin name for this metal was +_aes Brundusinum_, or "brass of Brindisi." _Copper_ was in Latin _aes +Cyprium_, or "brass of Cyprus." + +Some coins take their names from the names of places. The _florin_, or +two-shilling piece, takes its name from Florence. _Dollar_ is the same +word as the German _thaler_, the name of a silver coin which was +formerly called a _Joachimstaler_, from the silver-mine of +Joachimstal, or "Joachim's Dale," in Bohemia. The _ducat_, a gold coin +which was used in nearly all the countries of Europe in the Middle +Ages, and which was worth about nine shillings, got its name from the +duchy (in Italian, _ducato_) of Apulia, where it was first coined in +the twelfth century. + +It was an Italian town, Milan, which gave us our word _milliner_. This +came from the fact that many fancy materials and ornaments used in +millinery were imported from Milan. + +Many old dances take their names from places. We hear a great deal +nowadays of the "morris dances" which used to be danced in England in +olden times. But _morris_ comes from _morys_, an old word for +"Moorish." In the Middle Ages this word was used, like "Turk" or +"Tartar," to describe almost any Eastern people, and the name came, +perhaps, from the fact that in these dances people dressed up, and so +looked strange and foreign. The name of a very well-known dance, the +_polka_, really means "Polish woman." _Mazurka_, the name of another +dance, means "woman of Masovia." The old-fashioned slow dance known +as the _polonaise_ took its name from Poland, and was really a Polish +dance. The well-known Italian dance called the _tarantella_ took its +name from the South Italian town Tarento. + +The word _canter_, which describes another kind of movement, comes +from Canterbury. _Canter_ is only the short for "Canterbury gallop," +an expression which was used to describe the slow jogging pace at +which many pilgrims in the Middle Ages rode along the Canterbury road +to pray at the famous shrine of St. Thomas Becket in that city. + +Several fruits take their names from places. The _damson_, which used +in the Middle Ages to be called the "damascene," was called in Latin +_prunum damascenum_, or "plum of Damascus." The name _peach_ comes to +us from the Late Latin word _pessica_, which was a bad way of saying +"Persica." _Currants_ used to be known as "raisins of Corauntz," or +Corinth raisins. + +_Parchment_ gets its name from Pergamum, a city in Asia Minor. +_Pistol_ came into English from the Old French word _pistole_, and +this came from an Italian word, _pistolese_, which meant "made at +Pistoja." We do not think of _spaniels_ as foreign dogs; but the name +means "Spanish," having come into English from the Old French word +_espagneul_, with that meaning. + +A derivation which it would be even harder to guess is that of the +word _spruce_. We now use this word to describe a kind of leather, a +kind of ginger beer, and a variety of the fir tree, and also in the +same sense as "spick and span." The word used to be _pruce_, and meant +"Prussia." + +The name of the famous London fish-market, _Billingsgate_, has long +been used to mean very violent and abusive language supposed to +resemble the scoldings of the fishwomen in the market. + +Another word describing a certain kind of speaking, and which also +comes from the name of a place, is _bunkum_. When a person tells a +story which we feel sure is not true, or tells a long tale to excuse +himself from doing something, we often say it is all "bunkum." This +word comes from the name of the American town of Buncombe, in North +Carolina, and came into use through the member for Buncombe in the +House of Representatives insisting on making a speech just when every +one else wanted to proceed with the voting on a bill. He knew that he +had nothing of importance to say, but explained that he must make a +speech "for Buncombe"--that is, so that the people of Buncombe, who +had elected him, might know that he was doing his duty by them. And so +the expression _bunkum_ came into use. + +Another word which may go with these, because it also begins with the +letter _b_, is _bedlam_. We describe a scene of great noise and +confusion, as when a number of children insist on talking all +together, as a "perfect bedlam." The word _bedlam_ comes from +Bethlehem. In the Middle Ages there was a hospital in London kept by +monks of the Order of St. Mary of Bethlehem. In time this house came +to be known as "Bedlam," and as after a while the hospital came to be +an asylum for mad people, this name came to be used for any lunatic +asylum. From that it came to have its modern use of any great noise or +confusion. + +The sport of shooting pheasants is very English, and few people think +that the pheasant is a foreign bird, introduced into England, just as +in fact the turkey, which seems to belong especially to the English +Christmas, came to us from America. The _pheasant_ gets its name from +the river Phasis, in the Eastern country of Pontus. It may seem +peculiar that a bird coming from America should be called a _turkey_; +but we saw in an earlier chapter how vague the people of the fifteenth +and sixteenth centuries were about America. When Columbus reached the +shore of that continent, people thought he had sailed round by another +way to the "Indies." In nearly all European countries the turkey got +names which show that most people thought it came from India, or at +least from some part of the "Indies." Even in England it was called +for a time "cok off Inde." In Italy it was _gallina d'India_ (or +"Indian hen"). The modern French words for male and female turkeys +come from this mistake. In French the bird was at first known as +_pouille d'Inde_ (or "Indian fowl"). The name came to be shortened +into the one word _dinde_, and then, as people thought this must mean +the female turkey, they made a new word for the male, _dindon_. + +But though so many words come from the names of places, and some of +these would not seem to do so at first sight, there are other words +which seem to come from place-names which do not do so at all. +_Brazil_ wood is found in large quantities in Brazil, but the wood is +not called after the country. On the contrary, the country is called +after the wood. This kind of wood was already used in Europe in the +twelfth century, and its name is found in several European languages. +When the Portuguese adventurers found such large quantities in this +part of South America they gave it the name of _Brazil_ from the wood. +The island of _Madeira_ got its name in the same way, this being the +word for "timber," from the Latin word _materia_. + +Again, guinea-pigs do not come from Guinea, on the west coast of +Africa, though guinea-fowls do so. Guinea-pigs really come from +Brazil. The name _guinea-pig_ was given to these little animals +because, when the sailors brought them home, people thought they had +come from Africa. But in the seventeenth century a common voyage for +ships was to sail from English or other European ports to the west +coast of Africa, where bands of poor negroes were seized or bought, +and carried over the Atlantic to be sold as slaves in the American +"plantations." The ships naturally did not come home empty, but often +people were not very clear as to whether the articles they brought +back came from Africa or America. + +Again, _India ink_ comes, not from India, but from China. _Indian +corn_ comes from America. _Sedan chairs_ had nothing to do with Sedan +in France, but probably take their name from the Latin verb _sedere_, +"to sit." + +In these words, as in many others, we can see that it is never safe to +_guess_ the derivation of words. Many of the old philologists used to +do this, and then write down their guesses as facts. This caused a +great deal of extra work for modern scholars, who will not, of course, +accept any "derivation" for a word until they have clear proof that it +is true. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +PICTURES IN WORDS. + + +Everybody who has thought at all about our ways of speech must have +noticed that we are all constantly saying things in a way which is not +literally true. We say a child is a "sunbeam in the house;" but, of +course, we only mean that she is gay and happy, and cheers every one +up by her merriment. Or we describe some one as a "pearl among women," +meaning that by her splendid qualities she is superior to most women +as a pearl is to common stones. + +Or, again, we may read in the newspaper that a statesman "spoke with +sudden fire;" by which, of course, we understand that in the course of +a calm speech he suddenly broke out passionately into words which +showed how keenly he felt on the subject of which he was speaking. + +Our language is full of this kind of speaking and writing, which is +called "metaphorical." The word metaphor comes from two Greek words +meaning "to carry over." In "metaphorical" speech a name or +description of one thing is transferred to another thing to which it +could not apply in ordinary commonplace language. + +By means of metaphors we express more vividly and strikingly our +feelings on any subject. We draw our metaphors from many different +sources. Many of them naturally come from Nature, for the facts of +Nature are all around us. We speak of a "sea of trouble" when we feel +that the spirit is overwhelmed by sadness so great that it suggests +the vastness of the sea swallowing up all that it meets. Or we speak +of a "storm of anger," because what takes place in a person's soul in +such a state is similar in some way to the confusion and force of a +storm in Nature. Again, an expression like a "torrent of words" is +made possible by our familiarity with the quick pouring forth of water +in a torrent. By this expression, of course, we wish to suggest a +similar quick rushing of words. Other expressions of this kind are "a +wave of anguish," the "sun of good fortune," and there are hundreds of +which every one can think. + +Another source from which many metaphors have come is war, which has +given men some of the most vivid action possible to humankind. Thus we +speak of "a war of words," of a person "plunging into the fray," when +we mean that he or she joins in a keen argument or quarrel. Or we +speak more generally of the "battle of life," picturing the troubles +and difficulties of life as the obstacles against which soldiers have +to fight in battle. Shakespeare has the expression, "the slings and +arrows of outrageous fortune." + +We have a great many metaphorical expressions taken from painting, +sculpture, and other arts. Thus we speak of "moulding" one's own life, +picturing ourselves as sculptors, with our lives as the clay to be +shaped as we will. Shakespeare has a similar metaphor,-- + + "There's a divinity which shapes our ends, + Rough-hew them how we will." + +We may, he says, roughly arrange our way of life, but the final result +belongs to a greater artist--God. + +Again, we speak of "building our hopes" on a thing, of "moulding" a +person's character, of the "canvas of history," imagining history as a +picture of things past. We speak of a person describing something very +enthusiastically as "painting it in glowing colours," and so on. We +also describe the making of new words as "coining them." + +But not only are the sentences we make full of metaphors, but most of +our words--all, in fact, except the names of the simplest things--are +really metaphors themselves. The first makers of such words were +speaking "in metaphor," as we should say now; but when the words +passed into general use this fact was not noticed. + +A great many of the metaphors found in words are the same in many +languages. Many of them are taken from agriculture, which is, of +course, after hunting, the earliest occupation of all peoples. We can +easily think of many words now used in a general sense which +originally applied to some simple country practice. We speak of being +"goaded" to do a thing when some one persuades or threatens or +irritates us into doing it. But a _goad_ was originally a spiked stick +used to drive cattle forward. The word _goad_, then, as we use it now, +is a real metaphor. + +Again, we speak of our feelings being "harrowed." The word _harrow_ +first meant, and still means, the drawing of a frame with iron teeth +(itself called a _harrow_) over ploughed land to break up the clods. +From this meaning it has come to have the figurative meaning of +wounding or ruffling the feelings. + +Another word connected with agriculture which has passed into a +general sense is _glean_. We may now speak of "gleaning" certain facts +or news, but to glean was originally (and still means in its literal +sense) to gather the ears of corn remaining after the reapers have got +in the harvest. + +We speak of a nation groaning under the "yoke" of a foreign tyrant, or +again of the "yoke" of matrimony, and in the Bible we have the text, +"My yoke is easy." In these and in many other cases the word _yoke_ is +used figuratively to denote something weighing on the spirit; but the +original use of _yoke_, and again one which remains, was to name the +wooden cross-piece fastened over the necks of two oxen, and attached +to a plough or wagon which they have to draw. + +The word _earn_ reminds us of a time when the chief way of earning +money or payment of any kind was field-labour; for this word, which +means so many things now, comes from an old Teutonic word meaning +field-labour. The same word became in German _ernte_, which means +"harvest." + +Another common word with somewhat the same meaning as _earn_ is +_gain_; and this, again, takes us back to a time when our early +ancestors won their profits by the grazing of their flocks. The word +_gain_ came into English from an Old French word, but this word in its +turn came from a Teutonic word meaning to graze or pasture. The first +people who used the word _earn_ for other ways of getting payment than +field-labour, and the word _gain_ in a general sense, were really +making metaphors. + +Some of our commonest words take us back to a time before our +ancestors even settled down to cultivate the land, or perhaps even +before the days when they had learned to tame and give pasturage to +their flocks. Some of our simplest words contain the idea of +_travelling_ or _wandering_. The word _fear_, which would not seem to +have anything to do with journeying, comes from the same root-word as +_fare_, the Old English word for "travel." Probably it came to be used +because people travelling through the wild forests and swamps of +Europe in those far-off days found much to terrify them, and so the +word _fear_ was made, containing this idea of moving from place to +place. But again this was a metaphor. Until after the Norman Conquest +the word _fear_ meant a sudden or terrible happening. Only later it +came to mean the feeling which such an event or the expectation of it +would cause. + +We may become tired in mind or body from many causes; but when we say +we are "weary" we are literally saying that we have travelled far over +difficult ground, for the word _weary_ comes from an Old English word +meaning this. + +Some of our words are really metaphors showing the effect which +different aspects of Nature had on the men who made them. When we say +we are astonished we do not mean that we are "struck by thunder," but +that is what the word literally means. It comes from the Latin word +_attonare_, which means this. The words _astound_ and _stun_ contain +the same hidden metaphor, which we use in a plainer way when we say we +are "thunder-struck," meaning that we are very much surprised. + +In the Middle Ages people believed that the stars had a great effect +on the lives of men. If the stars were in a certain position at the +time of a person's birth, he would be lucky all his life; if in +another, he was doomed to unhappiness. From this belief we still use +the expression "born under a lucky star" to describe a person who +seems always to be fortunate. But the same metaphor is contained in +single words. We speak of an unfortunate enterprise as "ill-starred," +and the metaphor is clear. But when the newspapers speak of a railway +"disaster," very few people realize that they are speaking the +language of the mediaeval astrologers, men who studied the fortunes of +nations and individuals from the stars. _Disaster_ literally means +such a misfortune as would be caused by adverse stars, and comes from +the Greek word for star, _astron_, and the Latin _dis_. + +The words _jovial_ and _mercurial_, used to describe people of merry +and lively temper, are metaphors of the same kind. A person born under +the planet Jupiter (the star called after the Roman god Jupiter or +Jove) was supposed to be of a merry disposition, and a person born +when the planet Mercury was visible in the heavens was expected to be +lively and ready-witted. When we use these words now to describe +people, we do not, of course, mean that they were born under any +particular star, but the words are metaphors which literally do mean +this. + +The word _auspicious_ comes from a similar source. We speak of an +"inauspicious" undertaking, meaning one which seems destined to be +unlucky. But really what the word _inauspicious_ says is that the +"auspices are against" the undertaking. And this takes us back to +Roman times, when no important thing was done in the state without the +magistrates "taking the auspices." This they did from observing the +flight of certain birds. In war the commander-in-chief of the Roman +armies alone had the right to "take the auspices." We should think +such a proceeding very foolish now, but in the words _auspicious_ and +_inauspicious_ we are literally saying that the auspices have been +favourable or unfavourable. + +One of the common practices of the scholars who studied astrology and +other sciences in the Middle Ages was the search for the philosopher's +stone, which they believed had the power of giving eternal youth. They +would melt metals in pots for this purpose. These pots were called by +the Old Latin name of _test_. From this word we now have the modern +word _test_, used in the sense of _trial_--another metaphor from the +Middle Ages. + +Many common English words are really metaphors made from old English +sports, such as hunting and hawking. It is curious to think how these +words are chiefly used to-day by people who know nothing of these +pastimes, while the people who made the words were so familiar with +them that they naturally expressed themselves in this way. We speak of +a person being in another's "toils," when we mean in his "power." The +word _toils_ comes from the French _toiles_, meaning "cloths," and +also used for the nets put round part of a wood, in which birds are +being preserved for shooting, to prevent their escaping. The +expression to "turn" or be "at bay," by which we mean that there is no +chance of escape, but that the person in such a situation must either +give in or fight, comes from hunting. The hare or the fox is said to +be "at bay" when it comes to a wall or other object which prevents its +running farther, and so turns and faces its pursuers. _Bay_ is the +deep barking of the hounds. + +The word _crestfallen_, by which we mean looking ashamed and +depressed, comes from the old sport of cock-fighting. The bird whose +crest (or tuft of hair on the head) drooped after the fight was +naturally the one which had been beaten. The word _pounce_ comes from +hawking, _pounces_ being the old word for a hawk's claws. The word +_haggard_, which now generally means worn and sometimes a little +wild-looking through grief or anxiety, was originally the name given +to a hawk caught, not, like most hawks used for hawking, when it was +quite young, but when it was already grown up. Such a hawk would +naturally have a wild look, and would never become so tame as the +birds caught young. + +Several words meaning to entice a person come from fowling. We speak +of persons being "decoyed" when we mean that they are deceived into +going to some dangerous place. The person who entices them away is +called a "decoy;" but the first use of the word was to describe a duck +trained to induce other ducks to fly or walk into nets laid over ponds +by trappers. Another word of this kind is _allure_, which means to +persuade a person to do something by making it seem very attractive. +This word really means to bring a person (originally an animal) to +the "lure" or "bait" prepared to catch him. + +The word _trap_, which may now mean to show a person to be guilty by a +trick, or to put him in the wrong in some way, is a metaphorical use. +The word literally means to catch an animal in a trap. + +Many words contain metaphors drawn from the older and simpler trades. +We speak of a thing being "brand-new"--that is, as new as though just +stamped with a "brand" or iron stamp. Another expression which has +changed its meaning a little with time used to have exactly the same +meaning. We now say a person looks "spick and span" when he or she is +very neatly dressed. Formerly the expression was "spick and span +new"--that is, as new as a spike (or spoon) just made or a chip newly +cut. We may safely say that very few people who now use the expression +"spick and span" have any idea of what it means literally. The +metaphor is well hidden, but it is there. + +Another metaphor, connected with metals and coins, is contained in the +word _sterling_. We speak of "sterling qualities" or a "sterling +character" in praising people for being straightforward and truthful, +and not boastful. But the expression originally applied only to metals +and coins. Sterling gold or silver is gold or silver of a certain +standard of purity and not mixed with too much of any base metal. + +Even the art of the baker has given us a word with a hidden metaphor. +We speak of sending out another "batch" of men to the front; but +_batch_ originally meant, and still means, the loaves of bread +produced at one baking. It is now used generally to describe a number +of things coming together or in a set. + +The butcher's shop has given us the word _shambles_, by which we now +mean a place of slaughter. Thus we speak of a terrible battlefield as +a "shambles." This metaphor is really due to a mistake. People came to +think that a shambles was a singular noun meaning slaughter-house, or +place where cattle were killed; but really the shambles were the +benches on which the meat was spread for sale. + +We speak of a person being the "tool" of another, and this is a +metaphor taken from the general idea of work. The "tool" is merely +used by the other person for some purpose of his own, just as a +workman uses his tools. The greatest poem, or book, or picture of a +poet, writer, or painter is often described as a "masterpiece." This +word now means a "splendid piece of work," but in the Middle Ages a +"masterpiece" was a piece of work by which a person working at a trade +showed himself sufficiently good to be allowed to be a "master." +Before that he was a "journeyman," and worked for a master himself, +and, earlier still, an apprentice merely learning his trade. We often +now use the expression to try one's "'prentice hand" on a thing when +we mean that we are going to do a thing for the first time. + +The commonest actions have naturally given us most metaphorical words, +for these were the actions of which the word-makers were most easily +reminded. We speak of our passions or emotions being "kindled," taking +the metaphor from the common action of lighting a fire. + +The two words _lord_ and _lady_ contain very homely metaphors. The +lord was the "loaf-keeper," in Old English _hlaford_, the person on +whom the household depended for their food. The lady might even make +the bread, and often did so; and the word lady comes from +_hlaefdige_--_dig_ being the Old English word for _knead_. + +The common word _maul_ may mean to beat and bruise a person, but it +means more often merely to handle something carelessly and roughly. +Literally it means "to hit with a hammer," and comes from _maul_ or +_mall_, the name of a certain very heavy kind of hammer; so that when +a child is told not to "maul" a book, it is literally being told not +to hit it with a heavy hammer. + +We have made many metaphorical words from joining together two Latin +words and making a new meaning. We speak of a person having an +"obsession" about something when he is always thinking of one thing. +But the word _obsession_ comes from the Latin word _obsidere_, "to +besiege;" and so in the word _obsession_ the constant thought is +pictured as continually trying to gain entrance into the mind. We use +the word _besiege_ in the same metaphorical sense. We speak of being +"besieged" with questions, and so on. + +Another word used now most often metaphorically comes also from this +idea of siege warfare. In all fortified places there are holes at +intervals along the walls of defence, through which the defenders may +shoot at the attackers. These are called "loop-holes." This word is +now used much oftener in a figurative sense than to describe the +actual thing. When two persons are arguing and one has plainly shown +the other to be wrong, we say he has "not a loophole" of escape from +the other's reasoning. Or if a person objects very much to doing +something, and makes many excuses, every one of which is shown to be +worthless, we again say he has "no loophole for escape." + +Every child has heard of the Crusades, in which the nobles and knights +and soldiers of the Middle Ages went to fight against the Turks to win +back the Holy Sepulchre. These wars were called "crusades," from the +cross which the Crusaders wore as badges. The word was made from the +Latin word _crux_, which means "cross." But _crusade_ has now become a +general word. We speak of a "temperance crusade," of a "peace +crusade," and so on. The word has come to have the general meaning of +efforts made by people for something which they believe to be good; +but literally every person who works for such a "crusade" is a knight +buckling on his armour, signed with the cross, and sallying forth to +the East. + +This word _sally_ also comes from siege warfare. A "sally" means a +rush of defenders from a besieged place, attempting to get past the +besiegers by taking them by surprise. It also has the more general +meaning of an excursion, such as the going forth to a crusade. It +means literally a "leaping out," and comes from the Latin word +_salire_, "to leap." The word _sally_ is also used to mean a sudden +lively remark generally rather against some person or thing. It is +interesting to notice that the fish salmon also probably takes its +name from this Latin word meaning "to leap." + +Any child with a dictionary can find for himself many hidden metaphors +in the commonest words; and he will learn a great deal and amuse +himself at the same time. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +WORDS FROM NATIONAL CHARACTER. + + +There is one group of metaphorical words which is specially +interesting for the stories of the past which they tell us if we +examine into their meaning. Many names of ancient tribes and nations, +and some names of modern peoples, have come to be used as general +words; but the new meanings they have now tell us what other peoples +have thought of the nations bearing these names in history. + +One of the best things that can be said about a boy or a girl is that +he or she is "frank," by which we mean open and straightforward. The +Franks were, of course, the Teutonic tribe which conquered Gaul (the +country we now call France) in the sixth century. Unlike the English +when they conquered the Britons, the Franks mixed with the Gauls and +the Roman population which they conquered; but for a long time the +Franks were the only people who were altogether free. From this fact +the word _frank_ came into use, meaning "free." A "frank" person is +one who speaks out freely and without restraint. + +The name _Frank_ has given us a word with a very pleasant meaning, but +this was not the case with all the Teutonic tribes which broke in upon +the Roman Empire. A person who is very uncivilized in his manners is +sometimes called a "Goth." The word is often especially used to +describe a person who does not appreciate pictures and books and works +of art. Sometimes architects will pull down beautiful old buildings to +make place for new, and the people who appreciate beautiful things +describe them as "Goths." More often, perhaps, the word _Vandal_ is +used to describe such people. The Goths and Vandals were two of the +fiercest and most barbaric of the German tribes which overran the +Roman Empire from the third to the fifth century. They showed no +respect for the beautiful buildings and the great works of art which +were spread over the empire. They robbed and burned like savages, and +in a few years destroyed many of the beautiful things which had been +made with so much care and skill by the Greek and Roman artists. So +deep an impression did their destructiveness make on the world of that +time that their names have been handed down through sixteen centuries, +and are used to-day in the unpleasant sense of wilful destroyers of +beautiful things. + +The words _barbarian_ and _barbarous_ are used in the same way. We +describe a child who behaves in a rough way as "a little barbarian," +or a grown-up person without ordinary good manners as "a mere +barbarian." And the word _barbarous_ has an even worse meaning. It is +used to describe very coarse, uncivilized behaviour; but most often it +has also the sense of cruelty as well as coarseness. Thus we speak of +the barbarous behaviour of the Germans in Belgium. But when the word +_barbarous_ was first used it meant merely "foreign." + +To the Greeks there were only two classes of people--Greeks, and +non-Greeks or "barbarians." The name _barbarian_ meant a bearded man, +and came from the Greek word _barbaros_. The Greeks were clean-shaven, +and distinguished themselves from the "bearded" peoples who knew +nothing of Greek civilization. The Romans conquered Greece, and +learned much from its civilization. To them all who were not Greeks or +Romans were "barbarians." Some Roman writers, like Cicero, use the +word in the modern sense of unmannerly or even savage, but this was +not a common use. St. Paul was a Roman citizen, for he belonged to +Tarsus, a city in Asia Minor which had been given full Roman rights; +but he was a Greek by birth, and he uses the word in the Greek way. He +speaks of all men being equal according to the Christian religion, +saying, "There is neither Greek nor ... barbarian, bond nor free." + +The word _slave_, again, contains in itself whole chapters of European +history. It comes from the word _Slav_. The Slavs are the race of +people to which the Russians, Poles, and many other nations in the +East of Europe belong. The Great War has been partly fought for the +freedom of the small Slav nations, of which Serbia is one. The Slavs +have a long history of oppression and tyranny behind them. They have +been subject to stronger nations, such as the Turks, and, in Hungary, +the Magyars. The first "slaves" in mediaeval Europe belonged to this +race, and the word "slave" is only another form of _Slav_. The word +gives us an idea of the impression which the misfortunes of the Slavs +made on the people of the Middle Ages. + +The words _Turk_ and _Tartar_ have almost the opposite meaning to +_slave_ when they are used in a general sense. We call an unmanageable +baby a "young Turk," and in this expression we have the idea of all +the trouble the Turks have given the people of Europe since they +swarmed in from the East in the twelfth century. The word _Turk_ in +this sense is now generally used amusingly to describe a troublesome +child; but a grown-up person with a very quick temper or very +difficult to get on with is often described also, chiefly in fun, as a +"Tartar." Tartar is the name of the race of people to which the Turks, +Cossacks, and several other peoples belong. The name by which they +called themselves was _Tatar_; but Europeans changed it to _Tartar_, +from the Latin word _Tartarus_, which means "hell." This gives us some +idea of the impression these fierce people made on mediaeval Europe--an +impression which is kept in memory by the present humorous use of the +word. + +It is chiefly Eastern peoples whose names have passed into common +words meaning fierce and cruel people. Our fairy tales are full of +tales of "ogres." It is not quite certain, but it is probable that +this word comes from _Hungarian_. The chief people of Hungary are the +Magyars; but the first person who used the name _Hungarian_ in the +sense of "ogre" probably did not know this, but thought of them as +Huns, or perhaps Tartars, and therefore as very fierce, cruel people. +The first person who is known to have used it is Perrault, a French +writer of fairy tales in the seventeenth century. + +The Great War has given us another of these national names used in a +new way. Many people referred to the Germans all through the war as +the "Huns." The Huns were half-savage people, who in the early Middle +Ages moved about in great hordes over Europe killing and burning. They +were at last conquered in East and West, and finally disappeared from +history. But their name remained as a synonym for cruelty. The Kaiser, +in an unfortunate speech, exhorted his soldiers to make themselves as +terrible as Huns; and when people heard of the ill-treatment of the +Belgians when their country was invaded at the beginning of the war, +they said that the Germans had indeed behaved like the Huns of long +ago. The name clung to them, and during the war, when people spoke of +the "Huns," they generally meant the Germans, and not the fierce, +half-savage little men who followed their famous chief Attila, +plundering and burning through Europe about fifteen centuries ago. + +Another name with a somewhat similar meaning is _assassin_, which most +people would not guess to have ever been the name of a collection of +people. An assassin is a person who arranges beforehand to take some +one by surprise and kill him. But the original assassins were an +Eastern people who believed that the murder of people of a religion +other than their own was pleasing to their God. The Arabs first called +this sect by the name _hashshash_, which the scholars of the Middle +Ages translated into the Latin _assassinus_. The Arab name was given +because these people were great eaters of "hashish" or dry herbs. + +The name _Arab_ itself has come to be used with a special meaning +which has nothing to do with the people whose name it is. A rough +little boy who spends most of his time in the streets is described as +a "street Arab," and this comes from the fact that we think of the +Arabs as a wandering people. The "street Arab" is a wanderer also, of +another sort. + +Another name of a wandering people has also come to have a special +meaning in English. The French word for gipsy is _bohemien_, and from +this we have the English word _Bohemian_. When we say a person is "a +Bohemian," we mean that he lives in the way he really likes, and does +not care whether other people think he is quite respectable or not. +It was the novelist Thackeray who first used the word _Bohemian_ in +this sense. + +_Bohemia_ is, of course, the name of a country in Germany, but it is +also used figuratively to describe the region or community in which +"Bohemian" or unconventional people live. + +The word _gipsy_ itself is used to describe a very dark person, or +almost any kind of people travelling round the country in caravans. +But _gipsy_ really means "Egyptian." When the real gipsies first +appeared in England, in the sixteenth century, people thought they +came from Egypt, and so gave them this name. + +Another name often given to very dark people is _blackamoor_, a name +by which negroes are sometimes described. This really means "Black +Moor," and shows us how confused the people who first used the word +were about different races of people. The Moors were a quite different +people from the negroes, being related to the Arabs. But to some +people every one who is not white is a "nigger." _Nigger_ comes, of +course, from _negro_. + +The Moors inhabited a part of North-west Africa. It was also a North +African people, the Algerians, who gave us the word _Zouave_. Every +one has seen since the Great War began pictures of the handsome and +quaintly-dressed French soldiers called "Zouaves." Perhaps some +children wondered why they wore such a strange Eastern dress. It is +because the Zouave regiments, which are now chiefly composed of +Frenchmen, were originally formed from an Algerian mountain tribe +called the Zouaves--Algeria being a French possession. The name is +almost forgotten as that of a foreign tribe, but has become instead +the name of these light infantry French regiments. + +The name of the most famous of Eastern nations now spread all over the +world, the Jews, has become a term of reproach. For hundreds of years +after the spread of Christianity over Europe the Jews were looked upon +as a wicked and hateful people. In many countries they were not +allowed to live at all; in others a portion of the towns was set apart +for them, and they were allowed to live there because they were useful +as money-lenders. + +Naturally the Jews, persecuted and distrusted, made as much profit as +they could out of the people who treated them in this way. Perhaps +with the growth of their wealth they grew to love money for its own +sake. In any case, before long the Jews were looked upon as people who +were decidedly ungenerous in the matter of money. Everybody knows the +story of the Jew Shylock in Shakespeare's great play "The Merchant of +Venice." Nowadays a person who is not really a Jew is often described +contemptuously as a "Jew" if he shows himself mean in money matters; +and some people even use a slang expression, "to jew," meaning to +cheat or be very mean over a money affair. + +Another name of a nation which stands for dishonesty of another sort +(and much more excusable) is _Gascon_. The Gascons are the natives of +Gascony, a province in the south of France. It is proverbial among +other Frenchmen that the Gascons are always boasting, and even in +English we sometimes use the word _Gascon_ to describe a great +boaster, while _gasconade_ is now a common term for a boastful story. + +Another word which we use to describe this sort of thing is _romance_. +We often hear the expression, "Oh, he is only romancing," by which we +mean that a person is saying what is not true, inventing harmless +details to improve his story. The word _romance_ has now many +meanings, generally containing the idea of _imagination_. A person is +called "romantic" when he or she is full of imaginings of great deeds +and events. Or we say a person is a "romantic figure" when we mean +that from his looks or speech, or from some other qualities, he seems +fit for adventures. + +But _romance_, from which we get romantic, was at first merely an +adjective used to describe the languages which are descended from the +Latin language, like French, Italian, and Spanish. In the Middle Ages +scholars wrote in Latin, but poets and taletellers began to write in +the language of the people--the _romance_ languages in France and +Italy. The tales of adventure and things which we should now call +"romantic" were written in the "romance" languages; and from being +used to describe the language, the word came to be used to describe +the kind of story contained in these poems and tales. Gradually the +words _romantic_ and _romance_ got the meaning which they have to-day. + +We have seen in another chapter that we have a number of words taken +from the names of persons in ancient history. We have also a modern +and special use of words formed from the names of some of the ancient +nations. We saw that we use the word _Spartan_ to describe any very +severe discipline, or a person who willingly uses such discipline for +himself. + +There are several other such names used in a more or less +complimentary way. We speak of "Roman" firmness, and every one who has +read Roman history will agree that this is a good use of the word. On +the other hand, we have the expression "Punic faith" to describe +treachery. The Romans had had many reasons for mistrusting their great +enemy, the Carthaginians, and they used this expression, _Fides +Punica_, which we have simply borrowed from the Latin. + +We use the expression "Attic (or Athenian) salt" to describe a very +refined wit or humour. The Romans used the word _sal_, or "salt," in +this sense of _wit_, and their expression _sal Atticum_ shows the high +opinion they had of the Athenians, from whom, indeed, they learned +much in art and in literature. It is this same expression which we use +to-day, having borrowed and translated it also from the Latin. + +We speak of a "Parthian shot" when some one finishes a conversation or +an argument with a sharp or witty remark, leaving no chance for an +answer. This expression comes from the story of the Parthians, a +people who lived on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and were famous as +good archers among the ancient nations. + +The way in which the names of nations and peoples have taken on more +general meanings gives us many glimpses into history. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +WORDS MADE BY WAR. + + +Since the earliest ages men have made war on one another, and we have +a great crowd of words, new and old, connected with war. Some of these +are very simple words, especially the names of early weapons; some are +more elaborate and more interesting in their derivation. + +The chief of all weapons, the sword, has its simple name from the Old +English language itself, and so has the spear. But it was after the +Norman conquest of England that war became more elaborate, with +armoured knights and fortified towers, and nearly all the names +connected with war of this sort come to us from the French of that +time. The word _war_ itself comes from the Old French word _werre_. +_Battle_, too, comes from the French of this time; and so do _armour_, +_arms_, _fortress_, _siege_, _conquer_, _pursue_, _tower_, _banner_, +and many other words. All of these words came into French originally +from Latin. _Knight_, however, is an Old English word. The French word +for knight, _chevalier_, never passed into English, but from it we got +the word _chivalry_. + +The great weapons of modern warfare are the gun and the bayonet. There +are, of course, many kinds of guns, small and large. Formerly it was +the fashion to call the big guns by the name of _cannon_, but in the +great European war this word has hardly been used at all. They are all +"guns," from the rifles carried by the foot soldiers to the Maxims and +the great howitzers which each require a company of men to serve them. +The word _cannon_ comes from the French _canon_, and is sometimes +spelt in this way in English too. It means "great tube." + +The derivation of the word _gun_ is more interesting. Gunpowder was +not really discovered until the fifteenth century, but long before +this a kind of machine, or gun, for hurling great stones, or sometimes +arrows, had been used. These instruments were called by the Latin word +_ballista_ (for the Romans had also had machines of this sort), which +comes from the Greek word _ballo_, meaning "throw." In the Middle Ages +weapons of this sort were called by proper names, just as ships are +now. A common name for them was the woman's name _Gunhilda_, which +would be turned into _Gunna_ for short. It is probably from this that +we get the word _gun_. The most interesting of all the guns used in +the Great War has only a number for its name. It is the famous French +'75, and takes this name merely from a measurement. + +The special weapon of the foot soldier, or infantryman, is the +bayonet. This is a short blade which the foot soldier fixes on the +muzzle of his rifle before he advances to an attack. In the trenches +his weapon is the rifle; before the order is given to go "over the +parapet"--that is, to climb out of the trenches, to run forward and +attack the enemy at close quarters--he "fixes his bayonet." The word +_bayonet_ probably comes from _Bayonne_, the name of a town in France. + +The word _infantry_ itself, now used to describe regiments of foot +soldiers armed with the ordinary weapons, comes to us, like most of +our words connected with war, from the French. We have already seen +that the words of this sort which we borrowed in the Middle Ages were +Norman-French words descended from Latin. But after the use of +gunpowder in war became general there were many new terms; and as at +this time the Italians were the people who fought most, and wrote most +about fighting, many words relating to the methods of war after the +close of the Middle Ages were Italian words. It is true that we +learned them from the French, for the great writers on military +matters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were Frenchmen. But +they borrowed many words from the Italian writers of the fifteenth +century. One of these words is _infantry_, which means a number of +junior soldiers or "infants"--the regiments of foot soldiers being +made up of young men, while the older and more experienced soldiers +made up the cavalry. + +This, again, is a word which we borrowed from the French, and which +the French had borrowed from the Italians. _Cavalry_ is, of course, +the name for horse soldiers, and the Italian word _cavalleria_, from +which it comes, was itself derived from the Latin word _caballus_, "a +horse." The general weapon for a cavalryman is the "sabre," a sword +with a curved blade. This, again, comes to us from the French, but was +probably originally an Eastern word. It is quite common for officers, +in reckoning the number of men in an army, to speak of so many +"bayonets" and so many "sabres," instead of "infantry" and "cavalry." + +Many of the words which people began to use familiarly during the +great European war first came into English in the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, a time when it seemed to be the ordinary state +of affairs for some, at least, of the European countries to be at war +with one another. _Bivouac_ is a word which was used a good deal in +descriptions of earlier wars. It is a German word, which came into +English at the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) in Germany. +It means an encampment for a short time only (often for the night), +without tents. It plainly has not much connection with modern trench +warfare. + +Another word which came from the German at the same time may serve to +remind us that the German soldier of to-day is not very much unlike +his ancestors of three hundred years ago. The word _plunder_ was +originally a German word meaning "bed-clothes" or other household +furnishing. From the fact that so much of this kind of thing was +carried off in the fighting of this terrible war, the word came to +have its present sense of anything taken violently from its rightful +owner. It must be confessed that the word was also used a great deal +in the English Civil War, which was, of course, fought at the same +time as the end of the Thirty Years' War. + +It was also in the English Civil War that we first find the word +_capitulation_, which now generally means to surrender on certain +conditions. Before this, _capitulation_ had more the meaning which it +still keeps in _recapitulation_. It meant an arrangement under +headings, and the word probably was transferred from describing the +terms of surrender to describing the surrender itself. + +One of the many words connected with war which came into the English +language from the French in the seventeenth century was _parade_, +which means the showing off of troops, and came into French from an +Italian word which itself came from the Latin word _parare_, "to +prepare." Another of these words which has been much used in +descriptions of the battles of the Great War, and especially in the +"Battle of the Rivers" in the autumn of 1914, is _pontoon_. Pontoons +are flat-bottomed boats by means of which soldiers make a temporary +bridge across rivers, generally when the permanent bridges have been +destroyed by the enemy. The word is _ponton_ in French, and comes from +the Latin _pons_, "a bridge." Most words of this sort in French ending +in _on_ take the ending _oon_ in English. Thus _ballon_ in French +becomes _balloon_ in English. _Barracks_ also comes from the French +_baraque_, and the French had it from the Spanish or Italian _barraca_ +or _baraca_; but no one knows whence these languages got the word. + +The word _bombard_, also much used during the Great War, came into +English at the end of the seventeenth century from the French word +_bombarder_, which came from the Latin word _bombarda_, an engine for +throwing stones, and which in its turn came from the Latin word +_bombus_, meaning "hum." Even a stone hurled with great force through +the air makes a humming noise, and the "singing" of the bombs and +shells hurled through the air became a very familiar sound to the +soldiers who fought in the Great War. The word _bomb_, too, comes from +the French _bombe_. + +The words _brigade_ and _brigadier_ also came from the French at this +time. So, too, did the word _fusilier_, a name which some British +regiments still keep (for example, the Royal Fusiliers), though they +are no longer armed with the old-fashioned musket known as the +_fusil_, the name of which also came from the French, which had it +from the Latin word _focus_, "a hearth" or "fire." It is curious how +the names of modern British regiments, not even carrying the weapons +from which they have their names, should take us back in this way to +the days of early Rome. + +The word _patrol_, which was used very much especially in the early +days of the Great War, has an interesting origin. It may mean a small +body of soldiers or police sent out to go round a garrison, or camp, +or town, to keep watch; or, again, it may mean a small body of troops +sent on before an advancing army to "reconnoitre"--that is, to spy out +the land, the position of the enemy, etc. The word _patrol_ literally +means to "paddle in mud," for the French word, _patrouille_, from +which it came into English in the seventeenth century, came from an +earlier word with this meaning. + +The word _campaign_, by which we mean a number of battles fought +within a certain time, and generally according to a plan arranged +beforehand, also came from the French word _campagne_ at the beginning +of the eighteenth century--a century of great wars and many campaigns. +The word was more used in those earlier wars than it is now, because +in those days the armies used practically never to fight in the +winter, and so each summer during a war had its "campaign." The +earlier meaning of the French word _campagne_, and one which it still +keeps besides this later meaning, is "open country," the kind of +country over which battles were generally fought. + +_Recruit_ is another word which came into English from the French at +this time. It, again, is a word which has been used a great deal in +the European war. It came from the French word _recrue_, which also +means a newly-enlisted soldier. The French word _croitre_, from which +_recrue_ came, was derived from the Latin word _crescere_, "to +increase." + +All these words, we should notice, have now a figurative use. We speak +of "recruits" not only to the army, but to any society. Thus we may +say a person is a valuable "recruit" to the cause of temperance, etc. +A "campaign" can be fought not only on the field of battle, but +through newspapers, meetings, etc. It is in this sense that we speak +of the "campaign" for women's suffrage, etc. + +Many words relating to the dress and habits of our soldiers have +curious origins. We say now quite naturally that a man is "in khaki" +when we mean that he is a soldier, because the peculiar yellow-brown +colour which is known as "khaki" is now the regular colour of the +uniform of the British soldier. In earlier days the British soldier +was generally a "redcoat," but in modern trench warfare it is so +important that the enemy should not be able to pick out easily the +position of groups of men in order to "shell" them, that the armies of +all nations use gray or brown or other dull shades. _Khaki_ is a word +which came into English through the South African War, when the policy +of clothing the soldiers in this way was first begun on a large scale. +It comes from a Hindu word, _khak_, which means "dust." The object of +this kind of clothing for our soldiers is that they shall not be +easily distinguished from the soil of the trenches and battle-fields. + +When a soldier or officer or any other person who is generally in +uniform wears ordinary clothes we say he is "in mufti." This, again, +is an Arab word meaning "Mohammedan priest." + +The soldiers in the Great War used many new words which became a +regular part of their speech. They were chiefly "slang," but it is +quite possible that some of them may pass into good English. We shall +see something of them in a later chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +PROVERBS. + + +Every child knows what a proverb is, though every child may not, +perhaps, be able to say in its own words just what makes a proverb. A +proverb has been defined as "a wise saying in a few words." At any +rate, if it is not always wise, the person who first said it and the +people who repeat it think it is. Most proverbs are very old, and take +us back, just as we saw that words formed from the names of animals +do, to the early days before the growth of large towns. + +In those days life was simple, and people thought chiefly of simple +things. When they thought children or young persons were going to do +something foolish they gave them good advice, and tried to teach them +a little lesson from their own experience of what happened among the +common things around them. + +A boy or a girl who was very enthusiastic about some new thing was +warned that "new brooms sweep clean." When several people were anxious +to help in doing one thing, they were pushed aside (just as they are +now) with the remark that "too many cooks spoil the broth." The people +who use this proverb now generally know very little about broth and +still less about cooking. They say it because it expresses a certain +truth in a striking way; but the first person who said it knew all +about cooks and kitchens, and spoke out of the fullness of her (it +must have been a woman) experience. + +Again, a person who is discontented with the way in which he lives and +is anxious to change it is warned lest he jump "out of the frying-pan +into the fire." Again the wisdom comes from the kitchen. And we may +remark that these sayings are difficult to contradict. + +But there are other proverbs which contain statements about birds and +animals and things connected with nature, and sometimes these seem +only half true to the people who think about them. We sometimes hear +it said of a person who is very quiet and does not speak much that +"still waters run deep." This is true in Nature. A little shallow +brook will babble along, while the surface of a deep pool will have +hardly a ripple on it. But a quiet person is not necessarily a person +of great character or lofty thoughts. Some people hardly speak at all, +because, as a matter of fact, they find nothing to say. They are +quiet, not because they are "deep," but because they are shallow. +Still, the proverb is not altogether foolish, for when people use it +about some one they generally mean that they think this particular +quiet person is one with so much going on in his or her mind that +there is no temptation to speak much. "Empty vessels make most sound" +is another of these proverbs which is literally true, but is not +always true when applied to people. A person who talks a great deal +with very little to say quite deserves to have this proverb quoted +about him or her. But there are some people who are great talkers just +because they are so full of ideas, and to them the proverb does not +apply. + +Another of these nature proverbs, and one which has exasperated many a +late riser, is, "The early bird catches the worm." Many people have +inquired in their turn, "And what about the worm?" But the proverb is +quite true, all the same. + +Again, "A rolling stone gathers no moss" is a proverb which has been +repeated over and over again with many a headshake when young people +have refused to settle down, but have changed from one thing to +another and roamed from place to place. And this is quite true. But we +may ask, "Is it a good thing for stones to gather moss?" After all, +the adventurous people sometimes win fortunes which they could never +have won if they had been afraid to move about. And the adventurous +people, too, win other things--knowledge and experience--which are +better than money. Of course the proverb is wise to a certain degree, +for mere foolish changing without any reason cannot benefit any one. +But things can gather _rust_ as well as moss by keeping still, and +this is certainly not a good thing. + +"Where there's a will there's a way." So the old proverb says, and +this is probably nearly always true, except that no one can do what is +impossible. "Look before you leap" is also good advice for impetuous +people, who are apt to do a thing rashly and wonder afterwards whether +they have done wisely. + +The most interesting thing about proverbs to the student of words is +that they are always made up of simple words such as early peoples +always used. But we go on repeating them, using sometimes words which +we should never choose in ordinary speech, and yet never noticing that +they are old-fashioned and quaint. + +It is true that there are some sayings which are so often quoted that +they seem almost like proverbs. But a line of poetry or prose, however +often it may be quoted, is not a proverb if it is taken from the +writings of a person whom we know to have used it for the first time. +These are merely quotations. No one can say who was the first person +to use any particular proverb. Even so long ago as the days of the +great Greek philosopher Aristotle many proverbs which are used in +nearly every land to-day were ages old. Aristotle describes them as +"fragments of an elder wisdom." + +Clearly, then, however true some quotations from Shakespeare and Pope +and Milton may be, and however often repeated, they are not proverbs. + + "A little learning is a dangerous thing." + +This line expresses a deep truth, and is as simply expressed as any +proverb, but it is merely a quotation from Pope. Again, + + "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" + +is true enough, and well enough expressed to bear frequent quotation, +but it is not a "fragment of elder wisdom." It is merely Pope's +excellent way of saying that foolish people will interfere in delicate +matters in which wise people would never think of meddling. Here, +again, the language is not particularly simple as in proverbs, and +this will help us to remember that quotations are not proverbs. There +is, however, a quotation from a poem by Patrick A. Chalmers, a +present-day poet, which has become as common as a proverb:-- + + "What's lost upon the roundabouts + We pulls up on the swings." + +The fact that this is expressed simply and even ungrammatically does +not, of course, turn it into a proverb. + +Though many of the proverbs which are repeated in nearly all the +languages of the world are without date, we know the times when a few +of them were first quoted. In Greek writings we already find the +half-true proverb, "Rolling stones gather no moss;" and, "There's many +a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," which warned the Greeks, as it +still warns us, of the uncertainty of human things. We can never be +sure of anything until it has actually happened. In Latin writings we +find almost the same idea expressed in the familiar proverb, "A bird +in hand is worth two in the bush"--a fact which no one will deny. + +St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from Greek into Latin in the +fourth century and wrote many wise books besides, quotes two proverbs +which we know well: "It is not wise to look a gift horse in the +mouth," and, "Liars must have good memories." The first again deals, +like so many of the early proverbs, with the knowledge of animals. A +person who knows about horses can tell from the state of their mouths +much about their age, health, and general value. But, the proverb +warns us, it is neither gracious nor wise to examine too closely what +is given to us freely. It may not be quite to our liking, but after +all it is a present. + +The proverb, "Liars must have good memories," means, of course, that +people who tell lies are liable to forget just what tale they have +told on any particular occasion, and may easily contradict themselves, +and so show that they have been untruthful. It is necessary, then, for +such a person, unless he wishes to be found out, to remember exactly +what lies he has told. + +Many proverbs have remained in the English language, not so much for +the wisdom they contain as for the way in which they express it. Some +are in the form of a rhyme--as, "Birds of a feather flock together," +and "East and west, home is best." These are always favourites. + +Others catch the ear because of their alliteration; that is to say, +two or three of their words begin with the same letter. Examples of +this are: "Look before you leap." The proverb "A stitch in time saves +nine" has something of both these attractions, though it is not +exactly a rhyme. Other examples of alliteration in proverbs are: +"Delays are dangerous," "Speech is silvern, silence is golden." + +A few proverbs are witty as well as wise, and these are, perhaps, the +best of all, since they do not, as a rule, exasperate the people to +whom they are quoted, as many proverbs are apt to do. Usually these +witty proverbs are metaphors. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +SLANG. + + +Every child has some idea of what is meant by "slang," because most +schoolboys and schoolgirls have been corrected for using it. By slang +we mean words and expressions which are not the ordinary words for the +ideas which they express, but which are invented as new names or +phrases for these ideas, and are at first known and used only by a few +people who use them just among themselves. There are all kinds of +slang--slang used by schoolboys and schoolgirls in general, slang used +by the pupils of each special school, slang used by soldiers, a +different slang used by their officers, and even slang used by members +of Parliament. + +The chief value of slang to the people who use it is that at first, at +any rate, it is only understood by the inventors and their friends. +The slang of any public school is continually changing, because as +soon as the expressions become known and used by other people the +inventors begin to invent once more, and get a new set of slang terms. +Sometimes a slang word will be used for years by one class of people +without becoming common because it describes something of which +ordinary people have no experience, and therefore do not mention. + +The making of slang is really the making of language. Early men must +have invented new words just as the slang-makers do to-day. The +difference is that there are already words to describe the things +which the slang words describe. It may seem curious, then, that people +should trouble to find new words. The reason they do so is often that +they want to be different from other people, and sometimes because the +slang word is much more expressive than the ordinary word. + +This is one reason that the slang of a small number of people spreads +and becomes general. Sometimes the slang word is so much better in +this way than the old word that it becomes more generally used than +it, and finds its way into the ordinary dictionaries. When this +happens it is no longer slang. + +But, as a rule, slang is ugly or meaningless, and it is very often +vulgar. However common its use may become, the best judges will not +use such expressions, and they remain mere slang. + +A writer on the subject of slang has given us two good examples of +meaningless and expressive slang. The people who first called +marmalade "swish" could have no reason for inventing the new name +except to seem odd and different from other people. _Swish_ is +certainly not a more expressive or descriptive word than _marmalade_. +The one means nothing, while the other has an interesting history +coming to us through the French from two old Greek words meaning +"apple" and "honey." + +The expressive word which this writer quotes is _swag_, a slang word +for "stolen goods." There is no doubt that _swag_ is a much more +expressive word than any of the ordinary words used to describe the +same thing. One gets a much more vivid picture from the sentence, "The +thieves got off with the _swag_," than he would had the word _prize_ +or even _plunder_ or _booty_ been used. Yet there is no sign that the +word _swag_ will become good English. Expressive as it is, there is a +vulgar flavour about it which would make people who are at all +fastidious in their language very unwilling to use it. + +Yet many words and phrases which must have seemed equally vulgar when +first used have come to be accepted as good English. And in fact much +of our language, and especially metaphorical words and phrases, were +once slang. It will be interesting to examine some examples of old +slang which have now become good English. + +One common form of slang is the use of expressions connected with +sport as metaphors in speaking of other things. Thus it is slang to +say that we were "in at the death" when we mean that we stayed to the +end of a meeting or performance. This is, of course, a metaphor from +hunting. People who follow the hounds until the fox is caught and +killed are "in at the death." Another such expression is to "toe the +mark." We say a person is made to "toe the line" or "toe the mark" +when he or she is subjected to discipline; but it is a slang phrase, +and only good English in its literal meaning of standing with the toes +touching a line in starting a race, etc., so that all may have an +equal chance. + +We say a person has "hit below the belt" if we think he has done or +said something unfair in an argument or quarrel. This is a real slang +phrase, and is only good English in the literal sense in which it is +used in boxing, where it is against the rules to "hit below the belt." +The term "up to you," by which is expressed in a slang way that the +person so addressed is expected to do something, is a slang expression +borrowed from cards. + +Even from these few examples we can see that there are various degrees +in slang. A person who would be content to use the expression "toe the +line" might easily think it rather coarse to accuse an opponent of +"hitting below the belt." There comes a time when some slang almost +ceases to be slang, and though good writers will not use it in +writing, quite serious people will use it in merely speaking. It has +passed out of the stage of mere slang to become a "colloquialism." + +The phrases we have quoted from present-day sport when used in a +general sense are still for the most part slang; but many phrases +taken from old sports and games, and which must have been slang in +their time, are now quite good English and even dignified style. We +speak of "wrestling with a difficulty" or "parrying a thrust" (a +metaphor taken, of course, from fencing), of "winning the palm," and +so on, all of which are not only picturesque but quite dignified +English. + +A very common form of slang is what are called "clipped" words. Such +words are _gov_ for "governor," _bike_ for "bicycle," _flu_ for +"influenza," _indi_ for "indigestion," _rec_ for "recreation," _loony_ +for "lunatic," _pub_ for "public house," _exam_ for "examination," +_maths_ for "mathematics." All of these words are real slang, and most +of them are quite vulgar. There is no sign that any of them will +become good English. The most likely to survive in ordinary speech is +perhaps _exam_. + +Yet we have numbers of short words which have now become the ordinary +names for certain articles, and yet which are only short forms of the +original names of those articles. The first man who said _bus_ for +"omnibus" must have seemed quite an adventurer. He probably struck +those who heard him as a little vulgar; but hardly any one now uses +the word _omnibus_ (which is in itself an interesting word, being the +Latin word meaning "for all"), except, perhaps, the omnibus companies +in their posters. Again, very few people use the full phrase +"Zoological Gardens" now. Children are taken to the _Zoo_. _Cycle_ for +"bicycle" is quite dignified and proper, though _bike_ is certainly +vulgar. In the hurry of life to-day people more frequently _phone_ +than "telephone" to each other, and we can send a wire instead of a +"telegram" without any risk of vulgarity. The word _cab_ replaced the +more magnificent "cabriolet," and then with the progress of invention +we got the "taxicab." It is now the turn of _cab_ to be dropped, and +when we are in haste we hail a _taxi_. No one nowadays, except the +people who sell them, speaks of "pianofortes." They have all become +_pianos_ in ordinary speech. + +The way in which good English becomes slang is well illustrated by an +essay of the great English writer Dean Swift, in the famous paper +called "The Tatler," in 1710. He, as a fastidious user of English, was +much vexed by what he called the "continual corruption of the English +tongue." He objected especially to the clipping of words--the use of +the first syllable of a word instead of the whole word. "We cram one +syllable and cut off the rest," he said, "as the owl fattened her mice +after she had cut off their legs to prevent their running away." One +word the Dean seemed especially to hate--_mob_, which, indeed, was +richer by one letter in his day, for he sometimes wrote it _mobb_. +_Mob_ is, of course, quite good English now to describe a disorderly +crowd of people, and we should think it very curious if any one used +the full expression for which it stands. _Mob_ is short for the Latin +phrase _mobile vulgus_, which means "excitable crowd." + +Other words to which Swift objected, though most of them are not the +words of one syllable with which he declared we were "overloaded," and +which he considered the "disgrace of our language," were _banter_, +_sham_, _bamboozle_, _bubble_, _bully_, _cutting_, _shuffling_, and +_palming_. We may notice that some of these words, such as _banter_ +and _sham_, are now quite good English, and most of the others have at +least passed from the stage of slang into that of colloquialism. + +The word _bamboozle_ is still almost slang, though perhaps more common +than it was two hundred years ago, when Swift attacked it. Even now we +do not know where it came from. There was a slang word used at the +time but now forgotten--_bam_, which meant a trick or practical joke; +and some scholars have thought that _bamboozle_ (which, of course, +means "to deceive") came from this. On the other hand, it may have +been the other way about, and that the shorter word came from the +longer. The word _bamboozle_ shows us how hard it is for meaningless +slang to become good English even after a struggle of two hundred +years. + +We have seen how many slang words in English have become good English, +so that people use with propriety expressions that would have seemed +improper or vulgar fifty or ten or even five years ago. Other +interesting words are some which are perfectly good English as now +used, but which have been borrowed from other languages, and in those +languages are or were mere slang. The word _bizarre_, which we +borrowed from the French, and which means "curious," in a fantastic or +half-savage way, is a perfectly dignified word in English; but it must +have been a slang word at one time in French. It meant long ago in +French "soldierly," and literally "bearded"--that is, if it came from +the Spanish word _bizarra_, "beard." + +Another word which we use in English has a much less dignified use in +French. We can speak of the _calibre_ of a person, meaning the quality +of his character or intellect; but in French the word _calibre_ is +only in ordinary speech applied to things. To speak of a "person of a +certain calibre" in French is very bad slang indeed. + +Again, the word _fiasco_, which we borrowed from the Italian, and +which means the complete failure of something from which we had hoped +much, was at first slang in Italian. It was applied especially to the +failure of a play in a theatre. To break down was _far fiasco_, which +literally means "make a bottle." The phrase does not seem to have any +very clear meaning, but at any rate it is far removed from the +dignified word _fiasco_ as used in English. + +The word _sack_ as used in describing the sack of a town in war is a +picturesque and even poetic word; but as it comes from the French +_sac_, meaning "pack" or "plunder," it is really a kind of slang. + +On the other hand, words which belong to quite good and ordinary +speech in their own languages often become slang when adopted into +another. A slang word much used in America and sometimes in England +(for American expressions are constantly finding their way into the +English language) is _vamoose_, which means "depart." _Vamoose_ comes +from a quite ordinary Mexican word, _vamos_, which is Spanish for "let +us go." + +It is very interesting to find that many of our most respectable words +borrowed from Latin have a slang origin. Sometimes these words were +slang in Latin itself; sometimes they were used as slang only after +they passed into English. The French word _tete_, which means "head," +comes from the Latin _testa_, "a pot." (We have seen that this is the +word from which we get our word _test_.) Some Romans, instead of using +_caput_, the real Latin word for "head," would sometimes in slang +fashion speak of some one's _testa_, or "pot," and from this slang +word the French got their regular word for head. + +The word _insult_ comes from the Latin _insultarc_, which meant at +first "to spring or leap at," and afterwards came to have the same +meaning as it has with us. The persons who first used this expression +in the second sense were really using slang, picturing a person who +said something unpleasant to them as "jumping at them." + +We have the same kind of slang in the expression "to jump down one's +throat," when we mean "to complain violently of some one's behaviour." +The word _effrontery_, which comes to us from the French +_effronterie_, is really the same expression as the vulgar terms +_face_ and _cheek_, meaning "impudence." For the word comes from the +Latin _frons_, "the forehead." + +An example of a word which was quite good English, and then came to be +used as slang in a special sense, and then in this same special sense +became good English again, is _grit_. The word used to mean in English +merely "sand" or "gravel," and it came to mean especially the texture +or grain of stones used for grinding. Then in American slang it came +to be used to mean all that we mean now when we say a person has +"grit"--namely, courage, and strength, and firmness. This use of the +word seemed so good that it rapidly became good English; but the +American slang-makers soon found another word to replace it, and now +talk of people having "sand," which is not by any means so expressive, +and will probably never pass out of the realm of slang. + +An example of a word which was at first used as slang not many years +ago, and is now, if not the most elegant English, at least a quite +respectable word for newspaper use, is _maffick_. This word means to +make a noisy show of joy over news of a victory. It dates from the +relief of Mafeking by the British in 1900. When news of its relief +came people at home seemed to go mad with joy. They rushed into the +streets shouting and cheering, and there was a great deal of noise and +confusion. It was noticed over and over again that there was no +"mafficking" over successes in the Great War. People felt it too +seriously to make a great noise about it. + +A slang word which has become common in England during the Great War +is _straefe_. This is the German word for "punish," and became quite +familiar to English people through the hope and prayer to which the +Germans were always giving expression that God would "straefe" England. +The soldiers caught hold of the word, and it was very much used in a +humorous way both at home and abroad. But it is not at all likely to +become a regular English word, and perhaps will not even remain as +slang after the war. + +Besides the fact that slang often becomes good English, we have to +notice that good English often becomes slang. One of the most common +forms of slang is to use words, and especially adjectives, which mean +a great deal in themselves to describe quite small and ordinary +things. To speak of a "splendid" or "magnificent" breakfast, for +instance, is to use words out of proportion to the subject, though of +course they are excellent words in themselves; but this is a mild form +of slang. + +There are many people now who fill their conversation with +superlatives, although they speak of the most commonplace things. A +theatrical performance will be "perfectly heavenly," an actress +"perfectly divine." Apart from the fact that nothing and no one merely +human can be "divine," divinity itself is perfection, and it is +therefore not only unnecessary but actually incorrect to add +"perfectly." A scene or landscape may very properly be described as +"enchanting," but when the adjective is applied too easily it is a +case of good English becoming slang. + +Then, besides the use of superlative adjectives to describe things +which do not deserve such descriptions, there is a crowd of rarer +words used in a special sense to praise things. + +Every one knows what a "stunning blow" is, but few people can ever +have been stunned by the beauty of another's clothes. Yet the +expression "stunning hat" or "stunning tie" is quite common. +Expressions like a "ripping time" are even more objectionable, because +they are even more meaningless. + +Then, besides the slang use of terms of praise, there are also many +superlatives expressing disgust which the slangmongers use instead of +ordinary mild expressions of displeasure. To such people it is not +simply "annoying" to have to wait for a lift on the underground +railways; for them it is "perfectly sickening." + +_Horrid_, a word which means so much if used properly, is applied to +all sorts of slightly unpleasant things and people. When one thinks of +the literal Latin meaning of this word ("so dreadful as to cause us to +shudder"), the foolishness of using it so lightly is plain. People +frequently now declare that they have a "shocking cold"--a +description which, again, is too violent for the subject. + +Another form of slang is to combine a word which generally expresses +unpleasant with one which expresses pleasant ideas. So we get such +expressions as "awfully nice" and "frightfully pleased," which are +actually contradictions in terms. + +This kind of slang is the worst kind of all. It soon loses any spice +of novelty. It is not really expressive, like some of the quaint terms +of school or university slang, and it does a great deal of harm by +tending to spoil the full force of some of our best and finest words. +It is very difficult to avoid the use of slang if one is constantly +hearing it, but, at any rate, any one who feels the beauty of language +must soon be disgusted by this particular kind of slang. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +WORDS WHICH HAVE CHANGED THEIR MEANING. + + +We have seen in the chapter on "slang" how people are continually +using old words in new ways, and how, through this, slang often +becomes good English and good English becomes slang. The same thing +has been going on all through the history of language. Other words +besides those used as slang have been constantly getting new uses. +Many English words to-day have quite different meanings from those +which they had in the Middle Ages; some even have exactly opposite +meanings to their original sense. Sometimes words keep both the old +meaning and the new. + +In this matter the English language is very different from the German. +The English language has many words which the Germans have too, but +their meanings are different. The Germans have kept the original +meanings which these words had hundreds of years ago; but the +thousands of words which have come down to us from the English +language of a thousand years ago have nearly all changed their +meanings. + +We have two of these old words which have now each two exactly +opposite meanings. The word _fast_ means sometimes "immovable," and +sometimes it means the exact opposite--"moving rapidly." We say a key +is "fast" in a lock when we cannot get it out, and we say a person +runs "fast" when we mean that he runs quickly. The first meaning of +steadiness is the original meaning; then the word came to be used to +mean "moving steadily." A person who ran on, keeping up a steady +movement, was said to run fast, and then it was easy to use the word +for rapidity as well as steadiness in motion or position. This is how +the word _fast_ came to have two opposite meanings. + +Another word, _fine_, has the same sort of history. We speak of a +"fine needle" when we mean that it is thin, and a "fine baby" when we +mean that it is fat. The first meaning is nearer to the original, +which was "well finished off." Often a thing which had a great deal of +"fine" workmanship spent on it would be delicate and "fine" in the +first sense, and so the word came to have this meaning. On the other +hand, the thing finished off in this way would generally be beautiful. +People came to think of "fine" things as things to be admired, and as +they like their babies to be fat, a fat baby will generally be +considered a fine baby. It was in this kind of way that "fine" came to +have its second meaning of "large." + +The common adjectives _glad_ and _sad_ had quite different meanings +in Old English from those they have now. In Old English glad meant +"shining," or "bright," but in a very short time it came to mean +"cheerful." Now it means something rather different from this, for +though we may speak of a "glad heart" or "glad spirit," such +expressions are chiefly used in poetry. Generally in ordinary speech +when we say that we are "glad" we mean that we are pleased about some +special thing, as "glad that you have come." + +_Sad_ in Old English meant to have as much as one wanted of anything. +Then it came to mean "calm" and "serious," perhaps from the idea that +people who have all they want are in a mood to settle down and attend +to things seriously. Already in Shakespeare's writings we find the +word with its present meaning of "sorrowful." It has quite lost its +earlier meaning, but has several special new meanings besides the +general one of "sorrowful." A "sad tint," or colour, is one which is +dull. "Sad bread" in the north of England is "heavy" bread which has +not risen properly. Again, we describe as "sad" some people who are +not at all sorrowful. We say a person is a "sad" liar when we mean +that he is a hopeless liar. + +The word _tide_, which we now apply to the regular rise and fall of +the sea, used to mean in Old English "time;" and it still keeps this +meaning in the words _Christmastide_, _Whitsuntide_, etc. + +One common way in which words change is in going from a general to a +more special meaning. Thus in Old English the word _chest_ meant "box" +in general, but has come now to be used as the name of a special kind +of box only, and also as the name of a part of the body. The first +person who used the word in this sense must have thought of the +"chest" as a box containing the lungs and the heart. + +_Glass_ is, of course, the name of the substance out of which we make +our windows and some of our drinking vessels, etc., and this was at +one time its only use; but we now use the name _glass_ for several +special articles--for example, a drinking-vessel, a telescope, a +barometer, a mirror (or "looking-glass"), and so on. _Copper_ is +another word the meaning of which has become specialized in this way +as time has gone on. From being merely the name of a metal it has come +to be used for a copper coin and for a large cauldron especially used +in laundry work. Another example of a rather different kind of this +"specialization" which changes the meaning of words is the word +_congregation_. _Congregation_ used to mean "any gathering together of +people in one place," and we still use the word _congregate_ in this +sense. Thus we might say "the people congregated in Trafalgar Square," +but we should never think of speaking of a crowd listening to a +lecturer there as a "congregation." The word has now come to mean an +assembly for religious worship in a chapel or church. + +Some words have changed their meaning in just the opposite way. From +having one special meaning they have come by degrees to have a much +more general sense. The word _bureau_, which came into English from +the French, meant at first merely a "desk" in both languages. It still +has this meaning in both languages, but a wider meaning as well. It +can now be used to describe an office (a place associated with the +idea of desks). Thus we have "employment bureau," and can get English +money for foreign at a "bureau de change." From this use of the word +we have the word _bureaucracy_, by which we describe a government +which is carried on by a great number of officials. + +A better example of how a word containing one special idea can extend +its meaning is the word _bend_. This word originally meant to pull the +string of a bow in order to let fly an arrow. The expression "bend a +bow" was used, and as the result of pulling the string was to curve +the wooden part of the arrow, people came in time to think that +"bending the bow" was this making the wood to curve. From this came +our general use of "bend" to mean forcing a thing which is straight +into a curve or angle. We have, of course, also the metaphorical use +of the word, as when we speak of bending our will to another's. + +Another word which has had a similar history is _carry_. When this +word was first borrowed from Old French it meant to move something +from place to place in a cart or other wheeled vehicle. The general +word for our modern _carry_ was _bear_, which we still use, but +chiefly in poetry. In time _carry_ came to have its modern general +sense of lifting a thing from one place and removing it to another. A +well-known writer on the history of the English language has suggested +that this came about first through people using the word in this sense +half in fun, just as the word _cart_ is now sometimes used. A person +may say (a little vulgarly), "Do you expect me to cart all these +things to another room?" instead of using the ordinary word carry. If +history were to repeat itself in this case, _cart_ might in time +become the generally used word, and _carry_ in its turn be relegated +to the realm of poetry. + +Words often come to have several meanings through being used to +describe things which are connected in some way with the things for +which they were originally used. The word _house_ originally had one +meaning, which it still keeps, but to which several others have been +added. It was a building merely, but came in time to be used to mean +the building and the people living in it. Thus we say one person +"disturbs the whole house." From this sense it got the meaning of a +royal family, and we speak of the House of York, Lancaster, Tudor, or +Stuart. We also use the word in a large sense when we speak of the +"House of Lords" and the "House of Commons," by which we hardly ever +mean the actual buildings known generally as the "Houses of +Parliament," but the members of the two Houses. The word _world_ has +had almost the opposite history to the word _house_. World originally +applied only to persons and not to any place. It meant a "generation +of men," and then came to mean men and the earth they live on, and +then the earth itself; until it has a quite general sense, as when we +speak of "other worlds than ours." + +Many words which are used at present to describe bad or disagreeable +things were used quite differently originally. The word _villain_ is, +perhaps, the most expressive we can use to show our opinion of the +depths of a person's wickedness. Yet in the Middle Ages a villain, or +"villein," was merely a serf or labourer bound to work on the land of +a particular lord. The word in Saxon times would have been _churl_. As +time went on both these words became terms of contempt. The lords in +the Middle Ages were certainly often more wicked than the serfs, as we +see in the stories of the days of Robin Hood; but by degrees the +people of the higher classes began to use the word _villain_ more and +more contemptuously. Many of them imagined that only people of their +own class were capable of high thoughts and noble conduct. Gradually +"villainy" came to mean all that was low and vulgar, and by degrees it +came to have the meaning it has now of "sheer wickedness." At the end +of the Middle Ages there were practically no longer any serfs in +England; but the word _villain_ has remained in this new sense, and +gives us a complete story of the misunderstanding and dislike which +must have existed between "noble" and "simple" to cause such a change +in the meaning of the word. + +The word _churl_ has a somewhat similar history. We say now that a +sulky, ungracious person is a "mere churl," or behaves in a "churlish" +manner, never thinking of the original meaning of the word. Here, +again, is a little story of injustice. The present use of the word +comes from the supposition that only the mere labourer could behave in +a sulky or bad-tempered way. + +_Knave_ is another of those words which originally described persons +of poor condition and have now come to mean a wicked or deceitful +person. A knave, as we now understand the word, means a person who +cheats in a particularly mean way, but formerly the word meant merely +"boy." It then came to mean "servant," just as the word _garcon_ +("boy") is used for all waiters in French restaurants. Another word +which now means, as a rule, some one unutterably wicked, is _wretch_, +though it is also used rather contemptuously to describe some one who +is not wicked but unutterably miserable. Yet in Old English this word +merely meant an "exile." An exile was a person to be pitied, and also +sometimes a person who had done something wrong, and we get both these +ideas in the modern uses of the word. The word _blackguard_, which now +means a "scoundrel," was also once a word for "scullion;" but it does +not go back as far as "knave" and "villain," being found chiefly in +writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. + +Another word in which the "villeins" and "knaves" and "churls" seem to +have their revenge on the "upper classes" is _surly_. This word used +to be spelt _sirly_, and meant behaving as a "sire," or gentleman, +behaves. Originally this meant "haughty" or "arrogant," but by degrees +came to have the idea of sulkiness and ungraciousness, much like +_churlish_. + +Several adjectives which are now used as terms of blame were not only +harmless descriptions originally, but were actually terms of praise. +No one likes to be called "cunning," "sly," or "crafty" to-day; but +these were all complimentary adjectives once. A _cunning_ man was one +who knew his work well, a _sly_ person was wise and skilful, and a +_crafty_ person was one who could work well at his trade or "craft." +Two words which we use to-day with a better sense than any of these, +and yet which have a slightly uncomplimentary sense, are _knowing_ and +_artful_. It is surely good to "know" things, and to be full of art; +but both words have already an idea of slyness, and may in time come +to have quite as unpleasant a meaning as these three which have the +same literal meaning. + +_Fellow_, a word which has now nearly always a slightly contemptuous +sense, had originally the quite good sense of _partner_. It came from +an Old English word which meant the man who marked out his land next +to yours. The word still has this good sense in _fellowship_, +_fellow-feeling_, etc., and as used to describe a "fellow" of a +college or society. But the more general use is as a less respectful +word for man. One man may say of another that he is a "nice fellow" +without any disrespect; but the word has no dignity, and people, even +though they use it of an equal, would not think of using it to +describe a superior, and the more general use is that of blame or +contempt, as in the expressions, "a disagreeable fellow" or "a stupid +fellow." The word _bully_ was at one time a word which showed +affection, and meant even "lover." In English now, of course, a bully +is a person, especially a boy, who tyrannizes over people weaker than +himself; but the Americans still use the word in a good sense when +they say "bully for you," meaning "bravo." + +We have seen many words whose meanings have become less dignified than +their original meaning; but sometimes the opposite happens. Every one +now speaks with respect of a "pioneer," whether we mean by that people +who are the first to venture into strange lands, or, in a more +figurative sense, people who make some new discovery in science or +introduce some new way of thinking or acting. Yet "pioneers" were +originally merely the soldiers who did the hard work of clearing the +way for an advancing army. They were looked upon as belonging to a +lower class than the ordinary soldiers. But this new and at first +figurative use of the word, applied first to geographical and then to +scientific and moral explorers, has given the word a new dignity. + +A group of words which had originally very humble meanings, and have +been elevated in an even more accidental way, are the names of the +officials of royal courts. The word _steward_ originally meant, as it +still means, a person who manages property for some one else. The +steward on a ship is a servant; but the steward of the king's +household was no mean person, and was dignified with the title of the +"Lord High Steward of England." The royal house of Stuart took its +name from the fact that the heads of the family were in earlier times +hereditary stewards of the Scottish kings. So _marshal_, the name of +another high official at court, means "horse boy;" _seneschal_, "old +servant;" _constable_, "an attendant to horses' stalls," and so on. +Some of these words have kept both a dignified and a commoner meaning. +_Constable_, besides being the name of a court official, is also +another term for "policeman." + +The word _silly_ meant in Old English "blessed" or "happy," but of +course has wandered far from this meaning. On the other hand, several +words which once meant "foolish" have now quite different meanings. +_Giddy_ and _dizzy_ both had this sense in Old English, and so had +the word _nice_. But later the French word _fol_, from which we get +_foolish_, was introduced into English, and these words soon ceased to +be used in this sense. Before this the two words _dizzy_ and _giddy_ +had occasionally been used in the sense in which they are used now, to +describe the condition of a person whose head "swims;" this now became +their general meaning, though _giddy_ has gone back again to something +of its old meaning in its later use to describe a person's conduct. A +_giddy_ person is another description for one of frivolous character. + +The word _nice_ has had a rather more varied history. It had its +original meaning of "foolish" from the literal meaning of the Latin +word _nescius_, "ignorant," from which it was derived. Gradually it +came to mean "foolishly particular about small things;" and we still +have a similar use of the word, as when we say a person has a "nice +taste in wines," or is a "nice observer," or speak of a "nice +distinction," by which we mean a subtle distinction not very easily +observed. But this is, of course, not the commonest sense in which we +use the word. By _nice_ we generally mean the opposite of _nasty_. A +"nice" observer was a good observer, and from this kind of idea the +word _nice_ came to have the general sense of "good" in some way. +_Nice_ is not a particularly dignified word, and is little used by +good writers, except in its more special and earlier sense. It is, +perhaps, less used in America than in England, and it is interesting +to notice that _nasty_, the word which in English always seems to be +the opposite of _nice_, is not considered a respectable word in +America, where it has kept its earlier meaning of "filthy," or +absolutely disgusting in some way. + +Again, the word _disgust_, by which we express complete loathing for +anything, used merely to mean "dislike" or "distaste." In the same +way, the word _loathe_, by which we mean "to hate" or feel the +greatest disgust for, originally meant merely "to dislike." The +stronger meaning came from the fact that the word was often used to +describe the dislike a sick person feels for food. Every one knows how +strong this feeling can be, and it is from this that _loathe_ and +_loathsome_ took the strong meaning they now have. Curiously enough, +the adjective _loath_ or _loth_, from the same word, has kept the old +mild meaning. When we say we are "loth" to do a thing, we do not mean +that we hate doing it, but merely that we feel rather unwilling to do +it. In Old English, too, the word _filth_ and its derivative _foul_ +were not quite such strong words as _dirt_ and _dirty_. + +Again, the words _stench_ and _stink_ in Old English meant merely +"smell" or "odour." One could then speak of the "sweet stench" of a +flower; but in the later Middle Ages these words came to have their +present meaning of "smelling most disagreeably." + +We saw how the taking of the word _fol_ from the French, meaning +"foolish," caused the meaning of several English words which before +had this meaning to be changed. The coming in of foreign words has +been a very common cause for such changes of meaning. The word _fiend_ +in English has now a quite different meaning from its original meaning +in English, when it simply meant "enemy," the opposite to "friend." +When the word "enemy" itself was borrowed from the French, the word +_fiend_ came to be less and less often used in this sense. In time +_fiend_ came to be another word for _devil_, the chief enemy of +mankind. But in modern times we do not use the word much in this +sense. It is most often now applied to persons. It sounds rather +milder than calling a person a "devil," but it means exactly the same +thing. + +The word _stool_ came to have its present special meaning through the +coming into English from the French of the word _chair_. Before the +Norman Conquest any kind of seat for one person was a "stool," even +sometimes a royal throne. The word _deer_ also had in Old English the +meaning of "beast" in general, but the coming in of the word _beast_ +from the French led to its falling into disuse, and by degrees it +became the special name of the chief beast of chase. + +Again, the Latin word _spirit_ led to the less frequent use of the +word _ghost_, which was previously the general word for _spirit_. When +spirit came to be generally used, _ghost_ came to have the special +meaning which it has for us now--that of the apparition of a dead +person. + +A great many words have changed their meaning even since the time of +Shakespeare through being transferred from the subject of the feeling +they describe to the object, or from the object to the subject. Thus +one example of this is the word _grievous_. We speak now of a +"grievous wrong," or a "grievous sin," or a "grievous mistake," and +all these phrases suggest a certain sorrow in ourselves for the fact +described. But this was not the case in the time of Queen Elizabeth, +when it was decreed that a "sturdy beggar," a man who could work but +begged instead, should be "grievously whipped." In this case +_grievously_ merely meant "severely." On the other hand, the word +_pitiful_, which used to mean "compassionate," is no longer applied to +what we feel at seeing a sad thing, but to the sadness of the thing +itself. We do not now say a person is pitiful when he feels sorry for +some one, but we speak of a "pitiful sight" or a "pitiful plight." + +The word _pity_ itself is used still in both ways, subjectively and +objectively. A person can feel "pity," and there is "pity" in the +thing for which we feel sorry. This is the sense in which it is used +in such expressions as "Oh, the pity of it!" + +The word _hateful_ once meant "full of hate," but came to be used for +the thing inspiring hate instead of for the people feeling it. So, +_painful_ used to mean "painstaking," but of course has no longer +this meaning. + +One very common way in which words have changed their meanings is +through the name of one thing being given to another which resembles +it. The word _pen_ comes from the Latin _penna_, "a feather;" and as +in olden days the ordinary pens were "quills" of birds, the name was +very good. We still keep it, of course, for the steel pens and gold +pens of to-day, which we thus literally speak of as feathers. _Pencil_ +is a word with a somewhat similar history. It comes from the Latin +_penicillus_, which itself came from _peniculus_, or "little tail," a +kind of cleaning instrument which the Romans used as we use brushes. +_Pencil_ was originally the name of a very fine painter's brush, and +from this it became the name of an instrument made of lead which was +used for making marks. Then it was passed on to various kinds of +pencils, including what we know as a lead-pencil, in which, as a +writer on words has pointed out, there is really neither lead nor +pencil. + +The word _handkerchief_ is also an interesting word. The word +_kerchief_ came from the French _couvre-chef_, "a covering for the +head." Another similar word is one which the Normans brought into +England, _curfew_, which means "cover fire." When the curfew bell rang +the people were obliged to extinguish all lights and fires. The +"kerchief" was originally a covering for the head. Then the fashion +arose of carrying a square of similar material in the hand, and so we +get _handkerchief_, and later _pocket-handkerchief_, which, if we +analyse it, is rather a clumsy word, "pocket-hand-cover-head." The +reason it is so is that the people who added _pocket_ and _hand_ knew +nothing of the real meaning of _kerchief_. + +There are several words which used to mean "at the present time" which +have now come to mean "at a future time." This can only have come +about through the people who used them not keeping their promises, but +putting off doing things until later. The word _soon_ in Old English +meant "immediately," so that when a person said that he would do a +thing soon he meant that he would do it "instantly." The trouble was +that often he did _not_, and so often did this happen that the meaning +of the word changed, and _soon_ came to have its present meaning of +"in a short time." The same thing happened with the words _presently_ +and _directly_, and the phrase _by-and-by_, all of which used to mean +"instantly." _Presently_ and _directly_ seem to promise things in a +shorter time than _soon_, but _by-and-by_ is a very uncertain phrase +indeed. It is perhaps because Scotch people are superior to the +English in the matter of doing things to time that with them +_presently_ still really means "instantly." + +In all the examples we have seen of changes in the meaning of words it +is fairly easy to see how the changes have come about. But there are +some words which have changed so much in meaning that their present +sense seems to have no connection with their earlier meaning. The +word _treacle_ is a splendid example of this. It comes from a Greek +word meaning "having to do with a wild beast," and this seems to have +no connection whatever with our present use of the word _treacle_ as +another word for _syrup of sugar_. The steps by which this word came +to change its meaning so enormously were these. From the general +meaning of "having to do with a wild beast," it came to mean "remedy +for the bite of a wild beast." As remedies for wounds and bites were, +in the old days, generally thick syrups, the word came in time to mean +merely "syrup," and lastly the sweet syrup which we now know as +"treacle." + +Another word which has changed immensely in its meaning is _premises_. +By the word _premises_ we generally mean a house or shop and the land +just round it. But the real meaning of the word _premises_ is the +"things already mentioned." It came to have its present sense from the +frequent use of the word in documents drawn up by lawyers. In these, +which very frequently dealt with business relating to houses, the +"things before mentioned" meant the "house, etc.," and in time people +came to think that this was the actual meaning of _premises_, and so +we get the present use of the word. + +The word _humour_ is one which has changed its meaning very much in +the course of its history. It comes to us from the Latin word _humor_, +which means a "fluid" or "liquid." By "humour" we now mean either +"temper," as when we speak of being in a "good" or "bad" humour, or +that quality in a person which makes him very quick to find "fun" in +things. And from the first meaning of "temper" we have the verb "to +humour," by which we mean to give in to or indulge a person's whims. +But in the Middle Ages "humour" was a word used by writers on +philosophy to describe the four liquids which they believed (like the +Greek philosophers) that the human body contained. These four +"humours" were blood, phlegm, yellow bile (or choler), and black bile +(or melancholy). According to the balance of these humours a man's +character showed itself. From this belief we get the adjectives--which +we still use without any thought of their origin--_sanguine_ +("hopeful"), _phlegmatic_ ("indifferent and not easily excited"), +_choleric_ ("easily roused to anger"), and _melancholy_ ("inclined to +sadness"). A person had these various temperaments according as the +amount of blood, phlegm, yellow or black bile was uppermost in his +composition. From the idea that having too much of any of the +"humours" would make a person diseased or odd in character, we got the +use of the word _humours_ to describe odd and queer things; and from +this it came to have its modern meaning, which takes us very far from +the original Latin. + +It was from this same curious idea of the formation of the human body +that we get two different uses of the word _temper_. _Temper_ was +originally the word used to describe the right mixture of the four +"humours." From this we got the words _good-tempered_ and +_bad-tempered_. Perhaps because it is natural to notice more when +people are bad-tempered rather than good, not more than a hundred +years ago the word _temper_ came to mean in one use "bad temper." For +this is what we mean when we say we "give way to temper." But we have +the original sense of "good temper" in the expression to "keep one's +temper." So here we have the same word meaning two opposite things. + +Several words which used to have a meaning connected with religion +have now come to have a more general meaning which seems very +different from the original. A word of this sort in English is +_order_, which came through the French word _ordre_, from the Latin +_ordo_. Though the Latin word had the meaning which we now give to the +word _order_, in the English of the thirteenth century it had only the +special meaning (which it still keeps as one of its meanings) of an +"order" or "society" of monks. In the fourteenth century it began to +have the meaning of "fixed arrangement," but the adjective _orderly_ +and the noun _orderliness_ did not come into use until the sixteenth +century. The word _regular_ has a similar history. Coming from the +Latin _regula_, "a rule," its modern general meaning in English of +"according to rule" seems very natural; but the word which began to be +used in English in the fourteenth century did not take the modern +meaning until the end of the sixteenth century. Before this, it too +was used as a word to describe monastic orders. The "regular" clergy +were priests who were also monks, while the "secular" clergy were +priests but not monks. The words _regularity_, _regulation_, and +_regulate_ did not come into use until the seventeenth century. + +Another word which has now a quite different meaning from its original +meaning is _clerk_. A "clerk" nowadays is a person who is employed in +an office to keep accounts, write letters, etc. But a "clerk" in the +Middle Ages was what we should now more generally call a "cleric," a +man in Holy Orders. As the "clerks" in the Middle Ages were +practically the only people who could read and write, it is, perhaps, +not unnatural that the name should be now used to describe a class of +people whose chief occupation is writing (whether with the hand or a +typewriter). People in the Middle Ages would have wondered what could +possibly be meant by a word which is common in Scotland for a "woman +clerk"--_clerkess_. + +The words which change their meanings in this way tell us the longest, +and perhaps the best, stories of all. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +DIFFERENT WORDS WITH THE SAME MEANING, AND THE SAME WORDS WITH +DIFFERENT MEANINGS. + + +We have seen that there are great numbers of words in English which +come from the Latin language. Sometimes they have come to us through +Old French words borrowed from the Latin, and sometimes from the Latin +words directly, or modern French words taken from the Latin. The fact +that we have borrowed from the Latin in these two ways has led +sometimes to our borrowing twice over from the same word. Different +forms going back in this way to the same origin are known as +"doublets." The English language is full of them, and they, too, can +tell us some interesting stories. + +Many of these pairs of words seem to have no relation at all with each +other, so much has one or the other, or both, changed in meaning from +that of the original word from which they come. A familiar pair of +doublets is _dainty_ and _dignity_, both of which come from the Latin +word _dignitas_. _Dignity_, which came into the English language +either directly from the Latin or through the modern French word +_dignite_, has not wandered at all from the meaning of the Latin word, +which had first the idea of "merit" or "value," and then that of +honourable position or character which the word _dignity_ has in +English. _Dainty_ has a quite different meaning; though it, too, came +from _dignitas_, but through the less dignified way of the Old French +word _daintie_. + +The English words _dish_, _dais_, _desk_, and _disc_ all come from the +Latin word _discus_, by which the Romans meant first a round flat +plate thrown in certain games (a "quoit"), and secondly a plate or +dish. In Old English this word became _dish_. In Old French it became +_deis_, and from this we have the English _dais_--the raised platform +of a throne. In Italian it became _desco_, from which we got _desk_; +and the scientific men of modern times, in their need of a word to +describe exactly a round, flat object, have gone back as near as +possible to the Latin and given us _disc_. It is to be noticed that +the original idea of the Latin word--"having a flat surface"--is kept +in these four descendants of a remote ancestor. + +The words _chieftain_ and _captain_ are doublets coming from the Late +Latin word _capitaneus_, "chief;" the former through the Old French +word _chevetaine_, and the latter more directly from the Latin. +_Frail_ and _fragile_ are another pair, coming from the Latin word +_fragilis_, "easily broken;" the one through Old French, and the other +through Modern French. + +Both these pairs of words have kept fairly close to the original +meaning; but _caitiff_ and _captive_, another pair of doublets, have +quite different meanings from each other. Both come from the Latin +word _captivus_, "captive," the one indirectly and the other directly. +_Caitiff_, which is not a word used now except occasionally in poetry, +means a "base, cowardly person;" but _captive_ has, of course, the +original meaning of the Latin word. + +Another pair of doublets, which are quite different in form and almost +opposite to each other in meaning, are _guest_ and _hostile_. These +two words come from the same root word; but this goes further back +than Latin, to the language known as the Aryan, from which nearly all +the languages of Europe and the chief language of India come. +_Hostile_ comes from the Latin _hostis_, "an enemy;" but _hostis_ +itself comes from the same Aryan word as that from which _guest_ +comes, and so these two words are doublets in English. They express +very different ideas: we are not generally "hostile" or "full of +enmity" against a "guest," one who partakes of our hospitality. + +Another pair of doublets not from the Latin are _shirt_ and _skirt_, +which are both old Germanic words. _Skirt_ came later into the +language, being from the Scandinavian, while _shirt_ is an Old English +word. + +The word _cross_ and the many words in English beginning with +_cruci_--such as _crucial_, _crucifix_, and _cruciform_--the adverb +_across_, as well as the less common word _crux_, all come from the +Latin word _crux_, "a cross." The word _cross_ first came into the +English language with Christianity itself, for the death of our Lord +on the cross was, of course, the first story which converts to +Christianity were told. It came through the Irish from the Norwegian +word _cros_, which came direct from the Latin. All the words beginning +with _cruci_ come straight from the Latin. _Cruciform_ and _crucifix_ +refer to the form of a cross, and so sometimes does the word +_crucial_. But, as a rule, _crucial_ is used as the adjective of the +word _crux_, which means the "test," or "difficult point," in deciding +or doing something. The Romans did not use _crux_ in this sense; but +it is interesting to notice that they did use it in the figurative +sense of "trouble" just as we do. This came from the fact that the +common form of execution for all subjects of the Roman Empire except +Roman citizens was crucifixion. + +Two such different words as _tavern_ and _tabernacle_, the one meaning +an inn and the other the most sacred part of the sanctuary in a +church, are doublets from the Latin word _tabernaculum_, "tent." The +first comes from the French _taverne_, and the second directly from +the Latin. + +The words _mint_ and _money_ both come from the Latin word _moneta_, +which was an adjective attached by the Romans to the name of the +goddess Juno. The place where the Romans coined their money was +attached to the temple of Juno Moneta, or Juno the Adviser. From this +fact the Romans themselves came to use _moneta_ as the name for +coins, or what we call money. The word passed into French as +_monnaie_, which is still the French word both for _money_ and _mint_, +the place where we coin our money. In German it became _munze_, which +has the same meanings. In English it became _mint_. But the English +language, as we have seen, has a fine gift for borrowing. In time it +acquired the French word _monnaie_, which became _money_ as the name +for coins, while it kept the word _mint_ to describe the place where +coins are made. + +The words _bower_, formerly the name of a sleeping-place for ladies +and now generally meaning a summer-house, and _byre_, the place where +cows sleep, both come from the Old English word _bur_, "a bower." The +word _flour_ (which so late as the eighteenth century Dr. Johnson did +not include in his great dictionary) is the same word as _flower_. +Flour is merely the flower of wheat. Again, _poesy_ and _posy_ are +really the same word, _posy_ being derived from _poesy_. _Posy_ used +to mean a copy of verses presented to some one with a bouquet. Now it +stands either for verses, as when we speak of the "posy of a ring," or +more commonly a bunch of flowers without any verses. + +The words _bench_ and _bank_ both come from the same Teutonic word +which became _benc_ in Old English and _banc_ in French. _Bench_ comes +from _benc_, but _bank_ has a more complicated history. From the +French _banc_ we borrowed the word to use in the old expression a +"bank of oars." From the Scandinavians, who also had the word, we got +_bank_, used for the "bank of a river." Meanwhile the Italians had +also borrowed the old Germanic word which became with them _banca_ or +_banco_, the bench or table of a money-changer. From this the French +got _banque_, and this became in English _bank_ as we use it in +connection with money. + +The Latin word _ratio_, "reckoning," has given three words to the +English language. It passed into Old French as _resoun_, and from this +we got the word _reason_. Later on the French made a new word direct +from the Latin--_ration_; which, again, passed into English as a +convenient name for the allowance of food to a soldier. It has now a +more general sense, as when in the Great War people talk of the whole +nation being put "on rations." Then again, as every child who is old +enough to study mathematics knows, we use the Latin word itself, +_ratio_, as a mathematical term. + +Another Latin word which has given three different words to the +English language is _gentilis_. From it we have _gentile_, _gentle_, +and _genteel_. Yet the Latin word had not the same meaning as any of +these words. _Gentilis_ meant "belonging to the same _gens_ or +'clan.'" It became later a distinguishing term from _Jew_. All who +were not Jews were _Gentiles_, and this is still the meaning of the +word _gentile_ in English. It came directly from the Latin. But +_gentilis_ became _gentil_ in French; and we have borrowed twice from +this word, getting _gentle_, which expresses one idea contained in the +French word, though the French word means more than our word _gentle_. +It has the sense of "very amiable and attractive." The last word of +the three, _genteel_, is rather a vulgar word. It means "like +gentlemen and ladies have to do," and only rather ignorant people use +the word seriously. + +Doublets from Latin words for the most part resemble each other in +meaning and form, though, as we have seen, this is not always the +case. We could give a long list of examples where both sense and form +are similar, but there is only space to mention a few. _Poor_ and +_pauper_ (a miserably poor person) both come from the Latin _pauper_, +"poor." _Story_ and _history_ both come from _historia_, a word which +had both meanings in Latin. _Human_ and _humane_ are both from the +Latin _humanus_, "belonging to mankind." _Sure_ and _secure_ are both +from the Latin _securus_, "safe." _Nourishment_ and _nutriment_ are +both from the Latin _nutrimentum_. _Amiable_ and _amicable_ are both +from the Latin _amicabilis_, "friendly." + +Examples of doublets which are similar in form but not in sense are +_chant_ and _cant_, which both come from the Latin _cantare_, "to +sing." _Chant_ has the original idea, being a form of singing, +especially in church; but _cant_ has wandered far from the original +sense, meaning insincere words, especially such as are used by people +pretending to be religious or pious. The word _cant_ was first used +in describing the chanting or whining of beggars, who were supposed +often to be telling lies; and from this it got its present use, which +has nothing to do with singing. + +_Blame_ and _blaspheme_, both coming from the Latin _blasphemare_, +itself taken from a Hebrew word, are not, perhaps, quite so different +in sense; but _blame_ means merely to find fault with a person, while +_blaspheme_ means to speak against God. + +_Chance_ and _cadence_ both come from the Latin _cadere_, "to fall," +but have very little resemblance in meaning. _Chance_ is what happens +or befalls, and _cadence_ is movement measured by the fall of the +voice in speaking or singing. + +But the most interesting doublets of all are those which have neither +form nor sense in common. No one would guess that the words _hyena_ +and _sow_, the names of two such different animals, are doublets. Both +come from the Greek word _sus_ or _hus_, "sow." The Saxons, when they +first settled in England, had the words _su_, "pig," and _sugu_, +"sow;" and later the word _hyena_ was taken from the Latin word +_hyaena_, itself derived from the Greek _huaina_, "sow." + +The words _furnish_ and _veneer_, again, are doublets which do not +resemble each other very closely either in sound or in sense. Both +come from the Old French word _furnir_, which has become _fournir_ in +Modern French, and means "to furnish." The English word _furnish_ was +taken direct from the French, while the word _veneer_, which used to +be spelt _fineer_, came into English from a German word also borrowed +from the French _furnir_. + +No one would easily guess that the name _nutmeg_ had anything to do +with _musk_; but the word comes from the name which Latin writers in +the Middle Ages gave to this useful seed--_nux muscata_, "musky nut." + +It seems strange, when we come to think of it, that great English +sailors like Admiral Jellicoe and Admiral Beatty are called by a title +which is really the same as the name of an Arabian chieftain--_Emir_. +_Admiral_ comes from the Arab phrase _amir al bahr_, "emir on the +sea." + +Just the opposite to doublets which do not resemble each other are +many pairs of words which are pronounced alike and sometimes spelled +alike. Very often these words come from two different languages, and +there are many of them in English through the habit the language has +always had of borrowing freely whenever the need of a new word has +been felt. + +The word _weed_, "a wild plant," comes from an Old English word, _weod_; +while "widows' weeds" take their name from the Old English word +_woede_, "garment." The word _vice_, meaning the opposite of _virtue_, +comes through the French from the Latin _vitium_, "a fault;" while a +"_vice_," the instrument for taking a perfectly tight hold on anything, +comes from the Latin _vitis_, "a vine," through the French _vis_, "a +screw." Yet another _vice_, as in _viceroy_, _vice-president_, etc., +comes from the Latin _vice_, "in the place of." _Angle_, meaning the +sport of fishermen, comes from an Old English word, _angel_, +"fish-hook;" while _angle_, "a corner," comes from the Latin word +_angulus_, which had the same meaning. + +We might imagine that the word _temple_, as the name of a part of the +head, was a metaphor describing the head as the temple of the mind, +but it has no such romantic meaning. _Temple_, the name of a place of +worship, comes from the Latin _templum_, "a temple;" but _temple_, the +name of a part of the head, is from the Latin word _tempus_, which had +the same meaning in Latin, and also the earlier meaning of "the +fitting time." It has been suggested that in Latin _tempus_ came to +mean "the temple," because it is "the fitting place" for a fatal blow, +the temple being the most delicate part of the head. + +_Tattoo_, meaning a "drum beat," comes from the Dutch _tap-toe_, +"tap-to," an order for drinking-houses to shut. But _tattoo_, +describing the cutting away of the skin and dyeing of the flesh so +common among sailors, is a word borrowed from the South Sea Islanders. + +_Sound_ meaning "a noise," and _sound_ meaning "to find out the depth +of," as in _sounding-rod_, are two quite different words. The one +comes from the word _son_, found both in Old English and French, and +the other from the Old English words _sundgyrd_, _sund line_, "a +sounding line;" while _sound_ meaning "healthy" or "uninjured," as in +the expression "safe and sound," comes from the Old English word +_sund_, and perhaps from the Latin _sanus_, "healthy." + +The existence of so many pairs of words of this sort, which have the +same sound and which yet come from such different origins--origins as +far apart as the speech of the people of Holland and that of the South +Sea Islanders, as we saw in the word _tattoo_--illustrates in a very +interesting way the wonderful history of the English language. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +NICE WORDS FOR NASTY THINGS. + + +In the days of Queen Elizabeth there were in England certain writers +who were called "Euphuists." They got this name from the title of a +book, "Euphues," written by one of them, John Lyly. The chief +characteristic of the writings of these Euphuists was the grandiose +way in which they wrote of the simplest things. Their writings were +full of metaphors and figures of speech. The first Euphuists were +looked upon as "refiners of speech," and Queen Elizabeth and the +ladies at her court did their best to speak as much in the manner of +Euphues as they could. + +But all men at all times are unconscious Euphuists, in so far as they +try to say ugly and unpleasant things in a way which will make them +sound pleasant. This tendency in speech is called "euphemism," a word +which is made from two Greek words meaning "to speak well." It is a +true description of what the word means if by "well" we understand "as +pleasantly as possible." The word _euphemeite_, "speak fair," was +used as a warning to worshippers in Greek temples, in the belief that +the speaking of an unfortunate word might bring disaster instead of +blessing from the sacrifice. + +Every day, and often in a day, we use euphemisms. How often do we hear +people say, "if anything should happen to him," meaning "if he died;" +and on tombstones the plain fact of a person's death is nearly always +stated in phrases such as "he passed away," "fell asleep," or +"departed this life." People often refer to a dead person as the +"deceased" or the "departed," or as the "_late_ so-and-so." The fact +is that, death being to most people the unpleasantest thing in the +world, there is a general tendency to mention it as little as +possible, and, when the subject cannot be avoided, to use vague and +less realistic phrases than the words _death_, _dead_, or _die_. + +One reason for this avoidance of an unpleasant subject is the +superstitious feeling that mentioning a thing will bring it to pass. +Or, again, if a misfortune has happened, many people feel that it only +makes it worse to talk about it. While everybody avoids speaking on +the subject, we can half pretend to ourselves that it is not true. + +We might imagine that this kind of "refinement of speech" (which when +carried to excess really becomes vulgar) was the result of modern +people being so "nervous." But this is not the case. Complete savages +have the same custom. If civilized people have a superstitious feeling +that to mention a misfortune may bring it to pass, savages firmly +believe that this is the case. Not only will they not mention the +subject of death in plain words, but some will not even mention the +name of a dead person or give that name to a new-born child, so that +in some tribes names die out in this way. Many civilized people have +this same idea that it is unlucky for a new-born child to be called by +the name of a brother or sister who has already died. + +The subject of death has gathered more euphemisms around it than +almost any other. Some of them are ugly and almost vulgar, while +others, from the way in which they have been used, are almost +poetical. To speak of the "casualties" in a battle, meaning the number +of killed and wounded men, seems almost heartless; but to say a man +"fell in battle," though it means the same thing, is almost poetical, +because it suggests an idea of courage and sacrifice. The expression, +"Roll of Honour," is a euphemism, but poetical. It suggests the one +consoling thought which relieves the horror of the bald expression, +"list of casualties." + +Another cause of the use of euphemisms, besides the superstitious fear +of bringing misfortune by mentioning it too plainly, is the fear of +being vulgar or indecent. Through this feeling words which are quite +proper at one time pass out of use among refined people. English +people do not freely use the word "stomach" in conversation, and are +often a little shocked when they hear French people describing their +ailments in this region of the body. In the same way, names of +articles of underclothing pass out of use. The old word for the +garment which is now generally called a "chemise" was _smock_; but +this in time became tinged with vulgarity, and the word _shift_ was +used. This in its turn fell out of use among refined people, who began +to use the French word _chemise_. Even this, and the word _drawers_, +which was also once a most refined expression, are falling into +disuse, and people talk vaguely of "underlinen" in speaking of these +garments. The shops which are always refined to the verge of vulgarity +only allow themselves to use the French word _lingerie_. + +Again, the faults of our friends and acquaintances, and even the +graver offences of criminals, are matters with which we tend to deal +lightly. Such offences have gathered a whole throng of euphemisms +about them. When we do not like to say boldly that a person is a liar, +we say the same thing by means of the euphemism a "stranger to the +truth." Other lighter ways of saying that a person is lying is to say +that he is "romancing," or "drawing the long bow," or "drawing on the +imagination," or "telling a fairy tale." A thief will be described as +a "defaulter," and we may say of a man who has stolen his employer's +money as it passed through his hands that he is "short in his +accounts." + +Especially among the poorer or less respectable people, to whom the +idea of crime becomes familiar, the use of slang euphemisms on this +subject grows up. A person for whom the police are searching is +"wanted." A man who is hanged "swings." These expressions may seem +very dreadful to more refined people, but their use really comes from +the same desire to be indulgent which leads more educated people to +use euphemisms to cover up as far as possible the faults of their +friends. + +Again, misfortunes which come not from outside happenings but from +some defect in a person's mind and body are often the subject of +euphemisms. In Scotland a person who is quite an imbecile will be +described as an "innocent"--a milder way of saying the same thing. +_Insane_ and _crazy_ were originally euphemisms for _mad_, but now +have come to be equally unpleasant descriptions. So for _drunken_ the +euphemism _intemperate_ came to be used, but is now hardly a more +polite description. We would not willingly speak of a person being +"fat" in his presence. If it is necessary to touch on the subject, the +word "stout" is more favoured. In the absence of the fat person the +humorous euphemism may be used by which he or she is said to "have a +good deal of _embonpoint_." + +Many words are euphemisms in themselves, just as many words are +complete metaphors in themselves. The word _ill_ means literally +"uncomfortable," but has come to have a much more serious meaning. +_Disease_ means literally "not being at ease," but the sense in which +we use it describes something much more serious than the literal +meaning. The word _ruin_ is literally merely a "falling." + +One result of words being used euphemistically is that they often +cease to have their milder original meaning, and cease therefore to +seem euphemistic at all. _Vile_, which now means everything that is +bad, is in its literal and earlier use merely "cheap." _Base_, which +has the meaning of unutterable meanness, is literally merely "low." +_Mercenary_ is not exactly a complimentary description now. It means +that a person thinks far too much of money, but originally it merely +meant "serving for pay," a thing which most men are obliged to do. +_Transgression_ is generally used now to describe some rather serious +offence, but it literally means only a "stepping across." The "step" +which it describes being, however, in the wrong direction, the word +has come to have a more and more serious meaning. The study of +euphemisms can teach us much about men's thoughts and manners in the +past and the present. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE MORAL OF THESE STORIES. + + +Most stories have a moral. At least grown-up people have a habit of +tacking a little lesson on to the end of the stories they tell to +children. And as a rule the children will listen to the moral for the +sake of the story. And so even the stories which words tell us have +their lessons for us too, and, let us hope, the stories are +sufficiently interesting to pay for the moral. + +One thing that these stories must have shown us is that the English +language is a very ancient and wonderful thing. We have only been able +to get mere glimpses of its wonderful development since the days when +the ancestors of the peoples of Europe and many of the peoples of +India spoke the one Aryan tongue. All the history of Europe and of +India--we might almost say of the world--is contained in the languages +which have descended from that Aryan tongue. + +Another point which these stories have impressed upon us is that +language is a kind of mirror to thought. For every new idea people +must find a word, and as ideas change words change with them. These +stories have given us some idea of the wonderful growth of ideas in +the minds of men in the past; they have shown us men daring all +dangers for the sake of adventure and discovery and for pride of +country; they have shown us the growth of new ideas of religion and +kindness, new notions about science and learning: in fact, they have +given us glimpses of the whole story of human progress. + +The great lesson which these stories ought to teach us is respect for +words. Seeing as we do what a beautiful and wonderful thing the +English language has become, it ought to be the resolution of each one +of us never to do anything to spoil that beauty. Every writer ought to +choose his words carefully, neither inventing nor copying ugly forms +of speech. We have seen also from these stories, especially in the +chapter on "Slang," how people have misused certain words, until +speakers and writers of good taste can no longer use them in their +original sense, and therefore do not use them at all. + +There are many other faults in speaking and in writing which take away +from the beauty and dignity of the language. We shall see what some of +these faults are; but one golden rule can be laid down which, if +people keep it, will help them to avoid all these faults. No one +should ever try to write in a fine style. The chief aim which all +young writers should keep before them is to say exactly what they +mean, and in as few and simple words as possible. If on reading what +they have written they find that it is not perfectly clear, they +should not immediately begin to rewrite, but instead set themselves to +find out whether their _thoughts_ are perfectly clear. + +There is no idea which has no word to fit it. Of course some writers +must use difficult language. The ordinary reader can sometimes not +understand a sentence of a book of philosophy. This is not because the +philosophers do not write clearly, but because the ideas with which +they have to deal are very subtle, and hard for the ordinary person to +understand. + +But for ordinary people writing on ordinary things there is no excuse +for writing so as not to be clearly understood, or for writing in such +a long and round-about way that people are tired instead of refreshed +by reading. Nor is there any excuse for the use of words and phrases +which are vulgar or too colloquial for the subject; yet how often is +this done in the modern newspaper. It may seem unnecessary to speak to +boys and girls of the faults of newspaper writers. But the boys and +girls of to-day are the newspaper writers and readers of the future, +and the habits which young writers form cling to them afterwards. Of +course many of the faults which the worse kind of journalists commit +in writing would not occur to boys and girls; but one fault leads to +another. The motive at the root of most poor and showy writing is the +desire to "shine." The faults which seem so detestable to the critical +reader seem very ingenious and brilliant to the writer of poor taste. +To the journalist, as to the schoolboy and the schoolgirl, the golden +rule is, "Be simple." + +Let us see what some of the commonest faults of showy and poor writers +of English are--always with the moral before us that they are to be +avoided. + +One great fault of newspaper writers and of young writers in general +is to sprinkle their compositions thickly with quotations, until some +beautiful and expressive lines from the greatest poetry and prose have +almost lost their force through the ear having become tired by hearing +them too often. Some such phrases are-- + +"Tell it not in Gath;" + +"Heap coals of fire upon his head;" + +"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof:" + +all fine and picturesque lines, the apt quotation of which must have +been very impressive, until, through frequent repetition, they have +become almost commonplace. + +A similar hackneyed fault is the too frequent application of the name +of some historical or Biblical personage to describe the character of +some person of whom we are writing. It is much more expressive now to +describe a person as a "doubter" than as a "doubting Thomas," though +the latter phrase may serve to show that the writer knows something +of his New Testament. The first man who called a sceptic a "doubting +Thomas" was certainly a witty and cultivated person; but this cannot +now be said of the use of this hackneyed phrase. Again, it is better +to say a "traitor" than a "Judas," a "wise man" than a "Solomon," a +"tyrant" than a "Nero," a "great general" than a "Napoleon;" for all +these names used in this way have lost their force. + +A similar fault is the describing of a person by some abstract noun +such as a "joy," a "delight," an "inspiration"--a way of speaking +which savours both of slang and affectation, and which is not likely +to appeal to people of good taste. Of course it is quite different +when the poet writes-- + + "She was a vision of delight;" + +for poetry has its own rules, just as it has its own range of ideas +and inspiration, and we are speaking now of the writing of mere prose. + +Another bad fault of the same kind, but more colloquial, and more +often met with in speaking than in writing, is the too frequent use of +a word or phrase. Some people say "I mean," or "personally," or "I +see," or "you see," or similar expressions, at nearly every second +sentence, until people listening to them begin to count the number of +times these expressions occur, instead of attending to the subject of +conversation. + +Another very common fault in writing made by newspaper writers, and +even more so by young beginners in composition, is the use of long +words derived from Latin instead of the simpler words which have come +down from the Old English. This does not mean that these words are not +so good or so beautiful as the Old English words. As we have seen, +these words were borrowed by our language to express ideas for which +no native word could be found. But a person who deliberately chooses +long Latin words because they are longer, and, as he thinks, sound +grander, is sure to write a poor style. A saying which is perhaps +becoming almost as "hackneyed" as some of the quotations already +mentioned in this chapter is, "The style is the man." This means that +if a person thinks clearly and sincerely he will write clearly and +sincerely. If a person's thoughts are lofty, he will naturally find +dignified words to express them. No good writer will deliberately +choose "high-sounding" words to express his ideas. All young writers +should avoid what have been called "flowery flourishes." + +Again, young writers should be very careful not to use really foreign +words to express an idea for which we have already a good word in +English. Sometimes the foreign word comes first to our pen, but this +may be because of the bad habit which has grown up of using these +words in place of the English words which are quite as correct and +expressive. Sometimes, on the other hand, the foreign word expresses +a shade of meaning which the English word misses, and then, of course, +it is quite right to use it. For instance, _amour propre_ is not in +any way better than "self-love," _betise_ than "stupid action," +_camaraderie_ than "comradeship," _savoir faire_ than "knowledge of +the world," _chef d'oeuvre_ than "masterpiece," and so on. + +One disadvantage of borrowing such words is that they often come to be +used in a different sense from their use in their native language; and +people with an imperfect knowledge of these languages will say rather +vulgar or shocking things when using them in the English manner in +those languages. Thus, to speak of a person of a certain "calibre" in +French is exceedingly vulgar; and refined people do not use the word +_chic_ as freely as the English use of it would suggest. Examples of +foreign words which we could hardly replace by English expressions are +_blase_, _tete-a-tete_, _brusque_, _bourgeois_, _deshabille_. These +have been borrowed, just as words have been borrowed all through its +history, by the English language to fill gaps. They have really become +English words. But there are many foreign expressions now scattered +freely through newspapers the sense of which can only be plain to +those who have had a classical education. Unfortunately it is only the +minority of readers who have had this. The effect is to make whole +passages unintelligible or only half intelligible to the majority of +readers. This is not writing good English. Thus people will write _le +tout Paris_ instead of "all Paris," _memoires pour servir_ instead of +"documents," _ipsis Hibernis Hiberniores_ for "more Irish than the +Irish." Such phrases are quite unsuitable to the general reader, and +as perfect equivalents can be found in English, there would be no +point in using them, even if writing for a learned society. + +Modern English, and especially colloquial English, has borrowed a +great deal from the American way of speaking English. The people of +the United States, though their language is that of the +mother-country, have modified it so that it is, as it were, a mirror +of the difference between American and English life. In America there +is more hurry and bustle and less dignity. It is this difference which +makes Americans and the American way of speaking appear interesting +and piquant to English people. But this is no good reason for the +adoption of American mannerisms into the English language. A typically +American word is _boom_, meaning a sudden coming into popularity of +something. Thus one may speak of a "boom" in motors, and the word has +become quite common in English; but it is not beautiful, and we could +easily have done without it. Words which sound quite natural when used +by Americans often seem unnecessarily "slangy" when used by English +people. + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Stories That Words Tell Us, by Elizabeth O'Neill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES THAT WORDS TELL US *** + +***** This file should be named 19052.txt or 19052.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/5/19052/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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