~ —/L1yn' 
















RAMBLES AMONG WORDS:
CVeiz  o~trp,  XNtiorp anb'ualshm
BY
WILLIAM SWINTON, M. A.,
AUTHOR OF " CAMPAIGNS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC," C' DECISIVE BATTLES
OF THE WAR,:) " SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES),"
" WORD-ANALYSIS,) ETC.
Polonius. WNVht do you read, my lord?
lamlent Words,words, words,  ds.
SHAKESPEAIRE.
DE VISED EDITION.
NEW YORIK AND CHICAGO:
IVISON, BLAKEMAN, TAYLOR, AND COMPANY.
1872.




Entered ae~cording to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
IVISON, BLAKEMAN, TAYLOR, & CO.,
in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.




PREFACE.
THE material of this little book originally appeared
in the form of articles contributed to PUTNAM'S
MAGAZINE (dear old Maga, with its dress of pea-green
and its corn-stalk emblem!) during the years 1853
and 1854. Afterwards the papers were put together
in book form, and published in 1858.  Since that
time the "Rambles" has passed through several editions, and has been reproduced in London with
emendations by an English editor. As there is still
a certain demand for it, and the book has for some
time been out of print, a new edition is now issued
by Messrs. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor, & Co.
It would be strange indeed if, after the score of
years that have elapsed since the book was composed,
more than half of the score spent in active journalism
(than which no schooling is more admirably fitted
to take the nonsense out of a man), — it would be
strange indeed, if the author had not outgrown his




iv                  PREFACE.
work. When it was written the writer was yet in
his teens; and if this be not sufficient excuse for its
youthful vices of style, he has none other to offer.
Still, it seems that the very enthusiasm  and verve of
the book have had their attractions for students at
the age of poetry and faith; and perhaps this may
be taken in partial mitigation of its faults.
Such as it is, "with all its imperfections on its
head," the RAMBLES is now again given to the public.  It is in no wise a book of erudition, but merely
a slight contribution to the popular study of our
native philology.
w. S.
NEW YORK, 1872.




CONTENTS.
aaamble 4Firzt.
Preliminary,.....
The Work of the Senses,...20
The Idealism of Words,......               31
3Bamblt 4ourtb.
Fossil Poetries,......... 56
Fossil Histories,......              74
3RambIt Z fxtb.
Words of Abuse,... 109
3ltantblt Zdentb.
Fancies and Fantastics,..                   139
3aamblt Big~tb).
Verbal Ethics,.... 176
aamlblt YtintbMedals in Names,...... 200
3aminb   ITntb.
Synonyms and their Suggestions,.230
SRambIt Bltbtntb.
The Growth of Words,                                          265
Engliambeit t;Iftca28
EnIglish in Anerica,..                                   286








RAMBLE FIRST.
PRELIMINARY.
JOHN STiRLING records that when about nine years
old he was struck- that the word sincere was derived
from the practice of filling up flaws in furniture with
wax, whence sine cera came to mean pure, not vamped
up. This explanation he says gave him great pleasure and abode in his memory as having first shown
him that there is a reason in Words as well as in
things.
I suppose many of us are conscious of having made
similar pleasurable discoveries. With what exultation
have I many a time welcomed the flashing across my
mind of the interior import of a word, revealing some
deep analogy or subtle beauty or furnishing a new
and pungent pointing to some old moral. Nor can I
imagine it possible to awaken without a thrill of
delight to the first consciousness of such meanings as
are wrapt up in'WRONG,' which is just something




8                 PRELIM1NARY.
wrung or distorted from  the right-' HEAVEN,' the
firmament heaved or heaven up over US-'-SUBTLE,'
whose primary meaning is fine spun-' MISER,' which
is just miserable; or learn without a glow of lively
satisfaction that'ABSURD' implies a malappropriate
reply such as might come from a surdus or deaf man,
who, knowing nothing of the antecedents of the conversation, would of course be apt to answer absurdly;
that a'CLOWN' is simply a colonus or tiller of the
ground; that'SCOUNDREL' conceals in its composition
a soldier who absconds at muster-roll; that'RIVALS'
are, etymologically, dwellers on the banks of the
same rivulet or stream-a circumstance so apt to give
rise to quarrels and bickerings; or that'SYCOPHANT'
shuts up a curious piece of Greek history and alludes
to persons informing on individuals exporting figs —
syca-from Attica.
The copiousness of meaning which WVords enwrap is
indeed more than all that was said or thought.  Children of the mind, they reflect the manifold richness of
man's faculties and affections. In language is incarnated
man's unconscious passionate creative energy. There
is an endless, indefinable, tantalizing charm in Words.
They bring the eternal provocations of personality.
They come back to us with that alienated majesty
which a great writer ascribes to ojur own thoughts.




WORDS -MEDALS OF THE MIND.              9
They are the sanctuary of the intuitions. They paint
humanity, its thoughts, longings, aspirations, struggles,
failures-paint them on a canvas of breath, in the
colors of life.
To the illustration of the opulences of Words I
design these pages: with Runic spells to evoke the
pagan wanderers from  their homes in the visionary
eld-to read some of the strange lessons they teach,
to catch of the wit and the wisdom, the puns and the
poetries, the philosophies, the fancies and the follies
that lurk in and flash out from them, and to seize,
flaming down, as it were, from  the "firmament of
bards and sages," some of the deep analogies, the
spiritual significance, the poetic beauty and the rich
humor that sport and dwell in even our common,
every-day words and phrases.
Of course we shall ramble, now chasing some gay
etymologic butterfly, anon lingering'neath the palm
and plantain of genius or lonely wandering'mid
The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of old religion,
The power, the beauty and the majesty
That have their haunts in dale or piny mountains,
Or forest, by slow stream or'pebbly spring,
Or chasms and watery depths.




10                PRELIMINARY.
Medals of the mind we may call words. And as
the medals of creation from the Geologic world reveal
the workings of creative energy and the successive
developments of the divine idea, so Words present a
humanitary Geology where histories, philosophies and
ethics lie embodied and embalmed. But this is a
spiritual Geology, its strata built up of the rich
deposits of mind. With passionate fervor man pours
himself on nature. An irrepressible longing to
express his secret sense of his unity with nature possesses him: and from the consciousness, all plastic and
aglow, rush Words, infinitely free, rich and varied,
laden with pathos and power, with passion, poetry,
humor, thought.
Of course Language is a living Original. It is not
made but grows. The growth of language repeats the
growth of the plant. At first it is only root: next
it puts forth a stem, then leaves, and finally blossoms.
" One must not," writes William Von Humboldt, "consider a language as a product dead and formed but
once: it is an animate being and ever creative. Human thought elaborates itself with the progress of
intelligence; and of this thought language is a manifestation. An idiom cannot therefore remain stationary: it walks, it develops, it grows up, it fortifies itself,
it becomes old and it reaches decrepitude."




LANGUAGE A LIVING ORGANISM.        11
Language must move with the movements of mind,
as the ocean obeys siderial influences. A petrified and
mechanical national mind will certainly appear in a
petrified and mechanical language. But the provisions
are perfect. The renovation of language is provided
for, as the renovation of the races is provided for, by
a subtle chemistry. The sublime democracy of speech!
When a tongue has become dead and effete, the mind
walks out of it. With an advance in the national
mind-with the influx of a nobler spirit, comes a renovation of its language: by a passionate propulsive
movement it ejects its old dead speech, and rises to
larger and freer expression. Like the waters in spring,
the rising spirit sweeps away the frozen surface of an
effete society, literature, language and thought.
The great tidal movements in a nation's life are
repeated in great tidal movements in its language.
With new creations, thoughts and hopes emerge new
demands on the horizon of its speech. The English
language shows in its growth crises that mark real
upsurgings from the spontaneous depths of human
nature. In Chaucer is embalmed that rich primitive
sensuous perception of English life, when the language
became so opulent in expressions of sensible objects
and simple feelings. The flood-tide in the national
mind that came with the Sixteenth Century finds




12                PRELIMINARlY.
expression in the Elizabethan literature, especially in
Shakespeare in whom English reached its truly modern mould. And the vast billowy tendencies of modern life, too —the new political, social, scientific births
-are making new demands on the English idiom. It
is for America especially to evoke new realizations
from the English speech. Always waiting in a lan-.
guage are untold possibilities. On the lips of the people,
in the free rich unconscious utterance of the popular
heart are the grand eternal leadings and suggestions.
Of all the'heritages which America receives the
English language is beyond all comparison the mightiest.  Language of the grand stocks, language of
reception, of hospitality, it is above all fitted to be the
speech for America. There is nothing fortuitous in
language. It is for reasons the English idiom is here.
In the English, more than all others, was concentrated
the spirit of the modern, breaking up the old crystalline classic mould. It is for America grandly to use
this grand inheritance. No language has, no language
ever had, such immense assimilation as the English.
Freely it absorbs whatever is of use to it, absorbs and
assimilates it to its own fluid and flexible substance.
This rich copious hospitable flow is to be encouraged.
In the growth of Words all the activities of the




METAPIIYSICS OF LANGUAGE.          13
mind conspire. Language is the mirror of the living
inward consciousness.  Language is concrete metaphysics. What rays does it let in on the mind's
subtle workings!  There is more of what there is
of essential in metaphysics —more of the structural
action of the human mind, in Words, than in the concerted introspection of all the psychologists.  "In
language," observes Frederick Schlegelin a profoundly
suggestive passage, " all the principal powers have a
nearly equal part and share. The grammatical structure
is furnished by the reason. From the fancy, on the
other hand, is derived whatever is figurative; and how
far does not this reach, extending into the primary and
natural signification of words, which often no longer
exists, or at least is rarely traceable? Aiid so also that
deep spiritual significance, that characteristic meaning,
which in the original stem-syllable and radical words
of some rich old language, invariably is regarded as a
beauty, must be ascribed to the understanding, which
so profoundly seizes and precisely designates whatever
is peculiar, unless perhaps it is preferred to assign it
to an immediate feeling which wonderfully harmonizes
with or responds to it."
In our studies on Words, then, a simple logic is
indicated for us in the several mental activities that
work in the mechanism of speech. Through the por



14               PRELIMINARY.
tals of the Senses enter the vivid presentings of nature.
On these the constructive Reason, the idealizing Imagination, the ethical Conscience work.  Of this
working words are the records. Hence their warranty.
This it is that gives them their authority as profound
moral teachers, and amber-like, embalms within them
great and noble poetries, histories and philosophies.
It may not be amiss to throw out a few illustrations
of the treasures hoarded in Words. Such intimations
may serve the office of the overture-that is, may
strike fundamental chords.
A law that runs through the warp and woof of
language is the familiar principle of a translation of
sensible perceptions into the realm of ideas, into meta
physics and morals.
WVe are all conscious of a psychologic state when
the mind is balancing between conflicting possibilities,
when, as Dante has it,
II si e ii no nel capo mi tenzoni,
when "Yes and No contend within the head."  Now
how faithfully has the common intuition embodied this
condition in our'SUSPENSE,' which is indeed the
being-suspensus- hung up, balancing in deliberation.
And its analogue'DELIBERATION,' which I have just
used, follows a like figure-it being just the action of




TREASURES HOARDED IN WORDS.           15
that mental balance-libra-into  which possibilities
and probabilities are thrown. Our word'AUSPICIOUS'
embalms a curious reminiscence of the good omens of
the auspex, or bird-inspector, whom  the old-world
nations were wont to consult as oracles; while' FISCAL'
carries a reminder of thefiscus or wicker basket which
in primitive times contained the revenue of the state.
So'FRUGAL' is strictly fruit-bearing,'CANDOR' is
just whiteness, and'SERIOUS' (sine risus) is the being
unable to raise a laugh.
H-listory, too, and vivid and vital history records
itself in CVords. The coal in my grate is pictured
with ferns that flourished untold millennia ago. WVith
equal fidelity national customs, historic events and
mighty social revolutions are indelibly stamped on
word-medals.
What a curious piece of history does' PECUNIARY'
record! The Latinpecunia, wealth, property, gives it
to us. Unwrapping it still farther we come to pecus,
cattle, herds: so that, flocks and herds being in primitive and pastoral times the chief wealth, pecunia
became afterwards the expression for all the representatives of property. What a strange tale, too, does'SAUNTER' tell! The Crusades rise at the spell.
Saunt and Terre-the holy land-is the composition of
the term: and so, literally, a going to the Holy Land.




16                PREMONITORY.
But as this originally meritorious performance soon
degenerated in many cases into the mere pretence for
idling and mendicity, the claim of going to the Saunt
terre came to be regarded as a mere ruse, and' SAUNTER' took the opprobrious burden it now bears with
it. I have here but space to mention the word'WIFE,'
whose etymologic connection with weave, web, etc.,
records an interesting piece of primitive socialism.
Nor less has the informing fancy interwoven its
fairy imaginings in Words. The Grotesque and Arabesque are here, too.' Hocus-rocus' for instance, is
said to be a monkish muddle for Hoc est corpus Christi
(the formula, This is the body, etc.). A'NOSTRUM'
preserves the claim of the Mediteval quacks to their
specifics as being-nostrum —ours, that is remedies
unknown to all the rest of the world: and to be in a'QUANDARY' is just to be in a pickle where you may
well ask, qu'en dira-t-on —what will they say to it?
Marvelous are the modes in which the word-forming
faculties have labored to give to terms burdens of
abuse. The very anatomy of the human passions is
to be found here. I may instance'RASCAL' whose
primary signification is, in the words of Verstegan, *
an "il favoured leane and woorthelesse deer," and
* Restitution of Decayed Intelligence.




HISTORY AND MORALS- IN WORDS.           17
then, by a " strayned sence" applied to a mean vile
fellow-the worst of the herd.  Genial old Rogei
Ascham has a pungent illustration of the primary
meaning of rascal:
" A father that doth let loose his son:to all experiences is
most like a fond hunter [that is, a foolish hunter] that letteth slip
a whelp to the whole herd; twenty to one he shall fall upon a
rascall [that is,' a leane woorthlesse deer'] and let go the fair
game."
The Scholemaster.'FANATIC,' too,'is: well worth  exploring. - The
Romanfanaticus was simply one ardently attached to
thefana or temples. But as: these devotees carried
their superstitious observances to outrageous lengths,
as lacerating themselves with knives, and so forth, the
term naturally came to assume the opprobrious meaning it bears with us.  As to'VIXEN' that is just a
fox-en —she fox, and' BLACKGUARD' shuts up a
curious piece of English history, of which more anon.
The Morals in Words! Language is man's own
judge. Minos and Rhadamanthus are here. Terrible
the tales they often  tell  of: human  frailty and
depravity; grand often are they: in their beautiful
scorn of the mean and ignoble. - How fine the allusion
conveyed in'WORSHIP,' which is indeed just one's




18                PRELIMINARY.
worth-ship!'DECENT,' too, tells us how becomingdecens-is the quality. And what a terrible sentence
is heaped on all pride, on
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
in the fact that'VANITY' (vanitas, vanus, empty) is
but emptiness!
I find, however, I am running these premonitory
thoughts into the very pith of the book, so here I
shall abruptly close. But I read the other day in the
Cratylus of Plato an utterance of that old Socratic
brain, so subtle, so genial; and which I find after the
lapse of these twenty-odd centuries still so authentic
and intelligible that I cannot resist transferring it to
my page.
"0 Hermogenes, son of Hipponicus, there is an
old proverb, that beautiful things are somehow difficult to learn. Now the learning relating to names
happens to be no small affair. I would not myself,
Cratylus, confidently assert a single point of what I
have said above. But I have considered with Hermogenes in the way it seemed good to me, so that on
this account, at least, speak boldly, as I am ready to




PLATO ON WORDS.              19
receive it, if you have anything better to say than
this. Nor shall I wonder if you have something to
say better; for you seem to me to have considered
things of this kind yourself, and to have learned them
from others. Should you, then, say anything better,
write me down as one of your disciples respecting the
meaning of tWords."




RAMBLE SECOND.
THE WORK OF THE SENSES.
" Speech is the perfect expression of the-Senses. Words are
but the representations of the disintegrated body of Man."
OKEN.
SYDNEY SMITH has somewhere an amusing passage
illustrative of the radical sensualism that underlies
our most supersensual terms, wherein alluding to our
vesthetic application of such expressions as'taste,''tact' (from the Latin verb to touch),'eye,' etc., he
observes that we will doubtless soon come to speak
of a man with a fine'nose' for this or that province
of physics or philosophy.
Extravagance aside, the Senses have certainly left
their seal and superscription, sharp, unmistakable, on-,
the words of our language. The role they fill in the'
body forthshadows their part and play in speech.
Roots of man's nature-outlets and inlets of the world




SENSUALISM OF LANGUAGE.              21
-their vivid, strong-flavored presentings run spinelike through language.'SENSIBLE' is but a lively
condition of the senses or feelings,'APATHY? iS want
of feeling-' GUSTO' is an idealization of rich juicy
taste —' TACT' is delicacy of:touch, the' TANGIBLE' is
what can be touched —' RANK' and'NASTY' have both
a far-off genesis in terms implying the nose-and'ACUTENESS' iS properly just sharpness of hearing.
How copiously, too, has the Eye contributed!' CIRCUMSPECTION,' for instance, is a carefuJlooking (specio)
around on all sides (circum), hence mental-wariness —:'PERSPICUOUS' is what is readily to be seeni throughand'ENVY' finely seizes that askance look which is
the; natural- manifestation of this passion.
Everywhere man finds himself, and builds on the
ideals of his own mental structure. Civilization is
but the crystallization into fact of the human faculties
and functions. The practical arts are but an expanded
Hand: telescope and microscope are realizations of
the structure of the Eye: he adds boots of swiftness
to his feet in railroads and steam navigation: and his
nervous system is repeated, after sublime proportions,
in the electric threads with which he is now  reticu
lating the planet.
All words are primarily  sympathetic.  Words
are born of a passionate yearning. And it is through




22             WORK OF THE SENSES
the Senses that the mind goes out to nature: these the
filaments and outreachings-these the subtle threads
that link phenomena and the mind. I find an impressive testimony to this primary law of language in the
word'THOUGHT.' Evidently enough it is an abstraction
from the verb to think (Saxon, thencan, past part.
thoht), which Horne Tooke * derives from  thing-I
am thing-ed, Me thinketh, that is Me thingeth —precisely analogous to the Latin'REOR' from  resderivations that may intimate the extent to which
things color thoughts.
It is an interesting illustration of how intellectual
conceptions are but a translation of sensible perceptions
that the word' WITS' was formerly used as synonymous
with'SENSES,' a meaning which we can appreciate
from the phrase, to be'OUT OF ONE'S WITS,' that is,
to be out of one's senses.  It also intimates a curious
piece of metaphysics: as though the sole' source' of
wit and wisdom were through the avenues of the senses.
In Chaucer I find the following instance of its
employment:
"Thou hast don sinne again oure Lord Crist, for certes the
three enemies of mankind, that is to sayn, the flesh, the fend,
and the world, thou hast suffred hem entre into thin herte wil* Diversions of Purley, p. 608.




SENSE AND FEELING.                 23
fully by the windowes of thy body, and hast not defended
thyself suffisantly agein hir assautes and hir temptations, so
that they han wounded thy soule in five places, this is to sayn,
the dedly sinnes that ben entred into thyn herte by thy five
wittes," etc.
Tale of Melibeus.*
And how terribly does this passage find realization
in our' SENSUAL,' that is, a devotion of all the powers
to the service of the senses —a devotion, which Goethe
has embodied with such terrific power in the creation
of Mephistophiles.
On the other hand, what a noble compensation is
found in the word'SENSE,'which simply means feeling,
as though only a man of feeling were a man of' sense.2
And certes between the man of noble heart and he of
great good sense, there is a close enough connection. To
what lofty statement of this thought did Swedenborg
rise in his august and oracular utterance that "the
quality of one's life is the quality of his love i" And
perhaps there is a profounder veracity than we might be
apt to suppose in the old maxim: Quantum  sumus
scimus. At least it might do us no harm to have a
little more faith in heart-tellings and a little less in the
mere dictates of mortality.
* Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, vol. ii. p. 284.




24             WORK OF THE SEFSES.
"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs."
So saith Festus. And so, perhaps, did some of us in
the early, purer days when " Heaven lay about us in
our infancy," as Wordsworth has it, and before the
shades of the prison-house had begun to close upon the
growing boy. Then we measured time, not by the rigid
exactitude of days and weeks and months and years;
but years by the springing of the primrose on the sunkissed braes; and months and weeks and days, by the
exuberance of our emotions, —and that was boundless.
The gustatory propensities of mankind have left
significant seals on Words. Thus, we express one of
our strongest mental repugnances by'DISGUST,' that
is just  DISTASTEi; while everything that is unsystematic and chaotic in intellect finds expression in'CRUDITY' which  is simply  the being-crudus —
uncooked.'PALATE,' also, we employ in the same
sense as taste: thus, "men of nice palates could not
relish Aristotle as dressed up by the schoolmen." How
utterly sensuous! Shakespeare, however, follows in
the same direction:
"Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
I have no relish of them."




THE SENSE OF TASTE.               25
Now, of the force of'RELISH,' we all have a keen
enough appreciation; but our unexpressed, passive
understanding of it is brought out in finer edge by
Minsheu's  etymology  thereof, from  relecher-that
which is so pleasing to the palate as to tempt one to
lick his lips!'CAUSTIC,''MORDANT' and'PIQUANT' have also
a like reference to the sense of taste, and sufficiently
explain themselves, in their burning, biting and stinging
allusions.'SAucY~' is just salsus, salted:'saucy'talk
is therefore talk too highly peppered with salt-in general, too'spicy.' And'RACY' always reminds us of
the root whence it springs.: Thus Cowley's
" Rich, racy verses in which we
The soil from which they come, taste, smell and see."'SAVORY' and'INSIPID' are both from one rootsapio, to taste: the one signifying'tasty' and the
other' tasteless;' while the highest intellectual endowments can result in nothing more exalted than a man
of' SAPIENCE,' which is also just a man of taste. So,
too, our Parisians have sublimated their conceptions
)f all that is highest in modes or morals into their' BON
GOfT.' But this is not much to be wondered at, since
they are constitutionally. rather Epicurean in their
2




26              WORK OF THE SENSES.
philosophy; andit isso natural, with the smack of ClosVougeot or Chateau-Lafitte on the lips, to transfer
the figure, not without gusto, to one's esthetic judgments.  However, so be it: since De gustibus non est
disputandum.
Now besides all this, we are acquainted with at least
one northern European nation (not to mention the
Chinese), who hold that the soul lies in the abdomen,
and in whose language those two distinctly divergent
facts-soul and stomach, find expression in one and
the same term.  Moreover the Greek for mind —
PHREN-is (what is remarkable for so introspective a
race) that which also expresses midriff or diaphragm!
What a lesson do these words read us on the gastronomic proclivities of our race! Should we not join
in the pious ejaculation of Dan Chaucer?
" Adam, our father, and his wif also,
Fro Paradis to labour and to wo,
Were driven for that vice, it is no drede.
For while that Adam fasted, as I rede,
He was in Paradis, and whan that he
Ete of the fruit defended on a tree,
Anon he was outcast' to wo and peine.
O glotonie, on thee wel ought us plaine!"
The Pardoneres Tale.*
* Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, vol. ii. p. 182.




WORDS OF THE EYE.              27
The contributions from the sense of Sight are
numerous and interesting. Nor will they, if questioned, yield less significant replies than such as have
just engaged our attention.'FANCY,'' PHANTASY'
(fantasy),'FANTASTICAL,''PHANTOM,''PHANTASI,''PHASE' and' PHENOMENA' are all drawn from the
Greek verb to see to seem, to appear —phaino:'FANCY'
and'PHANTASY' being the image-forming faculty;'PHANTOM' and'PHANTASM' mere images, spectres
(specio, to see);'PHASE' an aspect, and'PHENOMENA'
being but the apparent, the seeming, in opposition to
the absolute, the real (realis, having relation to thingsres).'THEORY' and'SPECULATION' have an analogous origin, both of them implying a contemplating
abstractly, without reference to the practical. Shakespeare furnishes an instance of the use of'SPECULATION' in its primary sense of sight:
"Thou hast no speculation in those eyes;"
and'SPECULATION' in its commercial application has
reference to the keen look-out that is required to take
advantage of ups and downs of the market.'VISIONARY' should be mentioned in the same connection,
implying as it does the being given to indulging in
mere vague visions. And' PROVIDENCE' iS precisely
fore-sight: while, applied to deity, it is indicative of




28   -        WORK OF THE SENSES.
rim whose luminous glance penetrates the farthest
abysses of the coming time, and in whose divine
scheme all is provided for.'INTUITION' finely expresses thiat mental insight,
that'MIND'S EYE' that reads omens where it goes and
lights up nature with luminous provocations.'IDEA,'
too, is just an image or picture formed in the mind
through perceptions of sight. But that was a splendid translation which the term received in the hands
of Plato when he raised IDEAI to mean the archetypes
or patterns existing in the Divine mind, and of which
all material forms and embodiments are but projections.
I; have already referred to the word'ENVY' aS finely
picturing' that  side-long  covetous, glance  that
this passion inspires.'INVIDIOUS' is precisely the
same, with a Latin origin. Nor less pictorial is' RESPECT,' which its analogue'REGARD' will well interpret for us. For our'REGARD' primarily implies a
looking at, an observing: so,' RESPECT' iS properly
just-respectus —a looking back. The metamorphosis
they undergo is curious. For a'respectable' person
is just one so worthy of'regard' as to cause us to
look back again:at: him' RESPECTABLE' has, however,
been sadly degenerating these late years, being now
chiefly employed to designate decayed gentility or
mental mediocrity.




TEHE SENSE OF SIGHT.                 29'SEER,' again, is simply' one who sees-a see-er —
whose Eye has been unsealed to the " open secret" of
the universe, in Fichte's grand  thought-a  secret
hidden from  the wise and prudent (in their own
imaginings), and yet' revealed'-revelo-unveiled to
those exercising the faith and the humility of babes.
Nor does there exist the problem for which benign
Nature will not give the response, will we but wisely
and trustingly interrogate her. For we know that she
" Never did betray
The heart that loved her."
"The answer lies around, written in all colors and motions,
uttered in all tones of jubilee and wail, in thousand-figured,
thousand-voiced, harmonious nature; but where is the cunning
eye to whom that God-written apocalypse will yield articulate
meaning? We sit as in a boundless phantasmagoria and dreamgrotto; boundless, for the faintest star, the remotest century, lies
not even nearer the verge thereof; sounds and varied-colored
visions flit around our sense; but Him, the unslumbering, whose
work both dream and dreamer are, we see not-except in rare,
half-waking moments, suspect not."
Sartor Resartus.
Sight is the most spiritual of the senses.  Through
Sight the structure of the world is revealed. Through
it the perception of identity, growths, processes, vistas.
Hence the breadth of the significance of this sense in




30            WORK OF THE SENSES.
the nomenclature of Science. If Sight carries with it
the architecture of the world, Sound brings the universal solvent which whirls matter back to primal
sether. In melody Nature whispers to man the secret
confessions of her plan. Oken asserts that melody
is the voice of the universe whereby it proclaims its
scheme or its innermost essence. They at least know
this who have felt the mystical o'ermastering of
Music. Music is a passionate yearning after more
primeval natures.
The contributions of the Senses to Words are by
no means exhausted. But the principle does not lead
Far. It is when the creative Reason, the idealizing
Imagination begin their work, loading words with
new burdens of meaning, that the master-workings of
the mind in speech appear. And for a theory of
speech somewhat progressive is required.




RAMBLE THIRD.
THE IDEALISM[ OF WORDS.
" Rendering apparent the images of unapparent natures
And inscribing the unapparent in the apparent frame of the
world."                         ZOROASTER.
MAN is an idealist. Of this idealism Language is a
primitive expression. For Nature, too, is emblematic.
There is that subtle consanguinity between Nature
and the Soul that the laws of man's mentality have
the power to unlock the phenomena of the world.
There is a saying reported of Zoroaster, and coming
from the deeps of forty centuries, that:" the congruities of material forms to the laws of the soul are divine
allurements," and that was a sublime audacity of
Paracelsus that "those. who would understand the
course of the heavens above must first of all recognize
the heaven in man."
With passionate profusion Nature pours her




32             IDEALISM OF WORDS.
splendid solicitations on man. Flood and firmament,
light and night, bird and flower, woo him with their
sweet eternal persuasions:
" A rainbow, a sunbeam,
A subtle smell that spring unbinds,
Dead pause abrupt of midnight winds,
An echo or a dream," —
all speak to the listening soul a strange yet unmistakable language; and to me, even
" The meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."
This idealism of language rests on no whim, but is
a primary and necessary fact. Up from the core of
nature comes this wondrous symbolism. Words are
emblematic because things are emblematic.  And as
Nature stands the splendid fable of spirit, so the
informing Imagination converts the language of outward phenomena into types of the mind. There is no
term applied to a metaphysical or moral fact but
which, when opened up, is found to be the translation
of some fact in nature.'FERVOR' simply means
heat;'TRACTABLE,' that may be drawn  along;'ABUNDANCE' images an overflowing cup and'TRANSGRESSION' is the crossing of the line that divides right




ALLEGORY OF LANGUAGE.            33
from wrong. In like manner, when we speak of
one's taking'UMBRAGE' we simply idealize a shadow,
umbra-the dark shade that passes over one's mind.'SUPERCILIOUS' is a picturesque translation of the
act of raising the eyebrows or supercilium-the natural
expression of hauteur. And a'SCRUPLE' (of conscience) is a vivid rendering of the scrupulus or little
bits of gravel that used to get into the very open
shoes of the Romans, and produce trouble and
hesitancy.
This allegory runs through the warp and woof of
language. It is a primary act of the word-forming
faculties, which take up a natural symbol and enshrine
for ever within it a thought. Let us trace some of
the workings of this wondrous law.
What an image of fractious human passions must
have filled the mind of that poet who first spoke about'REFRAINING' therefrom-that is reining (froenum)
them in, curbing them with bit and bridle!~ How faithfully, too, is the subtracting one part from a fault and
subduing another, thus as it were thinning it out, expressed in our'EXTENUATE' (tenuis, thin): and how
deep was his knowledge of human nature who first
characterized that peering into another's faults and
failings as'SUSPICION.' Could aught be more descriptive, and at the same time convey a better moral,




34            IDEALISM OF WORDS.
than does'SCANDAL,' especially when viewed in connection with the Greek scandalon, a stumbling-block,
or indeed, primarily, a trap-spring, a snare? or'PRECOCIOUS' whose composition  implies cooked
before the time, as'PREMATURE' means ripe before
the time? or'OBVIOUS' which is simply so apparent
as to meet us-ob vias —in our very way, or' INSINUATE,' which is just to steal-in sinus-into the breast?
WVe all know the value of' CANDOR,' but may it not
heighten our admiration of the quality when we reflect
that a'candid' man is one whose walk and conversation are-candidus-of a shining while: in whose
communication is none of the darkness of deceit, but
all is fair and lucid?' DEXTERITY,' again, is sufficiently
palpable in all its significations, and yet do we always
catch the allusion which plays in the word to the dextra
manus-the right hand: that is to say, a' dextrous'
person is one whose' faculties' (that is, facilities -the
doing, the executive part of him) are as perfectly apt
and under control as is the right hand of the crafty
workman.' SINISTER,' on the other hand, has relation
not to the right or good-omened side, but to the left
(sinistra) side of the auspex, where ill-omened birds
appeared; and so, inauspicious, baleful, adverse.
Again, how faithfully is'PRECIPITANCY' symbolized
by that heady haste, which so often causes both per.




WORDS MAKE US PHYSIOGNOMISTS.         35
sons and projects to tumble headforemost-precipritatus!
Just as vivid, however, is' SEDATE' which implies no
more of internal repose than can be expressed by a set
or set-tiled demeanor-quite closely allied, indeed, to'DEMURE' which, by the way, is a French quality,
claiming descent from demeurer to stay, and so some
peculiar'STAIDNESS' (that is, stay-ed-ness) of disposition:
although it is by no means as cynical as' MOROSE' for
the root of which we need perchance go no deeper
than the Latin moror, to stay, to loiter.
What chambers of imagery do Words present 
Could aught more picturesquely portray that utter
indolence and abandon we express in'SUPINE' than
the lying on the back, with the face upwards-supinus?
or, what could more pungently picture all the burden
of significance that dwells in'SUPPLIANCE' than a
bending of the knee (supplex: and so literally a kneeling).'TRACTABLE' is that may  be led along.
A'FRACTIOUS' man is most evidently one who
breaks loose from all restraint, who breaks into fits of
passion, etc. An instance of an exceedingly appropriate employment of this word occurs in Struan
Robertson's translation of Horace's famous description
of Achilles"Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer"




36             IDEALISM OF WORDS.
which he renders into this very pithy and pungent
vernacular:
"A fiery Etter-cap, a fractious chiel,
As het as ginger, and as stieve as steel I"
Words, too, often make their users instinctive physiognomists. We have seen the allusion'SUPERCILIOUS'
carries with it to the raising of the eyebrows. To the
forehead, also, words point as a most expressive feature. Else why do we have such strong terms as'BROW BEAT,' or'FROWN' which seems to be contracted from the old French verb frogner-to knit the
brows?  Here the most powerful mental struggles are
mirrored, and I recollect Lessing remarks that the reason why the sculptors of the Laocoon did not surround
the head with the fillets worn by the priests was to be
enabled thus to develop that tremendous expression
of agony they have imprinted on the immortal marble.
And more expressive symbols.' WILD' is willed,
wzll'd (or self-willed), in opposition to those, whether
men or beasts, who are tamed or subdued, by reason
or otherwise to the will of others or of societies *;' SURD' in Algebra means a quantity deaf (surdus) to
all attempts at reduction to a rational form; to'REFLECT' images a back-casting of the thoughts; to
Horne Tooke: Diversions of Purley,




LAW OF VERBAL SYMBOLISM.            37'PONDER' is literally to weigh,' RUIN' finely images
mighty downfall,'punctilious' is the observance of
every minute point-punctillum; and' IMBECILE' iS
a forcible metaphor drawn from the old man unable
to hobble along without the aid of his bacillum or
staff I
The law on which this idealism of Words rests has
its roots deep in man's mental structure. For as
material forms are the revelation of spiritual natures,
so the vivid imagination is constantly bringing provocations to ampler translations of our everyday perceptions
and experiences. From insight from a large perception
of Analogy, from a longing and passionate heart comes
the power of thus translating the presentings of nature
into the expressive symbols of moral and metaphysical
existences. To a sincere and tender nature words lend
themselves plastic and willing to the formative laws
of the word-forming faculties. Illustrations of the working of these laws run through our and every language.
When we speak of a' cordial' man or manner, is it
not plain that we are simply ascribing to the man or
manner the quality of being hearty (cor, cordis, the
heart)?'EGREGIOUS' too is lifted out of its special,
definite meaning of the animal chosen —e grege —out
of the flock, and idealized in a vigorous image to repre



38            IDEALISM OF WORDS.
sent any property so remarkable as to remove it from
the ordinary rule and mark it as unique and unapproachable.  The Latin term  prcevaricator, which
originally implied a straddler with distorted legs has
given us our verb to'PREVARICATE,' which we readily
perceive has been abstracted to imply a mental or
moral shuffling. In like manner when Prince Hal
addresses Falstaff in the words "How now, my sweet
creature of bombast," he is using the noun' BOMBAST'
in its literal sense of soft padding used to swell garments: this primary acceptation, however, the word
has now entirely lost, and we have transferred it to
idealize a swelling, inflated style of talking, fustianvox et preterea nihil. I see I have used the word'FUSTIAN  in illustration of' bombast': it is curious
that this term has undergone precisely the same curious
metamorphosis.
These changes in the meaning of Words —this ebb
and flow of significance-is constantly going on in a live
language: and it is no extravagance to say that the
moral and mental vitality of a people may be gauged
in the quantity and quality of these transformations.
For over these transformations the genius of the
nation unconsciously presides, and the issues of
Words represent issues in the national life and
thought.  This metaphor and metamorphosis of




CHANGED MEANINGS OF WORDS.          39
Words is exceedingly curious.  There is probably
nothing in which psychologic laws and the organic
workings of the human mind more vividly and vitally
reveal themselves than here. For though, to the superficial eye, seemingly lawless and capricious, Words
yet bristle with rational thought, while even the most
startling metaphor and the wildest poetic image has a
law and logic of its own.
Of course in pursuing these Niles and Nigers to
their source we find many curious turnings and windings, and many strange regions do they flow through.
The cozenage of Words brings out many queer
affiliations.'DEBAUCH' is an instance. It tells us
that it was at first merely the attempt to draw a woirkman de (son) bauche-fron his shop, and so, to' debauch' him.' DELIRIUM' is another. It certainly is
so if we derive it from de lira, that is, to make baulks
inploughing, and so, a mental wandering, or raving.
And' ENTHUSIASM' iS enthousiasmos-possessed by a
God, or the feeling that arises from the idea that one
is possessed by a God. Spinosa, then, to whom Novalis,
on account of his fervency in asserting the divinity of
universal Nature (hence our'PANTHEISM,' that the
whole-pan-is God) gave the appellation of the " Godintoxicated man," perhaps presents us with a striking
illustration of the primary meaning of the'Enthusiast.'




40            IDEALISM OF WORDS.
It is interesting, too,'t interrogate words with a view
to detect those still more marked transformations that
frequently take place-how the degrees of. praise and
blame vary-how they receive burdens of meaning that
properly belong not to them-how again they have
been shorn of their fair proportions of significance, and
often how secondary meanings have overlapped the
primary ones.
Nature's works are, we know oft times so overpowering in their effects as to strike one dumb with
amazement-what we call'STUPENDOUS,' that is, so
impressive as to, put one into a stupor with awe. This
expression, however, we must consider as even more
than' metaphorical-our nil-admirari philosophy recognizes no such impressions:'tis an' Exaggeration'
(Exaggero-a heaping up of meaning).- And yet it is
no more outre * than a thousand other extravaganzas,we are constantly uttering. Thus the slightest possible
disturbance we stigmatize as a'PEST!' or' PLAGUE!'
without any thought of the burden of meaning
which the words primarily bear. And yet we hardly'STIGMATIZE' it either, for that would be to brand it lice
a slave-stigma (cd'riJcth) being originally themarlk of Disgrace burned into the brow of a runaway. But indeed,
* French for the Latin' ULTRA,' beyond.




NUISANCE-LY CEU M —DEBATE.           41
we are constantly using these heightened metaphorssaying more than we mean. And this Extravagance
not only vibrates throughout the general form of
phrases and expressions, but discovers itself even in
individual words: so that his very language furnishes
evidence that man is a creature given to exaggeration.
For we cannot even name a' NUISANCE' (French
nuisance * from nuire, to harm) without averring that it
is a positive injury; and the slightest' ANNOYANCE'
(also through the Norman nuire) we persist in converting into a real hurt. Again, what was to the Roman
a fighting against-repugnanltia-has been by us softened down to a mere' REPUGNANCE;' a deat/h-strlgglereluctor- has sunk into the tame'RELUCTANCE,' and
what was once actually deadly-perniciosus-has been
metamorphosed into the simple'PERNICIOUS.' Our
peaceful'DEBATE' (de and battre, to beat down) was
to the Norman-'who was more skilful in the use of
his sword th an of the weaponsdrawn from the armory
of wit-a downright battle; while the mild' LYCEUM'
was the Greek's —xsEiov-wolf's den! Surely we give
* Happily the letters of this word still continue their allegiance,
for which we have not to thank Webster —who, following the
precedent of Blackstone, recommends that it be spelled nusance,
though on what principle, except that of " darkening wisdom,"
it might be difficult enough to determine.




42            IDEALISM OF WORDS.
many a command that is not at all deadly either in its
nature or consequences, and yet we will call such' PEREMPTORY.' We may easily be'astonished,'without being
struck with tonnfre, thunder —or as we say, thunderstruck.
And it is certainly quite possible for one to be very
much'MORTIFIED' (mors, mortis-death) without its
proving the death of him!
But, while our language furnishes us with instances
in which conventional usage has conspired to soften
down the too expressive primitive power of words, we
on the other hand meet with numerous cases in which
terms acquire burdens of significance which primitively
and properly belong not to them. The sons become
stronger and wiser and wittier than their sires. This
we will have occasion to see copiously illustrated
hereafter: in the mean time take a few terms wherein
we may mark the steps of a progressive civilization.
TOILET,' for example, cannot, with all its arts, conceal from us the fig-leaved condition that lurks in and
peeps out from it; we discern shreds of the toile-the
mere piece of cloth-which the savage was wont to
wrap around his loins to cover him withal and lo I
#is' toilet' was made! And so the jeweled' DIADEM'
owes its origin to the simple woolen fillet-diadema —
which the king, in patriarchal days, bound around




TRANSFORMATION OF WORDS.              43
his brows; a'ROBE' is cousin-german to rob: the
primitive rude, self-helping men robbed from the lion
or the bear or the wolf his hide-de-spoiled him  as
we say, exultingly cast it about his own shoulders and
so the man was the richer by his'robe' and the beast
the poorer by his skin! Nay,' SCEPTRES' were originally but willow-wands and the'TIRONE' itself is but
a chair; —nay, merely a stool, as our humble Saxon
progenitors had it. *'TABERNACLE,' again, is another word with a humble enough origin-being primtively a mere tabernaculum, a tent or hut.'PARADISE' to the oriental
was simply apark or pleasure-ground. So, too,' FISCAL'
unmistakably points to the fiscus, or wicker basket
which, in early times contained the revenue of the
State. t  A'FURLONG' was once a furrow-long, or
length of a furrow; a field of any size was once termed
an'ACRE' (German acker);'DRACHM' in the elder
Greek meant a handful, and'MYRIAD' any great
number.  And when Homer alludes to a certain Hero
*See King Alfred's Translation of Boethius de Consolatione
Philosophic.
t So to'CONFISCATE' iS evidently to put, forcibly, one's possessions in along with (con) what is in the basket (fiscus) or hamper
of the State-" to adjudge to be forfeited to the public treasury."
Webster.




44             IDEALISM  OF WORDS.
counting his sheep, he employs the expression
~rnSJez~3aL, etc.,-he fived them-'showing that their five
fingers were originally the limits of their arithmetical
notions. And whether or not there be any connection
between deka (ten) and duo echo, * or between pente
(five)'and panta (all), our'DIGIT' (Latin digitus, a
finger) at least gives a strong confirmation to the supposition;  while'CALCULATE' clearly tells'of the
calculi, or pebbles which the ancients employed to assist
them in their arithmetical difficulties.
A ludicrous example of this same attempt to tint
things up couleur de rose is furnished in the word' PAMPER,' a term which the Italians have given usbeing, I believe, in their language pambere, that is,'pane,' bread, and'bere' drink-so that it was originally nothing more luxurious than bread and drink,
plenty even of that, however, being considered as
enough to'pamper' one. Just as the French viande,
meat, flesh, becomes our English'VIANDS' which
carries the idea of something more dainty still!
Again that'French verb affronter which merely
implies a meeting face to face-a coming up, adfr'ons,
to the forehead, without any necessary hostility-gives
~ Just as I have seen it stated that the Gothic Teiga, tein, our
"TEN' iS just tai-hun that is two hands / But Tooke is more
rational.




NEW BURDENS OF MEANING.            45
us our'AFFRONT,' with all its causticity of application.
We said it did not necessarily imply hostility. Shakespeare suggests numerous examples of its employment
in this neutral sense. Thus, in Hamlet, the King
says:
"For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither;
That he, as'twere by accident, may here
Affront [that is, simply, may meet] Ophelia."
H.amlet III. 1.
And indeed it would seem impossible for us irascible
Saxons to have even an'ENCOUNTER' without converting it into a downright ~battle. A'MEETING'
almost always conveys the idea of something sinister
hidden beneath it. And we cannot have even the
slightest cause of complaint-querela-without picking
a'QUARREL' oUt of it! 
It may be worth noticing in this connection, the
feelings, embalmed in language, which have given rise
to words expressive of Grandeur and Pettiness-may
we not read therein a curious piece of man's mind?
There seems to have been all along a very natural,
yet rather ludicrous association of grandeur and pettiness with mere physical greatness or littleness. Thus
our metaphorical'GRAND' is simply the French grand
-implying merely tall, large; while their petit, or




46              IDEALISM  OF WORDS.
little, become our'PETTY' which is less still.* But,
indeed, there is something so impressive and imposing
about bodily bigness, that we wonder not -that those
old heroic Normans (or Northmen) did appear very'magnificent,' with their great tallness-what they
called'HAUTEUR' (haut, high), which, alas, all too
soon degenerated into mere'HAUGHTINESS;' or that
their'MAJESTIES,''HIGHNESSES,''MAGNATES' and'GRANDEES' should soon have absorbed all nobility
and authority.
Often, too, has man tried to gild over his vices
with a fine name, calling those' GALLANTS' who have
no claim to the title, giving to persons whose sad life
can be gilded with but few rays of genuine joy the
appellation of'FILLES DE JOIE,' covering a blackleg
with the mantle of'CHEVALIER D'INDUSTRIE,' and
declaring that a'PARAMOUR' is one who' is lovedpar amour-very tffectionately,t although, by the way,
Flute, the bellows-mender, understood the matter
better than that:
"Flute. He hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in
Athens.
* French bigness (gros, grosse), however, degenerates into
English' GROSSNESS,' a fact of curious historic significance.
t And see it used in this good sense throughout the whole of
our old English literature.




LIBEL-LEGEND-CATER.                  47
Quince. Yea, and the best person too: and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.
Flute. You must say,'PARAQGON:' a paramour is, God bless us,
a thing of naught."
Midsummer Nights' Dream IV. 2.
On the contrary words often do not get their due,
and debts which they never contracted are laid to
their account. A'LIBEL,' for instance, is properly
just a libellus, a little book —what we call a pamphlet:
as if it would insinuate that the only purpose of such
is to defame and malignI  So a'LEGEND' is simply
something to be read-legendum;  while'REVEREND'
evidently declares that it ought to be revered-reverendus; and a' MAXIM' affirms that it is-maximum
-of the greatest importance.  So'CATER,' which is
coming with us to acquire a somewhat contemptuous
meaning, has no such stain on its birth-it is simply
to buy or purchase (acheter) for one. So I find in
Ben Jonson
"He is my ward-robe man, my acater, cook,
Butler and steward."
The Devil an Ass I. 3.1
* For the corruption of this word see Tooke's Diversions of
Purley.
t Here the word is acater, which is nearly the original form,
and yet in Chaucer I find it achator (Canterbury Tales 570 et
passim) which is nearer still.




48              IDEALISM  OF WORDS.'OBSEQUIOUS' is another instance of this same
downward tendency in words. For primitively the
word has no opprobrious import, signifying simply
following after, a meaning which becomes present
from our use of' OBSEQUIES' which is just the following
the dead to the tomb; and in the elder dramatists we
frequently meet with this primary application of'obsequious.' Thus Shakespeare
" How many a holy and obsequious [that is funereal] tear
Hath dear religious love stolen from mine eye,
As interest of the dead."
Sonnet XXXI.
Now, however, we employ it but to express that
cringing compliance that leads one to follow after the
favor or fancy of another, or shape one's principles or
practice according to his whims. And lastly I may
mention the term'GOSSIP' which tells a strange story:
for originally it was just the name applied to sponsors
at baptism-literally God-sibb:'sibb,' related (to the
child, in or through) God! Verstegan makes the
matter clear:
"Our CLhristian ancestors understanding a spirituall affinity for
to grow betweene the parents, and such as undertooke for the
childe at baptisme, called each other by the name of God-sib,




VERBAL TURN-COATS.                 49
which is as much as to say as that they were sib together, i.e. of
kin together through God."
Restitution of Decayed Itdelligence, C. 7.*
But, while we have, on the one hand, words which
have strengthened, and on the other hand, words
which have softened and degenerated in signification,
we have also words which have completely changed
meaning-perfect turn-coats: not mere renegades, as
are the others, but downright deserters.
How amazed, for instance, would one of our sturdy
old English writers be, were he told, by some modern,
tea-imbibing  dame  that she  was very'nervous.'
Viewing the word from the Latin stand.point-seeing
in it merely the classic nervosus, sinewy,'muscular'an epithet only applicable to the stalwart strength of
manhood, and which even we can appreciate from the
employment of our'nervoius style,'-we can easily
* Webster bungles over this word. Verstegan would have
enlightened him, or Junius either, for that matter. For, as
Junius remarks, these gossips under cloak of this'SPIRITUALL
AFFINITY' used often to meet to tell stories and
tipple over them! —a circumstance from which we in English
derive our expression  TO G  A Goss A   SIPING.' etc. And it is a
curious coincidence that the French for'gossip' is commerage
from commere, a god-mother.-a precisely analogous process
having taken place in the word.
3




50               IDEALISM  OF WORDS.
imagine how the worthy would be either petrified
(even though he might not be turned into-petra —
stone) with amazement; or at least he would regard
the good lady as indulging in a joke I   And how
much of Carlyle's teaching is but a fiery plaint of the
sad seduction so painfully visible in the abysmal gulf
that has come to intervene between' KEN' and' CAN'
-which, we are aware, were once one and the same.
But this was before' CANNIiNG' had become cunning;
or'CUNNING' had grown synonymous with crafty.
So that then the Baconian apothegm, Knowledge is
Power was to them a mere truism: since it only
asserted that Ken-ning is Can-ning!
How titanic is the power which many words wield!
Indeed, in numerous instances, so terrible is the in* In regard to this term Pegge says: "A word which till
lately when applied to a man was expressive of Muscular
strength, and a Brawny make; and thence metaphorically a
strong and forcible style is called nervous and energetic: whereas
now it is used only, in a contrary sense, to express a man whose
nerves are weak, and absolute enervation."
Anecdotes of the Eng. Lang. page 264.
For this corrupt usage, he proposes nervish /
Bailey, in his Dictionary gives it in its primitive signification
of strength and vigor-and says that when applied to persons
of weak nerves it is a "medical cant."




TITANIC POWER OF WORDS.             51
fluence tlhey exercise that mankind has been compelled
to break away in affright from their sway into the domain of others less potent. Of this we have a wellknown instance in that dangerous African cape, ever so
fatal to mariners, and which the wrathful "Spirit of
the Cape" lashes into foaming fury. Long was it all
too truthfully known by the name of the "Cape of
Storms;" but this was to recognize the danger (whereas
the feared and the fearful must ever be nameless); and
so, buoying up their courage, they gave it the more
cheerful appellation of the "Cape of Good Hope."
Again, how chilling to the ardor of the soldier must
be that word' FORLORN-HOPE'- men sent on a service
attended with such peril that hope must be-forlornrelinquished, left behind by them.
But it is in Poetry's mightier idealizations that a far
loftier idealism discloses itself-in tones drawn by the
Master's hand from the lyre of humanity-in the wild
ravings of an old un-Kinged Lear, in an Othello's
bursts of wailing sadness or tempestuous madness" My wife I my wife! what wife?-I have no wife I"
Or, when Cleopatra, refering to the asp, says:
" —-- Peace, Peace!
Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?"




52            IDEALISM OF WORDS,
Or when with the true prerogative of genius-to
marry the phenomena of nature with the moods of
man's mind-Shakespeare sees types of insanity in
the green scum of the standing-pool-Poor Tom
"Drinks the green mantle of the standing pool I"'Tis in the loftier and serener empyrean of Poetry
that we catch lineaments-shadowy and far away —
of a supernal beauty that haunts and will not leave us
and hear tones of more than mortal pathos and power.
"In the silence of the night
How we shiver with affright,"
at memories awakened perchance by some one weak
word-weak, yet winged: a mere breathing, and yet
vitalized by the very spirit of life. And so, under
the guidance of Bishop Hutchinson, let us return:
"And to make short of this argument, we doubt not
but many wise men have too mean an opinion of the
power of words and take too little care about them:
for though the words of a fool are little, the words of
a wise man are wonderful. WVords are the judges
of our thoughts, the land-marks of all interests; and
the wheels of our human world are turned by them.
They move interests that are greater than mountains,
and many a time have subdued kingdoms. Riches and




BISHOP HUTCHINSON ON WORDS.              53
Poverty, Love and Hatred, and even Life and Death are
in the power of the tongue, and when their effects are
least they are still the character of the mind and abilities
of him who speaks them; and when they are first and
natural, though plain and unaffected they carry charms
that are superior to the beauty of the fairest face, while
the improper use of them  shows ignorance of words
that are understood by others, they lessen the man and
make the picture as mean as sign-post painting." *'TRANSIENT' is a suggestive word. It is transienspassing away    With plaintive sadness it sings the
requiem of human life.  Said Ina's queen, "Are not
all things, are not we ourselves like a river hurrying
heedless and headlong to the dark ocean of illimitable
time?" And I find in the Romaunt of the Rose this
antique rhyme, through which the same figure runs:
"The time that passith night and daie,
And restilesse travailith aie,
And stelith from us privily,
That to us semith sikirly
That it in one poinct dwellith ever,
And certes it ne restith never,
But goeth as fast and passeth aie
* From a curious old tract, entitled, "The Many Advantages
of a Good Language to any Nation."




54               IDEALISM  OF WORDS.
That ther n'is man that thinkin maie
What time that now present is,
Askith at these grete clerkis this;
For men thinken redily
Thre timis ben ypassed by
The time that maie not sojourn,:But goth and maie never returne,
As watir that doune runnith aie,
But never. droppe returne maie."
How  sublime is the allusion in' NATURE' (natus,
natura, to be born), the being born, or indeed the reference in Latin is to the future, as though it would
indicate that she is no dead mass, but a living and
ever-evolving Whole. And indeed she is our mother,
too-nourishing us tenderly on her breast, shedding
around us her balmy, balsamic influences, and gently
at last rocking us to sleep with sphere-music and old
eternal melodies. Shelley, her loveliest and lornest
child, shall sing her p1ean.
"Mother of this unfathomable worldl
Favour my solemn song, for I have loved
Thee ever, and thee only; I have watched
Thy shadow, and the darkness of thy steps,
And my heart ever gazes on the depth
Of thy deep mysteries. I have made my bed
In charnels and on coffins, where black death
Keeps record of the trophies won from thee,




THE THOUGHT OF NATURE.                  55
Hoping to still these obstinate questionings
Of thee and thine, by forcing some lone ghost,
Thy messenger, to render up the tale
Of what we are. In lone and silent hours,
When night makes a weird sound of its own stillness,
Like an inspired and desperate alchymist
Staking his very life on some dark hope,
Have I mixed awful talk and asking looks
With my most innocent love, until strange tears,
Uniting with those breathless kisses, made
Such magic as compels the charmed night
To render up thy charge: and though ne'er yet
Thou hast unveiled thy inmost sanctuary;
Enough from incommunicable dream,
And twilight phantasms, and deep noon-day thougnta
Has shone within me, that serenely now
And moveless, as a long-forgotten lyre
Suspended in the solitary dome
Of some mysterious and deserted fane
I wait thy breath, 4reat Parent, that my strain
May modulate with murmurs of the air,
And motions of the forests and the sea,
And voice of living beings, and woven hymns
Of night and day, and the deep heart of man I"
ALASTOR




RAMBLE FOURTH.
YOSSIL POETRIES.
"Language is fossil poetry. The Etymologist finds the deadest
word to have been once a brilliant picture. As the limestone of
the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalrules, so language is -made up of images or tropes, which now,
i their secondary use, have long ceased to remind us of their
poetic origin."
EMERSON.
ALL words are, more or less,? poetry. For wordmaking is an organic creation of the mind and runs
parallel with the processes of nature; and is the crown
and consummation of the world. The Hindus, in their
free and flientt mythology, conceived the second act
of Brahma to have been the Naming: and it is reported of Pythagoras that he thought that of all wise
men he was not only the mostV rational but also the
most ancient who gave the names to things. The poet
is by divine right the proper Namer. Through sym



CARLYLE ON THE POETRY OF WORDS.   57
pathy with the grand substantial Words of the world
he imports into human speech the utterance of orphic
Nature. Material forms-ocean, air, soil, fire, Astars,
life, growths —these are sublime primeval Words.,These the Expressive passion dissolves into plastic
symbols. And the poet gives voice to mankind.
O, shining trails of bards and builders I "Thinkest thou there were no poets till Dan Chaucer?"
asks Thomas Carlyle-" No heart burning with
a thought which it could not hold, and had no word
for, and needed to shape and coin a word for,-what
thou callest a metaphor, trope, or the like? For every
word we have, there was such a man and poet. The
coldest word was once a glowing new metaphor, and
bold questionable originality. My very attention, does
it not mean an attentio, a stretching.-to  Fancy that
act of the mind, which all were conscious of, which
none had yet named,-when this new poet first
felt bound and driven to name it I His questionable originality, and new glowing metaphor, was found
adoptable, intelligible, and remains our name for it to,this day."
WVords are often the expressed essence of poetryredolent as flowers in spring.'AURORA' comes to us




58                 FOSSIL POETRIES.
a snatch of that flowing Grecian Mythus that idealized
universal nature; and even to -us is she the "rosyfingered daughter of the morn"
Hpvysvec0'o0odxtvXog'H5 I!
And'MORN,' too, is a sweet poem, coming to us
from an old Gothic verb Mergan, to dissipate, to disperse: so that the meaning of' morn' (as also'morning' and'morrow') is just the time when darkness
is dissipated, dispersed:
"The nyght is passed, lo the morrowe graye,
The fresshe Aurora so fayre in apparance
Her lyght dawith, to voyde all offence
Of wynter nyghtes."
Lyrfe of our Lady.' LETHE' is another classicism:'tis the river of forgetfulness —" the oblivious pool." What a romance in' Hyperborean'-that is, beyond the region of Boreaswhere dwelt a pious and happy race: said to be a
Homeric creation.'LEVANT,''ORIENT,' and'OccIDENT,' are all poems. And so is that noble Saxon'MAIN,' that is the-Mcegen-strong one:
"A shepherd in the Hebrid isles
Placed far amid the melancholy main."




AN ETYMOLOGIC BOUQUET.             59
The'DAISY' has often been cited as fragrant with
poesy:'tis the day's eye (Saxon, daeges ege). Chaucer
has these affectionate lines:
"Of all the floures in the mede
Than love I most these floures of which I rede,
Such that men call daisies in our town,
To them I have so great affectioun -- -"
Nor is he alone in his love for the
"Wee, modest, crimson-tippet flower I"
Quite an odoriferous etymologic bouquet might we
cull from  the names of Flora's children. What a
beauty in'PRIMROSE' which is just the prime-rose, the
first rose; the'SWEET WILLIAM;' the'MORNING
GLORY,' except when a pompous classical terminology
would convert it into a convolvulus/ How many
sweet associations cluster around the' FORGET-MENOT,' around the'ANEMONE' (anemos, the windflower) into which Venus changed her Adonis! Again
is there not poetry in calling a certain family of
minute crustacea-whose two eyes meet and form a
single spot in the centre of the head-' CYCLOPS?'
And if any one thinketh there cannot be poetry even
in the technicalities of science let him remember




60                 FOSSIL POETRIES.'CORAL' which in; the -Greek means a sea damsel, or
the chemical'COBALT' which is said to be the German
Kobold, a goblin, the demon of the mines: so called
by miners from its being troublesome to work. To
be sure Science is a terrible destroyer of these fine
phantasies.  But,
"Still the heart doth need a language, still
Doth the old instinct bring back the old names.'
"There shall be no more magic nor cabala,
Nor Rosicrucian, nor Alchemic lore,
Nor fairy fantasies; no more hobgoblins,
Nor ghosts, nor imps, nor demons. Conjurors,
Enchianters, witches, wizards, shall all die
Hopeless and heirless; their divining arts,
Supernal or infernal-dead with them 1"
Bailey's Festus.
The'Student's' prediction is indeed fully verified;
and yet must it not: have been a terrible reality.which
could leave so large a precipitate as this, from  the
alembic?
We are not apt, in this practical age, to be very
profoundly devoted -to astrolatry, and yet do we ever'C NSIDER' without holding commerce with the



INFLUENCE OF ASTROLOGY.               61
sidera* —stars?  The planets, with their heavenly
houses, are now to us all mute and motionless-with
" No real voice nor sound;"
and yet is not one man'mercurial;'. another'jovial;'
a third'martial' and a fourth'saturnine' according
as the planet rules his destiny? We are not very
much given to erecting figures of the Heavens, and
determining'horoscopes' (horoskopos, and so, literally,
the observing the hora or hour of one's birth-that
being necessary in casting a'nativity):' and yet are
not our fortunes sometimes in the'ascendant;' are
there not those who are'ill-starred,' meet we not with'dis-asters'  And'INFLUENCE,' too, looks back to a
time when the stars shot their sweet impartings to
man's heart.  So even the nonchalant Frenchman
persists in talking about his'bon-heur' and his' malheur' —which, of course, we recognise as being naught
other than a good or bad hour-a good or bad horoscope. Perhaps may there be more truth than one
might be apt to suppose in this quaint passage from
* The word may indeed be from consido; as Webster asserts
it is. But it is characteristic of our worthy lexicographer to
lean towards the more unpoetical of disputed derivations —necessary result of his absurd theory of radices.




62                  FOSSIL POETRIES.
Chaucer-which sounds forth here like a fragment of
some antique ritual:
"Peraventure in thilke lerge book
Which that men clepe the Heven ywritten was
With sterres, when that he his birthe took,
That he for love shuld han his deth, alas I
For in the sterres, clerer than is glas
Is writen, God wot, who so coud it rede,
The deth of every man withouten drede,
In sterres many a winter ther beforn
Was writ the death of Hector, Achilles,
Of Pompey, Julius, or they were born
The strif of Thebes, and of Hercules,
Of Sampson, Turnus, and of Socrates
The deth; but mennes wittes ben so dull
That no wight can wel rede it at thefull."
The Man of Lawes Tale.
And so Emerson tells us that,
"The old men studied magic in the flowers,
And human fortunes in Astronomy,
And an omnipotence in Chemistry."*
But the age of Faith, like the age of Chivalry, has
gone by.  We have dissolved partnership with yon
* Emerson's Poems: "Blight."




OLD-TIME FANTASIES.                63
starry world: the spheral harmonies reach not our
dull ears.
So too, have gone trooping back to the land of
oblivion the'GNOMES' and the' IMPS' (surely nothing
very terrible, since the word meant primarily merely
a shoot or scion-a son); and the'DEMONS' (whc
were at first gods); and  the'GHOSTS A'  and  the'GHOULS' and the'GENII:'
"And there were wandering on the highest mountains of
Yemen visionary forms-and they described them by the names
of Dogin or Genii, Ghouls or Demons."t'CHARM,''INCHANT' and'INCANTATION' all trace
their genesis to the time when spells were in vogue.'CuHAR' is just carmen, from the fact of a sort of
runic rhyme having been used in this sort of diablerie.
So'FASCINATION' recalls the era when the blight of
the evil eye was an object of terror.  By the way
* By the way our quite un-ghostly'GAS' is from the same
root-German geist, to rush, to blow-spirit.
t From a cabalistic enough MS (referred to in the Account
of the MSS in the Bibliotheque du Roi), with the following
magnificent title: "The Golden Meadows and the Mines of
Precious Stones, by Aboul-hassan-Aly, son of A-Khair, son of
Aly, son of Abderrahman, son of Abdallah, son of Masoud-elHadheli surnamed Masoudi"




64                FOSSIL POETRIES.'SPELL' -means simply word.  Says Sir Thomas
Browne:
"Some have delivered the polity of spirits, that they stand in
awe of charms, spells, and conjurations; letters, characters, notes
and dashes."
Note, too, that from spell we get our' GOSPEL,' that
is God's spell-God's word.
To conclude all of which, take the following exquisite passage from that most etherial " Undine" of De
la Motte Fouque. (By the way is not Undine from
unda, a wave: that is a water-sprite?): "You must
know, that there are beings in the elements, which
bear the strongest resemblance to the human race, and
which, at the same time, seldom become visible to
you. The wonderful salamanders sparkle and sport
among the flames; deep in the earth the meagre and
malicious gnomes pursue their revels, the forest-spirits
belong to the air and wander in the woods; while in
the seas, rivers and streams live the wide-spread race
of water-spirits. These last beneath resounding domes
of crystal, through which the sky appears with sun
and stars, inhabit a region of light and beauty; lofty
coral trees glow with blue and crimson fruits in their
gardens; they walk over the pure sand of the sea,
among infinitely variegated shells, and amid whatever




KOSMOS-WELKIN-HALCYON.             65
of beauty the old world possessed, such as the present
is no more worthy to enjoy; creations which the
floods covered with their secret veils of silver; and
now those noble monuments glimmer below, stately
and solemn and bedewed by the water which loves
them  and calls forth from  their crevices exquisite
moss-flowers and enwreathing tufts of sedge."
It is not alone in Oriental tale that speakers drop
pearls: we can scarcely open our lips without giving
utterance to some rich primitive poetic allusion. On
what a grand perception of this wondrous frame, with
its boundless unity in variety, is that Greek word'KosMos' formed (the creation is ascribed to Pytha-.goras), signifying as it does harmonic order I So the'BRUNT' of the battle is just where the battle burns
hottest; and the'WELKIN' (Saxon wealcan, to roll) is
that which rolls over our heads!
The' halcyon' days! What a balmy serenity in
the name! And its fitness becomes the more apparent
when we pierce to the secret the word enwraps. The
Alkuon was the name applied by the Greeks to the
Kingfisher. Literally it implies sea-conceiving, from
the fact of the bird's laying her eggs in rocks near the
sea, and the " cUXxuov,~i6;s 9p, "-the halcyon days-were
the fourteen days during the calm weather about the




6FOSSIL POETRIES.
winter solstice during which the bird was said to build
her nest and lay her eggs,
The palm being to the oriental of such passing price,
at once food and shelter, we can easily imagine how
he would so enhance its value as to make it the type
of every thing prosperous and flourishing. Hence
our - PALMY.' Sir Walter Raleigh has this passage:
"Nothing better proveth the excellency of this soil than the
abundant growing of the palm trees without labour of man.
This tree alone giveth unto man whatsoever his life beggeth at
nature's hand."'STYLE' and'STILETTO'might seem radically very
different words; and yet they are something more
than even cousins-german.'STYLE' is from  the'
stylus, which the Greeks and Romans employed in
writing on their tablets; and as they were both sharp
and strong they were capable of being' made a very
formidable weapon.  CQesar himself, it is supposed,
got his quietus by means of a stylus. Many who
have felt the bitter, biting tooth of'SARCASM' will
hardly be disposed to consider it a metaphor, even
should we trace it to the Greek sarkazo-to tear the flesh
off-literally to'flay.'' SATIRE   again, has  an
arbitrary enough origin. It is satira from satur,
mixed: the process of derivation being as follows.




MEAD AND AMBROSIA.                67
Each species of poetry, among the Romans, had its
own special kind of versification; thus, the hexameter
was used in epics, the iambic in the drama, etc. Ennius, however, the  earliest Roman'satirist,' first
disregarded  this conventionality, and  produced a
medley (satur) of all kinds of metre.  It afterwards
lost this idea of a melange, and acquired the notion of
a poem directed against the vices and follies of men.
How few who use that very vague word'AMBROSIAL' are conscious of the intimation it throws out of
the'ambrosia' (ambrolos, immortal)-the food of the
gods. It afterwards came to be used in the sense of a
perfume, hence fragrant; and that is the primary idea
of our' ambrosial'-instance  Milton's' ambrosial
flowers.' The Immortals in the golden halls of'many-topped Olympus' would seem to have led
a merry enough life of it with their nectar and
ambrosia:
"And he kept pouring out for all the other gods, drawing
nectar from the goblet. And then inextinguishable laughter
arose among the immortal gods, when they saw Vulcan bustling
about through the mansion."
Iliad, Book I.
But not half as jolly were they as Thor, Odin, and
the Northern braves, dead drunk over their mead
(meda, honey,) and ale, from




68                  FOSSIL POETRIES.
"The ale cellars of the Jotun
Which is called Brimir."
Voluspa.'SERENADE' wafts us away to that bright Italian
land, where underneath the serene sky
Nox erat, et ccelo fulgebat Luna serena
Inter minora sidera,
the lover pours forth his amorous ditties, on the odorous
wings of the balmy air, to the ear of his mistress and
the Night! A passage from the older editions of Milton
will present us with the original orthography of the
word:
"      Nor in court amours,
Mixt dance, or wanton mask, or midnight bal,
Or serenata, which the starved lover sings
To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain."
Paradise Lost IV. 767.
And Bacon gives the following account of the origin
of the word'CALAMITY:'
"Another ill accident is drouth, at the spindling of the corn;
which with us is rare; but in hotter countries common: insomuch as the, word calamitas, was first derived from calamus,
when the corn coulde not get out of the staZke."
Natural History.




FRAGRANCE OF DRY ROOTS.                 69
This Etymology is at best dubious; nay, it is altogether probable that it will have to be quite abandoned.
And yet there is a good degree of vraisemblance in
the word, for what could, in an agricultural community,
be a greater' calamity' than this?
The word' HEALTH' wraps up within it-for, indeed,
it is hardly a metaphor-a whole world of suggestion.
It is that which healeth or causeth to be whole-what
the Scotch call hale: that is, perfect'health' is that
state of the man when there is no discord or division
in the system, but when all the functions conspire to
make a perfect one or whole. Carlyle makes a most
effective use of this word.
" So long as the several elements of life, all fitly adjusted can
pour forth their movement like harmonious tuned strings, it is a
melody and unison; Life, from its mysterious fountains, flows out
as in celestial music and diapason,-which also like that other
music of the spheres, even because it is perennial and complete,
without interruption and without imperfection might be fated to
escape the ear. Thus, too, in some languages, is the state of
health well denoted by a term expressing unity: when we feel
ourselves as we wish to be, we say that we are whole."
Characteristics.
O, what a wealth of truth and beauty lies in even
our every-day, fire-side words! And what a fragrance
have even dry roots I




70                FOSSIL POETRIES.
Every nation has its legend of a Golden Age, when
all was young and fresh and fair, "Comme les couleurs
primitifs de la nature," ere the shadow of Sorrowthe shadow of ourselves-had stretched itself over life:
a morn of Saturnian rule, when gods walked and
talked with men.  And even now, in spite of our
atheism and our apathism, amid the Babel-din of the
great hiving Present, the solemn voices of the Past
return with soft wailings of pity.  In the moonlight
of memory they revisit us, those visions 
The rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the rose;
The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
And yet I know, where'er I go
That there hath passed away a glory from the Earth I'Tis the mild, Brahminical Wordsworth that sings.
Wordsworth, it will be remembered, in that glorious
ode-the " Intimations of Immortality from  the Recollections of early Childhood " —develops the Platonic
idea (shall we call Platonic the thought born of every
fine spirit?) of Anamnesis-of a shadowy recollection




SPIRITUALITY OF WORDS.               71
of past and eternal existence in the profundities of
the divine heart.  "It sounds forth here a mournful
reminiscence of a faded world of gods and heroesas the echoing plaint for the loss of man's original
celestial state and paradisiacal innocence." *
And then come those transcendent lines that are
borne to us like aromatic breezes blown from  the
Islands of the Blest.
"Hence in a season of calm weather
Though inland'far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea,
Which brought us hitherCan in a moment travel thither,
And see the children sport upon the shore
And hear the mighty waters rolling ever more I'
But,
"descending
From those imaginative heights that yield
Far-stretching views into Eternity "what have Golden Ages and Platonisms to do with
our word-strolls? A good deal. For language as the
mirror of the inmost consciousness may illustrate both.
Why is it that we generally speak of Death as a
return or a return home; and how is it that the same
*Frederick Schlegel: Philosophy of Life.




72               FOSSIL POETRIES.
thought has interwoven itself with the very warp and
woof of our speech and song? So'decease' but
implies a withdrawal;'demise' a removal. It is
curious to trace the thoughts in the minds of men that
have given rise to the various words expressing death.
Thus we have the Latin mors-allied to moros and
moira, and hence, that which is allotted, appointed.
But both the Hellenic and Roman mind was averse
to expressing the dreadful realism of mortality, by
these strong words, and sought to veil it with such
circumlocutions as vitam suam mutare, transire a seculo;
"Ko.~latwo X&uxsov [iJvov " (he slept the brazen sleep.
Iliad 4th book); " Tov  o'~ xoqog; 0'o' v Xvu4sv " (and
darkness covered his eyes: 6th book).
But, why should we mourn departed friends, since
we know they are but lying in the sleeping placekoimeterion-' CEMETERY;' or as the vivid old Hebrew
faith expressed it, the house of the living —Bethaim?
And thus we see that Language, that primitive organic
creation of the human soul, testifies to our highest
intuitions and aspirations, and assures us that He who
has, for a season, enveloped us in the mantle of
this sleep-rounded life will again take us back to
his fatherly bosom.
Thus profound are the suggestions of Words. And




SPIRITUALITY OF WORDS.            73
even those we toss about with the most plethoric profusion and the most sacrilegious indifference are often
found, when we catch the play of allusion, to be the
most marvelous speaking pictures. For corning as
they do from the informing mind, even the most startling metaphor and the wildest poetic image has a law
and logic of its own. The Imagination bodies forth
the forms of things, visionary, swift, shadowy; but
the living Word-the strain or the statue or the
picture, seizes the fleeting idols, and lo! they stand
perennial and imperishable. Thence the Kinship of
the Arts. The Arts are one in that all are outlets to
the Spiritual. Beneath their finite guises gleam down
glimpses of the Infinite that brightens over and
embellishes all. High, clear and far up sounds their
silvery voice, awaking in the vasty deeps of consciousness thrilling trembling echoes, faint and far
away, of the old eternal melodies and making even
"Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the Eternal Silence I"




RAMBLE FIFTH.
FOSSIL HISTORIES
"The most familiar words and phrases are connected by imperceptible ties with the reasonings and discoveries of former
men and distant times. When one counts his wealth he finds
he has in his hands coins which bear the image and superscription of ancient and modern intellectual dynasties, and that in
virtue of this possession acquisitions are in his power which none
could ever have attained to, if it were not that the gold of truth
once dug out of the mine circulates more and more widely
among mankind."
WHEWELL: Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences.
WHAT vast historical results have come from  the
modern studies on Language I Comparative Philology
studying languages as living organisms-subject to
organic laws of growth and decay-has shown that
we possess in speech a grand recorded History of
Humanity, where in colossal outlines man, his affilia.
tions, migrations, workings,  growths, are  drawn.




THE GEOLOGY OF SPEECH.          75
Primordial creation and manifestation of the human
mind, the development of language runs parallel with
the development of humanity. Language is a perfect
Geology, with its strata, formations and developments,
and these infinitely more intelligible than those of nature, because intellectual, and-in the sublime thought
of Bunsen-carrying within themselves their order of
succession in their own law of development. And
what a divining-rod has language proved in the hands
of:the mighty modern masters! This is the true
Rosetta-stone with which a Champollion and a Niebuhr and a Rawlinson have been able to set the
antique nations on their feet and restore the lost
threads of the genealogy of mankind. There is something sublime, and which opens up new spaces in
man, in that constructive Criticism by which from
slight linguistic fragments the great Niebuhr was
enabled to restore the life and history of the ancient
populations of Italy. And equally significant other
great circles of induction. By Philologic Science the
European nations have all been tracked back to
Oriental fountains of wisdom and thought; Egypt has
flashed up from the deeps of fifty centuries with her
antique and august civilization, and now from the
deciphering of the cuneiform inscriptions of West
Asia are emerging those old Assyrian and Babylonian




76               FOSSIL HISTORIES.
worlds, venerable with years, coevals of primeval
man.
But with these colossal results of Comparative
Philology it is not our present purpose to deal. What
I would show is that in Words themselves we have
pregnant histories embalmed-that in these medals
of the mind we have the record of "ancient and
modern intellectual dynasties," of vast moral and
social revolutions, of the unfolding Spirit of man.
Words are the amber that enwraps and retains these
marvelous stories, the wit and the wisdom, the fancies,
the follies and the failings of humanity incarnated
for ever.
Sometimes this history is that of a nation —with
the Spirit of its Laws and its Religion and its Literature embalmed imperishable in these fleeting, yet
immortal breathings. And often, too, these characters
— these runes —are all that remain to tell the chronology of Empires perished-their
"Cloud-capp'd towers, their gorgeous palaces,
Their solemn temples"
all evanished, and these brief articulations alone left
to tell the story of their existence. At other times
the story they tell may be less important. It may be




WORDS AS FOSSILS.              77
some historical event retained; some blasted hypothesis
sublimated; some man immortalized; some creed
with merely verbal credit; some poetic pulsation embodied; or, it may be a Nation's Spirit-its glory or
its shame stamped in unfading colors in words that
perish not. And so they all have their family secrets
-with now a merely personal or incidental interest,
and again of national and universal import.
And these are the airy, the transient utterances
which we are constantly giving forth without heed,
almost without a moment's reflection-tossing them
from us in prodigal profusion, as if they had no wit
or worth. Like the geodes that we find on rivers'
banks which, on the outside, are rough and dirty and
uninteresting, yet split them open and the cavity
within holds things rich and rare-sparkling with
crystals bright and beauteous. So with the words we
utter. They seem from their very familiarity all trite
and homely:-yet beneath this conventional surface
lie fine fancies, rich old legends and deep historic lore.
Let us, then, in these our Rambles, like the Geologist
take our (Etymologic) hammer along with us; and,
laying open the rocks we may chance to meet, see if
we cannot discover fossils that tell of antique worlds,
and compel them to speak of the poetries and the his.
tories and the moralities of the old Time entombed.




78               FOSSIL HISTORIES.
The term'ROMANCE' embalms an interesting history of the chivalric era of the Middle Ages-of that
epoch when, in the words of Tieck, "Believers sang
of Faith; lovers of Love; knights described knightly
actions and battles, and loving believing knights were
their chief audience."
Fully to appreciate the origin and application of'romance' it will be necessary to transport ourselves
to France and the Ninth Century. At this period we
find an important transition taking place in the language: the Latin is dying out, Frankish contributions
are coming in and a new speech arising, the Lingua
Romana-the Romans or Romance tongue. Now, as
the tales of chivalry-the lays of the Troubadours and
Minnesingers-so popular at this peried, were written
in this idiom, the compositions themselves took the
title of Romances (Romans, romants, romaunts or what
not): so that, in subsequent times, any composition
that partook of the nature of these songs still retained
the appellation of' romances,' and that even after the
distinct class of productions to which the name
legitimately belonged had died out.*
What a strange piece of history does'ORDEAL'
contain! It took its rise from a peculiar Saxon
* Bishop Percy has some interesting particulars in the third
volume of the "Religues."




LEGACIES FROM SAXON LIFE.             79
custom. This was the trial-ordcel-to which accused
persons were subjected to test their guilt or innocence,
and was of two kinds-by hot water and by hot iron.
The modus operandi was as follows:  The suspected
person was forced to plunge his hand as far as the
wrist, or his arm as far as the elbow (according to the
magnitude of the crime) into a vessel of water boiling'furiously hot;' take out therefrom a piece of iron
of a certain weight and, after having carried it a
certain distance, drop it.  Then after three days the
hand was inspected to see if' foul' or' clean'-and
judgment pronounced accordingly. And this literally
very'fiery trial' it is which gives point to our'ordeal' and perhaps lies at the root of our expression,
"I would go through fire and water for you." *
Another social custom  of the Saxons has left us
several legacies.  Among them every individual was
valued at a certain amount of money, to which amount
he was continually under bail for his good behavior.
This sum, of course varied: the thane so much-the
churl so much-the thrall so much: in fact it varied
according to his worth-ship-what we now call
* For besides the ordeal by ho't water there was also that of
walking over red hot ploughshares. For a minute account of
this curious custom consult Verstegan's " Restitution of Decayed
Intelligence" and Turner's " History of the Anglo-Saxons."




80                 FOSSIL HISTORIES.'WORSHIP.'  "Every  man," says Sharon  Turner,- 
"was valued at a fixed sum  which was called his
were; t and whosoever took his life was punished by
having to pay this were."  Moreover, in addition to
this, there was a pecuniary fine imposed, called the
wite: and a person thus paying the forfeiture of all
his worth-ship presents us with the original idea of a'FELON'-which is asserted by some to be just
feo-lun-destitute of property! ~
An interesting passage from  King Alfred will give
us the original form of some significant words:
"This like, O King, (cyning) does this present life of man on
earth appear to me, compared with the time that is unknown
* History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. II. p. 132.
t The Scotch still retain the verb " to ware " —that is, to expend.
t Compare with this the Scotch wyte, blame.
~ But besides having the ware and wite to pay, there was also
a fine imposed for the infliction of any personal injury, and a
curious system of anatomical economy arose. The loss of an
eye or leg, for instance, was esteemed to be worth 50 shillings;
for "breaking the mouth" a penalty  of 12 shillings was
imposed; for cutting off the little finger 11 sh.; for pie rcing the
nose 9 sh.; for cutting off the thumb-nail, for the first double
tooth, or for breaking a rib, each 3 sh.; for any nail and for any
tooth beyond the first double tooth 1 shilling I




KING-ALDERMAN.                     81
(uncuth *) to us: just like as thou sittest at feast, among.thy
aldermen and thanes, (mid thinum ealdormannum and thegnum)
in winter time; and thy fire burns and thy hall is warmed.
And while it rains and snows and stirs without (and hit rene and
snewe and styrine ute), there comes a sparrow (spearwa), and
quickly it flies through the house (hus t)-coming in at one door
and going out at the other. Whilst it is amongst us, it feels not
the wintry tempest. It enjoys the short comfort and serenity
of its transient stay; but then, plunging into the winter from
which it had flown, (he roma of wintra in winter eft cymew)
it disappears from our eyes. Such is the life of man," $ etc.'KING'is, we perceive, primarily cyning (or kyning:
cyning, cynig, cyng=Kyng i. e. King), coincident with:
the German Krdnig, that is, the can-ning, the able, the
powerful man: in regard to which hear what Verstegan tells us: "And certaine it is that the kings of
monster nations were in the beginning elected and
chosen by the people to raigqle over them, in regard
of the greatnesse  of their cowrage, valour, and
strength, as beeing therefore best able to defend and
governe them."'ALDERMAN' is evidently just elderman (ealdorman)
* We still say' uncouth' i e. any thing that is not couth or
kenned-that is unkcnown to us —a significant word indeed.
t Which we still preserve pure in husband i e. house-bund.
T Turner's Hist. Anglo-Saxons.




82                 FOSSIL HISTORIES.
that is, elder-man. It has reference to the early Saxon
society when the people, imagining that the elders
would be most likely to possess wisdom and authority
chose to appoint them as their rulers. This notion
of the sagacity in grey hairs seems to have been a
rather common one. Thus we have the Latin Senatus
(our' Senate') from senex, an old man; and the Greek
Presbuteros-our' Presbyterian.' Indeed Homer thus
lays down the law:
" For the minds of young men are ever fickle; but when a
senior is present he looks at once to the past and the future
(before and behind) that the matter may be best for both parties."
Iliad, Book III.
"Everich for the wisdom that he can
Was shape lich for to ben an alderman."
Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer does not tell us what this' shape' was like;
but there would seem to have been all along a fiction
of it's not being very tenuous!
The very obvious connection of'WIFE' with web
and the verb weave * has often been noticed: as if it
* Wefan is the Saxon form of the verb: German weben, whence'web'; and the German weib-Sax. wif-Eng.' wife.'




SPINSTER AND WIFE.                83
woud. insinuate that weaving is the only legitimate
sphere of womanly occupation. And really I doubt
we will be compelled to receive the derivation,
especially since the term'SPINSTER' appears to point
in the same direction. For it is impossible to avoid
perceiving that this word is formed from the verb to
spin; and King Alfred, in his Will, designates the
females of his house as the spindle-side. *
"My Grand father hath bequeathed his Land to the spear-side
[or spear-half] and not to the spindle-side. If, therefore, I have
bestowed any of his possessions on a female, my relations must
redeem it, if they will, while she is living; but if not, it can be
dealt with as we have before settled."
The Will of King Alfred, page 25.
Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1788.
Our industrious Saxon progenitors, therefore, took
it for granted that the unmarried women would be
employed in spinning.  Chaucer makes the " Wif of
Bathe" thus give us the Whole Duty of ~Woman:
* As the female side was designated by the spindle, so the
male was by the sword or the spear. The Goths, however,
employed a still more fantastic distinction, for man they denoted
by hat; woman by hood.




84                FOSSIL HISTORIES.
"For all swiche wit yeven us in our birth;
Deceite, weping, spinning, God hath yeven.
To woman kindly while that they may liven."
The Wif of Bathes Tale.
Whence it would appear that there may be more
than we might be apt to suppose, in the character
given of a certain Roman Matron:
"Domum mansit-lanam fecit "so quaintly and forcibly rendered by Gawain Douglas
"She keepit close the hous, and birlit at the quhele!"
And more of this wondrous Archteology of Words.
Plagium was among the Romans the name given to
man-stealing-" the crime of knowingly buying or
selling a freeman as a slave "-a species of'plagiary'
which, it would seem, by the way, is not yet quite
extinct. But, since this has become less appreciable,
the word is now employed to designate the more palpable literary thefts. Richardson cites the following:
" Plagiarie had not its nativity with printing; but began in
times when thefts were difficult, and the paucity of books scarce
wanted that invention."
Brown's Vulgar Errours.




THE ARCH2EOLOGY OF LANGUAGE.          85
The story which' EMOLUMENT' tells us furnishes an
additional tint wherewith to fill up the picture of
primitive times: for do we not catch, lurking therein,
glimpses of the mola or mill, far in the distance, on the
edge of old Roman wood or water? And, in fact, all
that' emolument' at first implied was that tithe of the
grist which went to the miller for grinding the graintruly his Emolumentumrn' IMOLATE' would seem
to have no possible connection with the foregoing,
and yet its alliance therewith is very close: molae
was the word used to denote grits or grains of corn
coarsely'ground; and, when mixed with salt, was
called the mola salsa, or sacrifice-meal-which mola
was sprinkled on the head of the victim previous to
immolating him: hence its application to sacrificing,
offering up. The connection of'SALARY' with sal,
salt is also very obvious. And in fact the salarium
was primarily money for salt, then allowance of money
for a journey, and then, in general, pay, allowance.
It is said, moreover, that Roman soldiers were wont
to receive part of their pay in salt.
The connection of'PECtUNIARY' with the primitive
idea of flocks and herds (pecus) has already been
noticed. A fragment from Sartor Resartus, which
sounds forth here like a snatch of some antique idyl,
will put the matter in its clearest light:




86                FOSSIL HISTORIES.
" A simple invention it was in the old-world G razier-sick of
lugging his slow ox about the country till he got it bartered for
corn or oil-to take a piece of leather, and thereon scratch or
stamp the mere Figure of an Ox (or Pecus); put it in his pocket,
and call it Pecunia, Money. Yet hereby did Barter grow Sale,
the leather Money is now Golden or Paper, and all miracles have
been out-miracled; for there are Rothschilds and English
National Debts; and whoso has sixpence is Sovereign (to the
length of six pence) over all men; commands books to feed him,
Philosophers to teach him, King to mount guard over him,-to
the length of sixpence 1"
Sartor Resartus, p. 30.
From this same root (pecus) we get two other
instructive words, namely'PECULIAR' and'PECULATE.'  The immediate origin of'peculiar' is to be
sought in peculium-" the stock or money, which a son,
with the consent of his father, or a slave, with the consent
of his master, had of his own; or which a wife has
independent of her husband; private property"-hence,
in general, any thing special or particular to the
individual-taking away which would, doubtless, be'peculating.'
While on this subject it will not be amiss to cause
such terms as' wealth,''chattels,''spoil' etc. to tell
us their story.'Wealth' is evidently that which wealeth or maketh




WEALTH-CHATTEL —SPOILS.                87
a man to be weal, what we now  call well*-which
weal or well Dryasdust makes out to mean primarily
strong, powerful. Nor is this derivation at all improbable, seeing that all the purposes of wealth are
originally to make one powerful, prevalent over his
enemies.  So'chattel' and'cattle' are, at first one
word-(Norman catal-kactalla); but as the principal
part of their'chattels' —their'goods' was in the
shape of oxen, sheep, etc., it is perfectly evident how
the signification would become absorbed in'cattle,'
and that term be raised to typify all kinds of moveable
property.  One word will let us into the whole secret
of'SPOIL.' For spoliumrn primarily implied the skin of
an animal stript off, and then extended so as to embrace any'spoils' whatsoever.  A picturesque snatch
of history indeed is this primitive, self-helping mana rude Goetz von Berlichingen-tearing from  the
wolf or the bear his hide and carrying it off as spoil.
Virgil, in Romulus, gives us a vivid picture of the
character in his old, heroic lineaments:
"Inde lupae fulvo nutricis tegmine laetus
Romulus excipiet gentem," etc.
*' Weal' is now only used as a noun,
"The weal or woe in thee is placed."-Milton.
Yet in Scotland they still use it as an adjective (weel).




88                 FOSSIL HISTORIES.
What a long and entertaining yarn might be spun
out of the'sardonic laugh' We should be compelled
to travel back even to the days of Greece's blind but
sunny bard whom we find first alluding to the " ysex;
oeap~ovo0s." Let old, heroic Chapman recite the passage
for us:
" -..... Who [Ulysses] he heard,
Shrunke quietly aside and let it shed
liis malice on the wall. The suffering man
A laughter raised most Sardonian
With scorne, and wrath mixt."
Odyssey, Book xX.
And Richardson cites a passage from Taylor's
Pausanias which sufficiently explains the origin and
application of the term:
"This same island [Sardinia] is free from all kinds of poisonous
and deadly herbs, excepting one herb, which resembles parsely
and which, they say, causes those who eat it to die laughing.
From this circumstance Homer first and others after him calls
laughing which conceals some noxious design:'sardonican."'
Description of Greece, vol. iii. p. 149.
The piece of history wrapt up in'CURFEW' iS very
familiar; but it will bear repetition. The composition




STORY OF THE CURFEW.                89
of the word we know to be couvre fea, that is to say,
cover up your fires. So that whenever
"The curfew tolled the knell of parting day,"
(and the bell rang regularly at 8 o'clock every night),
the good folks quietly raked up their fires, put out
their lights and retired to bed, as peaceable people
should do. The word reads its own story.  And, by
the way, it also points with unerring certainty to its
originators. For we see that the word is Norman:
and, in fact, this very practice was established by
William the Conqueror-that grand innovator of
Saxon manners and customs and introducer of French
modes and morals.  On this word Webster has the
following curious passage: "The practice of ringing
bells at nine o'clock continues in many places, and is
considered, in New England, as a signal for people to
retire from company to their own abodes; and, in general,
the signal is obeyed I"
By the way, fiends and fairies, as well as mortals,
were supposed to be subject to the same regulation.
Thus Edgar says:
"This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew,
and walks till the first cock," etc.
Lear, III. 4.




90                FOSSIL HISTORIES.
"RIVAL' is another word of well-known origin.
The Latin adjective rivalis is literally that which pertains to a-rivus-stream  or rivulet; and the plural
rivales was used to designate those who had a brook in
common, or who got water from the same brook.* But,
it being soon found out that this circumstance was
almost constantly productive of contentions, the word
lost this speciality of application, and concentrated
within itself the notion of every thing that is bitter in
animosity or fierce in contention.  And yet Shakespeare employs the word in an altogether friendly
sense. Thus when Bernardo exclaims,
"If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste;"
Hamlet, I. 1.
he understands and intends partners, sharers-partners
in the watch, even as those who live on the same
stream are sharers in the water. This use of the word
is now, however, entirely obsolete. Still, we use'COMPANrION'-which  may just be one who eats
* "Si inter rivales, id est qui per eundem rivum aquam ducunt,
sit contentio de aquae usu," etc.
Ulpian Leg. L




INFIDELS-MISCREANTS.             91
(panis) bread along with us-in a wholly amicable
application.*
The most perfect realization of the primitive conception of' rivals' is no doubt the' Border-men'whom the magic wand of Sir Walter's genius has
unsepulchred, causing them to spring up, clad "in
complete steel," raging in the fury of their deadly
feuds. We catch glimpses of the old baron issuing
forth, with his troop of mailed retainers, bent on
plunder, and returning with the stolen cattle of their
neighbors —leaving their sign-manual in  smoking
houses and desolated homes.'SIGN-MANUAL,' did we say?  Even this may not
be without its history. Does it not give us hints of
rude lion-hearted heroes, in those rude yet romantic
Middle Ages, "whose signature, a true sign-manual,
was the stamp of their iron hands duly inked and
clapt upon the parchment."t
Lo I rise there up before the mind's eye the' CRUSADES'-those enthusiastic expeditions against the
*INFIDELS' and the'MISCREANTS'-sending out to
* Webster, however, takes this word from con and pannus, a
cloth or flag; and makes a' companion' one who is under the
same standard. He is probably right.
t Carlyle: "Stump Orator."




92               FOSSIL HISTORIES.'SAUNTER' tO the holy sepulchre whole bands of
PILGRIMS' who came home'PALMERS.'
In these few words lies embalmed the entire history
of the movements.
The'CRUSADES,' that is the croisades, or cross-adesthe cross being the banner under which they marched,
each' crusader,' moreover, bearing about with him
"The dear remembrance of his dying Lord."
The IHoly-land, we know, was the place whither the'PILGRIMS' (the pelerins —peregrini, i.e. the wanderers)
were wont to wend their steps; which knowing, we
can readily conceive how the pilgrimage might very
soon degenerate into a mere' SAUNTERING'-and the'PALMERS,' returning with their branches of palm, use
this symbol only as a sanction for mendicity.
" I am -a palmer, as ye se,
Which of my lyfe much part have spent,
In many a fayre and farre countrie."
Old Play (Quoted by Nares).
And more of the Middle Ages I Our notions of
Chivalry are mainly derived from the sportive phantasy of glorious old Cervantes''Don Quixote;' but
it must not be imagined that Miguel was the first
satirist of Chivalry. Nay, our own Dan Chaucer,




ROMAN-CHIVALRY.                    93
two hundred years before his day, has presented us
with the prototype of' Don Quixote' in his Rime of
Sire Thopas-a stanza of which may not be unappropriate here:
"Men speken of romaunces of pris,
Of Hornchild, and of Ipotis,
Of Bevis and Sire Guy,
Of Sire Libeux, of Pleindamour,
But Sire Thopas, he bereth the flour
Of real chevalrie."'CHIVALRY' (or chevalry, as Chaucer more correctly
writes it), we, of course, perceive to be from chevalier
which is just a cheval-ier-a horse-man, from the fact
of the knights-errant riding on horseback.*
"Straw for Senek and straw for thy proverbs;
I counte not a panier ful of herbes
Of Scole terms."
The Merchantes Tale.
This contempt on the part of Chaucer is doubtless
justifiable enough, especially since he
* As for' KNIGHT,' it is the Saxon cniht, a boy, or servantand subsequently used to designate a youth after his admission
to the privilege of bearing arms. And as this privilege was only
conferred on persons of fortune or valor or favor, it acquired and
retained its honorable application.




94                 FOSSIL HISTORIES.
"Slept never on the Mount of Parnasso,
Ne lerned Marcus Tullius Cicero."
I quote the passage, however, merely to note the
old spelling of'SCHOOL' —Scole-a form  which approaches nearer to the original word and gives us a
glimpse thereinto. Schole is the etymon and signifies
primitively  leisure —the'otium   cum  dignitate' so
essential to  permit of'scholastic' pursuits.   The
following  passage, cited by Richardson, well illustrates the original meaning of the word:
"For hee pictured the noble ladie Hesione, K. Alexander the
Great, and Philip the King his father, with the goddesse
Minerva; which tables hang in the Philosopher's Schoole, or
walking place, within the stately galleries of Octavia, where the
learned clerks and gentlemen favourers of learning, were wont to
meet and converse."                     Holland's Plinie.
The archaic use of'CLERK,' in the above passage,
suggests a remark in regard to the history of it, also.
This word has, in its transition from its original to
the present application suffered divers changes in
signification. Thus the word is at first one with
clergy-(Latin cdericus, Greek  clericos-cleros)* —and
* Literally chosen by lot —the application of which is said by
some to have originated in the choosing of Mathias recorded in
the Acts of the Apostles.




CLERGY-FARCE-JEOPARDY.              95
then, since the clergy were supposed to absorb all the
learning of the times-and what could be a more
conclusive evidence of this fact than that we find'clergie' meaning literature?-it came to signify a,man of letters-" Every one that could read being,"
as Blackstone informs us, "accounted a'clerk."'
We next find it approximating still closer to its
present usage-being employed in the sense of a
writer in an office: and then, by an easy gradation,
a shopman, a " clerk."
We all recognize in'FARCE' a stuffing of irrelevances and ludicrous conceits; but we will realize
this all the more forcibly by noting that it actually
does mean something stuffed-the verb to'farce'
being formerly used in precisely that signification, as
a passage from Sir T. More will well exemplify:
wherein he says with his usual causticity:
"Which was farforth farsed, stuffed and swol1 we venemous
heresies."'JEOPARDY,' again, is a word that smacks of the
gaming table-the composition being in all probability that suggested by Tyrwhitt, namely, jeu parti
-an even game, that is, one in which the chances are
equal, so that there is a chance, and a danger, of its
falling on either side-the whole being very jeopar



96                 FOSSIL HISTORIES.
dous.!  And this derivation wears a still more decided
air of probability when viewed in connection with
such passages as the following:
"And when he, thurgh his madnesse and folie
Hath lost his owen good thurgh ju partie,
Then he exciteth other folk thereto,
To lose his goodes as he himself hath do."
Chaucer.
Or in the following from Froissart:
"Si nous les voyons a jeu partie "- If we see them at even
game, etc.
Chronicles, Vol I. p. 234.
And more of the Archaeology of Words!
" The Host looked stedfastly at Adams, and after a moment's
silence asked him,'if he was not one of the writers of the
Gazetteers, for I have hear,' says he,'they are writ by parsons.''Gazetteers!' answered Adams,' What's that?'"
Fielding's Joseph Andrews.
Any school boy could now  answer the good Parson's interrogatory; and tell him, moreover, that the'GAZETTE' first took its name from  a Venetian coin
called a gazet or gazetta-and which is said to have
been   the  price  charged  for  perusing  it.  DBut




GAZETTE-INOCULATION.                 9T
even in England this word was used as a designation
for a small coin. Thus,
" Since you have said the word I am content,
But will not go a gazet less."
Mifassinger's Miaid of Honour, III. 1.
A  curious piece of history is contained in our
application of the word' INOCULATION.'  The appli
cation, I say; for originally the verb to'inoculate'
merely signified to ingraft-literally, to insert —oculaeyes i. e. buds or grafts, in a tree.  And in this sense
solely was it employed, until the rise of a new practice
(and the necessity of a designation therefor) drew the
word away from its primary usage, and gave it an
application altogether novel. Here is a snatch of old
rhyme-rubbish anent the subject:
" If I had twenty children of my own,
I would inoculate them every one.
Ay, but should any of them die! what moan
Would then be made for venturing thereupon.
No; I should think that I had done the best,
And be resigned whatever should befalL
But could you really be so, quite at rest?
I could. Then why inoculate at all?
BIyrom on' Inoculation. (Written when first practised).
Sometimes, again, there remain to us embers and




98               FOSSIL HISTORIES.
ashes from some mighty social or political volcano, or
revolution (which is also a turning of things upside
down-revolvo, volutum).  Instance'SEPTEMBRIST'a name given to those engaged in the Paris massacre
of September'92. This same French Revolution has,
moreover? left us'SANSCULOTTES'-a term of reproach
applied to the ultra Republicans-that is, fellows so
wretched as to be even destitute of breeches! The'CHAIRTIST,' too, clearly lets us know that he goes in
for his charta, or charter: and it is perfectly evident
that the'RADICAL' believes in going down to the
very  root-radix-of the  matter and  upturning
therefrom.
How perfectly faithful is the history'MOB' gives
us of itself.  We, of course, instantly perceive it to
be a shortened form of mobile-the variable, fickle,
mobile crowd that is swayed about by any wind of
caprice. This derivation receives an additional
certificate when we learn that it was formerly written
mobile, in full, as a trisyllable. Thus in the "Song of
an Orange," among the State Poems, * we have the
following:
" Tho' the mobile baul
Like the Devil and all,
For religion, property, justice and laws."
* Vol. III. 287. In Nares' Glossary.




MOB-HYPOCRITE.                  99
And in the days of Addison it was written as a
contract, that is, with a dot after it. But let him
speak for himself*: "It is perhaps this humour of
speaking no more words than we needs must, which
has so miserably curtailed some of our words, that
in familiar writings and conversation they often lose
all but their first syllables, as in mob., red., pos., incog.,
and the like; and as all ridiculous words make their
first entry into a language by familiar phrases, I dare
not answerfor these that they will not in time be looked
Upon as a part of our tongue /"
Two old Grecian words read us an instructive
history.':HYPOCRITE' and'SYCOPHANT' namely.
Let us lay open these words and see what treasures
they will display.' HYPOCRITE' iS written Hypocrites
in Greek, and in its usual application implied a siageplayer, an actor t-hence one who feigns a part, hence
a dissembler, a'hypocrite.'  But this application of
the word is placed in a much clearer light when we
consider for a moment certain peculiarities of the
Grecian stage. From the immense extent of the
ancient theatres it was necessary, in order to avoid a
ludicrous disproportion, to make the players-the
* Spectator.
t Our verb to'act' is often used in the sense of feigning, pretending.




100             FOSSIL HISTORIES.
hypocrites-by artificial means, of a supernatural size,
And as their roles belonged chiefly to an antique and
heroic age —'mid an atmosphere of stillness and
repose —they were the more readily able to effect this.
Thus they increased by a hidden trumpet, the power
and volume of their voices-and they were generall4
masked: so that they were in a double and still more
comprehensive and comprehensible sense, feigners;
and our acceptation of'H YPOCRITE' acquires from
the genesis of the word increased point and pungency.
Of' SYCOPHANT' the history is exceedingly curious.
In Greece a Sycophantes-sycophant —meant afig-shower
-that is one who gave information of persons exporting
figs from Attica, or plundering sacred- fig-trees; and
as such offices always carry something opprobrious
with them and are eminently exposed to abuse, it soon
acquired the signification of a common informer, a
false accuser, a slanderer, a mean parasite. And even'PARASITE' which I see I have just chanced to use
flashes across the mind an interesting piece of history.
The composition of the term would indicate that it
meant originally one who took  his corn (silos) with
ranother-and so lived at the other's expense. But as
this privilege was, among such characters, generally
paid for by obsequious flattery and buffoonery, it




LEGENDERY LORE OF WORDS.           101
readily acquired the odious signification in which we
now employ it.
Often, too, dwells there in some quaint old word a
fund of legendary lore, at which the imagination takes
flight, bearing us back to the fairy scenes of old bygone days.'FOXGLOVE,' for example, which is just
the focik's glove that is, the good folk's glove-the'GOOD PEOPLE-' being the affectionate name by which
the fairies were known to our simple-minded ancestors, and by which they are still designated by the
Irish peasantry. We meet with the same idea in the
Welsh maneg ellyllon-which is also the fairies' glove.
"Delightedly dwells he'mong fays and talismans,
And spirits 1"' WITCH' and'WIZARD,' too, let us into the weird
phantasies of a superstitious people. For both of
these words are from the Saxon verb to know-wissen
-simply signifying, therefore, a wise person-that is,
one whom they esteemed to be supernaturally wise.'RosICRucIAN' is a word that smells of the
Alchemical alembic. The composition is ros, dew,
and crux (crucis), the cross. Now the Rosicruciansthose Hermetical philosophers who appeared in Germany in the Seventeenth Century-affected a know




102             FOSSIL HISTORIES.
ledge of the Philosopher's Stone and other chemical
arcana: so that the name ip peculiarly applicable to
them-dew being according to their notions the most
powerful solvent of gold, and the cross being the
emblem of light. Cabalistic enough I
Poor Luna, too, has had to suffer her own share of
odium. Not to mention the thousand fantastic tricks
formerly ascribed to her —such as her disobliging
dealings with meats and men-with what infinite
contempt do we talk about'MOONSHINE;' and it is to
be feared that not even advancing civilization will
wholly rid us of belief in all moony influences, since
we have the superstition firmly rooted in the very
groundwork of our language. Witness'LUNATIC;'
also the alchemical' MENSTRUUM' (mensis-a month);
and, by the way,' MONTH' itself is just the time in
which it moon-eth.*
How often do we speak of our'COMRADES,' and
yet how seldom do we think of the allusion we continually make in doing so. The French form of this
word is camarade; Portuguese and Spanish camarada;
Italian camerata. Now this close analogy is clearly
* The steps are just these: mooneth-moneth-month. Chaucer will furnish examples of the middle step. Thus
"This monethes two."
Canterbury Tales.




WORDS SELF-REPORTERS.              103
significant of the common origin of these words; and
in fact, we do indeed find that the root of them all is
the Latin camera, a chamber: a'comrade' is therefore, originally, just a chamber-fellow. It seems strange
why the English should have corrupted this word,
while in all the cognate languages it remains pure.
And, indeed, we find that formerly the word was not
comrade,' but camarade. In Evelyn, for instance, I
find the following:
"These are the particular idioms and graceful confidences
now in use; introduced, I conceive, at first by some camerades
one with another; but is mean and rude."
Character of England.
This, indeed, is one of the most important functions
of words: that they report and describe themselves,
and in their simple composition, ofttimes tell us more
than do the Encyclopoedias. Words thus become a
complete catalogue raisonnee of all thoughts and things;
and while they are crystalized poetries and philosophies, they are at the same time important scientific
organs and instruments.
The'RUBY,' for instance, says plainly that it is
red —ruber; and so' RUBRIC' tells of the red paint with
which titles of laws were first painted. The'NEGRO'
carries black on the very face of him,'AUBURN' is




104              FOSSIL HISTORIES.
quite literally sun-burned (brennan), while an'ALBUM.
is quite as plainly a -white tablet.- A' RESTORATEUR'
offers to restore, or refresh us; while an' OMNIBUS'
invitingly affirms that it is to or for all; and a'PORTMANTEAU' jogs our memory in regard to its ability
to carry our mantle for us!  Then, again,'PURGATORY': informs us that it is the place where we may
purge out our trespasses; while' ROSARY' proffers to
conduct us through a very bed of roses (rosarium).'PAPER,' again, claims an intimate kinship with the
old Egyptian papyrus; a' MANGER' truly tells us that
it is that whereout cattle may manger —eat;'LIEUTENANT' avers that he is merely one who holds the
place, who stands in lieu, of his superior; and a'CRAVEN' basely confesses that he has craved or
craven his life at his enemy's hand.'JAUNDICE'
truthfully affirms that it turns its victim yellow —
jaune; and we cannot mention'ELECTRICITY'  without being reminded of electron or amber-a substance
which so plentifully secretes the fluid.'AFFABLE' encouragingly assures us that it may readily be spoken to
(affabilis); as for'INFANT,' if it could speak, it would
tell us that (etymologically) it cannot speak (in-fans).'RECIPE' simply says,' do thou take' (so and so);'RENDEZ-VOUS' SayS,' betake yourselves' (to such and
such a place; and this place is the'rendez-vous');




BISCUIT —SURLOIN —AUTHOR.             105
and the waiter when he calls,'Anon, sir,' means to
say,' In one (minute), sir.' So'BISCUIT'. tells us that
it is originally an article which is bis-cuit, bis-coctustwice-cooked;'SURLOIN'.just informs us that it is sur
((le) loigne-above the loin, although a fantastic etymology would give it the honor of knighthood and
make it Sir Loin!  A'IMINISTER' offers to minister to,
or serve us; a'TUTOR' offers to look after us (tueor)
and a'PRISON' offers to take or hold one (prendre,
pris).'SHABBY' affirms that it is at present d6shabills; while'DANDELION' seems to claim some strange
alliance with a lion's tooth-dent de lion, and a' PRIVILEGE' avers that it has its own privy, or private
law (lex-legis).  Again, an'AUTHOR,' if verily such,
ought to be in every sense an auctor;* that is, not
merely one who produces something, but —qui auctat
-who positively increases our stock of knowledge and
happiness.  Tried by this standard of etymology, how
many of "the mob of gentlemen who write with
ease," will be found wanting!'SHROVE-TIDE' we cannot help perceiving to be the
time when people were shrived, or shriven; so'DEBONAIRE' is just as evidently de bon air-a word
which has unhappily fallen into disuse, for it is both
* It was formerly so written. I have seen it thus as late
as 1557.




106               FOSSIL HISTORIES.
beautiful and expressive enough to have been retained.
So'CORONER 7 and       so on through ten thousand
other cases. But enough, enough I
The historical significance of Words springs firom the
fact of their being born of spontaneity.  Words thus
formed unwittingly, and on which the national mind,
making and moulding, has wrought, must be the very
expression of the national life. They are the sanctuary
of the intuitions. Here we should find a people daguerreotyped in the very lineaments of life.*  Nay even
our common, eveiry-day words and phrases will many
a time furnish keen hints of ethnic peculiarities. Thus
what is' on the carpet' (sur le tacpis) to the Frenchman,
for the Englishman gets'on the anvil;' nor are the'ESPRIT' and'CAUSERIES' of the one any more characteristic than the'SPLEEN' and'HU1MOR' of the
other; and yet the Englishman possesses a'HOME,'
while the Frenchman has only a' CIEZ NOUS' (at our
place). And so the Parisian's joli (pretty), to the
Cockney-who is apt to cluster most of his ideas of a'pretty fellow' around mirth and enjoyment-becomes
* "I1 est certain que la langue d'un peuple contient, s'il m'est
permis de m'exprimer de la sorte, les veritables dimensions de
son esprit. II est la mesure de l'e'tendue de sa logique et de ses
connaissances."-3 1 le President de Brosses. Traite de la Formation Ai1chanique de Langues, etc. Tome I. 74.




TRAVEL AND TRAVAIL.            107
quite' JOLLY.' And this disposition leaks out through
his very amusements, so that even with his'cards'
in his hand, he will brawl and babble of' clubs' and'spades' (pique et tr'fie). There is said to be no
equivalent for the Italian'CONCETTI;' while nothing
could prove more mournfully the degeneracy of that
once heroic people than the fact that a villain or an
assassin is to them a'BRAVO' (a brave man).
The coincidence of' TRAVEL' and'TRAVAIL' rests
on a piece of history worth exploring. "'Long after
the Frank had achieved the conquest, he well remembered the vast amount of labor and blood it had cost
him to get over the immense walls with which the
Roman tried to protect his fortified encampments and
towers. To scale them, to get'trans vallum' was
-the most difficult part of his military labor; so he
soon came, by analogy, to call every uncommon effort
a' TRAVAIL' and what the Frenchman still ascribes
to the labors in childbed and the report of the Minister of Finances —apparently his hardest works as
they are both called'travail' by eminence,-the
Englishman of the Middle Ages applied to his labor
in travelling through foreign countries."*
It is curious, also, to note in connection with this
that we always designate a literary production as a
* Prof. De Vere: Comparative Philology.




108            FOSSIL HISTORIES.'work'- what the Roman termed his opus (plural
opera) —what the Italian terms his opera, only that
he, dilettante-like, applies the word exclusively to
musical compositions.
In connection with' travel' I might have noticed
that what was to the Frenchman merely a day through,
or a day's work (journee) became to the Englishman
his'JOURNEY'-the application of which it will not
be difficult to trace.
I have spoken of our forms of greeting and parting,
as' GOOD-BYE,' which is just God be wi' you,'ADIEU,'
I commend you (a dieu) to God,  FAREWELL' which
is may you fare or go, well. Perhaps there is to be
read in these national good wishes a deep enough
lesson: perhaps it is that that these spontaneous
utterances may embody the very spirit of the people.
Thus the warlike Roman concentrated his best wishes
in his'SALVE!' which is just'May you be safe;'
or into his'VALE'-which, also, is naught other
than'May you be well'-following his departed
friends even to the tomb with his last sad requiem,
" Vale, vale, in eternum, vale I"
The gay symmetrical Greek summed up his' congratulations' in his I'gcp!'-'May you be joyful;'
while the profounder repose of the Oriental is manifested in his' SALAAM l' —peace 




RAMBLE SIXTH.
WORDS OF ABUSE.
I'alsta. Away, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's
tongue, you stock-fish,-O for breath to utter what is like thee I
-you tailor's yard, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck:Prince hfenry. Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again;
and when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me
speak but this.
First Part of Henry IV. ii. 4.
You remember that the disclosure which Prince
Hal makes of the merry prank played on  "lean
Jack" and his companions effectually closed the crater of that volcano which could vomit forth naught
save wit and braggardism: otherwise we might have
had a perfect exhaustion of Billingsgate from that
"trunk of humors, that bolting-hutch of beastliness,
that swoln parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of
sack, that stuffed cloak bag of guts, that roasted Manning-tree ox with the pudding in his belly, that reve



110            WORDS OF ABUSE.
rend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that
vanity in years!"
As it is, however, we will find no lack of material
wherewith to supply the hiatus. For here, at least,
language is full to overflowing. It is a current which
frets and foams-rushing on dashing and impetuous;
which o'erleaps the barriers of custom and convention, and sweeps into its resistless torrent history and
metaphor and allusion and truth and falsehood and
poetry and passion and prejudice and fact and fable.
Rousseau conceived language to be the natural product of the Passions. And really the thought receives no small degree of warranty when one marks
the prodigious word-fecundity of Love and Hatredhow they have ransacked heaven and earth for symbols, exhausting nature and piling hyperbole on
hyperbole. Take away from any speech what these
have done for it, and how small a remnant will be
left!  As the skeleton forms the frame-work on
which the splendid drapery of the human form is
placed, so the most highly elaborated speech has its
roots' in homely and hearty idioms and instinctselemental utterances of human nature.
Among the most instructive of this class of words
are the terms which the speech-forming faculties have
loaded with burdens of abuse. A representative, that




INFLUENCE OF PASSION.            111
has grown familiar to us all, of this wide-spread
family of words is the genus Billingsgate. Billingsgate pushes to enormous proportions a principle that
is vital in speech. Billingsgate is the burlesque of
word-building.
The metaphysics of the Abusive is exceedingly
curious. The very anatomy of Passion is here exposed,
Here, too, we may study elemental human naturemay read the primary thinkings and feelings of men
in their first rude efforts towards expression. There
are Words that remind me of the monster organisms
of a primitive Geologic world. And there are workings of elemental fires visible in Language, as volcanic
rocks come mounting and molten through the rib-walls
of the planet.
What a subtle Analogist is Passion! It harries
Nature for emblems and reads the types of humanity
in bestial structures and instincts. Of the workings
of this law in Words we have already met with traces.
We have seen how that'rascal' bears the primary
meaning of a mear  worthless deer-how'fanatic'
implies a temple-devotee, and how'clown' has its genesis in a tiller of the ground.
And more of these Abusive symbols.
In merrie England when the sovereign made his'progresses' throughout the kingdom, the train of




112              WORDS OF ABUSE.
courtiers, nobles, etc., was generally followed by the
attendants, and the rear brought up by the lowest
class of menials —by the scullery-servants, the turnspits, the coal-carriers and others of that ilk-rather a
black guard, we should say: and, in fact, they were
jocularly designated by this very term-an appellation which, in the shape of our'BLACKGUARD' remains even to the present day; though why those
poor devils came to be the exclusive representatives
of scurrility and meanness, it might be difficult to
determine-unless, indeed, as we may well suppose,
they were by no means ignorant, and as little sparing
in their employment, of those peculiar elegancies of
diction which are playfully ascribed to that classic
region where they sell the best fish and speak the
best English.  Burton, by the way, speaking of the
various ranks and gradations of devils, alludes to this
" guard:"
"Though some of them are inferior to those of their own
ranke; as the Blacke guard in a prince's court."
Anatonmy of Mfelancholy, p. 42.
Frorn'blackguard' we ascend to the formuling of
a principle which we find exercising quite an important influence over the Abusive Element in speech,
namely, that particular trades or professions or ranks




BLACKGUARD-SNOB —KNAVE.             113
in life which involve something effeminate, or mean
or opprobrious-or which are supposed to do so-are
taken as the types of these qualities. Thus that vile
sarcasm on tailors which wickedly declares them to
be but a vulgar fraction of a man is of quite dateless
antiquity, while shoemakers are proverbially'sSNOBS.'
However, we find some compensation and consolation in the fact that on this subject, too, the standards
of judgment vary.  In France, for instance, they do
not typify this class by a shoemaker, but by a grocer
-an' epicier' being the very beau ideal of twopenny
flash and beggarly magnificence. Another word that
will conveniently come under this same category is'FLUNKEY'-a term  which, in these latter days of
flunkey-ism- has become significant of so much, but
which primarily imports merely a livery servant, a
sense in which the Scotch still use it.
Of similar significance is the word'KNAVE' —a
term which has sadly lost caste-sinking down from
an innocent boy or youth (as the German for boy is
still knabe) to the very depth of rascality.  The intermediate step, however, throws a ray of light on the
terminus at which the word arrives. For this middle
meaning is that of a servant —often enough, we know,
apt to be knavish.*  The course it has taken is, there*' Valet' and' varlet' were, it is surmised, originally one word.




114               WORDS OF ABUSE.
fore, this: Primary meaning, a youth; secondary, a
servant; tertiary, a' knave.' I shall simply exemplify
under its secondary signification. Thus in the Duke
of Lauderdale's  (apocryphal?) translation  of the
Bible, the reading for, "Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ " is said to have been, " Paul, a knave of Jesus
Christ." And in the following quaintly-curious passage from Chaucer, we have the most unequivocal
proof of this employment:
"Ne tak no wif, quod he, for husbandrie,
As for to spare in houshold they dispence:
A trwe servant doth more diligence
Thy good to keep, than doth thin owen wif,
For she wol claimen half part al hire lif.
And if that thou be sicke, so God me save,
Thy veray frendes or a trwe knave
Wol kepe thee bet than she that waiteth ay
After thy good, and hath don many a day."
The Merchantes Tate.
Deep, too, are the traces in Words of the working
of the spirit of caste.'VULGAR' properly implies
what has relation to the vulgus or common people, as'VULGATE' means the, translation of the Scriptures
made for this same vulgus. And it is an interesting
confirmation of this thwarting of meaning that'LEWD' which carries with it the meaning of vile,




MEAN-PAGAN-VAGABOND.                 115
profligate, is also from a Saxon root signifying the
common people-the lay people. So,' IEAN' has an
analogous origin witht he many-Saxon mceneg; and'CHURL' is just the Saxon for a man, a fellow —ceorl:*
a sense which the Scotch carne still retains as'cantie
carle,' that is, a merry fellow. Again,'BOOR' is Dutch
forfarmer;' RUSTIC' is having relation to the country;'PAGAN' is primarily a dweller in a paganus or hamlet;'SAVAGE,' or salvage as the truer orthography
would write it (Spanish salvage, Italian selvaggio), is a
dweller in the woods (sylva) a backwoodsman: and'VILLAIN' is primitively the serf or peasant (villanus)
attached to the villa or farm.  Nor does it originally
bear with it any opprobrious meaning. Thus, in
Chaucer:
" But firste I praie you of your curtesie
That ye ne asette it not my vilanie,
Though that I plainly speke in this matere,
To tellen you hir wordes and hir chere
Ne though I speek hir wordes proprely."
Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.'VAGABOND,' too, is well worth exploring, being,
etymologically, merely one who is given to wandering
* Whence Carl, Carolus, Charles, etc.




116               WORDS OF ABUSE.
about-vagabundus-or, as we also say,' vagrant'* —
and primarily carries nothing opprobrious with it.
The Prince Gonzaga di Castiglione, at least, intended
to employ it in an altogether complimentary manner
when, being at table with Dr. Johnson and a host of
learned pundits, he called out to Johnson: -" At your
good health Mfr. Vagabond I/" imagining that to be
assuredly an appropriate epithet for the author of the
Rambler I  It is curious, and not uninstructive to note
in connection with this, how the staidness of our
ancestors has stamped respectability on every thing
that is settled; while it has cast a slight on every thing
that approaches to roving. Thus Swift uses' stroller'
as precisely synonymous with'vagabond;' while one
given to roving is proverbially a'ne'er-do-weel' (a
never-do-well) as the Scotch say. Furthermore, a'CORSAIR' (French, corsaire; Italian, corsare; Spanish,
corsario-all from Latin curro-cursus, to run), is just
* Both of these words spring from one root-vagor, to rove,
to ramble; vagabond being a corruption of vagabundus; and
VAGRANT' a corruption, through the French, of the present participle. The story that these words and their analogues enwrap
is curious enough. The very fact of being a wanderer would
seem to presuppose some sinister design; and express provision
is mcade, at least in all civilized countries, for the punishment of
this very class. In England, for instance, the ancient punishment was, I believe, boring the ear, whipping, etc.




IDIOT-WANTON.                117
one who, with his vessel runs over, or scours the sea.' WANTON,' too, is said to be merely one who is given
to -wandering; and there is a derivation of'WRETCH'
-in Saxon wrcecca —which would make it out to be
simply one who is wrecked-who is driven about and
who has no certain dwelling-place!
Let me take an additional instance illustrative of
this class of abusive words. It shall be'IDIOT'-a
word that has undergone some strange vicissitudes
and forcibly illustrates how  in Words secondary
strata of signification frequently overlap the primary.
The original meaning of idiotes is a private person, in
contradistinction to one engaged in public affairs. Its
secondary signification was one who had no professional
knowledge of any subject whatever: and Plato makes
such a collocation as this,,roles X Sak —a poet or
an... idiot, by which term we are to understand a prose-writer. Its tertiary signification, and
springing naturally out of its secondary, was that of
an ignorant, ill-informed man.
Thus far and no farther, in Greek; thus far and no
farther, in Latin. But it never meant an'idiot:' that
stretch of application was reserved for our modern
imaginations. For even as late as the days of Wickliff, I find it employed in its legitimate signification.
Thus:




118               WORDS OF ABUSE.
"For if thou blessist in spyrit, who filleth the place of an
idyot [qui supplet locum idiotae] how schal he seie amen on thi
blessyng?"
I. Cor. chap. 14.
Here'idiot' is, we know, rendered, by subsequent
translations,'he that occupieth the room of the unlearned.'
The reason of this unwarranted application of'idiot' might be difficult to determine, unless it be
that he who has not been able to get beyond the condition of a private person (,Slrcs) and attain to some
office or honor, presents thereby prima facie evidence
of not having the wit to do so and is, therefore, to be
regarded as witless and imbecile!
But the Abusive faculty, not content with ransacking human nature for appellations black and bitter, is
fain to go and beg or borrow from the lower animals
epithets fitted to its ends. " Divers words expressive
of contempt beeing," as an old English Archaeologist
has it, " properly the names of some vile things, and
in contempt and disgrace, full often, and with great
breach of charitie, injuriously applyed unto men and.
women."  It is no respecter either uf persons or
things.  Willing or unwilling, it presses universal
nature into its service.




CRONE-SHREW.                    119'CRONE' (whence our'crony'), for instance, is said
to be properly the appellation for a toothless old ewe,
and then applied, in passion and sarcasm, to an old
woman-an  old'hag,' which, by  the way, meant
primarily an enchantress or fury.'SHREW,' also, is
asserted by Lye to have been taken from the schreawa,
or shrew-mouse-a little creature whose spitefulness
was proverbial and whose bite and venom are even
said to have been fatal.* The variations in the
* In regard to this word Webster says: "I know not the
original sense of this word... but beshrew, in Chaucer is
interpreted to curse." Most assuredly it is and quite properly,
too! The fact is Webster was lead astray by Todd (see Todd's
Johnson's Diet.: in loco) who makes the noun (a shrew-mouse)
a derivative from the verb (to shrew, to curse). Whereas the
reverse is undoubtedly the ecase. This arrangement, too, exhibits, and accounts for, the natural development of the derivatives. Thus:
A' SHREW' is a woman possessed with the contentious spitefulness and venom of a shrew-mouse.
To  SHREw' is to wish one to be struck as with the mortal
venom of a shrew-mouse, and, in general, to curse.'SHREWD' is just shrew-ed, curst, malicious-in this sense used
a thousand times by Shakspeare and his cotemporaries; and
then softened down to what is merely sly, sagacious.
To'BESHREW' is simply another (strengthened) form of'TO
SHREW;' and hence Chaucer's' interpretation' thereof.




120            WORDS OF ABUSE.
orthography of'VIXEN' will lead us, by the nearest
road, up to its source: the steps are as follows:
Vixen, fixen or fixin, fox-en = a she-fox: from which
point of view our readers will readily perceive its
peculiar applicability. And one can imagine some
old hag, white and foaming with rage, endeavoring to
conjure up something overwhelming wherewith to
stigmatize some of her fellows-and at last screaming
out, "You...   you.   ou'QUEAN I'
-that is, you barren old cow-cwean being the Saxon
designation therefor.
As for'CAT' and'BITCH' and'CUR' and' HORSE'
and' ASS  and others such like, (of which we have a
numerous enough tribe), they require no particularization. But it might puzzle one's wits to say what
special stigmatic force there lies in'MANDRAKE,' unless one receive all the wild fables that cluster around
that strange plant.
In the following, for example, it is undoubtedly
used in an abusive sense-where Falstaff, addressing
his page says: " If the prince put thee into my service
for any other reason than to set me off, why then I
have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou
art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my
heels," etc. —Second Part of Henry IV. I. 2.
Here, we perceive, the applicability hangs on the




QUAINT BITS OF ABUSE.            121
old notion of the mandrake's bearing a certain resemblance to the human figure, especially to a diminutive
person. On this quaint fancy, Nares quotes the following curious passage from Lyte::" The roote is great
and white, not muche unlyke a radishe roote, divided
into two or three partes, and sometimes one upon
another, almost lyke the thighes and legges of a man."
It was, moreover, supposed that this plant, when
torn up from the ground, uttered groans so horrible
as to drive any one mad who chanced to hear it.
By the way,' MANDRAKE' iS a corruption from
mandregora-the peculiar soporific effects of which
a familiar passage in Othello will have imprinted on
the reader's memory:
"-....Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrops of the world,
Shall ever medecine thee to that sweet sleep
WVhich thou ow'dst yesterday I"
Thus we often times find embalmed, even in words
expressive of contempt, quite an important fact or
fable. From  the unpromising'TAWDRY,' for example, we evolve quite a piece of history. For it is
asserted to be a contraction from St. Audrey (or Saint
Ethelrida) —a name commonly applied to an annual
fair held on St. Audrey's day, and at which all kinds
6




122              WORDS OF ABUSE.
of frippery and trinkets were bought and sold: but as
these articles generally possessed more glitter than
gold and their splendors were too often sadly faded, it
soon came to acquire the meaning which we now
attach to the word'tawdry:''That was bought at St.
Audrey-fair!' and so'tawdry.' By the way, the
fair saint herself is said to have- been rather attached
to finery —so much so, indeed, as to have died of a
swelling in the throat, sent as a special visitation on
account of an ardent youthful fondness for fine necklaces! Many of my readers may remember the very
strange story which Horne Tooke compels from'POLTROoN.' HIe takes it from pollice truncus-one that
has deprived himself of his thumb, a derivation in which
he is supported by the elder Etymologists, as Vossius,
Skinner and Menage.  "Multi enim illo tempore, quia
necessitate ad bellum cogebantur pra lignavia sibi
pollices truncabant, ne militarent!"  Some doubt has
indeed been cast on this etymology and yet here is a
passage giving so perfect a realization of the primary
idea of'poltroon' that one can scarcely resist accept
ing it:
"In October 1795, one Samuel Caradise, who had been committed to the house of correction in Kendal, and there confined
as a vagabond until put on board a King's ship, agreeable to the
late Act, sent for his wife the evening before his intended de



SCOUNDREL-COWARD.                   123
parture. He was in a cell and she spoke to him thiough the
iron door. After which he put his hand underneath, and she
with a mallet and chissel, concealed for the purpose, struck off a
finger and thumb, to render him unfit for his Majesty's service."
And similar in origin is'SCOUNDREL' —said to be
the Italian scondaruole, that is, a soldier who absconds
or skulks at muster-role:
" Go if your ancient, but ignoble blood
Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood!"
Pope.
And similar, too, are'DASTARD,''COWARD,' and'CRAVEN.'  A'CRAVEN' iS one who has craved or
craven his life at his enemy's hands.'DASTARD,' is
from the Saxon verb Dastrigan, to be scared, frightened.  And'COWARD' is from  a verb that is now
obsolete in English, though it is still a living vocable
in the Scotch idiom-to cower, to shake, to shiver.
Of its use I find such examples as this:
"Winter with his rough winds and blasts causeth a lusty man
and woman to cowre and sit by the fire."
Or this:
"And she was put, that I of talke
Ferre fro these Other, up in a halke;
There lurked, and there cowred she."
Romaunt of the Rose,




124              WORDS OF ABUSE.
Our slightly contemptuous term'STICKLER' has
rather an unexpected derivation. A citation from
Shakespeare will let us into the secret. In Troilus
and Cressida after
"Achilles hath the mighty Hector slain,"
he exclaims:
"The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth,
And stickler like the armies separates," etc.
Like a' stickler,' that is, like an arbiter.  A'stickler' in a duel was, therefore, what we now term a'second;' and as their duty-namely that of seeing
fair-play, equal advantages etc., between the combatants-would often lead them to chaffer and contend
and'stickle' in regard to special points or punctilios,
we can readily conceive how it came to acquire the
meaning in which it is now used. The reason of
their being called'sticklers' is said by Stevens to
have been from their carrying white stickcs as emblems
of their duty.' HERETIC' gives us some keen hints respecting the
causes of religious intolerance and the odium theologiy
cum. For Hairetikos (Greek haireo, to take or choose
for oneself) originally implies simply one who chooses
an opinion for himself, without any reference to the




HERETIC —INFIDEL.                125
truth or falsity of that opinion. But as bigotry never
can endure that any man chLoose a belief that it does
not choose for him and is never half so much, at home
as when anathemizing all who cannot subscribe credo
to its every dogma, we can readily conceive how this
innocent word acquired the meaning of one who holds
erroneous and, consequently, bad opinions! iElobbes,
in the following passage well illustrates this word:
"The word heresy is Greek, and signifies a taking of anything,
particularly the taking of an opinion. After the study of Philosophy began in Greece, and the philosophers, disagreeing
amongst themselves, had started many questions, not only about
things natural, but also moral and civil, because every man took
what opinion he pleased, each several opinion was called a
heresy; which signified no more than a private opinion, without
reference to truth or falsehood."
IIobbes' Historical Narration concernins Heresy.
It should also be noticed that'INFIDEL' literally
but imports one who is faithless (infidelis) to our beliefs.
In the wars of the crusades the epithet'infidel' was
applied to the Mohammedans, even as the Normans
called them'MISCREANTS' -mescreaunts-which is
also unbelievers.  And it is a curious fact that the
Turks, resenting, stigmatized the Christians as' gia
ours,' which, I am told, signifies in their language
infidel or unbeliever, also 




126             WORDS OF ABUSE.
We are all familiar with what infinite contempt the
Greeks were wont to look down upon all foreign
nations-branding them universally as'BARBARIANS.'
The word' barbarian' itself, however, is by no means
so easily traced. Gibbon makes it Syrian, while
others declare it to be merely intended as a general
imitation of a (to the Greeks) foreign tongue. Thus
we see how entirely relative are all such terms,
whether ethical or ethnical. But so do words acquire
a factitious value. HIow are we under the sway of
Words I! They tyrannize over and terrify us"Assume the nod,
Affect the god,"
as though they really hIad some inherent virtue and
valor of their own, and were not in themselves most
poverty-stricken and impotent I
In thus converting words into epithets of slight, sad
injustice is often done to innocent terms. Indeed it
frequently happens that words that are now employed
in a scornful or opprobrious sense, were once terms
of honor. Of this process of degradation'IMP'
affords a striking illustration. In Shakespeare'imp'
constantly means a son, and, indeed, its primary signification is a shoot or scion. Thus




IMP-BRIGAND.                    127
"Save thy grace, king Hall, my royall Hall.
The heavens thee guard and keepe, most royall impe of fame."
First Part of Henry IV.
And Spenser employs it in addressing the Muses:
"Ye sacred imps that on Parnasso dwell,
And there the keeping have of learnings threasures."
Faerie Queene.'BRIGAND' is most palpably formed with malice
prepense: for originally it signified merely one who
lives on a brig, or summit-a mountaineer. Surely
the word deserves a better fate!  So does'IMPOSTER;'
but, indeed, any species of putting on (imposing) is so
apt to be an imposition that there is no wonder
the word has taken this course.  But we cannot offer
this excuse for a'BELDAME'-which is every letter a
fine lady (a belle dame); or, at least it is nothing
worse than a grandmother.*  Chaucer furnishes examples of its employment in the first sense, and Shakespeare in the last. In the First Part of Henry IV., for
instance, we find Hotspur speaking as follows:
* Beldame was the word for grandmother; belsire for grandfather. Note that a French lady (dame) sobers down to an
English' dame.'




128               WORDS OF ABUSE.
"Oft the teeming Earth
Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd
By the imprisoning of unruly wind
Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving,
Shakes the old beldame Earth, and topples down
Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth
Our grandam Earth, having this distemprature,
In passion shook."
And why a house-wife or huswife (pronounced
huzzif and hence the Scotch o' hizzie')-honest, thrifty
soul-should degenerate into a mere'HUSSY' seems
quite inexplicable. There is surely mnalice prejpense
here; or else some sad degeneracy in housewives
themselves I But, indeed,'NINNY' has, if possible,
received even worse usage. It is certainly so, at least,
if we derive it from the Latin nanus, a-dwarf. And
as for'NINCOMPOOP' he mournfully confesses that he
is non compos-not of a sound mind! And yet surely'CURMUDGEON' (cocur mechant, bad heart) has not so
bad a heart as it would make us believe; while lubber,
it is said, primarily implied just a tall, strapping
fellow;'JUNTO' ought to be nothing more than a
body of men-junctus-joined together; a'NATURAL'
has been compelled to bear the burden of a fool, and'SILLY' has its root in the German' selig,' blessed /'DOLT' is descriptive enough: it is simply one




THE FANTASTIC OF ABUSE.           129
who is dtuled. So'LOUT' which: is connected with
low, and'MONSTER,' which is just a sight.'RUFFIAN'
is of the same root with robber and a'ROUE' is a
fellow so bad as to deserve to be broken on the wheel!
A'DRAB' all too truthfully declares herself.to be
the drabbe-the lees, or, as we say, the very dregs of
society; while'SCURRILITY' palpably declares that
it is only fit for the mouth of a scurra, or buffoon. A'CHARLATAN' (Spanish charlar, to prate) is quite as
evidently merely a prating fool, and all that he says
sheer'RUBBISH' (originally something rubbed off,
refuse); while a'PETTIFOGGER' has pettiness or littleness written on his very face.'CANT' is a thing of
which unfortunately we have no lack; and yet the
word itself is involved in considerable obscurity.
However, a likely enough origin for it is the Latin
canto (cano), to sing: and hence that peculiar whining,
sing-song tone common to jugglers, sturdy vagabonds
and other imposters religious and scientific.  From
the manner it was afterwards transferred to the thing
itself.
Many a time, too, the Abusive reaches out to fantastic lengths.'HAIR-BRAINED' is just hare-brained,
a'SCAPE-GRACE' is one who has escaped merely by
grace or favor, and'JACKANAPES' is jack and ape.
So we have'BORE,'' BOOBY,''BLACKLEG,''BUMPKIN,'
6*




130            WORDS OF ABUSE.'LOOSE-FISH,  SMELL-FEAST,'   TRENCHER-FTIEND.''SCAMP' is connected with scamper;'CAITIFF' is one
who is taken-literally, captive. And how often do
we hear persons stigmatized as'NUMSKULLS' and'T.HICKSKULLS' and'BLOCKHEADS'-though why
they should be block-heads, I know not; unless it be
that the head of such an one may be supposed to be
possessed of all the stolidity and all the woodenness
of a block.  As for'RAPSCALLION,'' SLUBBERDEGULLION,' etc., language is here whirled away into
the realms of the hopelessly grotesque.
Interesting, too, are the opprobrious names that
have been applied in scorn, contempt or hatred to
parties and sects. The terms'WHIG' and'TORY,' for
example, have both their origin in the malignity of
the opposition. Their derivations are, however, too
familiar to induce us to delay over them. However
pure the'PURITANS' may have been, both in walk
and conversation, it did by no means save the name
from falling into sad contempt; and however mqethodical the'METHODISTS' were, it did not prevent the
derision, which Sidney Smith, from the Edinburgh
Review so plentifully lavished upon them, from
taking effect in the scornful associations which, for so
long a time, attached to the name.
In like manner, we can easily conceive how the




PARTY NICK-NAMES.             131' QUAKERS' came to be designated by this appellation,
and Dean Swift, in a passage of dubious character,*
which I shall not quote, gives us the origin of the
party called'ROUNDHEADS.' In a note he says:
"The fanatics, in the time of Charles I. ignorantly
applying the text,' Ye know that it is a shame for
men to wear long hair,' cut theirs very short. It is
said that the Queen once seeing Pym, a celebrated
patriot thus cropped, enquired who that roundhead
man was, and that from this incident, the distinction
became general, and the party were called'ROUNDHEADS.7 
Our own rich and free political life is constantly
giving rise to numberless party-names of more or less
interest and significance.' HUNKER,' and LOCO-FOCO'
and'FIRE-EATER' and'DOUGHFACE' and' Black-republican' and the' shells''HARD' and'SOFT' and'KNOW-NOTHING' and'BARNBURNER' are samples,
of which there are thousands, of this prodigious
political activity. But as I find I shall have to
devote a Ramble to the subject of Names I shall here
abruptly stop.'ROGUE' is an abusive with a double sense, being
employed both in an offensive and an amiable applica* Tractate on " The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit."




132               WORDS OF ABUSE.
tion-as is also the case with'roguish:' so I shall
here take occasion to make a digression on Amiably
Abusive terms.
And how does Love bend even the most refractory
words to the purposes of endearment. Every thing
it conquers, and compels into its service.  Under its
sweet sway'BEAR' becomes an amiable sobriquet
for a husband;* nor does' MOUSE' seem contemptible
-nay, altogether endearing, as in Hamlet,
"Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you, his mouse."
But Love's veritable vocabulary finds not its way
into dictionaries-learned  academies take no cognizance of it. The soil in which it flourisheth is by the
hearth-stone and around the ingle-side. And thus do
the home and hearth exercise their own sweet yet
potent influence over language. They preserve it
from  corruption-moulding it into their own beautiful forms.
*'Tis said that since the publication of Miss Bremer's' Neighbours' (wherein, it will be remembered, a' bear' figures in this
way) thousands of wives have adopted this amiably abusive
term. It would, of course, be impossible here to attempt entering on the subject; the vocabulary of endearment is a private
one. I would merely mention the French'BICHE,' a hind-which
is very popular as an appellation of this sort.




OATHS AND EXCLAMATIONS.           133
A very curious and very fruitful province under
the dominion of the Abusive element is Oaths. Of
cursing and swearing-that senseless and sinful practice-we speak not; but of those more innocent, yet
characteristic exclamations and other popular and
peculiar idioms and phrases by which we often contrive to communicate thoughts and fancies and feelings
which it would be impossible otherwise to convey.
Thus I know of no equivalent for the common exclamation'The Deuce!' It bears with it a burden of
significance not its own and which no other term can
fitly represent. By the way, this word is said to be
the Gallic name of a demon or evil spirit. Augustine,
in his City of God, mentions the word:
"Quosdam dremones quos dusios Galli nuncupant."
An emotion there is, which only'whew!' can perfectly symbolize: and so with a thousand lights and
shades of meaning, which only such interjectional
articulations can fully convey. Indeed we should
say that some of the keenest instruments and organs
of thought had not yet found their way into words.
The'DICKENS!' for instance, which is said to be just
the' deil I' and- but'tis needless to enumerate.
* See Webster.




1.34             WORDS OF ABUSE.
I shall not enter into the dark abyss of terms
formed by that disgracefill practice of swearing: it is
curious, however, to note the characteristic oaths of
different nations.  Thus the Frenchman swears' Par
bleu' and by his'mille tonnkres!' while the German
growls out his' Donner und Blitzen!' or' Donner und
Teufel!' as Jean Paul often has it.
So we see that oaths are not only national, but
individual.  Thus how famous is Socrates''By the
dog!' And Charles''Odd's death!' Just as notorious, however, is the'God's death!' of good Queen
Bess.  Swearing, indeed, Elizabeth affected as she did
many other manly accomplishments.  For if she
could sing'ditties,'
"  -    In a summer's bower,
With ravishing division to her lute;"
she was also quite as able, when occasion required,
heartily to cuff her courtiers. It would seem, however, that ladies once enjoyed a much larger share of
this peculiar prerogative than at present. We should,
at least, conclude so from Hotspur's exhortation to
his wife:
"rHotspur. Come, Kate, I'll hear your song, too.
Lady Percy. Not mine, in good sooth.




OATHS INDIVIDUAL AND NATIONAL.               135
Hotspur. Not yours, in good sooth!'Heart, you swear like a
comfit-maker's wife! Not you, in good sooth; and, As true as 1
live; and, As God shall mend me; and, As sure as day;
And giv'st such sarcenet surety for thy oaths,
As if thou never walk'dst further than Finsbury.
Swear me, Kate, like a lady (!), as thou art,
A good mouth-filling oath; and leave in sooth,
And such protests of pepper-gingerbread,
To velvet guards and Sunday citizens!"
First Part of Henry IV. III. 2.'ZOUNDS!' is a common enough exclamation, and
is probably a contraction for God's wounds-a form
which we find in Chaucer, who is overflowing with
quaint asseverations of this kind. Thus we find,
"I make a vow by Goddes digne bones."
The Pardoneres Tale.'PERDY,' again, is just a corruption for par dieu (by
God).  So,'GRAMERCY' returns-grand merci-great
thanks. Of this primitive form Chaucer will afford us
an example:
"Grand mercy, lord, God thank it you (quod she)
That ye have, saved me my childreno dere."
The Clerkes Tale.' BY'R LADY,' that is by our lady (the Virgin Mary),




136             WORDS OF ABUSE.
and BY'R LAKIN'-that is, by our ladykin-a diminu.
tive of the preceding-were once (when'our lady'
received more veneration than she now does) very
popular forms of asseveration, So Snout the tinker,
exclaims:
"By'r lalcin, a parlous fear I"
Mai Summers Night's Dream, III. 1.
Falstaff, on the contrary, is constantly swearing'BY THE LORD!' and declaring (what he certainly
well merited)'I'LL BE HANGED!' Whereas Justice
Shallow prefers to point his declaration'BY YEA AND
NAY,' or' BY COCK AND PYE' (a corruption for God
and Pye the latter being the name given to the
Popish book of church offices-By God and the
Book!) Another whimsical form of swearing was'By these ten bones!' i. e. the fingers or'by these
pickers and stealers' (Hamlet). See Shakespeare,
Jonson, etc.
We of the Saxon brood are perhaps as abusive in our
language and as terrible in our oaths as any nat on on
the face of the earth. So mnuch so, that we canscarcely
tax Caliban with extravagance when he declares.
"You taught me language, and my profit on't




SHAKESPEARE'S BILLINGSGATE.             137
Is, I know how to curse; the red plague rid ye
For learning me your language."*
Tempest.
It is averred, indeed, that the Italians outstrip us
in this matter, as in many other arts-worthy and unworthy; but this is to be regarded as dubious!
We have seen how Shakespeare wields this class of
words-conjuring up the most fantastic or ludicrous
or scurrilous combinations-piling term on term and
capping the climax of the ridiculous or the abusive.
Like a Titan, he laughs and sports amid the spoils of
language-playing with and tossing about words-or
rattling them like a tempest of hail stones about the
ears of some luckless wight.
"Ha, thou mountain-foreigner I Sir John, and master mine,
I combat challenge of this latten bilbo;
Word of denial, froth and scum, thou liest."
Merry Wives of Windsor, I. 1.
"Out of my doors, you witch, you hag, you baggage, you pole..
cat, you ronyon."
Ibid, IV. 2.
* Caliban imprecates the'red plague.' The names of frightful diseases are often used as imprecations. Thus, the old' Pox
on you l' was, previous to the introduction of vaccination, a
fearful curse. Thahk vaccination, then, for removing both the
thing and the word I
So with a' murrain!' etc., etc.




138                WORDS OF ABUSE.
"Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimus, of hind'ring knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn."
Mid-Summer Nights' Dream, III. 2.
"Falstaff. Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats,
oh! whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth;
down with them; fleece them.
Hang ye gorbellied knaves; are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs;
I would your store were here! On, bacons, on! What, ye
knaves, etc."
First Part of Henry IV II. 2.
However, Falstaff many a time gets paid back in
his own coin:
" You will, chops.?
Farewell, thou latter-spring I Farewell, all-hallown summer!
Peace, ye fat-kidney'd rascal I... Peace, ye fat guts!
Call in ribs, call in tallow.
Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone I"
And so we leave off, even as we began:
"Why, thou clay-brained guts; thou knotty-pated fool; thou
whoreson, obscene, greasy, tallow-keech      I"




RAMBLE SEVENTH.
FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
"The same old love of laughing in this beautiful mad house
of Earth."
JEAN PAUL RICHTER.
MOTLEY ever are the minglings of this strange,
sleep-rounded life,
"A wedding or a festival,
A mourning or a funeral."
And Speech reflects this infinite richness and variety.  For if language has run pliant and plastic into
the mould of our every-day thoughts and feelings,
lending itself to the uses of the Understanding and
the Common Sense, and smacking of our workshop
world, yet can it also
" Babble of green fields."




140          FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
If it generally exhibits but broad high-ways and
level plains-platitudes often enough: yet does it
many a time lead off through by-paths to wild woods
and cavernous depths and elfin haunts, where visionary
forms and rustling spirit-voices meet eye and ear!
The Grotesque and Arabesque play through speech.
Children of the nimble fancy, they round our language with a fringe of smiles and tears. The fantastic
in Words is but a reflection of the fantastic in Things.
For Nature, too, loves a freak. And as, amid the infinite variety of organic and inorganic forms, creative
energy at times sports in seemingly lawless prodigality, so the informing Fancy has interwoven in
words its fairy imaginings"Retinues of airy kings,
Skirts of angels, starry wings I"'NIGHT-MARE' is a snatch of fancy taken from the
Scandinavian mythology.  In that mythology Mara
was a Finland elf, who in night-sleep came with horrid
visitation to men. And in Laing's Chronicles I find
as follows:
"Vailand who ruled over the Upsal domain, was bewitched
by the elf Mara. He became drowsy, and laid himself down to
sleep; but when he had slept but a little while, he cried out,
saying, Mara was treading on him; but when they took hold of




ABOVE AND BELOW THE SALT.            141
his head she trod upon his legs, and when they laid hold of his
legs, she pressed upon his head and it was his death."
Chronicles of the Kings of Norway.'PREPOSTEROUS' is curious enough.  It is prce and
posterus, having that before which ought to come
after-" putting the cart before the horse," as we say;
and how could one be more perfectly brought to a
stand than by being'non-plussed' —that is, so bamboozled'as to be able to say-non plus —no more!'INTERLARD' is plainly the mixing fat and leanentrelarder; to get things' on tick' is properly to get
them on ticket or bill-a form common in old literature; a'IIHABERDASHER' has, according to Minsheu,
a fantastic'genesis in the expression of a shopkeeper
offering his wares, jHabt ihr dcass?-have you t]is;'TEETOTALISM' is just T-totalism, that is temperancetotalism! and'NEWS' is matter brought from all quarters-(N)orth, (E)ast, (W)est, (S)outh = N  E W  S!
But these Gypsies of language, seemingly so destitute
of history or ancestry, do often, when keenly tracked,
reveal long historic processes in their composition.
What a strangely extravagant round has the word'LOCO-FOCO' taken! We first have it, probably as a
corruption of loco foci (i. e. in place of a fire) and so applied to lucifer matches (lucifer matches! that is, light
bringing matches)-and then by a bizarre incident, in




142         FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
which lucifer matches acted a part, applied as a
designation of a particular political party. The occasion of its application is said to have been as follows.
At a meeting of the extreme democrats in Tammany
Hall, New  York, there was a great diversity of
opinion, and consequently great confusion-on account
of which the chairman left his seat and the lights were
extinguished with a view to dissolving the meeting;
when those in favor of extreme measures produced
loco-foco matches, rekindled the lights, continued the
meeting, and accomplished their object. Hence the
name of'LOCO-FOCO' which continueth even unto
this day. Again, the familiar phrase to'OUT-HEROD
HEROD,' is not a mere chance-combination, but holds
in itself the pith and marrow of a thousand legends.
In regard to King Herod we are merely told that " he
sat upon a throne and made an oration" unto the
people-of what character we are not informed, and
yet from subsequent events and the awful punishment
which befel him, we may reasonably conclude that it
was bombastic, bold and blasphemous. But in the
old'Mysteries' and' Moralities' he is constantly
represented as of a fierce, proud, virulent character.
Now it was doubtless from  these that Shakespeare.
drew the expression: and hence its peculiarly ex.
pressive power.




DON'T CARE A FIG.                143
That old expression to sit'above, or below the salt'
becomes instinct with meaning when we recollect that
it was the custom, in old times, to place a large dish
of salt about the middle of the table,'above' which
the more honorable guests were wont to sit, while the
vulgar took their places in unnoticed obscurity'below.'
And Sidney Smith thus gives us the origin of the
expression' within or without the pale:' " The limit
which divided the possessions of the English settlers
[in Ireland] from those of the native Irish was
called the pale; and the expression of inhabitants
within the pale and without the pale, were the terms by
which the two nations were distinguished."*
The phrase' I don't care a fig' would seem, at the
first blush, to contain no special force, the fig being to
us rather a valuable article;t but the expression rises
to pungent point when we recollect that the phrase is an
importation from the Spanishfigo orfico being in that
language an obscene expression, as in Shakespeare:
"Pistol. Die and be damned; andfigo for thy friendship I
Fluellen. It is well.
Pistol. The fig of Spain I
Fluellen. Very good."              Henry V III. 6.
* Edinburgh Review: article on "Parnell and Ireland."
t Our'Not a straw'-what the Latins named nihil (ne
hilum) —would seem to carry more force.




144          FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
Certain words, indeed, are absurdly fantastic, mere
lusus verborum: and it is only their history, that
comes -in to integrate them with by-gone circumstances, that can restore them to the region of commonsense. For example, five important sea-port towns,
on the eastern coast of England, opposite France, were
properly enough called collectively the Cinque-ports,
or five harbors; but, when, forgetting the literal import, people came to speak about seven of the' Cinqueports,' it assuredly became more than most ridiculous.'DEAN' (decanus) is properly the leader of a file ten
feet deep.'QUARANTINE,' again, we plainly perceive,
implies the forty days during which ships suspected
of carrying disease were obliged to wait; but such
combinations as a'quarantine' of five, or of ten days
twist arithmetic out of all proportion. To be sure, it
will not do for us to make any violent protest against
the like anomalies, as this overlaying of primary by
secondary formations is fundamental in the philosophy of Speech: but the process none the less demands
vigilant oversight.
Then, there are pure pieces of whimsey.' KICKSHIAW' is an instance to the point-supposed to be
intended for' quelque chose,' that is, something, and
hence quite suitable for aught "fantastical, uncommon, or that has no particular name," as the dictiona



QUANDARY-HOCUS-POCUS.                 145
ries define it.  As for'QUANDARY,' that is still
worse:
" Falstaff. Mistress Ford;-come, Mistress Ford,Quickly. Marry, this is the short and' the long of it; you have
brought her into such a canaries as'tis wonderful. The best
courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windsor, could never
have brought her into such a canary."
Merry Wives of Windsor, II. 2.
And into a pretty' canaries,' too, has good Mistress
Quickly brought her words!- For the term  she intended is, at its best,'quandary,' and that is fantastic enough-being, as is supposed, a corruption for
Qu'en dira-t-on- What will they say?-which, though
not very elegant, is yet sufficiently descriptive of
being in a terrible fix /!
A few Latin whimsicalities may not be out of place
here.'Hocus pocus' is one of the most outre of the
tribe, and has a fantastic enough origin. Fantastic,
at least, if we make it a corruption of Hoc est corpus
(Christi); if.it be true that the ignorant and juggling'priests'   who gabble Latin which they do not understand," instead of saying Hoc est corpus meum transformed it into hocus pocus (meum)!* May we not
* There are, of course innumerable etymologies for this
phrase: Some (Todd, Johnson's Editor, among them) take it




146            FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
legitimately enough form' HOAX' from  this?  To
hocus, indeed, I find originally used in the same sense.
Henry VII. is said to have told'a story similar to this,
of a stupid old monk who, in repeating his breviary
constantly put mumpsimus instead of sumpsimus; and
who, on being told of his mistake said it might be so
for what he knew, but "Imumpsimus was what he
was taught and he would continue to say it "*-hence'mumpsimus,' though discarded now, was formerly
used for an ignorant and incorrigible blunder. Ignoramuses all of them!  And yet'IGNORAMUS' itself is
extravagant enough: for it is evidently the first person plural of the present indicative of the verb ignoro,
i.e., we are ignorant-and, according to Webster, " the
from Ochus Bochus, the name of a famous magician which the
Italian conjurors were wont to invoke. Webster says it is
Welsh — but we have no patience to quote the trash. Risum
teneas!
In regard to the above derivation Pegge says: "This we
may believe when we are told that they [the priests] call part
of the funeral service, De Profundis, by the style and title of
Deborah Fundish: after which we cannot be surprised that an
ignorant imprisoned Cockney pick pocket should call a Habeas
Corpus-a hap'oth of Copperas, said to be the language of
Newgate."
Pegge's Anecdotes of the English Language, p. 75.
* Nares' Glossary.




LATIN WHIMSICALITIES.            147
indorsement which a grand jury make on a bill pre
sented to them for inquiry, when there is not evidence
to support the charges!" The word deserves a better
fate.
We all remember Hudibrastic Butler's lines on
that Scholastic limbo
"Where Entity and quidity
The ghosts of defunct bodies fly."
Most assuredly defunct-with very little somethdngness (to render quiditas literally) left; except that the
lawyer has inherited the' quiddits' and the' quillets.'
Of their'QUODLIBETS,' the elder D'Israeli thus discourses: "The Scholastic questions were called Questiones Quod libeticce; and they were frequently so
ridiculous that we have retained the word Quodlibet
in our vernacular style to express anything ridiculously subtile; something which comes at length to
be distinguished'With all the rash dexterity of wit.'"
But we have not done with our Latinisms yet.
Thus have we not still'QUORUMS:' that is to say,
bodies-quorum-of whom these present are legally
sufficient to transact the business.' QUIDNUNCs'   are




148           FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
-at present quite as anxious as ever to know whai
now? while there would seem to be even an increase
of ignorant empirics, with their' NOSTRUMS,' in regard
to which they vauntingly say: "Id nostrum est-this
is ou-rs-an arcanum which nobody else possesses,
and wherewith we will cure all your maladies!"
From  quacks and quackeries we naturally stroll to'MOUNTEBANKS — who, it is evident, have their character lurking out from their very name: for it is
impossible to conceal from us, that he is just one who
mounts the bench (monte bane), and there rants respecting his own skill and the infallibility of his medicines;
often, however, managing very effectually to'gull'
and'coney-catch' (what very rabbits they must be)
the'greenhorns' —literally such.
Talking about' gulling' (which we still have) and'coney-catching' (which we do not have), I should
notice that D'Israeli, in the "Curiosities of Literature," has a curious passage in regard to this practice,
which the reader may consult for himself.* And in
Overbury's Characters, we have also the following:
"He cheats young guts that are newly come to towne; and
when the keeper of the Ordinary blames him for it, he answers
him in his owne profession, that a woodcocke must be plucked
ere it be drest."
* Page 230 and following.




ANIMAL CHARACTERISTICS.          149
The allusion to the woodcock as typical of a person
of intense verdancy and witlessness was quite in
vogue some time ago. Thus we have in Shakespeare:
"0  this woodcock I what an ass it is!"
Taming of the Shrew, I. 2.
See, however, when we think of it for a moment,
what a curious collocation is thus produced-a wood
cock and an ass I But so has language in its hot pursuit of analogy harried creation for emblems. A
modern poetical anatomist has thrown out the intimation that the whole animal kingdom is simply man
disintegrated. And assuredly we have in language a
record of how the apprehensive fancy has seized on
animal suggestions as symbols of metaphysical and
moral qualities. Thus we typify courage by the' lion;' ferocity by the'tiger' (wolf, etc.); frolicsome
gentleness by the'lamb'-provided, indeed, this
amiable quality degenerate not into'sheepishness;'
and' beastliness' in general by the hog! How keenly
do we characterize, when we speak ab9ut a boy'playing fox;' or of one'crowing' over another, or
of a woman'gad-ding' about! So, too, our'BUCKS'
-I fear they almost deserve the name of'COxoMB3S'
(i.e. cock's combs),-often enough go out a-' larking,'




150           FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
and'capering' about (caper, a goat)-which is very
much like a goat, indeed!
And more from the animal world.  The ichthyologic fact of the gudgeon's easily swallowing the bait
has been imported by the vivid fancy into speech in
the word' GUDGEON'-a term  expressive of a facile
disposition with whom anything readily goes down.
Cicero traces a curiously fantastic connection between'MUSCLE' (musculus) and musculus, a little mouse;
and the raven has got itself into language in our'ravenous.'  The Etymologists charge the cuckoo with
having fathered that ugly word'CUCKOLD' upon
us;* while'COWARD' is asserted by the old lexicographs to be just a contraction for cow-hearted-a
derivation which certainly does not stand any very
close test, though it is not without a degree of vraisemblance when we view  it in connection with our
verbs to cow, cower etc.t So our verb to'HAWK'
* But see Tooke's "Diversions of Purley," under this word:
and for the connection of the Scotch'cowK' therewith, see
Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary.
t If, as is asserted, the original French orthography of'coward' were culvert, the derivation, which has been proposed,
from culum and vertere-to turn the tail (very' coward' like,
indeed!) will receive countenance. See Minshew and Menage;
also Tooke, and Tyrwhitt on Chaucer.




ANIMAL SYMBOLISM.'                151
and the substantive'HAWKER' Imay possibly have
reference to one who carried round hawks for sale.
Moreover the wooden frame in which he kept his
birds he called a'CADGE' whence we have the old
English (and the present Scotch)' CADGER' which in
English becomes a very queer'CODGER!'
But can the grotesque of animal symbolism farther
go than in those curiously complicated allusions to
rats and rhyming which we find scattered throughout
the elder dramatists.  Thus in As You Like It, Rosalind says, apropos of the profusion of verses lavished
on her:
"I was never so be-rhymed since Pythagoras' time, that I
was an Irish rat, which I can hardly remember."
And you may remember the very sarcastic witticism which Dean Swift, in his Advice to a Young Poet,
picks out of it:'Sir Philip Sidney," observes he, "mentions rhyming to
death, which is said to be done in Ireland; and truly, to our
honour be it spoken, that power, in a great measure, continues
with us to this day  "
But anent rats and rhyming, let old Verstegan tell
us a story that will set the matter in its clearest light:
"There came into the town of Hamel in the countrey of




152           FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
Brunswyc an od kynd of compagnion, who for the fantastical
cote which bee wore beeing wrought with sundry colours, was
called the pyed pyper; for a pyper bee was besydes his other
qualities. This fellow forsooth offred the townsmen for a certain somme of mony to rid the town of all the rattes that were
in it (for at that tyme the burgers were with that vermin greatly
annoyed). The accord in fyne beeing made; the pyed pyper
with a shril pype went pyping through the streets, and foorthwith the rattes came all running out of the houses in great numbers after him; all which hee led unto the river of Weaser and
therein drowned them. This donne, and no one rat more perceaved to bee left in the town; he afterward came to demaund
his reward according to his bargain, but beeing told that the
bargain was not made with him in good earnest, to wit with
an opinion that even bee could bee able to do such a feat;
they cared not what they accorded unto, wvhen they imagyned
it could never bee deserved, and so never to be demaunded:
but nevertheless seeing hee had donne such an unlykely thing
in deed, they were content to give a good reward; and so
offred him far less than hee lookt for; but bee therewith discontented, said he would have his ful recompence according to his
bargain, but they utterly denying to give it him, bee threatened
the with revege; they bad him do his worst, whereupon he
betakes him again to his pype, and going through the streets as
before, was followed of a number of boyes out at one of the
gates of the citie, and coming to a little hil, there opened in the
syde thereof a wyde hole, into the which himself and all the
children beeing in number one hundred and thirtie did enter;
and beeing entred the hil closed up again, and became as before.




GROTESQUE WORDS.                  153
A boy that beeing lame and came somewhat lagging behynd the
rest, seeing this that hapned returned presently back and told
what hee had seen; foorthwith began great lamentation among
the parents for their children, and men were sent out with all
dilligence, both by land and by water to enquyre yf ought could
bee heard of them, but with all the enquyrie they could possibly
use, nothing more than is aforesaid could of them be understood.
In memorie thereof it was then ordayned, that from thence-forth
no drum, pype or other instrument, should be sounded in the
street leading to the gate through which they passed; nor no
osterie to bee there holden. And it was also established, that
from that tyme forward in all publyke wrytings that should bee
made in that town, after the date therein set down of the yeare
of our Lord, the date of the yeare of this going foorth of their
children should bee added, the which they have accordingly
ever since continued. And this great wonder hapned on the
22. day of Iuly, in the yeare of our Lord one thowsand three
hundreth seaventie, and six."
Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 85.
Big words  Here, too, the grotesque comes into
play. And what a subtle psychology lies in these
Cyclopean efforts of the human mind. The affectation of words big merely for the sake of their bigness
is limited to no country and to no age.'SLUBBERDEGULLION,'  which  Butler employs in Hudibras,
affords an example to the point.  So also'SPLENDIDIOUS' used by Drayton, though without the sanction




154           FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
either of etymology or analogy.  Shakespeare is in
these extravaganzas, as everywhere, pre-eminent.
Instance his' ANTHROPOPHAGINIAN' which the Host,
in The Merry Wives of Windsor, gets off in order to
overwhelm poor Simple:
Host. What wouldst thou have, boor?  What, thick-skin?
Speak, breathe, discuss; brief, short, quick, snap.
Simple. Marry, sir, I come to speak with Sir John Falstaff,
from Master Slender.
htost. There's his chamber, his house, his castle, his standingbed and truckle-bed;'tis painted about with the story of the
prodigal, fresh and new; Go, knock and call; he'll speak like
an anthropophaginian unto thee: knock, I say.
JMerry Wives of Windsor, IV. 5.
In the days of good Queen Bess, while through the
brain of "Sweet Will'" Tempests and Mid Summer
Night's Dreams were singing themselves, lived also
one John Lylly who became the founder of a new Ism
-Euphuism,* namely, or Fine Speaking-a species
of bizarrerie which, by the constant use of the farthest-fetched allegory and the most farcical bombast,
succeeded in producing some of the most extraordi* His two books are entitled, "Euphues and his England,"
and "The Anatomy of Wit."  Sir Walter Scott, it will be
remembered has, in the " Monastery," a popular representation
of Euphuism in the character of Sir Percie Shafton.




EUPHUISM.                 155
nary contortions of which our language could be
imagined susceptible.  Immense, however, was the
success of the Euphuist. Indeed it was for a time
pushed to perfect mania. "All our ladies," says
Blount, "were then his scollers, and that beautie in
Court who could not parley Euphuesmne was as little
regarded as shee which now there speaks not French."
Blount was the Editor of Lylly's books, and, of
course, an adoring admirer of him: and as the panegyrics he pronounces on his master are altogether in
the Euphuistic style I shall quote one of them: " The
witty, comical, facetiously quick, and quickly facetious John Lylly-he that sat at Apollo's table and
to whom Phcebus gave a wreath of his own bays
without snatching!"
Shakespeare's keen eye, however, soon penetrated
the affectation, and accordingly we find him taking
frequent occasion to ridicule the absurdity. Thus in
the First Part of Henry IV., and also in the character of Osric, in Hamlet, we have a perfect characterizing of the Euphuistic courtier of his day. Hamlet's
summing up of the character is so complete that I
really cannot resist quoting it:
"He did comply [i.e. compliment] with his dug, before he
sucked it. Thus has he (and many more of the same breed.




156           FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
that, I know, the drowsy age dotes on) only got the tune of the
time and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yesty collection,
which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles
are out."
Hamlet, V. 2.
Euphuism  died a natural death.  Its ghost has,
nevertheless, appeared at various periods, in various
guises. Often, indeed, in the shape of a most abominable affectation of Gallicisms of which take but
one example:
"I was chez moi, inhaling the odeur musque'e of my scented
boudoir, when the Prince de Z. entered. He found me in my
demi-toilette, blasee surtout and pensively engaged in solitary
conjugation of the verb s'ennuyer; and though he had never
been one of my habitues, or by any means des nBtres, I was not
disinclined, at this moment of my delassement, to glide with him
into the crocchio restretto of familiar chat I"
Lady Morgan's Arew Monthly.*
So much for a class of writers of which literature
has never been destitute of specimens, and in reference to whom we can most heartily say, with
Mercutio:
* The later productions of Madame D'Arbly are replete with
illustrations.




VERBAL DIMINUTIVES.                157
"The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fantasticals; these
new tuners of accents I-By Jesu, a very good blade — a very
tall man -Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandsire, that
we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies, these fashionmongers, these pardonez mois, who stand so much on the new
form, that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench? 0, their
bons, their bons i"
Romeo and Juliet, II 4.
Sometimes, indeed, we proceed to the opposite
extreme and clip our terms so villainously shortso curtail them-that they are scarcely recognizable.
Such are some already noticed, as Mlob., Red., Incog.
-Such also are Do., Pro and Con., and the old obs.
and sols. (contracted  from  objectiones et solutiones).'PUG' and'NUNCLE' are additional examples.  So,
too, Have or have not shortens into'Hob or nob;' To
Do. off or do on (i.e. to put off, or put on) appears in
the guise of to'Doff  or don,' and cousin very soon
becomes sweet' coz.'
Diminutives, indeed, are the natural language of
love: a principle which could receive no more forcible illustration than the abbreviations of proper names.
This is constantly done by familiarity and friendship.
A monosyllable-which the popular instinct always
struggles towards-is warm  and cozy-hearty as the
pressure of a friend's hand; a polysyllable is stiff




158           FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
and formal-suspicious as the obsequ:.ous bow of a
courtier.'Frank' and'Ben' and'Will' are seated
at the heart's hearth-stone, while Malachia, Obediah
or Jeremiah are knocking, unheeded at the door.
Nares quotes a curious passage on this subject from
Heywood, a few lines of which may be worth citing.
Talking of the old poets-his contemporaries —he
says:
"Excellent Bewmont in the foremost ranke
Of the rar'st wits, was never more than Frank.
Mellefluous Shakespeare, whose inchanting quill
Commanded mirth or passion, was but Will.
And famous Jonson, though his learned pen
Be dipt in Castaly, is still but Ben.
Fletcher and Webster, of that learned packe
None of the mean'st, yet neither was but Jacke
Decker's but Tom, nor May nor Middleton.
And hee's now but Jacke Foord, that once was John I"
Hierarchie of Blessed Angels, B. 4.
De Quincy I think it is who exhibits this same
principle of abbreviation applied to the classic writers.
Thus Quintus Horatius Flaccus, is, with us, just that
jolly dog _Eorace; Publius Virgilius Jiaro has dwindled down to the familiar Virgil and Caius Crispus
Sallustius  glories in the simple sobriquet of Sallust.
It is curious, also, to observe, in this connection, the




LETTERS AND RUNES.              159
names which have not been shortened, and to trace
the cause thereof —whether from the writer's not
being naturalized in the country, or what not. But
so much for names.
We might discover, to push the matter of abbreviations a little farther, something fantastic even in
particular letters. That learned man Jovianus Pontanus writ two books concerning that strange rune'II;''S' has a long and mystic history. Not to
mention the cabalistic use made of the Runes, and
the semi-sacred letters of the Hebrews, how contemptuously do we talk about persons who are not able
to tell a' B from a Bull's foot;' while'IR' was, we
know, long called the dog's letter —an instance of
which we have in the dialogue between the Nurse
and Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet:
Nurse. Doth not Rosemary and Romeo begin both with a
letter?
Rom. Ay, nurse; what of that? both begin with an R.
Nurse. Ah mocker I that's the dog's name; R is for the dog.
No: I know it begins with some other letter, etc.
Romeo and Juliet, II. 4
The mention of'rosemary,' by the nurse, in the
above passage, suggests a remark thereanent.  Note,
however, that it has no connection whatever with




160           FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
Rose-Mary as, at first sight, one might be apt to.suppose; but is simply a corruption for ros marinus-the
sea-rose. Such hybridisms are, yet, by no means
uncommon in our language, nor are they confined to
any particular language. The principle in their formation seems to be just this: when a foreign word
makes its appearance, the people-who are ever (spite
of Dictionaries and Philologic Academies) the real
language-makers-immediately attempt to bend it to
some familiar form —to give it
" A local habitation and a name"
among them.  Nor is it to be wondered at, if oddities
and whimsicalities are often enough the result. Thus
the French Cartreuse has transformed itself into our' Charter-house;' the German vertugale we are fain to
turn to some account, and so we make it a'Jarthingale;' while the Roman Asparagus springs up in
British soil, as'sparrow-grass,' and'STAvES-ACRE' (a
medicinal plant) —a word formerly in use-is just a
corruption of the Greek mracpi acypa!*
* I might have noticed, before leaving this subject, the very
curious shapes, which the names of European taverns often
assume. Thus the'BACCHANALS' has become the' BAG AND
NAILS,' while' BOULOGNE MOUTH' appears as the'BULL AND
MOUTH' etc. See, also, De Vere's Comparative Philology.




VERBAL EXTRAVAGANZAS.          161
Often times there would seem to be some strange
fatality attached to certain words&  For we see them
wafted by favoring gales to the very zenith of popularity-swaying and registering the sentiment of the
times, and, in their own ludicrous or pathetic associations, furnishing the key wherewith to unlock the
floodgates of public laughter or of public pity.
We are the creatures of Extremes: words feel this.
They are the objects of our wildest caprice. Now
honored and lionized-reveling in hut and hall, then
cast aside and forgotten-damned so that prayers
offered up in all churches would not save them. This
Abuse of Words might add a strange chapter to the
"Curiosities of Literature;" and I think it not at all
improbable that one of the faithfulest indications of
the tendency of popular feeling, and one of the truest
sublimations of the hour or the Age are to be sought
in our common, vulgar catch-words and bandied
phrases-extravaganzas that seem to have no rationale,
which appear amongst us as outlaws and rebels that
acknowledge allegiance to no established power, but
which come-shift and sway us —leave their momentary impression, and then go as they came-without
announcement and without farewell.
In the time of Shakespeare, for instance, the employment of the word'HUMOR' was carried to the




162           FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
most ridiculous excess.  The'fast' gents of those
days had all their thousand and one'humors' which
they affected and pampered-any conceivable peculiarity or bizarrerie being, for the time their'humor.'
Nay, not only was it applied to idiosyncrasies of character, but even garters, hat-6ands and shoe-ties had
each its particular'humor'- so that it grew to be a
perfect mania, "bred," as Ben Jonson tells us, "in
the special galantry of our time, by affectation, and
fed by folly.".This absurdity Shakespeare laughably exposes, in
the character of Nym, whom  he causes to discourse
after the following fashion:"' Nym. And this is true [To Page]. I like not the humor of
lying. He hath wronged me in some humors; I should have
borne the humored letter to her: but I have a sword and it
shall bite upon my necessity. lHe loves your wife; there's the
short and the long. My name is Corporal IN~ym; I speak and I
avouch.'Tis true: —my name is Nym, and Falstaff loves your
wife.-Adieu I I love not the humor of bread and cheese; and
there's the humor of it. Adieu.
Page. The humor of it, quoth'a I here's a fellow frights humor
out of its wits."
Merry Wives of Windsor, II. 1.
Wherein we most heartily agree with Page; but




LINGUISTIC ABSURDITIES.             163
we are out of humor with the wretched affectation,
and can only exclaim, with honest Ben:
"But that a rook, by wearing a py'd feather,
The cable hat-band, or the three pil'd ruff,
A yard of shoe-tye, or the Switzer's knot
On his French garters, should affect a humour,
O, it is more than most ridiculous I"
Induction to " Every Man out of his Humour."
This is surely the very depth of bathos: and yet
we have no lack of parallel terms to bear it company.
Thus the verb'ACCOMMODATE' was, about the same
period, lugged into discourse on every proper or improper occasion a word which, by the way, has, in
our own day, become again popular and is now used
almost as frequently, and quite as ineptly as of yore.
Nor is it presumable that many of its modern abusers
would be much more successful in defining it, in its
multifarious applications, than was their grand prototype, Bardolph:
"Accommodated; that is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or when a man is, —being, —whereby,-he may be
thought to- be-accommodated; which is an excellent thing."
Second Part of Henry IV. III. 2.
The similarity of Ajax to a jakes furnished the wits
of Elizabeth's reign with subject-matter for many a




164            FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
wretched pun, and gave the word a prodigious popu
larity, as we may see from the contemporary dramaever the most faithful index of the tides of popular
feeling. The occasion of all this pleasantry is generally ascribed to the "Metamorphosis of Ajax" —a
tract published by Sir John Harrington, in which he
gave an account of a novel invention... but
we will not pursue the story 1*
The Stage is the most merciless immolator of all
fantastic and affected terms-just as, in its turn, the
Green-room  not unfrequently succeeds in imposing
some of its own cant upon us. The History of
Words, Idioms and Phrases that have thus been
damned would be both varied and instructive. The
usual mode is, of course, to take up the affectation
and run it to death, and at the same time so to intertwine it with  ludicrous  associations that its use
* The tract was entitled " A New Discourse of a State Subject, called the Metamorphosis of Ajax:" and though the cause
of many jokes to others, it was no joking to Sir John himself;
for " Good Queen Bess," whose delicacy was offended, banished
him from her sweet presence for some considerable time; nay,
it is said he only escaped a star-chamber inquisition from the
Queen's secret attachment to him. He was afterwards, however, recalled; on which occasion he affectingly describes his
emotions as being those of " Saint Paul, when rapt up in the
third Heaven!"




WORDS ON THE STAGE.            165
becomes forthwith more than hazardous. So was it
with many of the absurdities ridiculed by Shakespeare
and his cotemporaries —' 0 Lord, sir,' for instance, in
All's Well that End's Well. Thus was it also with the
once fashionable phrase,' Egad and all that' —which,
it is said, the Duke of Buckingham's Rehearsal succeeded most effectually in putting an end to; while
the once equally favorite,' In fine, Sir,' met a violent
death at the hands of Dryden's' Sir Martin. And
every body knows how poor Thomson fared when
his pathetic exclamation:
"0 $ophonisba  Sophonisba O I"
was, by some wicked wight, travestied and repeated
throughout all London in the shape of
" O Jemie Thomson! Jemie Thomson O I"
But these popular catch-words and phrases are
universal in their rise and rule. They arise whenever,
and at whatever, the public fancy is tickled; and are
not without their own suggestive significance. "The
most unobserved words in common use are not without
fundamental meanings, however contemptible they may
appear in this age of refinement," says Pegge.* Not
at all to be slighted or despised, but worthy of most
* "'Anecdotes of the English Language."




166          FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
diligent investigation are these rich, ready-made
idioms, begotten of the lusty needs of the times. For
they prove assuredly more conclusively than could
aught else, that no living Word is without its Logic
and its Common Sense,-even though this Common
Sense be, at times, of a very uncommon kind, and the
train of Logic infinitely free and varied as the informign mind whence it springs.
Indeed many a time the most grotesque, the most
fantastic words rest on a richer and more comprehensive insight and analogy than the more authoritative
and classic part of speech. The popular phrase'by
hook or by crook' is an example to the point, having
a curious genesis in the old forest customs, wherein
persons entitled to fire-wood, in the king's forest, were
only authorised to take of the dead wood, or branches
of trees in the forest, "with a cart, a hook, and a
crook." And how forcibly transferred thence to indicate gaining one's end as best he might. The phrase
is of unknown antiquity.  "Beastly Skelton" has
this illustration:
" Nor will suffer this boke
By hooke ne by crooke
Prynted for to be."     Colin Clout.
The seemingly fantastic'HONEY-MOON' is said to




FORCE OF VULGAR WORDS.            167
owe its origin to a custom of an ancient Germanic people who were in the habit of drinking mead (in which
honey was mingled) for thirty days after a wedding
took place; and the ludicrous phrase to'run-amuck'
has its genesis in a positive ethnologic fact: the fact,
namely, that among the Malays, a species of frenzy at
times seizes individuals, and they run about committing indiscriminate murder (amuck). Johnson derives
the expression to'knock under' from  "the submission expressed among good fellows by knocking
under the table," and to'go the whole hog' is claimed,
by an etymology I will not warrant, to owe its origin
to a practice of the western butchers who ask their
customer whether he will go the whole hog or deal only
for joints or portions of it!
Often times, too, these every-day, bandied words
and phrases have an expressive power that more elegant substitutes would but lamely realize.  How
significant, for instance, are' close-fisted,'' mealymouthed,' to' rule the roast,' to' egg on' (to anything),'hood-wink,''quiz,' the'hypoes,''bamboozle,''balderdash,'' ink-horn' terms,' fast' boys,' rich' stories.
So we speak of one's having'brass' or'tin,' or of
one's being in a'pickle;' and we exclaim'ginger'
and we speak of a person in a state of intoxication
(which, by the way, is related in its very origin to




168           FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
poison-toxicum) as being'tight,''tipsey,''boosy,'potvaliant,''muddled,''fuddled,'' fou,''corned,''half seas over,''the worse for liquor,''drunk as a
piper,' or as having a' brick in his hat!' And how
far might we go before we would find such expressive symbols as'blue-stocking' (bas bleu) or'hailfellow,' or'all the go,' or'catch-penny,' or'fireeater,' or' dead-letter,' (a term which the Post Office
has given us?) or'chatter-box,' or'crusty,' or' inuendo,' (literally a nodding at) or' leg-bail,' or' cut
a swell,' or'hobby,' or to' palm,' (anything on one),
or'luggage,' which is just something lugged about!
Though what special applicability there is in the old
phrase'honest as the skin between the brows,' it
might be difficult to tell; and equally hard to tell how
the phrase to' sow one's wild oats' arose, and why it
was that oats should have been selected from among
grains as emblematic of the dissipation and excess of
youth; while to'curry favor,' smacks quite of the
stable; the once popular exclamation,'-Cry you
mercy, I took you for a joint stool,' seems purely fantastic, and I suppose brandy is called the water of life,'eau de vie,''aqua vitae,''usquebaugh,' (for they all
have the same meaning) according to the law of lucus
a non-precisely because it proves in so many cases
the water of death I




RYTHMICAL FANCIES.             169
There is another class of fantastics that also claims
attention. I mean such as have been formed purely
under the guidance of the ear-rhyming reduplicates,
which have no meaning aside from what the mere
sound carries with it. Such are'bow-wow,'' chitchat,''harum-scarum,''flim-flam,''helter-skelter,''higgledy-piggledy,''hodge-hodge,''hubbub,''hurlyburly,''rif-raff,''tip-top,''rub-a-dub,''slip-slop,'
(exemplified in Mrs. Malaprop in the Rivals)'tiptop 1'*
But I forget to mention the very term that most
perfectly typifies many of the words of this Ramble.
I mean'GROTESQUE.' And indeed its origin is grotesque enough, being taken from certain whimsical figures
found in the subterranean apartments-grottoes-in
the ancient ruins at Rome, and thence extended to
typify aught fantastic, ludicrous, or irregularly proportioned. Such is the derivation given by Benvenuto Cellini in his Mfemoirs; and as I have the passage at hand, I shall quote it: " These foliages have
received the name of grotesque from  the moderns
because they are found in certain caverns in Rome,
which in ancient days were chambers, baths, studies,
halls and other places of the like nature. The curious
* Notes and Queries, vol. viii.




170          FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
happened to discover them in these subterranean
caverns whose low situation is owing to the raising
of the surface of the ground in a series of ages,
and as these caverns in Rome are commonly called
grottoes, they from them acquire the name of grotesque." *
And numerous are the other words of equal interest, in which the workings of fairy Fancy may be
traced.  It was a piece of phantasy, for instance, to
call the Roman platform  for orators the'ROSTRUM,'
from the fact of its having been adorned with the
beaks (rostra) or heads of captured ships, and I renlember years ago feeling great pleasure at the perception
of the connection-fanciful and  yet faithful-of
INCULCATE' with calx, the heel (inculco, to tread over
again, to heel-it over again and hence to impress by
frequent admonitions).  What is a'brown study?'
Is it a barren study, or is it allied to the word brow?
Certainly'etiquette' is just the ticket: it having been
once the custom to get out cards containing orders for
regulating ceremonies on public occasions. And'COCKADE,''tis said, arose during the wars of the
Scotch covenanters, when the English to distinguish
* Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini, a Florentine Artist, written
by himself, vol. I. p. 65.




CANT-LANGUAGE.                 171
them  wore a black rosette, which from its position,
shape, etc., the Scotch nicknamed cock'ade!'
But, beneath the lowest depth of vulgarity, slang
and Billingsgate a lower deep opens in the expressive
power of speech. For without the pale of civilization, in depths where not even
"The rarity
Of Christian charity"
penetrates, live brothers of ours, and children are
born and live and die who speak not even the language of other men; but a speech of their own-dark
and terrible  and  awfully significant.  This Cant
Language, or Argot we have, during the last few
years, been made familiar with from the representations of popular novels. Eugene Sue, for example,
has vividly portrayed the Parisian langue des escrocs
-giving  us an insight both into its dark and its
bright side. For even it,'twould seem, has its lights
-its  gleams of humanity-that manifest that its
authors are still of our common kind, and that the
germs of love and pity and hope are quite absent
from no mortal breast.
* "Cocarde, touffe de rubans que sous Louis XIII. on portait sur le feutre, et qui imitait la crete du coq." Roquefort,
Dictionaire etymologique.




172          FAN.CIES AND FANTASTICS.
Puns might form  a characteristic an i amusing
topic for investigation under the Fantastic in Words,
though it is entirely too ample a theme to admit of
treatment here, approaching as I am towards the end
of this Ramble.  Did we enter into the subject in
extenso we should assuredly begin with classic punsHomer and the sons of the Tragic Muse having not
disdained to quip and quibble-lingering over the
graves of some of Cicero's most successful sallies
(witness that wicked one on the Senator who was a
tailor's son, rem acu tetigisti-you have touched the
matter sharply: or, with the point of a needle)!  The
archaeology of Puns would moreover lead us to penetrate into the witticisms of the severe Milton-for
even in Paradise Lost it would seem he punned and
that horribly enough too. And then we should dive
into the abyss profound of modern puns bringing up
what pearls might offer themselves: and so should
we have a complete history and philosophy of Puns
and Punsters.
In the mean time I shall merely mention a few
* D'Israeli's " Curiosities." He cites Menage as saying: " I
should have received great pleasure to have conversed with
Cicero had I lived in his time. He must have been very agreeable in conversation, since even Cwesar carefully collected his
bons mots."




THE PUNS OF SHAKESPEARE.          173
Etymologic or dead puns that occur to me, from
Shakespeare.
Johnson asserts that a quibble was to Shakespeare
he fatal Cleopatra for which he lost.the world, and
was content to lose it. This, like the generality
of Johnsoniana, has considerable truth, with a vast
deal of mere burly assertion and paradox about it.
And I believe the question of Shakespeare's quibbles
is now pretty much at rest.
In " As You Like It," Touchstone, the clown (and
a very "material fool," by the way), says to Audrey:
"I am  here with thee and thy goats, as the most
capricious poet, honest Ovid, was among the Goths."
As You Like It, III. 3.
Here the play of words between Goats and Goths
is apparent enough: but the real pith and marrow of
it is lost unless we recognize the occult pun that lurks
in the term'CAPRICIOUS'-the etymon of it-Caper
(whence, I suppose, we have our verb to' caper'signifying a he-goat. This seen, the allusion becomes,
luminous.
Addison has announced that a pun cannot be translated. Literally, perhaps not. And yet skill and
finesse can go wonderfully far towards a perfect rendering: for a proof of which we need go no farther than
Schlegel's Translation of Shakespeare, wherein, though,




174          FANCIES AND FANTASTICS.
of course, times innumerable he falls infinitely short, he
attempts, at least, to render every nuance of expression
-and every finesse of verbal play. That they are
many a time thin and ghostly must certainly be
admitted, yet it must also be granted that his Translation is an example of what diligence can, in this
direction, perform.
Puns are the most fickle and fragile things in existence. They live and move and have their being
in chance. Hence it is not at all to be wondered at,
should they many a time, in the lapse of years, perish
through neglect. The word'TANDEM' shuts up a
curious practical pun, unrecognized till translated,
and here is an example from the mouth of that monster of sin, sack and sagacity-Sir John Falstaff:
Chief Justice. You follow the young prince up and down like
his ill angel.
Falstaf. Not so, my lord; your ill angel is light; but I hope
he that looks upon me will take me without weighing; and yet,
in some respects, I grant, I cannot go, I cannot tell.
Second Part of Henry IV' I. 2.
Here in order to appreciate the pun we must recollect that an'Angel' was, at that time, the name
applied to a coin, worth about ten shillings (English):
the quibble, together with his not'going' and not




A DEFENCE OF OLD WORDS.          175'telling' (i.e. not passing current, not standing weight)
then becomes luminous with meaning.
So do words fall into disuse, and are cast out as
worthless and witless things.  And this, too, in their
old age, after a life-time's faithful service and too
frequent abuse. They die with grief to see mere. parvenus usurp their places-and find not even a
champion to vindicate their cause or a historian to
write their epitaph.
Yet sometimes they do find a defender. Pegge,*
for instance, with much grave humor, pleads the
cause of " Old, unfortunate and discarded words and
expressions, which are turned out to the world at
large, by persons of education (without the smallest
protection), and acknowledged only by the humbler
orders of mankind: who seem charitably to respect
them as decayed gentlefolks that have known better
days!"
* Anecdotes of the English Language.




RAMBLE EIGHTH.
VERBAL ETHICS.
"By your words ye shall be justified, and by your words
shall ye be condemned."
SHALL we ascend to the highest statement and say
that in Words there is an Ethical element also? For
ever the innermost evolves itself and becomes the
outermost; and surely it. cannot be otherwise than
that some transcript should be left in Words of the
workings of that ethical Conscience that witnesses
within us of right and wrong. Once, we know, every
term, be it warped in its meaning, or be it meaningless, rushed forth, glowing and red hot, from the consciousness, laden. with its own power and pathosa blessing or a curse, a startling metaphor or a rich
poetic image.
And so, too, we may read in Words the moralities
of mankind. They are the decalogue in miniaturethe verdicts pronounced by the great High Court of
Humanity, not to be circumvented, and at once without precedent and without repeal. Oh! not unmind



WORDS EMBALMED MORALS.              177
ful be we of these still small voices, which, from
cavernous depths, whisper ttq the willing ear, of
human frailty and of human power-which, with a
certain beautiful scorn, repel' all meanness and ignobility, beckoning with alluring smiles to crowns and
garlands starry and unfading, and telling of thee,
" Stern Daughter of the voice of God,
0 Duty!"
It may be interesting, to begin with, to notice the
evidence embalmed in Words of the primitive morality of mankind, and to trace the development of
the historical conscience in its ascent to absolute
ethical judgments. Marvelous are these vestiges of
the spiritual history of man!
The law, which, in early times regulated the notions
of guilt and innocence would not appear to have been
very rigid. For if words speak truly'INNOCENCE'
itself merely consists in the not doing any harmin-nocens-or, is we also say,'harmless.' It is, therefore, a negative, niot a positive virtue.'GUILT' unfolds some curious historic and ethic facts., The
Saxon form of the word is gylt* signifying both a
* From the verb gycdatn, to pay. By the way, the ancient'guild' is also formed from this verb; since each member of the
fraternity was obliged to-gyldan —pay something.
8*




178               VERBAL ETHICS.,rime and a debt, or fine-the latter, however, is the
primary signification. It was, in fact, a fine, or remuneration paid by a person who had. committed some
offense; and then this fine applied to the crime itself.
The person was brought in-gyltig-guilty of so
much, that is, he was compelled to pay so much.*
The attachment of a moral idea to a mere business
transaction is curiously suggestive of many things.
And by the way, our'CRIME' —if crimen be connected
with xprvc —may have a derivation quite analogous to
the preceding.  It is instructive also to note that the
German for debt and sin is one and the same wordschuld; and thereby hangs a pun of Jean Paul'
Richter's.  In the Flege~jahre, the reader will remember the following: "'The count,' said one,'with his
fortune, marries for beauty and accomplishments
only, for he has ten times more money than the
general has debts i?''What then,' said an unmarried
comedian, who always played the father'"the beloved
is charity itself and covers a multitude of-schuldendebts [or sins].' "t
A not uninteresting comparison might be instituted
between the respective codes of honor of different
* See the interpretation of the expressions'ware' and'wite' in Fossil Histories.
t W4lt a d Vult, vol. I. 194.




VIRTUE-DECENT.                179
peoples. I shall, however, merely indicate two: The
Frenchman's'honest' man-un honnete homme- -implies a person who tells the truth; while the Englishman clusters all his ideas of honesty around the
abstaining from  stealing!'VIRTUE' to the ancient
Roman meant simply physical bravery-manliness;
while to the westhetic Italian virtu has acquired thesignification of the love of the fine arts. And it is
also worth noting that'VALOR'simply means worthan allusion carried out in worship, as we have before
seen. A certain degree of moderation in behaviorenough, at least, to keep one within bounds-modus
— the. word-forming faculties have named'MODEST.'
Whatever is becoming (decet) they call'DECENCY.'
And what is above all seemly and graceful in walk
and conversation is affirmed, both truthfully and
beautifully, to be'DECOROUS'-that which is as adecus-ornament and embellishment to all the other
graces.  This primary meaning of the word we can
understand from the old verb to decore, as thus:
" Which church he decored with many ornaments and edifices,
especially the south side thereof."
Fuller's Worthies,
When a person desires to exact a degree of homage
which we are not wont (in-soleo) to render, we very




180                V-ERBAL ETHICS.
properly call this'INSOLENCE'-though, by the way,'INSOLENT' did not at first carry with it any other
idea than that which is unusual. As for example, in
the following passage quoted by Richardson:
"The interpretor of Hans Bloome names it (Taenia) the top
of a pillar, but very insolently [i. e. very unusually] it being
indeed that small fascia part of the Doric architecture."
Evelyn on Architects and Architecture.
Chaucer well expounds the word for us:
" Insolent is he that despiseth in his judgment all other folk,
as in regard of his value, of his conning, of his speking, and of
his bering."
The Persones Tale.'INDOLENCE,' again, lets us into a rather curious
ethical fact-the composition of indolentia being in
and dolentia, that is to say a freedom from pain! Can
it be that this circumstance induces and implies laziness or idleness?  What a curious state of things is
it, in which a thoughtful  person becomes'pensive;'
when one who always separates the truth-se- verus —
is said to be'severe;' when anything shown is regarded as a'monster;' and when the entire notion of'convivial' is that of living together!    And yet is not




IDEALS OF THE NOBLE AND GENTLE.    181'comfort' very truly that wherewith we strengthen
one another?  So an'-agreeable' person is quite
faithfully one who is suited-a (notre) gre-to our
disposition-a man after one's own heart, as we say.
And what a depth of meaning is there in the fact that'study' is literally just zeal; while'earnest' and
yearning' are one word!'NOBLE' declares itself to be primarily that which
is known-noted-bruited about: so it would appear
that language takes no cognizance of hidden worth,
but conceives of all'NOBILITY' merely as notoriety
and measures all talent by success. And so-even
as we should expect-' MEAN' declares itself to be
that which appertains to the qzceneg-oi qroxxo' —the
many: having its origin among the ignobile vulgus,
unknown and so not at all'NOBLE.'
"He was a veray parfit gentil knight."
Chaucer.'GENTIL' (gentle) is the Latin gentilis from gens, a
clan-and so pertaining to a clan-'CLANNISH,' as
the Scotch say. This is the primary signification.
The transition in the meaning of this term-through
which it has passed from one who has relation to some
race (a'HIDALGO,' as they say in Spain, that is a son
of something in contradistinction to him who is a son




182                 VERBAL ETHICS.
of nothing), or of birth,* as we say, m  opposition to
him who is of no'family,' down to its present vague,
indefinite application or mis-application-might, had
we opportunity to trace it, be not uninteresting or
unprofitable. In the mean time take the following
from Froissart:
" I-y-avoit un Chevalier, Capitaine de la Ville: point gentil
hornmme n' estoit: et l'avoit fait, pour sa vaillance, le Roy Edouard
Chevalier."
Chronicle V. ii.
And there are other words that point the same
moral.  The striking analogy between kin and kind is
significant, and' GENEROUS' primarily means simply
of birth.  Shakespeare presents an  example of its
employment in this its primary sense. Thus Desdemona says:
"How now, my dear Othello?
Your dinner, and the generous islanders
By you invited, do attend your presence."
Othello, III. 2.
Here'generous' necessarily implies'noble'-the
* If' Gens' is from gigno (ybyvso), these words do, in the last
analysis, all merge into one; while the divers offshoots-' Gentle,''Genteel,' Gentile,' etc., all flow from one fountain.




FAME-REPUTATION-RENOWN.               183
islanders of birth. And more of the same:'fame,''renown,''reputation.''REPUTATION' is simply
what one is reputed (not at all affecting the'character,' which is the seal and token impressed on the soul,
organic in the structure of one's being: and so, independent of all' reputation.')' RENOWN.' is, as we see,
just tbh  being named over and over-renomme, and'FAME' itself (fama, phemi, to speak) is but the being
spoken about, idle rumor, surely not to be very
ardently coveted.  Here is one of Carlyle's fiery
fragments that lights up these words with luminous
meanings: "So fares it with the sons of Adam  in
these bewildered epochs; so, from the first opening
of his eyes in this world, to his last closing of them
and departure hence, speak, speak, O speak; if thou
have any faculty, speak it, or thou diest and it is no
faculty! So in universities, and all manner of dames'
and other schools, of the very highest class as of the
very lowest; and Society at large, when we enter
there, confirms with all its brilliant review-articles
snccessful publications, intellectual tea-circles, literary
gazettes, parliamentary eloquences, the grand lesson
we had. Other lesson, in fact, we have none, in these
times. If there be a human talent, let it get into the
tongue, and make melody with that organ. The
talent that can say nothing for itself, what is it?




184              VERBAL ETHICS.
Nothing; or a thing that can do mere drudgeries,
and at best make money by railways."
But we must ascend to the appreciation of the
King-words of the moral world —of Good and Bad,
of Truth and Right and Wrong-spinal expressions in the Ethical utterance of man. Of' GooD' the
derivations are very varied. Richardson thinks it
is from the Saxon verb Godian, to aid, to benefit.
Skinner prefers to deduce it from the Latin gaudeo.
Junius asserts it is from the Greek avcOo; —an opinion
which Donaldsont also favors. Webster finds the primary meaning to be strong, free, large. And Horne
Tooke assures us that it is "Ge-owed perhaps gowed,
written and pronounced Good, which the Scotch pronounce and write Gude."  This is vague indeed: but
no objection can be made to his derivation of' BAD'
which he thus evolves with his wonted sagacity: "To
Bay, i.e. To vilify, to bark at, to reproach, to express
horror, hatred and defiance, etc. Bayed, Bced, i.e.
Bay'd, Ba'd, abhorred, hated, defied, i.e. BAD."t'RIGHT' is no other than rectum (regitum) the par* The "Stump Orator."
t New Cratylus, 420 and following.
$ From the same verbal root come also'Bane' and'Ban:
as thus —Bayen, Bay'n, Boen, written BANE; To ban, to curse.




MORAL KING-WORDS.                 185
ticiple of the Latin verb Regere to order, to command!
Whence the Italians have ritto, and from Dirigere
comes Dritto; whence also the French have droit (old
French droict).'RIGHIT' then is just what is ordered,
commanded, laid down in the laws of eternal Justice,
and'LAW' and'JUST' announce precisely the same
high fact:'JUST' is from jubere, jussum, and means
the commanded;'LANW' is from the Saxon verb lecgan,
and implies something laid down as a rule of conduct.' WRONG' is the past participle of the verb wringan,
to wring, and means wrung or wrested from the right
or ordered line of conduct.* Wrung was formerly
written wrong: of this many certificates present themselves in our elder literature. Thus
" When your ignorant poetasters have got acquainted with a
strange word, they never rest till they have wrong it in."
Ben Jonson, Cynthia's Revels.
Or thus from Chaucer,
"For which he wept and wrong his honde,
And in the bedde the bloody knyfe he fonde."
Man of Lawes Tale.
" Just as from torquere the Italians take torto and the French
tort, wrong.                      Diversions of Purley.




186               VERBAL ETHICS.
Compare with'RIGHT' and'WRONG'-'upright,''regular,''rectitude,''error,''transgression''tortuous.''Upright' is palpable enough;'regular' is
according to regula or rule, and therefore according
to the ordered.'Rectitude' (rectum) is just the straight
line —the ordered or directed one.'Error' is an erring
(erro)-a wandering from this straight line of' rectitude.''Transgression' (transgressum) is a transgressing, a going beyond this ordered line.'Tortuous'
(tort, wrong) has also relation to what is injurious (in
jurem against the law) that is against the commanded,
that is wrong.'MORAL' and'ETHICAL' have a marvelous genesis.
Mores in Latin means customs; moralis, the customary:
and'ETHICAL' is precisely the same word with a
Greek origin-ethikos, ethos!  On which words read
this fiery comment: "Instead of shrieking more, it
were perhaps edifying to remark, on the other side,
what a singular thing customs (in Latin mores) are;
and how fitly the virtue, manhood, or worth, that is
in a man, is called his morality or customariness. Fell
slaughter, one of the most authentic products of the
pit, you would say, once give it customs, becomes
war, with laws of war, and is customary and moral
enough; and red individuals carry the tools of it girt
round their haunches not without an air of pride



WHAT IS -TRUTH?              187
which do thou nowise blame. While, see! - so long as
it is but dressed in hodden or russet; and revolution,
less frequent than war, has not yet got its laws of
revolution, but the hodden or russet individuals are
uncustomary-Oh, shrieking, beloved brother blockheads of mankind, let us close those wide mouths of
ours-; let us cease shrieking, and begin considering!"
Great, good, glorious Carlyle  forced thyself, by
thy longing and tameless heart, to set thyself in stern
hostility to very many of the'customs' and not a
few of the' moralities' of this our era-honest to the
very profundity of thy great heart, yet thereby forced
sometimes to appear dishonest —the wisest, and yet
willing to be to many a stumbling-block and the
foolishest-the most religious, and yet compelled to
seem the most sacrilegious! with what Titanic force
dost thou wield thy'winged words,'-.that in thy
hands split oft with bursting, burning meaning:
bringing them up in their primitive truth-loving and
truth-telling simplicity, and setting them, not without
a certain grave sarcastic smile, over against their
abuses and their corruptions and their twistings to
gild a falsehood or to consecrate a lie-there to blazon
in immortal scorn human hypocrisies and shams!
And'TRUTH,' too, how pregnant its meaning!'TRU "H' is that which a man troweth, thinketh,




188                VERBAL ETHICS.
firmly believeth:*'TRUE,' or trew as it was formerly
written,
("A bedrole long and trew he reckoneth")
is that which is trewed or firmly believed!  Thus'TRUTH' and the'TRUE' suppose humanity: they
express man, his limitations, struggles, aspirations.
For how possible' is it for one to trow what is not
in the highest translation true! And indeed the word
primarily carries with it no absolute force —a false
truth, that is a false opinion, a false belief, being an
expression not unfrequently met with in our elder
literature.  Thus
"Many a fals treuthe."
Piers Ploughman.
But here it is that the marvel and miracle of language begin. For the divine influx, working on the
unfolding Conscience and the ascending Spirituality
of man, is constantly operating to elevate and ennoble
words.  How  often do Words, through the inspiration that is breathed into them, become virtuous and
valorous beyond their native ability. They lend
* The past participle of the verb to trow was formerly written trew, just as the past participle of know is written knew.




THE DEEP MEANING IN WORDS.            189
themselves plastic to the moulding power of something higher than humanX Will.  For man cannot free
himself from God. The spell of divinity is on him.
"The hand that rounded Peter's dome,
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome,
Wrought in a sad sincerity:
Himself from God he could not free;
He builded better than he knew,
The conscious stone to beauty grow l"
And so, through these Symbols glimmer hints of
deeper meanings-sacred suspicions of divinitytrailing clouds of glory: so that
"' Ve stand,
Adore and worship, when we know it not;
Pious beyond the intention of our thought,
Devout beyond the meaning of our will."
For if we saw that'Moral' and'Ethical' meant
merely the customary and the capricious, yet do they
bear the burden of something stabler by far-of laws
in the depths of the divine consciousness which no
caprice creates nor custom changes.'Truth' but implies that which each man troweth or believeth for
himself-and so would seem to be a fickle and fanciful enough affair:' virtue' may have been to the old




190              VERBAL ETHICS.
warlike Roman nothing nobler than his virtus or
manliness; to the art-enamored Italian his virtu, or
dilettanteism, and to the eupeptic Yankee his plenty
of pork and beans: yet is there a'TRUTH' that has
not its warranty in the partial views of this man or
that, but which firmly plants itself on the Central and
the Unconditioned; there is a'VIRTUE' which is
neither Greek nor barbarian nor bond nor free" For its source from without rises never;"
but which is inherent in the very build of the world.
There is oft times even something godlike in the
contempt with which words themselves look down
upon all meanness and littleness. For, if. they be,
alas, all too frequently, the slaves of falsehood, they
are none the less many a time the first and final
refuge of truth. With what scorn, for example, are'VANITY' and'VAUNTING' viewed when we perceive
that they are both the offspring of vanus, empty, and
regard them in their true character as mere emptiness! How perfect, too, is the sentence we pronounce
whensoever we speak of a' MISER,' even if we do
not always recognize that we just characterize him
as a wretched, a miserable one. In this very sense
Shakespeare and Spenser and Sidney many a time
employ it:




SARCASM IN WORDS.              191
"Decripit miser I base, ignoble wretch I"
First Part of Henry VI. V. 5.
"Do not yet disdaine to carrie with thee the wofull words of a
miser now disparing."
Arcadia, p. 117.
In both of these instances the word has no connection with avarice-implying simply a wretched one.
And the love of money cannot conceal from us that
it is at least a very'SORDID' thing; and sordid is of
a base enough extraction-claiming kinship with
sordes, which is just filth!
Indeed there often lurks- in words a sly piece of
sarcasm on pettiness or paltriness which shows that,
how much soever Society may be sunk in inanity,
they will yet continue to speak out boldly'and truthfully.  Might one not, to be charitable, admit that
those mournful mementoes yclept'DANDIES,' are in
their very name, sufficiently afflicted-when we reflect that though it be French, it is only French for a
ninny-danain: Webster himself defining it as "a
fop; a coxcomb; one who dresses himself like a doll
and who carries his character on his back!"  Again,
how significant a moral is enwrapt in the fact that'loose,''lose' and'loss' are all from one root; that' sore' and'sorrow' have a like genesis. Who could'wish any severer punishment on a'PROFLIGATE' than




192              VERBAL ETHICS.
that he is one whom the appellation itself declares to
be dashed to the gr6und —profiigatus-utterly broken
and abandoned! And how fearfully are the gnawings of Conscience which attend the commission of
any unmanliness or ungodliness embodied in our!REMORSE!'
Thus do Words become most powerful engines in
the cause of truth —flails with which shams and meannesses are castigated. On this head De Quincey
discourses wisely:
"The word humbug, for instance, rests upon a rich
and comprehensive basis: it cannot be rendered adequately, either by German or by Greek, the two
richest of human languages, and without this expressive Word we should all be disarmed for one
great case, continually recurrent, of social enormity.
A vast mass of villany, that cannot otherwise be
reached by legal penalties or brought within the
rhetoric of scorn, would go at large with absolute
impunity were it not through the stern ]Rhadamanthean aid of this virtuous and inexorable word."''HuMItLITY' is an instructive word, claiming kinship with humus, the ground-a lowly enough origin
truly.' PROBITY,' too, is just what has been probed,
* From a paper on "Language."




INFLUENCE OF PASSION AND PREJUDICE.  193
tried and found good;'IMPERTINENT} iS what does
not pertain, does not belong to the occasion.'MISERY,'
it would seem, clusters all its associations around the
being hated (miser, miseo?)-that being regarded as
the worst of all miseries.  And how full of significance is the term'1HAPPY!' If the testimony of language is to be received, it is a very indefinite affair
indeed, being merely the abounding in hays or chances
-not mis-haps, it is presumable: and yet the whole
is just a great perhaps! For thus expounds Paley:
"The word happy is a relative term; in strictness any condition may be denominated happy in which the amount or aggregate of pleasure exceeds that of pain; and the degree of happiness depends upon the quantity of the excess."
Moral Philosophy, book L
0, not a dead letter, these living statutes of Words,
but glowing and palpitating, laden with pathos and
power, rich with the tragedy of souls!
Profoundly significant, too, is it to muster words
with reference to the traces of the workings of the
hot passion, the prejudice, the depravity, shall we
say? of human nature.
Why, for instance, should a judgment beforehand be
with us always a'PREJUDICE,' unless it be that we
are more apt to judge ill than well?  Why cannot a
9




194              VERBAL ETHICS,
man be spirited and courageous without converting
the disposition into'ANIMOSITY? What causes a'cupidity' in the way of benevolence or a'lust'
of doing good to sound like incongruities or downright contradictions? What a story of covetousness
and extortion is revealed by such a word as' usuRY'
-which should surely be called abusury at once!
Or, again, why is it that we cannot promulgate anything with reference to a person, without forthwith
falling to'TRADUCE' him? or report a story without
becoming'TELL-TALES' —while'STORY' itself is now
quite synonymous with afib.
Under old Roman rule persons who were set free
from servitude-freed-men-were called libertini; but
does that authorize us to convert them into'LIBERTINES' —or, is there a dark current of wickedness
underflowing all this-must liberty degenerate into
license?  Mignon in French and mignone in Italian
both imply a darling, a favorite; but since
"That poor man
That hangs on princes' favors"
is not apt to be over scrupulous touching the mode
in which he gains these favors, it gradually came by
a regular process of degradation to bear with it all
the baseness and blackness of a' MINION 1' If pre



RATIONALISM- OFFICIOUS.          195.
tense and presumption be not all too rife, as well now
as among the old iellenic sages, why is it that the
appellation of a wise man should be loaded with contempt-that he should become a mere mock wise man
(which is the foolishest of all)-a mere'SOPHIST,' and
all his instructions mere' SOPHISTRIES?' And in our
own times we may discern the same principle at work
-so that the very exercise of reason we are fain to
stigmatize as'RATIONALISM.' It would seem impossible for one to hold an opinion without converting it
into a'DOGMA,' or assert one without becoming'DOGMATICAL;' to be habile or business-like without its
merging into the'PRAGMATICAL;' and I know not
as it is possible to advance without being'FORWARD I'
The original signification of'OFFICIOUS' we know
to have been merely dutiful, attentive-full of offices.
Thus I find in Dr. Johnson's poem on his servant,
Levett:
"Well tried through many a varying year,
See Levett to the grave descend;
Officious, innocent, sincere,
Of every friendless name the friend!"
But how different its present application! Why is
it that we convert afeeling over again into a'RESENTMENT;' that we cannot turn the mind to (animadverto)




196                VERBAL ETHICS.
a person or thing, without'ANIMADVERTING' thereon,
or have a conception without getting into'CONCEIT'
with it? while even the sacred and the holy will
degenerate into the merely' SANCTIMONIOUS!'
What a tale of strength abused does'robustious'
tell us; and what a history of pettifogging do'CUNNING' and' CRAFTY' tell I-' CRAFTY' which is properly just skillful, powerful,' artful' (only that that
also has gone the same way); and'CUNNING' which,
at first was simply-connan —kenning —knowing: but,
indeed, I despair of defining the word, since almost
every analogue that can be enumerated has been
equally debased: for what does a'knowing' fellow
mean but an artful,'designing'* fellow? A similar and even sadder debasement is observable in the
word'SENSUAL,' which as we have before seen,
strictly signifies simply that which pertains to the
senses-sensualis-but which has so completely taken
possession of and fortified itself within the corrupt
acceptation that we are fain to invent'SENSUOUS' to
supply  its place.  Surely, surely, Dan  Chaucer
spake rightly"To don sinne is mannish!"t
* Certain it is that his'designs' will be bad.
t Take in addition, such examples as cMENIAL,''NIGGARD,
PIETIST,' TAX,'' TRAITOR,7' TREASON'' SEMBLANT,'PERJURE etc.




GOOD AND EVIL IN WORDS.           197
We find at once our compensation and our consolation in scrutinizing to the bottom the abyss, black
and bottomless though it may seem. For soon light
begins to blend with the shade, aurora-streaks of hope
become visible and the white butterflies of Love flutter gaily in the ruddy sunlight. For if it be in
reality that there is nothing totally bad-if our Lifetree bear on its boughs at ofice the blossoms of Good
and Evil; so, while we find in language, traces of
baseness and corruption —if words appear subservient
to everything that is mean and contemptible, they also
lend themselves graciously, and, as.it were, with a
greater good will, to keep or carry sentiments of
Love, of Peace, of Hope, of Benevolence, of Nobility;
and the same breath that festers into a curse can
beautifully mould itself into a heaven-born aspiration
and become the swift-footed and winged messenger of
truth and benignity!
What is'DUTY?' Is it not evidently what a man
owes (devoir, du)-all that is due from him to himself
and to others. High, clear above us sounds the voice
of the dread eternal Nemesis-unflinching, exacting,
with trumpet-tones demanding "What thou owest 1"
"Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;




198               VERBAL ETHICS.
Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face:
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;
And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are
fresh and strong."*
How severe and stately is'MANLY,' which is just
man-like: how noble, how compensating! It strengthens our faith in human nature! And so, like to a fair
lily, springing up amid carnage and corruption comes
such a word as'CREDIT' —which is just the-credit-um
-the belief; or'trust' we have in the honor and good
faith of our fellows. *So that even all the truckling
and prevarication of commerce and politics cannot
conceal from us that there is still among men a great'credit' or trust system; that we have not yet lost all
faith in each other, in spite of all failures!
If there are those that are'MALEVOLENT' or illwilled, have we not, also, the' BENEVOLENT,' or those
that wish us well; and, if there be man-haters-' MISANTIROPISTS,' be there not also, man-lovers-' PHIL
ANTTIROPISTS?' —the good making up for the evil,
the bad pole of existence balanced by the opposite
gobd pole. In fine what could be more beautiful than
* Wordsworth: Ode to Duty.




SYMPATHY OF WORDS.            199
those two words-' COMPASSION  and'SYMPATHY'both of which imply a fellow-suffering-a fellowfeeling-and which sound forth-here with the soft,
wailing melody of an infinite, world-embracing pity?
Thus teach they us that, while from our lone Valley
of the Shadow of Death ascendeth ever to heaven the
tear-steeped tones of mankind's miserere-like to the
"infinite inarticulate grief and weeping of forsaken
children:" yet are we not utterly orphaned and
alone; but still in unison with our sorrows tremble
ever the sympathizing tones of
" The slow, sad music of humanity."
And are we not sure that every one of our pangs is
known and felt by Him whose Heart is a Heart of
Compassion?




RAMBLE NINTH.
MEDALS IN NAMES.' Omnibus est nomen, sed non idem omnibus omenl.
"WHAT'S in a name?" asks Juliet, powerfully
affected by the thought that that which we appellate
a rose, by any other cognomen would possess the
property of titillating the olfactory in an equally
dulcet manner.
In all seriousness, much and much is in a name.
That Quaker individual understood its power when
he threatened the canine quadruped with condign
visitation, and suggested, "I will not kill thee, but I
will give thee a bad name /"
The lordship of Names is the most absolute and
universal in the realm of human tyrannies. Never
was autocrat half so despotic as those airy kings that
lord it over man's thought. Of how many million
toiling brains is it the ambition merely to make a




THE MYSTERY OF NAMES.           201
name; and Roderigo felt that, robbed of his'good
name,' he was' poor indeed!'
What comes so close to man or woman as his or
her Name? Next to the sweet consciousness of
identity, of this "pleasing, anxious being" is the
marvel and mystery of one's Name. The tragedy of
tragedies is in a Name. To what thrilling realizations may it lift-raising
"Beyond the reaches of the soul."
Names of home -the sacred names of mother and
sister and wife-the sweet idyl of the names of children
-the clustering associations of the names of the troop
of amis! Names of bards, benefactors, martyrs, dear
to the heart of the world-Names of the primeval
supremes, of the founders of the antique Religions:
Brama, Osiris, Zoroaster, Prometheus, Orpheus, Jove!
The execrated names of tyrants and oppressorsnames uttered with compressed lips —names of warriors and conquerors writing their fiery legends on
man's mind  as the lightning writes on rocks!
Names of the dead-names embalmed-tombs in a
battle-field, o'ergrown with grasses and flowers!
Of the suggestions from names none are more significant than such as arise from a mustering of names




202            MEDALS IN NAMES.
that have been lifted out of their appellative import
and incorporated as common nouns —nomina realia —
in our language. This interesting class of words is
quite numerous: I shall mention such as occur to me
just now.
And here one's associations of the antique come in
and suggest such examples as'TANTALIZE,' from
Tantalus, whose dreadful punishment it was to be
continually in sight of water etc. and yet never
allowed a drop thereof; Hermes, primeval chemist,
has given us'HERMETIC;' Hercules has given us'HERCULEAN' and Academus'ACADEMY;' then, Gordius, the Phrygian king, has left us the legacy of that
famous'GORDIAN' knot; Mausolus is immortal in
his'MAUSOLEUM;' Epicurus survives in'EPICURE,'
and Demosthenes thunders still and'fulmines over
Greece' in'PHILIPPIC.' And more:'PROMETHEAN,''PLATONIC,'' BACCHANALIAN' are palpable; Atlas,
on whose shoulders rested the pillars of heaven, has
given us'ATLAS;' a'VOLCANO' claims kinship with
Vulcan;'OCEAN' is quite as plainly very closely
allied to Oceanus, and does not the god Terminus
stand watcher over every one of our railroad stations?
But to come to more modern contributions.'GALVANISM' and'MESMERISM' are palpable enoughbeing merely the ism devised by Galvani and Mes



PERSONALITIES IN NAMES.         203
mer.  Macadam  has given us to'MACADAMIZE;'
Mackintosh has left his name to a coat, and Lord
Spencer to the'SPENCER.' Was the'NEGUS' first
compounded, as is asserted, by a Colonel Negus?
We certainly know that Lord Sandwich has left his
name to slices of bread and meat -'SANDWICH.'
The associations we call'TONTINE' were first conceived by a Neapolitan named Tonti; Dahl, a Swede,
introduced the cultivation of the'DAHLIA,' and Lord
Orrery was the first. for whom  an'ORRERY'  was
made.
The same law in the formation of words is frequently found in the genesis of terms that have
acquired a degree of opprobrious or abusive signification. And often do words thus formed do sad injustice to their sires. Thus Duns Scotus, that subtilest
of schoolmen, survives only in the shape of a'DUNCE;'
while Hector, son of Priam-a man who, it is said,
united
"The mildest manners with the bravest mind "has received a maligned immortality in our verb' To
Hector' and a hectoring fellow, which is just a "blustering, turbulent, noisy fellow!"  Rodomont —-that
celebrated hero in Ariosto-has lent us several words.




204            MEDALS IN NAMES.
The name itself "rodomont" we take to designate a
vaporing bully and boaster; and the very sublimation
of empty bluster and rant we express by'rodomontade.''FUDGE'is a curious word, having a positive personality underlying it. Such at least is it, if D'Israeli's
account thereof be authentic. He quotes from  a
pamphlet published at the beginning of the Eighteenth
Century, entitled "iRemarks upon the Navy," the
author of which says: "There was, sir, in our time,
one Captain Fudge, commander of a merchantman,
who upon his return from a voyage, how ill fraught
soever his ship was, always brought home his owners
a good cargo of lies; so much that now, aboard ship,
the sailors, when they hear a great lie told, cry out,'You fudge it! "'
The term' CHOUSE,' a word which one used to hear
on the lips of youngsters, has a similar fantastic genesis in the Turkish name for interpreter —chiaous. It
was a person holding this office in the Turkish embassy in England, and who in the early part of the
Seventeenth century committed an enormous fraud
on the Oriental merchants resident in London, that
gave rise to this appellation as the designation for any
huge piece of swindling. And Verstegan traces'RIBALD' to an analogous origin —a derivation we are




ORIGIN OF RIBALD.             205
forced to hold by somewhat freely, but which none
the less excellently illustrates the principle now under
exemplification. But let him speak for himself.
"This word was at first Rabad as yet in the Nether
lands it is used, wherehence both wee and the French
having taken the name, have somewhat varied it both
in ortography and sence. It was the proper name
of Rabad —a heathen king of Friesland, which being
instructed in the faith of Christ, by the godly Bishop
Ulfrau faithfully promised to be baptized, and appointed the time and place: where being come, and
standing in the water, hee asked of the Bishop where
all his forefathers were that in former ages were deceased? the Bishop answered, that dying without
the true knowledge of God etc. they were in hell,
then quoth Rabad, I hold it better and more praiseworthy to go with the greater multitude to hell, then
with your few Christians to heaven; and therewithall he went out of the water unchristened [that is not
brought over to the faith of Christ: to'christen'
being just to Christ-en]; and returned both to his
wonted idolatry and to his evil lyf, notwithstanding
the good admonitions of the Bishop, and an evident
miracle, which (through the power of God) the said
Bishop wrought, even in his own presence. Hee was
afterwards surprised [literally sur-rised i. e. over-taken]




206t           MIEDALS IN NAMES,
with a suddaine and improvyded [i. e. unforeseen]
death, about the year of our Lord 720, and his very
name became so odious through his wickedness, that
it grew to bee a tytle of reproche and shame, and
hath so continued ever since."*
And the contributions from proper names are not
exhausted. Into what an unenviable notoriety has
the Trojan Pandarus been taken up in our term to' PANDER; and what centuries of. political finesse are
summed up in'MACHIAVELISM' -offspring of that
subtle Italian brain! One would not desire to share
the fate of Dr. Guillotin and father such a word as'GUILLOTINE.' SO, Solomon is a common nickname
for a blockhead; Cervantes has made'QUIXOTIC' an
epithet of universal significance, and our rich, rough
New York life has erected'MOSE' into a type of
character which no other term could convey with
equal directness and force.'JESUIT' is another word
of kindred genus. Its history too is important. It
was, we know, the name given to the order instituted
by Ignatius Loyola, in 1534. This order was called
the Society of Jesus-and the members thereof' Jesuits.'
So much for the origin of the word. And now when
we look in our dictionaries and find'Jesuit' synony.
* Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 337.




AMERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS.           207
mous with crafty intriguer, and see' Jesuitical' defined
as'designing; cunning; deceitful; prevaricating,'
who could be persuaded that these are the characteristics and these the followers of that meek and lowly
Jesus, in whose mouth no guile was found?
The American contributions to this class of words
have been by no means scanty. Indeed, is it not
natural that a people so prolific as are we in isms
should leave a pretty large verbal precipitate?'Bowey-knife' is a familiar example of this kind.'LYNCHING' smacks of the rude, lawless Western
and Southern life, where immortal Lynch presides;
while Barnum will live in his name and his ism, long
after the'happy family' shall have had its quietus,
and the portals of the memorable'Temple of
the Moral Drama' shall have been  closed for
ever!
Sometimes, too, this process of word-building leads
into fantastic snatches of life and thought. The word'PASQUIN' iS an example to the point having an exceedingly curious origin. The word was applied to
a mutilated statue at Rome, in a corner of the palace
Ursini, so called from a cobbler of the name of Pasquin who was remarkable for his sneers and gibes,
and near whose shop the statue was dug up. On this
statue it has been customary to paste satiric papers.




208             MEDALS IN NAMES.
Hence, a lampoon.*  In reading the elder Dramatists
one very often lights upon the expressions' COhincolored' and' Judas-colored'-forms which might be
apt to puzzle us, did we not remember that all legends
ascribe red hair and beards to both Cain and Judas;
and, indeed, the aversion which our ancestors had for
red or yellow hair was only less violent than the
odium theologicum-so violent was it that they even
favored the de'il himself with the attribute. To what
is this owing?  Had its association with the Danes,
whom Alfred calls the Heathen Folk, anything to do
with the prejudice?
What a profound significance frequently attaches
to national names!  What a host of ideas, for example, cluster around the'SAXONS'-especially if we
derive the name from seax, a sword: and so, the men
of the sword! Readily can we understand how, with
sword in hand, they became invincible in armsdriving all before them; and appreciate how those
terrible Vikings, with their awful'berserkir rage'
spread dread and destruction all around the coasts
which they haunted; and by the terror of their name,
compelled the Gauls to intercalate, into their litany,
a new petition: " A furore Normannorum, libera nos,
* Encyclopaedia Americana.




ORIGIN OF SLAVE.             209
Domine!"  )eliver us, 0 Lord, from  tne fury of the
Northmen!  For how  could it be otherwise than
that men who affected such grim appellations as'BLOODY-AXE,''SKULL-CLEAVER,''DEATH'S HEAD'
-and whose deeds did not belie their names, should
inspire a natural horror? So with the'PICTS,' the
original (Welsh) forms of which Verstegan affirms to
be Phictian i.e. fighters; and the'ScoTs' which,
according to the same authority, comes from the Teutonic verb scytan-to shoot.
On the word'SLAVE' Gibbon, in the Fifty-fifth
Chapter of the "Decline and Fall," has a pungent
passage which I shall quote here as altogether pertinent. "The unquestionable evidence of Language
attests the descent of the Bulgarians from the original
stock of the Sclavonic, or more properly Slavonic
race: and the kindred tribes of Servians, Bisneans,
Rasivians, Croatians, Walachians etc., followed either
the standard or the example of the leading tribe.
From the Euxine to the Adriatic, in the state of
Captives, or Subjects, or Allies, or Enemies, in the
Greek Empire, they overspread the land;, and the
national appellation of the SLAVES has been degraded
by chance or malice from the signification of glory to
that of servitude."*
* "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Vol. VII. Chap.




210               MEDALS IN NAMES.
A mere chance, then, a mere mishap in war has
given us the appellation of'SLAVE;' and those old
Slavic tribes, subdued, stolen and sold, have immortalized their name, and within it embalmed the record
of mankind's infamy.
We are not without analogues to this same mode of
procedure.  Thus the'HELOTS,' among the Greelis,
were, it is asserted, simply the E'XMwEe —that is, the
55. In a note to the above he says: "Jordan subscribes to the
well-known and probable derivation from slava, laws, gloria, and
which forms the termination of the most illustrious names (De
Originibus Sclavonicis Pars I. p. 40; pars IV. p. 101, 102)."
An example of the employment of this word slava, glory,
occurs in Suwarrow's letter to the Empress Katharine on the
taking of Ismael, wherein he exclaims:
"Slava Bogu! s7ava vam!
Krepostvzata, y ia tam."
Glory to God; glory to thee!
The fortress is taken and I am there.
The correctness of this derivation has, however, latterly been
oalled in question by some philologers. Anent which take the
following from Talvi's "Literature of the Slavic Nations."
"The name of the slavi has generally been derived from slava,
glory, and their national feelings have of course been gratified
by this derivation. But the more immediate origin of the
appellation is to be sought in the word Slovo, word, speech," etc.
Lit. of Slav. Nat. p. 2, 3, note.




NAMES AS TYPES.              211
dwellers in FIelos-a town in Laconia-to whom,
perchance, a similar mishap arrived: and so'HELOT'
came to be used in precisely the sense in which we
employ' SLAVE.'
It by no means unfrequently occurs that national
names thus become the type of particular qualities,
or characteristics, or dispositions. Thus the FrankN
give us our adjective'FRANK,' with the French' franc' whence is, perhaps, also, our English'FREE.'
If so, then both'SLAVE' and'FREE' have their
origin in national appellations. The Greeks have
always been regarded as a jolly, luxurious race: so
much so, that the Latins employed the verb Grcecari
(lit. to play the Greek) to designate fine living and free
potations, a sense in which Horace frequently uses it;
while Shakespeare often mentions the'merry Greeks,'
and, even in England,'as merry as a Greek' was
long a favorite allusion. The poor Trojans, however,
have not fared quite so well-sinking down even to
the level of a thief. As when bully Pistol says,
-Dost thou thirst, base Trojan,
To have me fold up Parca's fatal web?"
Henry V. V. 1.
So, too, we have'TURKS' whose savage disposition
is of native growth;' GASCONADE' from the lips of




212            MEDALS IN NAMES.
those on whom the sun of Gascony never shone; and'TARTARS' who never saw  Tartary. By the way
what a keen set of fellows those Tartars must be,
when'to catch a Tartar' becomes so pungent an expression! Were the Carthaginians really instinct
ively liars, or was it only Roman malignity that made
the'Punicfaith' emblematic of utter national mendacity? Still do the'GOTHS' and'VANDALS' survive
as typical of everything that is ferocious and sacrilegious, albeit between us and them rolls the flood of
fourteen centuries; and it is even said that the'OGRES'
of the Arabian Nights are not merely mythic monsters, but that a dim memory survives of an Asiatic
nation called the Oigours who, along with the Huns
and the Eastern barbarians, spread terror throughout
Europe-leaving behind them mementoes and associations which became the bases of a thousand fairy and
fantastic tales.'PATAVINITY' (Patois) with which  Livy was
charged is plainly just that peculiar dialect spoken in
Patavium, where Livy was born. So,'LAcoNIC'
-XaxcvIxos —is just something short and pithy-such
as we might expect from the people of Laconia-the
Spartans-a grave, sententious, silence-loving, and
most Carlylean race. Again, the term'CRAVAT'
Skinner derives from the Croat soldiers, or cravates,




NATIONAL NAMES.                  213
as the French called them, though with how much
probability the reader will judge for himself.*
In regard to the origin of the name'GAULS' genia
old Rabelais-who to the universality of his knowledge added an acquaintance with Philology-has a
fanciful, though interesting enough passage, in which
he traces the name to Gala, white: "Cest la cause
pourquoy Galli (ce sont les Francoys, ainsi appellez
parce que blancz sont naturellement comme laict, que
les Greez nomment Gala) voulentiers portent plumes
blanches sur leurs bonnetz.  Car, par nature, ilz sont
ioyeulx, candides, gratieux et bien esmez; et pour
leur symbole et insigne, ont la fleur plus que nulle
aultre blanche, cest le lys."
This derivation is about as good as that of some
high-minded Scots who attempt to prove that'SCOTLAND' comes from  Scota the (sham) daughter of
Pharaoh, King of Egypt, married to Gaithelus, son
of Cecrops, founder of Athens! or that of the Welsh* See Skinner's Etymologicon, in loco. Menage takes the
word from the same source-saying thereanent: "On l'appelle
de la sorte, A cause que nous avons emprunte cette sorte d'ornement des Croates, qu'on appelle ordinairement cravates."
Thus called because we borrowed that species of ornament
which we commonly call'cravats' from the Croats.
Origines de la Langue Franfaise.




214            MEDALS IN NAMES.
man who deduced'APOLLO' from Ap-haul-son of
the sun r And yet these are no more ambitious than
the magnificent names assumed by many of our
Indian tribes, or by the Asiatics: instance the' RAJPOOTS'-which, indeed, is nothing less lofty than the
Sons of Kings!
Such are some of the most significant importations
into our language from personal names. Names of
places have been almost equally prolific. And most
prominent among these are the names of inventions
that have taken rise from the locality embodied in
their appellations. Such terms as'DAMASK' (Damascus);' CURRANTS' (Corinth);'HOLLAND;''NANKEEN'
(Nankin);'CALICO' (Calicut); to'JAPAN;'' BAYONET'
(Bayonne);'TURKEY;' with the names of liquors,
such as'PORT' (Oporto);'COGNAC;'' BURGUNDY'
etc., etc., make themselves apparent at first sight.
Again, a'CORDWAINER,' the technical term for a
shoe-maker, plainly declares himself to be a worker in
cordwain, or leather of Cordova, in Spain. Whence
also the French'CORDONNIER.'  The'ARRAS,' or
hanging of tapestry-a word frequently employed by
the elder dramatists-is evidently named after the
city of Arras, in the French Netherlands. A'CREMONA' violin unerringly points to its source. So




MUSLIN-DOLLAR —TARIFF.          215
does an'ANDREW   FARRARA.' AAnd so also does a' Douay-BIBLE'-evidently being the translation made
at Douay.  Lunier declares'MUSLIN' (what the
French call mousseline) to be from Moussoul, in Mesopotamia; and asserts that'PARCHMENT' iS named
after Pergamus —whose king, Eumenes,'tis said, invented the article. But however this may be, a'MAGNET,' at least points straight to 3fagnesia, in
Asia Minor. Every'GUINEA' we handle jogs the
memory in regard to its origin on the Guinea coastthat ancient El Dorado, while our' DOLLAR' (Swedish
daler) is maintained by some to be connected with
Dale, where, they say, it was first coined. And'STERLING' may have some relation to the place of
that name-though more probably, as Camden declares, it is a contraction from Easterling, " once the
popular name of German traders in England, whose
money was of the purest gold."
It not unfrequently happens, too, that these appellations having their origin in the names of places,
preserve some important piece of history. The word'TARIFF' iS an example to the point. It traces itself
back to Tarifa, a Moorish name for a fortress on a
Southern promontory of Spain, running into the
Straits of Gibraltar, and commanding the entrance of
the Mediterranean sea. From this Tarifa the Moors,




216            MEDALS IN NAMES.
during their dominion in Spain, were wont to watch
merchant-ships passing into or out from the Mediterranean, and, making a sally therefrom, used to levy
duty on merchandise carried by the ships. And
from this practice it was that the application of the
word' TARIFF' arose.
Proper names! This is a vast, indeed a quite boundless field I A calculation that seems to err on the
safe side makes out the number of surnames in the
English language to be between thirty and forty
thousand!* Of English Surnames we have, so far,
nothing like an adequate History or Philosophy.
Camdent —" nourice of antiquitie "-broke ground
more than two hundred years ago in this interesting
investigation. His contemporary, genial old Verstegan, did good service in the same direction. On
these-added to additional contributions of minor
note-Mr. Mark Antony Lower wrought in the production of his "Essays on Family Nomenclature'
(2 vols. 12mo., London, 1842). The Essays are useful
and entertaining, though quite inadequate, Mr. Lower
* Rev. Mark Noble: History of the Co~lege of Arms.
t REMAINS concerning Britaine, but especially England and the
Inhabitants thereof.




PROPER NAMES AND SURNAMES.        217
being no philologer. A work up to the demands of
the theme would be indeed a desideratum.
Was there ever a time when men were anonymous?-a mere indiscriminate herd of Yous?  To
this period the memory of man, at least, runneth not
back, and the oldest historical representations open
with a personal nomenclature somewhat of the nature
of the sobriquet or nickname —a single name freely
designating some idiosyncrasy of the individual. A
broad, free, spontaneous method was this-seizing
some emphatic piece of personnel, and making it the
symbol of the man. Hercules, Ulysses, Diogenes,
Socrates, Isaac, Jacob are instances from Greek and
Hebrew nomenclature.
An advance on this primitive nomenclature was
the assumption of the name of one's sire in addition
to his own proper name, as Melchi ben Addi-Melchi, son of Addi; Ixmpo -rou AjciaXou-Icarus, son of
Daedalus. Additional definiteness was gained by the
annexation of an epithet indicative of his country or
some personal or social peculiarity, as Herodotus of
Halicarnassus; Diogenes the Cynic; Alexander the
Great.
But the perfection of personal nomenclature was
the introduction of the Surname proper-a name
superadded to the first or Christian name, to indicate
10




21]            MEDALS IN NAMES.
the family to which the individual bearing it belongs.
Du Cange asserts that Surnames were at first written
"not in a direct line after the Christian name, but
above it, between the lines "-and so, literally, supranomina or over-names. English hereditary Surnames
were among the fruits of that mighty social revolution that came with the Norman conquest. As says
the great Camden, "About the year of our Lord
1000, (that we may not minute out the time) surnames became to be taken up in France; and in
England about the time of the Conquest, or else a
very little before, under King Edward the Confessor,
who was all Frenchified. This will seeme strange to
some Englishmen and Scottishmen, whiche, like the
Arcadians, thinke their surnames as antient as the
moon, or at least to reach many an age beyond the
Conquest. But they which thinke it most strange
(I speake under correction), I doubt they will hardly
finde any surname which descended to posterity
before that time: neither have they seene (I feare)
any deede or donation before the Conquest but subsigned with crosses and single names without surnames, in this manner: + Ego Eadredus confirmaui.
+ Ego Edmundus corroboraui.  + Ego Sigarius
conclusi," etc.
Lower makes a classification of English surnames




LOCAL SURNAMES.            219
as originating in Locality, Occupations, Dignities,
Physical and Mental Qualities, Natural Objects,
Social Relations, Contempt, Virtues and Vices, Historical Events, Oaths and Exclamations, Puns, Whimsicalities, etc. I can but select a few typical examples.
Local Surnames. This is a copious source of names,
every feature in Geography having fossilized into
numerous personal appellations. BURNS, BRYDGES
(Scotch BRIGGS), BROOKS, CRAGGS, the CHASE (or
forest), the FIELD, FOLD and FOREST, the GRANGE,
GROVE, HILL and HOUSE, the HOLMES (meadow surrounded by water), KNOWLES (top of a hill), and
LOWNDES (or lawns), MARSH, MILL, MOSS and
MOUNTAIN, PARK, PITT, POOLE, and SANDS, the
STREET, SPIRE, TREE and-TOWER, and finally every
quarter, NORTH, SOUTH, EAST and WEST have contributed to swell the list.
Occupations and Pursuits. In this marshaling of
Names with reference to their sources, next in number to the local contributions are the contributions
from Occupations and Pursuits. These became a
natural resort for nomenclature with the advance of
the arts. "PARSONS and PRIESTS met with CHURCHES
and PARISHES and DYERS bound to COFFINS, while:GRAVES yawned before both; BREWER sent out
BEERS, and FISHER brought in EELS; and, in short,




220            MEDALS IN NAMES.
every body had the name of doing something in the
way of his trade."
But whence came all the SMITHS? Momentous
question I An acceptable enough answer is contained
in this old rhyme which Verstegan quotes as current
in his time:
"From whence comes Smith, all be he Knight or Squyre,
But from the Smith that forgeth at the fyre?"
SMITH, then, is originally one who smitheth —
Smi(te)th. But as the Saxon verb smilan was applied
to workers in wood as well as to those in metal, SMITH
meant a smiter in general, including wheelwrights,
carpenters, masons, etc. And hence the frequency of
the name.
Leaving the Smiths we have the MILLERS, MASONS,
CARPENTERS, BAKERS, GOLDSMITHS, SHEPHERDS,
BUTLERS, BUTCHERS, CARTERS, COOPERS, COLLIERS,
LAWYERS, TAYLORS, etc. JENNER is an old form of
joiner; WEBSTER is properly the feminine of weaver.
The associations of field-sports have left us HUNTERS,
IFOWLERS, FISHERS, FALCONERS, HAWKERS, ARROWSMITHS and FLETCHERS (French fiJche, an arrow),
which is Norman for the same. But what do you
say of HOPPERS, SKIPPERS and JUMPERS?




OFFICIAL NAMES.              221
And then, Offices and Dignities have left us a large
nominal legacy-from  EMPEROR and KING, through
PRINCES, EARLES and LORDS, down to the plain
YEOMAN and SQUIRE. The Church has given us
POPES, BISHOPS, PARSONS, PRIESTS and  CLARKS
(CLARKES).  The State has given us, entre autres,
CHANCELLORS, MAYORS and REEVES. As for SPENCER, it is simply Le Despencer, the dispenser; CHALMERS (Clhambers) is primarily De la Chambre the
Chamberlain; and FRANKLIN records a piece of
primitive English socialism-being etymologically
just a freeholder. Chaucer, in the Prologue to the
Canterbury Tales, has a lively picture of the Franklin, which begins after this wise:
" A FRANKELEIN was in this compagnie
White was his berd, as is the dayesie.
Of his complexion he was sanguin," etc.
PILGRIM and PALJMER! The crusades rise at the
names! —the PILGRIMS on their way to the Holy
Land, the PALMERS with their palm-branches in their
hands.*
"His sandals were with travel t6re,
Staff, budget, bottle, scrip he wore;
* Lower on Surnames.




222            MEDALS IN NAMES.
The faded palm-branch in his hand
Shewed pilgrim from the Holy Land."
3armnion.
Personnel. A fruitful source of nominal roots are
Personal and Mental Qualities. How easy for sobriquets to arise from some external or internal idiosyncrasy, as BLACK, BROWN, WHITE (WHITMAN), GREY;
or he was a LONGMAN or a LONGFELLOW or STRONG
or SMALL or SWIFT or STOUT. REED, READ or REID,
are all variations of RED. MEEK, NOBLE and STERNE,
too, had doubtless once a positive metaphysical significance. GIFFORD is one given to giving (Saxon Gifan,
to give). SWEET, FREEMAN, GOODENOUGH! DOOLITTLE contains a sad confession. And what shall we
say to Mr. DRINKWATER? Fantastic enough, certainly. But have not the French also their BOILEAU?
And the apotheosis of all the virtues appears in
PEACE, HOPE, JOY, MERCY, BLISS!
Natural Objects. Nature, too, has been harried for
appellations. Descending from SUN and STARS, we
take in the whole animal world, as (quadrupeds)
LYON, BUCK, HART, LAMB, HOGG (akin to BACON),
BULLOCK; (birds) HERON, CRANE, JAY, ROOKE;
(fishes) PIKE, CRABBE, HERRING; (insects) WASP,
FLY, etc. The vegetable world comes in for its share




ODDITIES OF NAMING.          223
-MYRTLE, SAGE, PEPPER, PEASE, LEMON and PEEL.
Nor has the mineral kingdom escaped —as STONE,
FLINT, STEELE, JEWELL!
Oddities. Lower, under this head, gives a curious
list of odd names that probably arose from sobriquets
formerly applied to the individuals. Among these
are appellations derived from parts of the human
body, as HEAD, BONES, BACK, HEART, TOE, HEELE,
SOLE; or from coins, as FARTHING, PENNY, MONEYPENNY; or from the weather, as FROST, SNOW, HAIL;
or numbers, as SIX, FORTYE, ONCE, TWICE. Have
Messrs. PHYSIC and COFFIN any necessary kinship?
And what is one to say of such forms as these but
that they are pure nicknames:  CROOKSHANKS,
LONGSHANKS, GOSLING, TREE, BLOOD, DEATH!
But the farthest reaches of nominal fancies are to
be found in the grotesque Christian names which the
Puritans, during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, were fond of giving themselves. "Sometimes,"
says Hume, " a whole godly sentence was adopted as
a name;" and he quotes the names of a Sussex jury,
that runs after this wise:
Stand-fast-on-high Stringer of Crowhurst,
More-fruite Fowler of East-Hadley,
Kill-sin Pimple of Witham,
Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith White of Ewen, etc.




224               MEDALS IN NAMES.
Ben Jonson, in Bartholemew Fair, thus throws his
thought into Dialogue:
Q. His Christen-name is Zeal-of-the-Land.
L. Yes, Sir, Zeal-of-the-Land Busy.
W. How   What a name's there I
L. 0, they have all such names, Sir; he was witness for
Winbere (they will not be called God-fathers) and named her
Win-the-fight: you thought her name had been Winnifred, did
you not?
TV. I did indeed.
L. He would ha' thought himself a stark reprobate if it had.
But the most extraordinary one I have yet met with
is the following-itself a perfect catechism in petto: IfChrist-had-not-died-for-thee-thou - had'st-been - damned
Dobson!
A very evident mode of forming names of persons
would be to join the father's-the sire's name- to that
of the child, connecting them by some word to indicate the relationship. Thus the Scotch Highlanders
have their Hac —' MACDONALD,' for instance-or as
we would have it,' DONALDson' (i.e. Donald's son).
So the Normans have their Fitz-supposed to be just
a corruption of fils (filius-a son); the Irish their
0'; the Russians their Witz; the Poles their Sky



WELSH AND SAXON NAMES.             225'PETERSON,' for instance, being with them,' PETROWSIY;' and the Welsh their Ap-which, however, we
are not. always very careful to preserve-David ap
Howel (i.e. David, son of Howel) appearing simply
as David Powell, and John ap Richard, as the plain
John Pritchard.
The Welsh affectation of joining together the names
of a score or two of ancestors (connecting them by
their endless'APS') has given rise to more banter
and pleasantry than we could conveniently notice
Tim Bobbin has some curiosities in this way. It was
not unusual, a century or two back, to hear of such
combinations as Evan-ap-Griffth-ap-David-ap-Jenkin;
and some wag, in the way of burlesque, described
cheese as being'" Adam's down cousin-german by its birth,
Ap-Curds-ap-Milk-ap-Cow-ap-Grass-ap-Eart I."
Such names as these, declares Lower, cast the
Dutch InkJvervankodsdorspanckinkadrachdern quite into
the shade!
Our Saxon names are often profoundly significant.'ALFRED,' for instance, is All peace;' BERNARD' is
Bearesn (or Bear's)  heart;'EDGAR' is Ead-gard-one
who guards his (ead) oath-a troth-keeper;'ED10*




226             MEDALS IN NAMES,
WARD' is the same as Edgar (ward=guard);'GooDWIN' is a Goodwin —who wins goods, or wealth: so'ROBERT' is said to signify one disposed to rest-and
the account which Verstegan gives of the origin of
the name'WILLIAM' is very curious: HIe says that
in the wars between the Germans and Romans, the
Roman officers were in the habit of wearing gilded
head-pieces; and whenever a German soldier killed a
Roman officer, this gilded head-piece was put on the
soldier's head, so that he forthwith became a Gildhelm (a Golden helmet)-what the Latins call Guilielmus, the French Guillaume, and we'WILLIAM.'
The name of the various trades and professions
might form a curiously interesting subject for investigation under this same head. A'CLOTHIER,' for instance, is very evidently one who deals'in cloth or clothes
-a'DRAPER,' as we say, which is just' clothier' in
French-drap being their word for cloth. So, a'TAILOR' is one whose business it is to-tailler-to cut out
garments; but, not only to cut them out, but also to
sew them together-a realization obtained by'COSIER,'
which Shakespeare, in the Twelfth Night, uses, though
we have not retained the term. A'FARRIER,' again,
is plainly one who works in-ferrum-iron-shoeing
a horse being expressed both in French and Italian




NAMES FROM TRADES.                227
by ironing a horse; while a'CURRIER' finds his employment i —cuir-leather,  and a' SEXTON is just a
sacristan.
Pegge says-whether right or wrong-that'APOTIIECARY' (the old potecary) is originally a boticario-i.e.,
one who has a shop, what we would call a'STATIONER'
(only that that has acquired a special signification), in
opposition to a' PEDLER' —who is, of course, continue
ally trudging along on his feet-pedes. A'BUTCHER'
is doubtless just the French boucher-a form which,
by the way, we find in old literature.  Thus the
"beastly Skelton" says:
"For drede of the Boucher's dog
Wold worry them like a hog."
And a'GROCER' rather boastingly declares that he
deals only in gross.  Johnson, indeed, recommended
that the word be spelled grosser* —which has certainly
* Our age is no respecter of letters. In our retrenchment
and amendment we deal with them just as if they had no feeling
on the subject. Once, we know, Orthography was a more
serious affair; for "Worthy" Fuller tells us of a clerk in the
culinary department of the royal household, who narrowly
escaped condign punishment for spelling Cinapi as Sinapi
Church History, Book IV. p. 156.




228            MEDALS IN NAMES.
the warrant of etymology. This is but a hint of an
immense theme.
The theory of nomenclature finally ascends into the
vesthetical realm-vast and hitherto-: all but unexplored domain. The necessities of Literary Artespecially as expressed in the drama and novelrequire the creation of ideal Names. And often high
and highest art is displayed in the workings of creative Imagination on nominal emblems for these
avatars of the mind. The masters of the modern
Novel all work, consciously or unconsciously, on the
problem of Names. I know books that suggest ideal
pedigrees, a new heraldry of the mind, and carry farther out the boundaries of Metaphysics.
To Modern times and to America, too, the thought
of Naming presents itself. Once, we know, every
name was significant. There have been seasons, in
the elder ages, of flood-tides in the creative faculties,
when Nature disclosed her secret thought and gave it
to man to name her-when to mountain and stream,
field and flood were added names that are poems.
Why should not we, too, come into this Orphic
secret? Why should we masquerade in the old costume? Imperative is: the demand for a fresh, free,
appropriate nomenclature for American Geography,




THEORY OF NOMENCLATURE.        229
Inventions, Contributions, Personalities  Already
the new needs make the old perfections meagre and
inadequate. To you, Poets and Builders, sublime
invitations! To quarry and to build in the new
architectures of humanity.




RAMBLE TENTH.
SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
" All languages tend to clear themselves of synonynms as intellectual culture advances-the superfluous words being taken up
and appropriated by new shades and combinations of thought
evolved in the progress of society."
DE QUINCEY.
AN adequate treatment of English Synonyms is
still a desideratum. Crabbe's work was written before
Philology became a science, and the little volume
edited by Archbishop Whately clean skips etymology
and all its seminal suggestions. Mr. Taylor (" English Synonyms Discriminated") commands the etymologic method, and has furnished an important
contribution to Synonymy: but his work is not at all
proportioned to the copiousness of our language. Of
much profounder philosophic significance is the The



ARE THERE ANY SYNONYMS?             231
saurus* of Mr. Roget, who has given us a metaphysical
classification of Thoughts and Things with their corresponding Verbal Symbols-" furnishing on every
topic a copious store of words and phrases, adapted to
express all the recognizable shades and modifications
of the general idea under which those words and
phrases are arranged." These various works are all
useful auxiliaries; but I return to the assertion with
which I set out, that an adequate treatment of this
subject is still something to be desired. A great
Synonymy, after the modern Philologic Methods,
would be a most important contribution to the Philosophy of the English language. Much is in the subject; much grows out of it.
But are there any such words as synonyms?  Of
absolutely equivalent, absolutely equipollent expressions there are necessarily few. Not but that terms
between which exists a certain Algebraic equality are
to be found: the number is small, however, and
constantly diminishing. It is the tendency of an
advancing culture-of an expansion of the horizon of
thoughts and things-to eliminate synonyms by separating kindred terms and stamping each respectively
* Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, Classified and
Arranged so as to Facilitate the-Expression of Ideas and Assist
in Literary Composition. London, 1852.




232    SYNONYMS. AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
with the seal and superscription of an intellectual
individuality.  Of synonymous words we; shall then
have to say, that they are such as, bearing gehneral
and generic resemblances, have yet specific differences,
and a color and contour of their own.
-;The causes of the growth of Synonyms lie deep in
the roots of a nation's life and language. Relations,
external and internal, act-amalgamation of races,
literary influence and action of other nations, the
prominent. elements of national civilization, with
other and subtler causes. With a people of active
imagination there is always a tendency to drape the
crowning facts and factors of its life with a copious
richness of expressive forms.: And it is significant to
notice the manner in which even individual elements
in a nation's civilization have been affected with verbal powers. In the era of chivalry there was a host
of expressions to render the idea of horse. In Sanscrit, the language of IIindostan, where the elephant
plays a part as important as the horse among ourselves, words abound to designate this' pachyderm.
Sometimes it is denominated the' twice-drinking animal,' sometimes as'he who has two teeth,' sometimes
as'the animal with the proboscis.'* This is still
* Alfred Maury.




RICHNESS OF ENGLISH IN SYNONYMS.    233
more strikingly manifest in the Arabic, which is said
to have the enormous multitude of several hundred
words for the'ship of the desert.'
These divers influences have all acted on the Engu
lish Speech. Complex in its organism as no language
is; it inherits all that antiquity conceived and freely
augments and enriches itself with importations from
the modern idioms. Born: thus of the marriage of
several stocks and tongues, a copious equivalence
runs:through the English language, and it frequently
depends on a writer's choice whether his diction shall
bear the features of this or that branch of his linguistic
ancestry.
Of this hospitality of our language numerous illustrations present themselves. Thus the good strong
Saxon'TRICK' has always been a living part of our
speech, expressing a sly fraud: but, not content with
this single symbol, early in the literary history of our
language a double inoculation of words from  the
classics took place-the Greek contributing'STRATAGE]M' (stratagema), the Latin' ATIFICE' (artificium).
Nor is this all. With the study of Italian literature,
during the reign of James I.,'DEVICE' was introduced; and a still farther importation was made,
under the writers of Charles II.-with whom  a
French renaissance took place-of the term'FINESSE.'




234    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
Thus it is that the English language has enriched
itself from a five-fold source with words for the expression of a single general idea. And here precisely
it is that the constant law of Desynortymizing, as Coleridge expressively terms.it, comes into play, and a
gradual divergence, a gradual individualizing of each
term takes place: and so it is that, in the final assortment, while'TRICK' continues its general, social significance,'ARTIFICE' carries with it rather the meaning of a mechanical contrivance,'STRATAGEM' a
military feint;'DEVICE' was gradually exported into
heraldry, "describing the hieroglyph by means of
which the name of a chieftain is enigmatically written
on his shield," while'FINESSE'-which has the
French charm of vagueness-is gradually assuming
the sense of intellectual subtlety. Take another illustration.'Blast,'' Gale,'' Gust,'' Storm,''Tempest,''Hurricane.' HIere are six words all expressive of
violent atmospheric phenomena, and which, coming
from various linguistic sources, have all been naturalized in our language and have elaborated for themselves a distinctive individuality. It is only, however,
the clue of etymology that discloses the proper shape
and shade belonging to each of these terms. And it
is instructive to note what subtle facts are exposed
by the opening up of the interior import of these




GROUPS OF SYNONYMS ILLUSTRATED.   235
word-histories.  For'GUST' and'STORM' are of
Northern origin (Danish and Icelandic in their connections), and suggest the phenomena of northern
climates-' gust' carrying with it the fitful gush of
the wind; and'storm' being more violent, more
complex-the stir, namely, of the atmospheric elements; fierce rapid meteorologic commotion, throwing
air and earth and ocean into elemental contest, with
darkness, perchance, and destruction and hail and
snow.'TEMPEST' is of southern origin and describes
the sort of storm common in warm countries, where
quite a-time-of-it (tempestas, temnpus, time) is of frequent
occurrence, wind accompanied with rain and lightenings and thunder.'H IuRRICANE' though of Spanish or
French origin (Spanish huracan; French ouragan) has
yet a historical and geographical connection with the
storm-phenomena of the West Indies and the Caribean
Sea; and hence is in. its very nature peculiarly fitted
to typify tropical and summer storms. As I am oni
the vocabulary of tempests, it occurs to me to mention
an additional synonym to the preceding, and which
did not come into my mind when writing the above.
I refer to the word'TORNADO.' And here% too, the:
magic wand of Etymology is of potent service. For
is it not patent that the connection of this term with
the verb to turn (Spanish and Portuguese tornada, a




236    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
turning round) is suggestive of precisely the element
that most eminently characterizes these oriental:tempests-the whirling motion, the whirlwind, namely7?: But let me enter into the subject of Synonyms with
somewhat: more of system. And in this estimation
of the influences that have acted on the growth of
Synonyms we shall follow the line of history if we
notice such correlative expressions as arose from the
inoculation, early in the history of our language, of
the large Norman element that came with the Norman
Conquest.  Such correlatives are very numerous.
And it is a significant fact that the antagonism that
long subsisted between the Saxon and Norman races
is vividly mirrored in our language. For presently a
fierce hostility arose between the contending native
and foreign terms, and Saxon and Norman verbs and
substantives waged a war as bitter as that recently
carried on by Saxon and Norman men.
Various of course were the fortunes of the day.
At times, the Gallicism clean overpowered and supplanted; the Saxonism; at others, the French word
had to yield before the imperious home-instinct. -Now
a Saxon noun fell into disuse, a Norman substitute
taking its place, and only the adjective remaining as a
reminiscence of the old vocable; anon, both words
were retained, some compromise being struck between




VICISSITUDES OF WORDS.          237
them-the Saxon, perchance, crystallizing around the
homelier, heartier nucleus of meaning;. the Gallicism
employed in the more courtly, more recherche signification.
And first, of such duplicates the native form of
which the French finally succeeded in eliminating.
The Saxon term for a tiller of the ground was earthling-a word of sweet and tender beauty, which I
cannot but. wish had been retained-gave place to
the Norman'FARMER' —fermier; while earthling has
completely lost all.its old vitality and been pressed
into the moral service. Relations, social and political,
coming under the control of the invaders, the new
regime made itself powerfully and practically felt in
the dealings of the law, of which here is an illustration. To express the legal union of the sexes the
Normans imposed on the conquered Saxon their word'MARRIAGE,'   which is just the getting of a mtari or
husband (getting a man, as the Scotch say)-supplanting thus the native expression, gyfta (a giving
away). This, though, is but the external, the convention part: the heart of the matter continued still to
be expressed by the Saxon' WEDDINfG,' an expressive
word, originating in wed, a pledge, a covenant. And
here are some native words every vestige of which
has disappeared from our speech. Month-sickl has




238    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
been supplanted by'LUNATIC,' bek7odun by'coNEMANDMENT,' anwecad  by'AUTHORITY,' agilt by' RECOMPENSE,' and afgodnes by'JIDOLATRY.'
Or again, there occurs an outcropping of the old
form, as primary strata shoot up through the walls of
the world.  Bead is no longer a living English word,
having given place to'PRAYER' (French priere): and
yet we have reminiscences thereof in the beads, on
which the Catholic counts his prayers; in the beadroll (bede-roll) which was the roll or list of persons to
be prayed for, and in the memory of the old beadsman,
who was to bless and pray, dropping his beads, and
saying
"Stranger go I Heaven be thy guide."
Burns.'STEWARD' seems to have undergone quite a degeneracy. For the composition of the word would
imply that he was originally the stede-ward (sted-ward,
ste(d)ward - steward*) the ward, guard or keeper in
the stead or place of another-a meaning which was
afterwards covered by the French'LIEUTENANT:'
and then it was that the declension of steward began,
* In regard to steward Webster says, "the meaning of the
first syllable is not evident!" I can't imagine anything more
evident. But he was misled, as so frequently, by Johnson.




THOUGHTFUL-PENSIVE.             239
sinking down into a mere butler or bottle-er!'HEADY'
and'TESTY' (French teste, tete, the head) are etymologically entirely coincident, and yet they soon began to
diverge in meaning, while'HEADY' is now all but
obsolete. Or consider this duplicate-to' whiten'
and to'blanch,' the first of the native stock, the latter
of the Norman importation (blanchir, blanc, white).
Here, too, the etymologic coincidence is perfect. It
was not long, however, before they gradually began
to fall apart-to whiten meaning to superinduce a
white color, whereas blanch implies the withdrawal of
some coloring matter, which concealed the natural
color. Similar is the duplicity that was found
between'THOUGHTFUL' (Saxon) and'PENSIVE'
(French): in time, however, the national instinct
appropriated the latter term to symbolize the sentimental side of the quality-' PENSIVE' superinducing
on thloughltfulness an element of soft sadness. The
Norman never could usurp the Saxon's home and
hearth, although he did succeed in leaving his impress
on many a stately'mansion;' and yet most effectually did he invade the manners and customs of our,ancestors, introducing his own' modes' and' fashions'
-putting'bonnets' —which is French every letter of
it-on women's heads, although he never managed to
take the' hats' (Saxon het) and'caps' (Saxon cceppe)




240    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
from off men; dressing ladies out in'frocks' (French
froc), and gentlemen in' coats' (French cotte); throwing'shawls' over the shoulders of the one sex and' surtouts' on the backs of the other, and transforming
the home-spun' briecs' into the.more elegant' pantaloons!'
But in this survey of Synonyms, a further retrospect is required. And such-were the causes that
worked in the development of the English language
that, besides these French correlatives, it presents
manifold.duplicates,. Saxon and Latin, and many
triplicates, Saxon, Latin, and Greek -introduced. at a
later day when the suns. of classic language, culture
and thought came with their vernal and fecundating
influence over the.. nascent. English: speech. How
many such duplicates as these do, we have::
Saxon.                   Latin.
FREEDO.M               LIBERTY
FEAR                   TERROR
MEAT                   VICTUALS
DALE                   VALE
GUESS                  CONJECTURE
WEARINESS              LASSITUDE
FATHERLY               PATERNAL
RICII                  OPULENT




VERBAL DUPLICATES AND TRIPLICATES.  241
Saxon.                 Latin.
WHOLE                 ENTIRE
HIDDEN                OCCULT
SOUR                  AcID
TAME                  GENTLE
HATE                  ABHOR
HELP                  ASSIST
DIE                   EXPIRE
BETTER                MELIORATE
LESSEN                DIMINISH
TRUST                 CREDIT
These new factors coming in to do their work in
the growth of our tongue, the result was that many a
significant combination arose. And first, we find
triplicates in which a Saxon, French, and Latin term
stood side by side, each severally coming gradually
to assert and assume a sphere of its own. Thus from
the three roots country (Saxon), pays (French), and
rus (Latin)-three synonymous roots from as many
distinct sources-arise' COUNTRYMAN,''PEASANT,'
and'RUSTIC.'' FORESIGHT' comes to us a native-bred
home-word: with the Norman inoculation came'PRUDENCE,' etymologically an exact synonym of the
foregoing: but, not satisfied with this duality, writers
in the course of time went back to the Roman idiom
and imported thence'PROVIDENCE,'   whereof'PRU11




242    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
DENCE' iS simply the French  form.  King=roy
(French)=rex (Latin):' Kingly'=' royal'='regal.'
And here are a few  additional triplets that come
under this same category:'bold,''brave,''intrepid'
—' wrath,''rage,''ire'-' leave,''abandon,''desert'
—'bear,''support,''tolerate' —'east,''levant,''orient'-'lust,'' desire,'' cupidity —' chosen,' recherche,''elegant' (' select').
But I must advance, in the cozenage of words, to
importations made at once from Latin and Greek.
And perhaps the briefest way will be for me to
tabulate a handful or so out of the multitudes of
these correlatives.
Saxon.         Latin.        Greek.
STARRY        SIDERIAL      ASTRAL
SPEECH        LANGUAGE      DIALECT
SAW           PROVERB       APHORISM
WAYWARD       ERRATIC       ECCENTRIC
WVELL-BRED    AFFABLE       POLITE
AIM           VIEW          SCOPE
GUESS         CONJECTURE    HYPOTHESIS
CURSE         MALEDICTION   ANATHEMA
STRESS        ACCENT        EMPHASIS
FOE           OPPONENT      ANTAGONIST
TALE          NOVEL         STORY
PITHY         CONCISE       LACONIC
I invite to an exploration of these and similar




SYNONYMOUS TRIPLETS.             243
groups-many a curious fact or fancy will they reveal.
Take the triplet'foe'-' opponent' —' antagonist,' for
example. The Saxon'FOE,' has its connections in
the Teutonic verbs feon, fian,* to hate, and means
(any one) hated-and hence is of these terms the one
that carries with it the burden of the most active hostility;' OPPONENT,' indeed, is one who is pitted against
(ob and pono) another, while'ANTAGONIST' has its
origin in the antagonistes of the Grecian games. Or
consider this group-' wayward,' erratic,''eccentric:'
on what a vivid perception of character do they rest.'WAYWARD' is just away-ward-the tendency to
be off and away-an image perfectly realized by'ERRATIC,' which is the being given to erring, or
wandering"The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confines."
Ilamlet.'ECCENTRIC' is an importation from  geometry, typifying the tendency to depart from the centre-" flying
off in a tangent " from the centred round of customary
thinkings and actings. Or explore the suggestions in
this group-' tale,''novel,''story.''TALE' has its
*'FIEND' is the present participle of this verb, and signifies
the hater. The interjections' FIE'' FO' and' FAUGI' have all
a like genesis.




244    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
roots in the verb to tell, and hence is properly confined to a short narrative within the compass of conversational convenience, and fitted to amuse the hearer;'STORY,' however, in its very origin professes to be
true (historia), while the primary characteristic of the'NOVEL' is that it have novelty.* Finally, of the
group'pithy,''concise,' and'laconic;''PITHY' claims
to shut up in a small compass much pith, much of the
spine and spirit of the matter under consideration;
while'CONCISE' (concisus, cut off) prunes and lops off
all verbal excess and redundancy, and'LACONIC' is
after the fashion of the Lacones or men of Laconiathe Spartans-a grave, brief, sententious race.
Having taken this historical coup-d'oeil of Synonyms, it may be permitted us to enter into the subject
with somewhat more of freedom. It is curious to
observe how, in the final assortment of correlative
terms, the national instinct wrought on each, and
what is the fate that has befallen these several analogues-how the degrees of praise and blame, of merit
and demerit have varied with the pulsings of the popular heart. Of this action such words as' womanly'-'feminine;''boyish'-' puerile';''lively'-' vital;''friendly'-' amical,' etc., afford illustrations. As far
* Taylor: Synonyms Discriminated.




WOMANLY-FEMININE.                  245
as composition goes,'WOMANLY' and'FEMININE' are
entirely coincident and correspondent: and yet see
how the formative popular energy has wrought on
these words. For who does not perceive that there is
something infinitely loving in'WOMANLY,' that'FElMININE' (which merely denotes that which pertains to
woman as the opposite sex-and for which womanish
was formerly employed) can lay no claim to? Chaucer's beautiful lines come in here with expressive
significance:
" I see wel that ye have on my distresse
Compassion, my faire Canese,
Of veray* womanly benignitie,
That nature in your principles hath set."
The Squieres Tale.
On the other hand, a passage from Milton will set'FEMININE' in almost too clear a light.
"Yet the fourth time when mustering all her wiles,
With blandisht parlies, feminine assaults,
Tongue-batteries, she surceased not day nor night
To storm me overwatched and wearied out."
Samson Agonistes.'CHILDLIKE' is a very beautiful and ingenuous' What we write very;'vERY' is, therefore, just truly-vrai.




246     SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
term, and yet'INFANTINE' or'INFANTILE,' albeit just
the Latin therefor, have none of its charming simplicity —nay, they are altogether'childish,' although
it may not be unworthy of note that even it had formerly precisely the meaning of'childlike,' as in the
following:
"Charitie is a childish thing, as holi churche wittnesseth nisi
eficiamini sicut parvuli.
Piers Ploughman, p. 280.
There is nothing offensive about' BOYISH,' and yet
who would wish to be charged with being'PUERILE,'
either in word or deed?  Dryden introduced'BoYISM,' but I know not that it survived him. It is
instructive to observe how the balance of Compensation in time equalizes and adjusts every thing: for
even'PUERILE' had once nothing contemptuous about
it, but was, in fact, precisely analogous to our present
acceptation of'BOYISH.' An instance of this from
Anthony-A-Wood suggests itself:
"Franciscus Junius was born at Heidelberg a famous city and
university of Germany an. 1589, educated in puerile learning at
Leyden," etc.
Athence Oxon.
Compare the home-bred'LIVELY' with the im



SHADES IN SYNONYMS.            247
ported'VITAL.' Is there not something more in'LIVELY' than the mere possession of vitality —a
something of quickness and vivacity superadded
thereto which'VITAL' possesses not, and which for
ever prevents them from coalescing?'FRIENDLY,'
too-can it be because it is a tone of our old mother
tongue? —seems to wear an infinitely more winning
smile, and an infinitely warmer heart than does the
more stately'AMICAL,' or the somewhat frigid'AMICABLE.'
But, if our strong Saxonisms sometimes have the
advantage over their high-born Southern sisters, the
reverse is oft times the case: the Omnipresent, Omnipotent Law of Compensation which balances granules
and gravitation here also makes itself felt, and unerringly adjusts the terms of the great linguistic equation.'BLOODY' and'SANGUINE' afford an illustration to the point. For though from analogous roots
(sanguis = blood)-yet has the Latin by far the milder
meaning-implying, at present, rather that expectant,
confiding disposition that is generally found in union
with an ardent temperament and a copious flow of
blood. Chapman, however, frequently employs it as
synonymous with bloody. As here:
"Sharpe axes, turbils, two-hand swords, and spears
with two heads borne,




248    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
WVere then the weapons: faire short swords with
sanguine hilts still worn,
Had use in like sort."             Iliad, XV.*' WORLDLY' and' EARTHLY' have clustered much
of their meaning round ethical pivots-worldly implying the being too much attached to the world-to
"This earthly load
Of death called life:"
whereas' MUNDANE'  and'TERRESTRIAL'  (and'EARTHY,' too,) have to a much greater extent preserved their merely expletive and definitive acceptation.
This principle, indeed, we find running through a
very prolific class of synonyms: the Saxon adjective
being the homely, hearty, common word-with, perchance, a poetic or sentimental sense superadded
thereto: while the Latin remains literal-rigid and
scientific. Instances innumerable might be adduced
in illustration.'HEARTY' may be no more than'cordial,' yet is it much more than' cardiac;' while
what is quite'salutary' may not always be very'healthy.' There is poetry in'sunny' and'starry'
* But the heroic translator of the old blind Bard is frequently
very erratic in his use of words-almost always employing
them in their literal, classic sense. Thus for the word in its
above acceptation, we now use'SANGUINARY.'




SAXON AND LATIN- COUPLETS.            249
and'-fiery' and' icy' and'glassy,' but not an atom
can be extracted from' solar' or' stellar' ('astral,''sidereal,' etc.) or'igneous' or'glacial' or vitreous' -the corresponding adjectives of Latin origin.' Hairy' cannot be defined by' capillary,' nor'handy'
oy'manual,' while'doggish' ('dogged,' etc.) has an
innate snappish and cynic force that is not responded
to by'canine.' No poet would hesitate, as to beauty
and expressiveness, between'nightly' and'nocturnal,' or between'wintry' and'brumal,' even though
he might not remember that our Saxon forefathers
were wont to count time by nights, and the years of
their life-time by  winters.*  It is not, however,
always the case that the Latin retains the literal,
while the Saxon receives the metaphorical application.  Thus'woody' is nearer the literal truth than
is' sylvan'-even though it has its root in the Roman
forest (sylva).
It frequently happens, too, that the presence of
these various factors in our language has made strange
work with the parts of speech. And significant among
these results is the existence of numerous couplets,
lwhereof the substantive is a Saxonism, the adjective
* Traces of this crop out in our terms se'night and fortnight,
i..e seven nights; fourteen nights (hence).
11*




250    SYNONYMS AND- THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
a classicism. Thus though'MIND' is a primitive
Saxon vocable, the English genius never succeeded
in elaborating for itself a term expressive of having
relation to the mind: straightway it was compelled to
have recourse to the Latin, importing thence, for that
purpose, the word'MENTAL' (mens, mind)-a word
well fitted for adjective expression. So, being was
forced to go forth and find abstract realization in'ESSENTIAL;' thing in' REAL;' reason in'RATIONAL;'
root in'RADICAL;' kind in'GENERAL,' and will in'VOLUNTARY.' Would it be to divide too nicely to
say that the omnipresent laws of Race work here too:
and that the fact of the English speech never having
been able to attain to free intellectual abstractions,
from roots within itself, runs parallel with that powerful practicality and realism that has always so
markedly characterized the English stock. Let me
illustrate somewhat more at length. Ground is a
good strong nervous word; and yet we are fain to go
to the Latin, take their corresponding word-humus
-convert it into an adjective (humilis), put it through
the French crucible, and then inoculate it on our
language, looking very'HUMBLE' indeed. All our
senses have gone the same way.'Twould be vulgar
to use the'NOSE' for'SMELLING,' but the'NASAL'
organ for'OLFACTORY' purposes!'HEARING' trans



PAUCITY OF SAXON.                251
forms itself into'AUDITORY,' and I know  not how'we could otherwise express'auricular confession.'
Yet we would not receive'eye-proof,' but'ocular
demonstration,' while for adjectives we must travel
to Greece and Rome-stealing  away'OPTIC' and'VISUAL.' Shall we say'tasty?'  A  milliner, as
Coleridge remarks, might!  What then? Why,'GUSTATORY,'  A3STHETIC, or what not. Science, too, with
its mighty modern strides, has been compelled to
seek symbols in these antique fountains. Thus tooth
finds a correlative in'dental;' lungs in'pulmonary;'
lip in'labial;' navel in' umbilical;' marrow in'medullary;' elbow in'cubital;' breast in'pectoral;' foot
in'pedal;' birth in'natal;' cat in'feline;' calf in'feline;' cow in'vaccine;' eagle in'aquiline;' horse
in'equine;' house in' domestic.' So the very
Simple.                  Complex.
MEAL                    FARINACEOUS
SWEAT                   SUDORIFIC
SLEEP                   SOPORIFEROUS
FEAR.TIMOROUS
THANKS                  GRATUITOUS
HELP                    AUXILIARY
HIRE                    MERCENARY
SEA                     MARITIME
LEAP                    DESULTORY
NOISE                   OBSTREPEROUS
ALMS                    ]ELEEMOSYNARY!




252    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
Donner and Blitzen I Seven syllables out of oneI
But let Horne Tooke give us the why and the
wherefore.
"With the Christian religion were very early introduced to our ancestors the Greek words, Church,
Parish, People, Alms: which they corrupted and used
as substantives, a long time before they wanted them
in an adyjectived state. When the latter time arrived,
they were incapable of adjectiving these words themselves, and were therefore forced to seek them in the
original language. Hence the Adjectives are not so
corrupt as the Substantives. And hence the strange
appearance of Eleemosynary, a word of seven syllables,
as the Adjective of the monosyllable Alms; which
itself became such by successive corruptions of ELEEMOSUNE long before its Adjective was required:
having successively exhibited itself as Almosine,
Amrnosie, Almose, Almes, and finally Alms; whilst in
the French language it appeared as Almosine, Almosne,
Aumosne, Aum6ne.":'
The rounds that words make are indeed'often
curiously erratic. Thus the Latin adjective salvus
becomes transformed into the French saufn whence it
comes to us in the shape of'SAFE,' from this we form,
also,'SAFETY.' But an analogous word being found
* Diversions of Purley, p. 639.




DIVERGEN.T WORDS FROM SAME ROOT.    253
necessary for a spiritual application, we went back
again to the Latin and transferred their salvatio into
our'SALVATION:''SALVATION' and'SAFETY' are
therefore, properly, one word-being differenced only
by the process of derivation.
And, by the way, it is instructive to observe the
very widely divergent words that we frequently find
formed from one root. So widely divergent that they
oftentimes appear to have no connection with each
other; and it is only the Ariadne-thread of Etymology
that gives us a clue through the labyrinth of verbal
forms. The words'PITY' and'PIETY' afford an
instructive example. These emotions the Spanish,
Portuguese, Italian and Latin languages all unite in
expressing by one and the same term. The Latin
furnishes the radix from which all the others spring.
For'PIETAS' implies that state of feeling which causes
us to act rightly both towards the gods and towards
men; and since tenderness and compassion are prime
elements in this beautiful passion, there was no necessity felt for separating them by diverse terms. Nor
was it until the French made the unnatural divorce
(and the English here, as in so many instances, blindly
followed them*) that both things and words came to
* "Whose manners still our tardy apish nation,
Limps after in base imitation."-Ric7iard IL. ii. 1.




254    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
be sundered in form and substance. And yet does
not Dan Chaucer tell us:
"Lo, pitee renneth sone in gentil herte I"'PROPERTY' and'PROPRIETY,' again, are both from
one root —roprius, special, proper (in the old sense
and equivalent to the French propre):'PROPERTY'
is, therefore, that which is specially or peculiarly
one's own;'PROPRIETY' is the adaptation of conduct
etc. to the special occasion-the instinctive perception
of that course that is proper, fitting thereto. Among
the Romans a Patronus was a person who had emancipated his slave, but still retained some right over
him-was, as it were, a sort of father-pater-to him
-one who was to be looked up to with veneration,
and regarded as an exemplar which he might copy:'PATRON' and'PATTERN' are, therefore, originally
one and the same word. The French verb parler, to
speak, gives us two distinct words,'PARLOR' and'PARLIAMENT'-in which, however, it will not be
difficult to trace the bond of union. For the'PARLOR' (parloir) is properly the room in a nunnery
where the nuns are permitted to meet and converse
with each other —and so the common room for meet
ing, speaking, etc., distinct from the' DRAWING' room,
or rather the withdrawing room. As for'PARLIA



JOURNEY-JOURNAL.                   255
MENT,' it is preeminently the parlementum-the speaking (very often only), the spouting place!
We saw some time ago that'JOURNEY' originally
signified the distance travelled-dans unjour, in a day.
The root is the Latin dies, a day. This, in the Italian,
transforms itself into giorno; as in Dante,
"Lo giorno se n'andava, e l'Per bruno
Toglieva gli animai, che sono in terra,
Dalle fatiche loro;" etc.
Inferno, Canto II.
And the French, by a still further transformation,
convert it into jour: thence it will not be difficult to
perceive that a journal means a record of daily transactions.  Not originally, however; for we know that
in old English literature it is used in the literal sense
of daily. As in Shakspeare,
"Ere since the sun had made his journal greeting
To the under generation."
lMeasure for.1easure, IV. 3.
Or in Spencer,
"And his faint steedes watred in ocean deepe,
Whiles from their journall labors they did rest."
-Fairie Queene I, XI. 31.




256    SYNONYMS AND, THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
But, having, as we have seen, acquired a special
signification, in order to supply the deficit we went
back to the Latin, and taking their adjective diurnus
made' DIURNAL' out of it.'JOURNEY,''JOURNAL,''DIARY,' DIURNAL,' are, therefore, all from one root,
the seminal force of all being dies, a day.
Although according to one acceptation of the word,
a'man of honor' may not always be a man of'HONESTY;' yet are both these words from the same root:
or rather honestus is properly the adjective formed
from honor and consequently signifying the highest
degree of that quality.' HosT' and'HOSTILE' are
both from one root: and, not to dwell on the subject,
so are:
PASSION       and         PASSIVE
NATURE                     NATION
MUSTER                    MONSTER
INGENUOUS       "          INGENIOUS
INFERIOR        "          INFERNAL
COFFER         "          COFFIN
BRAND          "          BRUNT
CUSTOM         "          COSTUME
CUPID'         CUPIDITY
MODISII                     MODEST, etc. etc.
From  the fact of the English being a mixed lan



ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE.             257
guage spring some curious results.  One-and a very
lamentable one-is, that by far the larger portionof
those who speak our language-who are
" —--- lNative here
And to the manner born,' —
have no distinct idea of the signification'of three'fourths of the: words in their so called: "mother
tongue."  Of Saxon roots we have, as it were, an
innate realization: they sound like old familiar tones
— snatches of melodies that we learned long, long
ago; but the verbal stems from  the classic tongues,
and, consequently, the immense' number of offshoots
therefrom, seem all'alien and away.  And, in our heterogeneous language, how frequent are: the misapplijcations and misunderstandings of-words'; and' how
available an opportunity does it afford for sophisms,
grandiloquence and verbal quirks' and quibbles of
every species.*
* [Words] "being philosophicallyr unfolded, several of those
pretended mysteries, profound notions, expressed in great
swelling words, whereby some were set up for reputation, being
this way examined, will appear to be either nonsense, or very
flat and jejune."
Bishop Wilkins: "Real Character and Philosophic Language."
Epist: Dedicatory.




258    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
Archbishop WVhately has observed that the double
origin of our language, from  Saxon and Norman
material, may often enable a sophist to assume the
appearance of rendering a reason, when, indeed, he
is only repeating the assertion in words of a different
family. Of this the following may be taken as an
example: " To allow every man an unbounded freedom of speech must always be on the whole highly
advantageous to the state; for (!) it is extremely conducive to the interests of the community that each
individual should enjoy a liberty perfectly unlimited
of expressing his sentiments."
It is interesting to observe the family of words
which foreigners-according to the affinity of their
language to the several elements of the Englishemploy. Thus a German will be sure to use'SMEARED,' whereas a Frenchman, Spaniard, or Italian would just as certainly hit on'ANOINTED.' So
while a native of Southern Europe would naturally
talk of the'PROPINQUITY' of a place, a German
would inevitably speak of its'NEARNESS.' Saxonieus persists in speaking of the'thoroughfaresomeness'
of stuff, in preference to the'penetrability' of matter;
and, on the other hand, (for classical scholars are
very apt, without careful pruning, to interlard the
discourse too plentifully with Greek and Latin) we




SAXON AND CLASSICAL IN LITERATURE.  259
have heard of an Oxford fellow of a college who, on
meeting a friend on horse-back, as the only way
which suggested itself of asking him if it (the horse)
were his own or hired or borrowed, demanded if it
were proprietary, conductitious or eleemosynary 1*
The same peculiarity discovers.itself in writerssome of whom seem to have an instinctive affinity for
the Saxon element, while others are just as enamored
of Latin derivatives. Thus the Saxonisms of Dean
Swift and the Latinisms of Dr. Johnson are as characteristic as they are familiar. Horne Tooke has some
keen and caustic passages on the neglect of developing the Teutonic element in our language, and importing so many foreign words, where native ones
would do as well or better. Quaint, old Verstegan,
also, has some good things on the same subject. The
following for instance:-" For my own part I think
them deceaved that think our speech bettered by the
aboundance of our dayly borrowed woords, for they
beeing of another nature and not originally belonging
to our language do not, neither can they in our toung
leave their natural and true deryvations: and therefore as wel may we fetch woords fro the Ethiopians
or East or Welt Indians,t and thrust them into our
* Philological Museum.
t So we have-quite a number of them.




200   SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
language and baptize all by the name of English, as
those which wee dayly take from the Latin, or languages thereon depending: heer-hence it cometh (as
by after experience is found) that some Englishmen
discoursing together, others beeing present and of our
own nation and that naturally speak the English
tongue are not able to understand what the others
say, notwithstanding they call it English what they
speake!"*
The most amusing part in the above passage of
honest Verstegan is that over a half of the words
are "from the Latin, or languages thereon depending!" Let us strike the balance. A composition
confined exclusively to the Saxon element, would,
in all likelihood, be as stiff and unwieldy as, if
totally of Latin, it would be flat or farcical. But
in what admirable harmony are the several members of our great language united! With its Saxon
spine and heart, animated with  the breath of
Latin verbs and winged with Greek substantives, it
presents an organism  perfect for all the purposes
of practical -and spiritual expression-a language
"which," in the words of one of the profoundest of
modern philologists, Jacob Grimm, "in wealth, good
* Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, p. 205.




VERBAL EQUATIONS.              261
sense and clearness of structure outrivals all other
of the languages at this day spoken."
I am digressing, however, too far: so let us return
to our Synonyms.
An interesting class of Synonyms are such as result
from  an exact similarity of composition, one of the
pair being taken, perchance, from the Latin, the other
from the Greek. Thus natura = phusis (a6yrs), and
super = meta (IsErcd):  supernatural' =' metaphysical.'
Pono = tithemi (~0rwsr),  and sub = hupo (&o):.' supposition' ='hypothesis' Sun (e;v) = con; and metron
({tr-gov) = mensura:'symmetrical' ='commensurate.'
Con = sun (e6v), and gredior = ago (ayw):' congregation' -'synagogue.' Sus (contracted from sursum)
= up, and teneo = hold' sustain' ='uphold.' S2per
- over, and fluens = flowing:' superfluity' ='overflowing.' Of these various verbal equations, each
member severally is, etymologically, precisely equal
to its opposite: and yet in actual use, see what a disparity frequently intervenes between them! I have
mentioned' congregation' and'synagogue' as being,
as far as derivation goes, exactly equivalent: -th
same may be said of' Bible' and'Alcoran'-the
latter being Arabic for the former's Greek. And,
indeed, these transcripts are often quite surprising.




262    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.'Domineer' (dominus, a lord) is, for instance, pre
cisely  to'lord  it over;''momentous' is just'weighty;''trenchant' is' cutting;''specious' is'sightly;''pardon' is'forgive;''sermon' is' speech;''dictum' is a'saying;''surveyor' is'overseer;'liberal' is' free;''potent' is'able' and'quantity'
is'how much?' Sometimes, again, we find a dignified classicism to be just the translation of some
homely piece of vernacular. Thus when we say to'circumvent' (circum, around and venio, to come), we
simply say, in Latin, to' come round.' So, to'connive'
is literally to' wink at;'' punctilious' is'pointed,'
and to'resist' is to'take a stand against.' It is
pleasant thus to discover ourselves unconscious etymologists, and bandying the same hearty idioms as
resounded through the streets of Rome and Athens
twenty centuries ago. Then, there is the burlesque
of Synonymy-extensive domain on which I have
just now no time to enter. As if, for instance, one
being'hard up' were to say that he was in a state
of'indurated loftiness,' or playfully allude to a certain enigmatical individual as the'antique Henry.'
And new vistas open upon the suggestions of Synonyms. IHow profoundly significant are these correla.
tives often of national characteristics! What subtle
glimpses do they afford into national manners and




SIGNIFICANCE OF SYNONYMS.             263
morals! The distinction, for instance, which etymo.
logic anatomy lays bare, between the Teutonic' banish' and the Roman' exile' gives us an insight into
certain fundamental social characteristics. For'banish' is evidently the being subjected to the ban,* or
proclamation-whence we gather that the French and
Teutonic mode of punishment was by public proclamation;: whereas the Latin'exile' as clearly points to
exsilere as its root-suggesting Cicero's definition"perfugium potius supplicii, non supplicum."t
So in one of the triplets before given we read the
various national ideas of the commodious. To the
practical Saxon it is what is' handy' i.e. to his hand;
the Frenchman, however, regards it as'suitable'
(suivre, to follow), i.e. what naturally and properly
follows (the necessities of the occasion?), while the.
Latin takes his notion thereof from, what comes along
with another, as being its natural concomitant-and so
* This verbal root crops out through several compounds and
derivatives. The'bans of marriage,' for example, are just the
proclamations of marriage.. So, our common phrase'to be
under ban,' is evidently to be under sentence. Furthermore, to'abandon' is —, (le) ban donner-to give over to the ban. And
a' bandit' is quite as palpably one ban-dit ban-proclaimed, sentenced by the ban. Italian Bandito pl. Banditti.
t De Vere's Comparative Philology.




264    SYNONYMS AND THEIR SUGGESTIONS.
he names: it'convenient!''Courteous,' again, which,
of course, is French born and bred, is, to the pompenamored Gallican that which pertains to the graces
gathered at the cour, or court; whereas the straightforward old Roman clustered all his ideas of the'
courteous around one to whom  he could go up and
speak-what he called homo affabilis, and we' affable.'




RAMBLE ELEVENTH.
THE GROWTH OF WORDS.
"An idiom is an organism subject, like every organism, to
the laws of development. One must not consider a language as
a product dead and formed but once: it is an animate being and
ever creative."
Wilhelm von Humboldt.
THE conception of language that has arisen- prophetic on the thought of modern times is a high and
great one. Speech is no more the dead mechanism it
used to be conceived. Each language is a living
organism; the totality of languages a grand series
of organisms, all built after the same archetype, the
same skeleton; but each presenting its special structural stamp, as fish, reptile, bird, mammal, are all
modifications of one primitive Idea.
Yes! Language is indeed alive! Primordial creation and manifestation of the mind, Language throbs
with the pulses of our life. This is the wondrous
12




266           GtROWTH OF WORDS.
babe, begotten of the blended love of spirit and of
matter-physical, mystical, the Sphinx! Through
speech man realizes and incarnates himself; and Oken
has an oracular utterance that " without speech there
is no world."
It is one of the current wranglings, How language
originated: as though Language were not an innate
energy and aspiration! Language is not a cunning
conventionalism arbitrarily agreed upon: it is an
internal necessity. Language is not a fiction, but a
truth. Language is begotten of a lustful longing to
express, through the plastic vocal energy, man's
secret sense of his unity with nature.
This vitality of speech manifests itself in a two-fold
manifestation: in the possession of a distinctive personality and identity-in material elements and formal
laws that stamp it with the stamp of linguistic individuality; and, further, in that other characteristic of
every living organism-in the exhibition of growth,
progress, decay-in the ongoing of processes of absorption, assimilation and elimination-in the inworking and outworking of the creative energy.
And it is in this sense that the English language is
alive-as displaying successive processes of growth
and development within the limits of its linguistic
individuality.




PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE.        267
The causes of that marvelous identity we call the
English Language lie deep in the manifold influences
that have made the English Nation. The History of
a Language is measurable only in the terms of all the
factors that have shaped a people's life. A nation's
history is the result of the double action of internal
impulses and external events. And Language ex
presses the infusions from all these-subtily absorbing
the ethnology of a nation, its geography, government,
traditions, culture, faith. Shooting its deep tap-root
into eldest antiquity, drawing from the pith and sap
of that grandest of all families of races and tonguesthe Indo-European stock; receiving living grafts
from France and Italy and Scandinavia, this divine
tree of the English Speech has grown up into its sublime proportions nurtured by the history of a thousand years.
Of this superb Speech-the grandest in the world
-we have no adequate treatment. There is no History of the English Language. Nor any Dictionary
of the English Language. We have no such work
on the English Language as the Germans possess in
the " Teutonic Grammar" of Jacob Grimm, who has
with masterly method and largest appreciation of
modern Philology, traced the formative influences
of the.German speech, as it has shaped itself into




268           GROWTH OF WORDS.
conscious individuality. A History of tLe English
Language, rising out of a full appreciation of the
Philosophy of Speech (to which must go that large
hospitality and impartiality that flows from  the
thought of the Ensemble), answering to the requirements of modern research, and after the broad, free
methods America lets down, has yet to come. To
the achievement of this epic work may well go the
loftiest energies of both branches of the Anglican
stock and speech!
How far would the Philosophy of the English Language reach! What a retrospect of ages, growths,
processes, accretions, events, forces, impulses I In the
motions of man's creative energy how all is interwoven with the all! How celestial forces ascend and
descend and hand each other the golden pails!
An appreciation of the organic laws of the English
Language in its historic unfolding is inseparable from
considerations that embrace the ensemble of Languages. For ascending through the Anglo-Saxon
idioms to the stock to which they belong-the Germanic or Teutonic group of tongues, we are here
carried back into that grand radiation of race and
speech which modern philologic criticism has formuled as the INDO-EUROPEAN line of peoples and
tongues; nor do we stop till we have reached the




THE INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES.        269
Persian and Indian fountains of wisdom  and language. Thus it is that it is only by embracing causes,
forces and impulses as old as the Japhetic man that
we can rise to a full appreciation of the Philosophy
of the English Language.
The Japhetites* embrace the noblest antique and
later races-the Brahminic Indians, the Persians,
Medians, Greeks, Romans and European peoplestheirs those noble and highly developed languages,
the Sanskrit, Zend, Persian, Hellenic, Latin, Germanic, Keltic, Teutonic. In the Vedas of the Indians,
especially the hymns of the Rig-Veda, and in the
Zend-Avesta of the Persians-primeval documents of
the Iranic world —we see the germs of all we call
Europe. Here were the beginnings of the cultures of
the occidental world. Science was born in that mind,
the intuition of nature, the instinct for political organization and that direct practical normal conduct of
life and affairs.
From this mind, too, flowered out the grandest and
most spiritual of languages. The Japhetic or Iranic
tongues are termed by the master-philologers the
Organic Group, to distinguish them from the Agglutinative and Inorganic speech-floors that underlie them
* Sometimes termed IRANIANS or ARYANS from Iran, the
native name of Persia.




270           GROWTH OF WORDS.
in the Geology of Language. They alone have
reached the altitude of free intellectual individuality
and organism. To them belongs the splendid plasticity of Sanskrit, Greek, German, English! Such are
the primeval lines in the genesis of the English language. And so it is that sounds and structureswords and forms —that were heard along the Ganges,
five thousand years ago-words heard in Benares and
Delhi, in Persia and Greece-are now scaling the
Rocky Mountains of the Western world!
We descend. Crises present. themselves in the
growth of language, connected with mighty mental
and social movements-crises that mark eras in History. The English-along with all the present idioms
of Europe, French, Provengal, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese-refers itself back to that great period
of ethnic flux, the few centuries succeeding the dissolution of the Roman Empire. This epoch introduces
us to the birth of idioms: the laws that govern the
development of language are here seen in vital play.
The two elements were the German and Roman.
The vigorous, individual, egotistic German, acting
on the decaying Latin spoken by the remains of the
Romans and by Keltic populations through France
and Spain, "dissolved and as it were burst the compact structure of the Latin tongue." New forces and




ENGLISH MODERN IN ITS GENIUS.       271
affinities came into action. The Teutonic genius gave
its own inflections, conjugations and forms, working
on Latin roots, breaking up the crystalline structure
of the classic mould, freeing the grammatical forms
from their absorption in the terminations of nouns
and verbs, and erecting them into independent prepositions and auxiliaries. This passage from synthesis
to analysis is the career of all languages. How
markedly is this visible in the English I The glory
of the English is that it is essentially modern-essentially unclassical.
I have shown the admirable marriage of Germanic
and Roman elements present at the birth of the his,
torical English Speech. The subsequent history of
this language shows the copious infusions of new elements and the unfolding of those prolific germs,
under the guidance of the influences, internal and
external, that went to shape the English nation and
mind.
It is this indeed which especially characterizes our
tongue-its eminently composite and complex structure. It is to the scheme of Language what the,diluvial rocks of the Secondary formation are in Geology. And as these have been formed by floods and
inundations-water-borne and crumbling debris of
antique worlds: so is the English language built out




272           GROWTH OF WORDS.
of the drift and detritus of other and elder tongues.
This fact is in the line of the genius of the English
race, which is unequaled in absorption and assimilation, in receptive and applicative power.
To exhibit in epic unfolding the harmonious blending of these formative elements into the grand organism of the English Language does not come within
the scope of these pages. How have I longed to
work on this great problem! May my aspirations
some day be realized I
But within the brief limits that are left me I may
have time to notice some of the most eminent contributions that have gone to the making of our language.
And first, it is needless for me to remark that the
heart of our language is Anglo-Saxon. This is the
spine on which the structure of our speech is hung.
Drawing from. the substance of the grand Germanic
stock-a stock in which the instinct of personal and
political independence has always been powerfully
present-what infusions of passion and power and
noble manly strength did our language thus receive!
Saxon, too, is the whole body of grammatical forms
and inflections; Saxon are the articulations-the conjunctions, articles, pronouns; Saxon those powerful
instruments, the Prepositions and Auxiliaries!
And yet, had the Saxon been left to itself, it never




THE NORMAN ELEMENT.           273
could have grown into the English tongue. It needed
a new element. This it found in the Norman French
introduced with that great political and social revolution, the Norman Conquest-a conquest that has
been made the theme of much sentimental twaddle,
but which was no doubt precisely the best thing that
could have happened. A double action forthwith
began-on the grammar and on the vocabulary, the
latter copiously enriching itself with numerous terms
indicative of the new political and social relationsof war, of law-of the arts and elegancies of society,
which, having had no existence in Saxon life, found
no utterance in the Saxon language. In regard of
Grammar-of structural forms and inflections-the
French influence was powerful, but indirect. Indirect, I say; because the French gave few or any
forms of its own. And yet one can scarcely exaggerate the power of that influence in freeing the nascent
English speech from those useless and cumbersome
forms with which the Anglo-Saxon was overloaded.
" The Saxon forms soon dropped away, because they
did not suit the new roots; and the genius of the
language, from having to deal with newly imported
words in a rude state, was induced to neglect the
inflexions of the native ones."* Let a single illustra* Jacob Grimm.
12*




274           GROWTH OF WORDS.
tion suffice. A complex system of the formation of
the plural of nouns obtained —some nouns making
that number in a, others in an, others in as, others in
u; the Norman infusion, however, led to the adoption of s as the universal termination of all plural
nouns, that being the French method and at the same
time the termination of the ancient Anglo-Saxon
masculine.
I have said that with the French inoculation a vast
enriching of the vocabulary took place. This enriching was of course progressive-was, indeed, the work
of centuries. The value of this legacy cannot be
overstated: it embraced thousands of our most expressive and most important words. Of the prodigious activity with which the French genius wrought
on the English language, for the four or five centuries succeeding the Conquest, we have a significant
record in Chaucer. Chaucer, indeed, perhaps exaggerates the French element; and it was no doubt on
account of this penchant that he in his own day
received the nickname of the "French brewer."  But
it cannot be that Chaucer did anything more than
crystallize into literature verbal forms already in
solution among the floating word-capital of the day.
For never otherwise could he have been the popular
poet he was. What a lusty leap the English Lan



CHAUCER7S FRENCH IMPORTATIONS.            275
guage had taken since the Norman Conquest the
Canterbury Tales vividly mirror forth.'Twas the
flush of adolescence, rich and juicy and spendthrift:
manhood, compact, equable, had yet to come. Let
me quote a few passages from Chaucer showing the
average proportion of French in his diction. To
bring it home to the eye I shall italicise the chief
Norman engraftings.
Whanne that April with his showers sote
The droughte of March hath perced to the rote
And bathed every veine in swiche licour,
Of which vertue engendred is the flour:
Whan Zephirus eke with his sote brethe
Enspired hath in every holt and hethe
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And small foules maken melodie,
And slepen all night with open eye,
So priketh him nature in his corages,
Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages, etc.
To Canterbury with devoute courage,
At night was com into that hostelrie
Wel nine-and-twenty in a compagnie.
At mortal batailles hadde he been fiftene.
He was a veray parfit gentil knight.




276             GROWTH OF WORDS.
Therfore in stede of weping and praiers
Men mote give silver to the poure freres.*
Th' estat th' araie, the nombre and eke the cause.
Were it by aventure, or sort, or cas.
In prison
Perpetuel, he n' olde no raunsom.
Of course amid these thousand-fold French importations many, many were not finally adopted into the
vernacular. Put through the assay, they were not
found fit to be stamped with the seal of popular acceptation. In Chaucer I find such Gallicisms as
these —' gaillard' (gay),'debonair' (good-natured),'devoir' (duty),' lointain' (the distance),'jouissance'
(enjoyment),' misericorde' (tenderheartedness),' pierrie' (precious stones),'rondeur' (roundness-the'Earth's rondeur'), with scores of such like, some of
which will no doubt again make their appearance in
our language, many of them expressing thoughts or
things not so well expressed by any we have. But
as I shall make the Unworked Mines of the English
Language the theme of a future volume I shall not
be tempted into farther illustration.
And now we must descend the stream of our lan.
* What we now write' friars:' freires, brothers.




THE FOREIGN ELEMENT.           277
guage to that period when those copious tributaries
from the classic fountains poured their grand affluents
into the rich river of English Speech. And here we
have to mention the deep debt we owe to that illustrious nation, Italy-which for so many centuries led
the van of European civilization-in operating the
renaissance of Greek and Latin language and thought:
The breath of antique genius passed over the English
mind like the air of Spring, bursting and blossoming
in luxuriant growths of thought and speech. The
period of this creative movement is that mighty Sixteenth century, from the reign of the Eighth Henry
through the Elizabethan era.  Not by hundreds
merely, one may say, but by thousands, were Latin
and Greek words then naturalized.into the English
speech.
Nor is the quality of these importations of less significance. It was theirs to satisfy the needs of the
higher intellectual and spiritual expression which
that new upsurging from the spontaneous depths of
human nature brought.  Philosophy, Science and
Poetry put on that rich feuillage of verbal forms that
gives such masterly expression to English literature In a word, the classical contributions furnished
the spiritual conceptions, and endowed the material
body of the English speech with a living soul. Under




278            GROWTH OF WORDS.
the hands of the fine geniuses of the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth centuries the English Language rounded
into compact, kosmic mould.
Of those three grand factors-Saxon, French, and
Classical-is our language made up. It is the mutual
influence and action of these that form the warp and
woof of our English speech. Not but that other elements are, in greater or smaller proportions, present,
and weave their threads into the divine web; but
these are the main sources whence our language has
enriched itself-these the main sources whether of its
terms or its powers, of its material elements or its
formal laws.
Of these minor tributaries the Italian, German,
Norse, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, deserve special
mention. From Italian we have such accretions as' virtuoso,''bravo,''bandit,''charlatan,''gazette,''con amore,' etc. The maritime and commercial
activity of the Portuguese during the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth centuries has left us some significant
words. Thus'fetishism,' a term applied by them to
the low idolatry and sorcery of the African tribes, is
simply the Portuguese feitico, sorcery, witchcraft.
Their relations with the African coast have also given
us'palaver'-Portuguese palavra, talk, speech; and
applied by them to a council of African chiefs. It is,




DUTCH AND SLAVIC CONTRIBUTIONS.    279
moreover, to the long monopoly by the Portuguese
of the East Indian trade that we are indebted for the
introduction of various oriental words, as'taboo'
from the Sandwich Islands, and the phrase'runamuck' from the Malays. The Dutch have left the
impress of their maritime activity on our language.'Sloop,' for instance, and'yacht' and'schooner' are
all of Dutch etymology. To later German we owe
the suggestions of many valuable metaphysical symbols, made after the antique-not the least significant
of which are the much-used' objective' and'subjective.' Nor is this all, there being scarce a tongue on
the planet which the all-absorbing Saxon genius has
not laid under contribution to enrich the exchequer
of its conquering speech. The aboriginal American
dialects, for instance, have given us'tobacco,''wigwam,': papouse,'' moccasin,'' Yankee,'' potato,''chocolate,' and others. The Slaves have contributed'plough,' word and thing. Arabia shows her powerful influence on the culture of the Middle Ages in
such terms as' algebra,'' zero,''almanach,''alkali,''alembic,''elixir,''alcohol,' etc.  Hebraisms, too,
are not lacking —witness'sabbath,''jubilee,''hallelujah,'' amen,''cabala,''Messiah,' etc.  Turkey
sends us'tulip,''turban,''dragoman;' Persia,'bazaar,''caravan,''azure,''scarlet;' China,' tea'




280           GROWTH OF WORDS.
and'Nankeen;' Hindostan,'calico,'chintz,''curry,''lac;' the Malays'bantam,'' gamboge,''rattan,'' sago.'
The growth of words runs parallel with the unfolding of a nation's life. Every addition to practical
civilization, every scientific generalization, commerce
in all its branches, foreign literary influence, diplomacy, religion, philosophy, sociology are the perpetual agents of linguistic increase.
A curious law attaches to the origin of words by
which they are forced to undergo a period of proba.
tionship before they receive the stamp of legal cur,
rency. Every new word passes through an embryonic stage previous to emerging as a normal member
of the organism of speech, and perhaps for half a century or more finds a place in no dictionary. The
advent of every neologism is met by a powerful conservatism opposing the innovation: and only after a
severe ordeal does it raise itself to a place in the
peerage of language. With its emergence in the
Dictionary it has passed the grand climacteric, and
may henceforth count on a longer or shorter lease of
life. Thousands of words, too, make their debut as
slang-gipseys and outlaws that are afterwards reclaimed by civilized society. And it is curious to




MONTAIGNE ON THE INTRODUCTION OF WORDS. 281
observe how many of our stateliest terms rest on some
free popular idiom, some bandied catch-word-spontaneous creation of the hour.
In the Essays of Montaigne there is a vivid illustration of the subtle steps by which words often find
their way into language. In order to facilitate his
acquisition of Latin, then the common speech of the
learned, he was, in his childhood, allowed no other
medium of communication; and not only his teachers,
but his parents, attendants, -and even his nurse, were
obliged to learn enough Latin to converse with him
in it. The result was, as he tells us, that the peasants
on his father's estate, and gradually the people of the
neighboring villages, adopted many of the. Latin
words which they heard constantly used in the family
of their feudal lord; and, writing fifty years later, he
declares that these words had become permanently
incorporated into the dialect of the province.'Mob' is a word that made its appearance in the
English language in the time of Charles II. as a piece
of pure slang, and I have already quoted from the
Spectator characterizing it as a ridiculous expression,which might however finally make its way into our
language I How long did' bore' struggle to maintain its hold! It expressed, however, a positive idea,
not otherwise conveyed, and has finally, in our own




282           GROWTH OF WORDS.
time, won its way into the Dictionary. You look in
vain in any vocabulary of the English language for'sociology' (creation of Auguste Comte)' solidarity,''placer:' they are all most valuable contributions,
however, and will no doubt soon receive Dictionaryendorsement.'Telegram' again, which appears in
the new editions of the English dictionaries, is an
example of how an imperious necessity will force
words into immediate acceptance and recognition.
The French contributions to our language, so copious and rich, were never more important than they
have been within the present century. Let me enumerate some that we have received within that period,
with others that look a little farther back. I shall
give such as suggest themselves to my mind, without
any attempt at completeness.
Accoucheur-Accouchement: Valuable contributions
to our Ianguage, and now getting into popular
use.
Attache: A diplomatic term, implying one attached to
the suite of an embassador, and now creeping into
more general use. Thus we speak about the
attaches of a reigning belle.
Au fait: "Posted up "-up to the mark, having an
off-hand familiarity with the matter in hand.




FRENCH CONTRIBUTIONS.            283
Badinage: Half-earnest jesting —a delicate modification of raillery.'Blase: Past participle of the verb blaser, to surfeit,
and popularized by the comedy of " Used Up."
Bon-mot or simply Mot:'Literally a good word-a
good thing.
fBrochure: A  pamphlet: from  the verb brocher, to
stitch.
Coup: A stroke or blow, and in compounds implies
any sudden action.  The compounds are very
numerous, coup-d'61tat, coup-de-grace, coup-de-main,
coup-de-soleil, coup-d'ceil, coup-de-theitre, etc.
Debris: A symbolism from Geology, where it means
masses of rock etc., detached by attrition or mechanical violence.
Debut: First public appearance. Debutant, Debutante,
the person making it.
Elite: The flower-literally the elect or chosen.
Employ': A word of the greatest utility and coming
into universal use: the meaning is any one employed.
Ennui: Weariness, sense of tedium.
Ensemble: The totality as distinguished from the
details. A noble word with immense vista.
Fagade: Chief frontage of a building-a term  borrowed from the French architects.
Gout: Relish, Asthetic taste.




284            GROWTH OF WORDS.
Na;ve, Naivete: Most desirable words, with the French
elisive charm, and implying a combination of the
ingenuous, candid, winning.
Nonchalance: Cool carelessness and indifference.
Outre': Etymologically the same as ultra and carrying
with it the sense of the extravagant and grotesque.
Passe: A term whose import is realized with tremendous force by ladies of a certain age. En passant,
by the way.
Penchant: Inclination, proclivity.
Persiflage: Light, mocking banter.
Personnel: Originally, corps of persons employed in
contradistinction to the materiel; but now coming
to mean, also, the sum of characteristics constituting
one's personality.
Precis: A summary or abridgment. A valuable
word.
Prestige: A most useful word, supplying a positive
want in our language. The original meaning was
a piece of smuggling or imposture; but the word
now bears with it the idea of the presum2ption which
past successes beget offuture ones.
Programme: A word of universal use in America in
the sense of a printed synopsis: a desirable contribution, which the French has given us, taking it
from the Greek.




FRENCH CONTRIBUTIONS.           285
Protege: One under the patronage or protection of
another —Roman clients.
JRa2port: Implies, in French, relation; en ral2port, in
relation with; and used in English to convey the
idea of an affinity or sympathy of sensation. The
word owes its currency to our modern mesmeric
and "Spiritual" phenomena and philosophy.
Redacteur: An editor, compiler etc.; redaction, the
digesting or reducing to order literary or scientific
material.
Renaissance: Regeneration, new  birth: mainly applied to the revival of the fine arts, but susceptible
of any breadth of application.
Seance: A sitting, applied mostly to sittings for scientific purposes.
Soiree: A word early adopted, and after the analogy
of which we have more recently introduced matinee,




RAMBLE TWELFTH.
ENGLISH IN AMERICA.
BY a combination of circumstances the English
Language became the speech of America. There was
nothing fortuitous in this. For English is eminently
the speech of the Modern. The English Language
expresses most typically those tendencies which all
show more or less. Into the make of the English,
more than any other idiom, has converged the spirit
of the modern, breaking up the crystalline. structure of
the classic mould-the splendid newness, the aspirations of freedom, individualism, democracy.
Nurtured by the influences that have made the
English nation, the English Language expresses the
infusions from all these-expresses aristocracy and
monarchy among the rest. Meanwhile do we not
feel that a change has, these eras, passed over the private spirit of man? The genius of a new age broods,
fiery and fecundating, over the nations. Authority




MODIFICATIONS OF ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 287
tradition, caste go hopelessly. New tests, demands,
verdicts come, disconcerting the old decorums in
opinions, manners, literature. Audacious aspirations,arise. A lofty augury beckons on to new cerebral
and spiritual shores.
A speech to correspond! These oceanic movements in the age must make flood-tide in the Language, also. For speech moves with the movements
of mind, as the ocean obeys celestial influences.
Always Language is incubated by the mind of the
ages. Transported to the new and vaster arena of
America, the English language comes under the conditions, outer and inner, that are shaping the American mind. It is qualified by all that makes American
life-by the geographic and climatic conditions, by
the ethnology of America, by her politics, sociology,
manners, mentality.
Of course the English Language must take on new
powers in America. And here we are favored by
the genius of this grand and noble language, which
more than all others lends itself plastic and willing
to the moulding power of new formative influences.
Vas it supposed that the English Language was
finished? But there is no finality to a Language!
The English has vast vista in it-vast vista in
America.




288           ENGLISH IN AMERICA.
It is the sum of the uses of precedents, to a live
nation, that it shall match the same with better from
its own soul, and consume them before its audacious
improvisations.  A  nation cannot live on reminiscences: it can only live on influx. The English
Language, expressing the genius of the English race
and its culture history, thought, is still inadequate to
the utterance of America, and must take on new proportions before it can become the living garment
of this new life of humanity.
The future expansions of the English Language in
America are already marked in the great lines of development this idiom shows. It is for us freely to
follow the divine indications. And here a spinal
fact is the composite character of our language: to
what new realizations is it lifted in America!  The
immense diversity of race, temperament, characterthe copious streams of humanity constantly flowing
hither-must reappear in free, rich growths of speech.
From no one ethnic source is America sprung: the
electric reciprocations of many stocks conspired and
conspire. This opulence of race-elements is in tie
theory of America. Land of the Ensemble, to her
the consenting currents flow, and the ethnology of
the States draws the grand outline of that hospitality
and reception that must mark the new politics, sociology, literature and religion.




A BROADER THEORY OF LANGUAGE.    289
Language, too, must feel this influence. And this
is to' appear not merely in'the' copious new verbal
contributions the various idioms may bring, but in
the entire spirit of the Language-moulded more and
more to a large hospitality and impartiality. The
theory of English scholars and literateurs, for hundreds of years, has been the theory of repression.
They have discouraged and cramped the spontaneous
expansions of the Language —discouraged inoculations from the French, from Latin, Greek, Italian.'What pitiful cant, too, does one hear every day about
Saxon! as though it were not the very theory of the
English Language-the very genius and animus of it
-to take its food from all sources! This ridiculous
nonsense is to be utterlvy dismissed.'
What starvation has this insane purism effected!
What a poor, indigent, watery affair is our literary
expression!  Books cling to the old traditions and
timidities-no full, free, utterance, untrammeled,
mystical: no influx, no abandonment. Surely the
time has come to dismiss this old impotence. And
what means arise for enriching the arsenal of expression!  What new creations surge and swell the
ampler currents of our time! New thoughts, new
things, all unnamed! Where is the theory of literary
expression that stands for the new politics and soci
13.




290           ENGLISH IN AMERICA,
ology? that puts itself abreast the vast di vine tenden
ties of Science? that absorbs the superb suggestions
of the Grand Opera?
I can see but one limitation to the theory of Words
— the theory of Things. Is it for us who are borne
fn the billowy tides of this new humanity to limit the
unfolding opulence of God-to put a girdle round the
widening future of our civilization and our speech?
Freely, then, may the American literat proceed to
quarry and build in the architecture of the English
Language. Of course the conditions of this free expressive activity are high.  To him  who would
mould our language must go many qualities-must
go large knowledge of the philosophy of speech, must
go rich sesthetic instincts, among the rest.
The sources of future enrichings of the Anglican
speech are the same old fountains. In our native
roots, in the plastic forms of the antique, in the noble
modern idioms are the magazines of word-wealth.
How much has the French language been to English!
How much has it yet to give! Nation of sublime
destinies, noble, nalve, ricli with humanity, bearers
of freedom, upholding on her shoulders the history
of Europe for a thousand years! The Italian gifts,
too, direct and indirect, are not nothing to America.
Spain is not nothing. How much they have to con



LANGUAGE THE FLOWER OF A NATION'S LIFE. 291
tribute-Italy with her rich and rosy nature, her grand
style of music- and consummate intuitions of art;
Spain, so noble, so proud, so much to manners, to
behavior!  I would not underrate the German and
Scandinavian influences-mighty race, spiritual, aspiring, individual, melancholy, prudent.
The flower and aroma of a Nation is its Language.
The conditions of a grand language are a grand life.
For words are metaphysical beings, and draw of the
life of the mind. Not in these wondrous hieroglyphs
of Words, not in these mystic runes, is the power: in
the Mind which loads these airy messengers with burdens of meaning is the vis and vivification of speech.
Over the transformations of a Language the genius of
a nation unconsciously presides- the issues of Words
represent issues in the national thought. And in the
vernal seasons of a nation's life the formative energy
puts forth verbal growths opulent as flowers in spring.
THE END.








INDEX.'- -
Abandon, 242, 263, Andrew Farrara, 215. Auricular, 251.
(note).            Anemone, 59.         Aurora, 57.
Absurd, 8.           Angel, 174.          Auspicious, 15.
Abundance, 32.       Animadvert, 196.     Author, 105.
Academy, 202.        Animosity, 194.      Azure, 279.
Accommodate, 163.   Annoyance, 41.
Accouchement, 282.  Anointed, 258.        Bacchanalian, 202.
Accoucheur, 282.     Anon, 105.           Back, 223.
Acre, 43.            Antagonist, 243.     Bacon, 222.
Acuteness, 21.       Anthropophaginian,   Bad, 184.
Adieu, 108.            154.               Badinage, 283.
ZEsthetic, 251.      Antique Henry, 262.  Bag and Nails, 160.
Affable, 104, 264.   Apathy, 21.          Baker, 220.'Affront, 45.        Apollo, 214.         Balderdash, 167.
Agreeable, 181.      Apothecary, 227.     Bamboozle, 167.
Ajax, 163.           Aqua Vitce, 168.     Ban, 184 (note).
Album, 104.          Aquiline, 251.       Bandit, 263 (note)
Alcohol, 279.        Arras, 214.          Banish, 263.
Alcoran, 261.        Arrowsmith, 220.     Bane, 184 (note).
Alderman, 81.        Artifice, 233.       Bans, 263.
Alembic, 219.        Ascendant, 61.       Bantam, 280.
Algebra, 279.        Ass, 149.            Barbarian, 126.
Alkali, 279.         Astonish, 42.        Barnburner, 131.
Almanach, 279.       Astral, 249.         Barnum, 207.
Ambrosia, 67.        Atlas, 202.          Bayonet, 214.
Ambrosial, 67.       Attache, 282.        Bazaar, 279.
Amen, 279.           Attention, 57.       Bead, 238.
Amiable, 247.        Auditory, 251.       Bead-roll, 238.
Amical, 247.         Auburn, 103.         Beastliness, 149.
Amuck, 279.          Au fait, 282.        Bear, 132, 242.




294                         INDEX.
Beer, 219.           Brumal, 249.           Causeries, 106.
Beldame, 127.        Brunt, 65.             Caustic, 25.
Benevolent, 198.     Brydges, 219.          Cemetery, 72.
Bernard, 225.        Buck, 149.             Xatpe, 108.
Beshrew, 119 (note).  Buck, 222.            Chalmers, 221.
Bethlaim, 72.        Bull and Mouth, 160. Chancellor, 221.
Bible, 261.           Bullock, 222.         Character, 183.
Biche, 132 (note).    Bumpkin, 129.         Charlatan, 129, 278.
Biscuit, 105.         Burgundy, 214.        Charles, 115 (note).
Bishop, 221.          Burns, 219.           Charm, 63.
Bitch, 120.           Butcher, 220, 227.    Charter-house, 160.
Black, 222.          Butler, 220, 239.      Chartist, 98.
Blackguard, 17, 112.  By cock and pye, 136. Chase, 219.
Blackleg, 129.       By hook or by crook, Chattel, 87.
Black-Republican,       166.                Chevalier d'Industrie
131.               By'r lady, 135.         416.
Blanch, 239.         By'r lakin, 136.       C'hez-nous, 106.
Blasd, 283.          By the dog  134.      Childish, 246.
Blockhead, 130.      By the Lord, 136.     Childlike, 245.
Blood, 223.          By these pickers and China, 279.
Bloody, 247.            stealers, 136.     Chintz, 280.
Boileau, 222.        By these  ten bones, Chit-chat, 169.
Bold, 242.              136.               Chivalry, 93.
Bomrbast, 38.        By Yea and Nay, 136. Chocolate, 279.
Booby, 129.                                Chosen, 242.
Boor, 115.           Cabala, 279.          Chouse, 204.
Bones, 223.          Cadger, 151,          Christen, 205.
Bon Gout, 25.        Cain-colored, 208.    Churl, 115.
Panheur, 61.          Caitiff, 130.        Church, 219.
Bon-mot, 283.        Calamity, 68.         Cinque-Ports, 144
Bonnet, 239.         Calculate, 44.        Circumspection, 21
Bore, 129, 281.       Calico, 214, 280.    Circumvent, 262.
Bowey, 207.           Can, 50.             Clannish, 181.
Bow-wow, 169.         Candor, 15, 34.      Clarke, 221.
Boyish, 246.         Canine, 249.          Clergie, 95.
Boyism, 246.          Canr, 129.           Clerk, 94.
Brass, 167.          Cap, 239.             Close-fisted, 167.
Brave, 242.          Cape of Good Hope, Clothier, 226.
Bravo, 107, 278.        51,                 Clown, 8.
Brewer, 219.          Capillary, 249.       Coat, 240.
Brigand, 127.         Capricious, 173.      Cobalt, 60.
Briggs, 219.          Carav a, 279.         Cockade, 170.
Brochure, 283.        Cardiac, 248.         Codger, 151.
Brooks, 219.          Carpenter, 220.       Coffin, 219.
Brow-beat, 36.        Carter, 220.         Cognac, 214.
Brown, 222.           Cat, 120.             Collier, 220.
Brown study, 170.    Cater, 47.             Comfort, 181.




INDEX.                          295
Commensurate, 261.   Crone, 119.            Deuce (the)l 133.
Comme'rage, 49.      Crony, 119.            Device, 233.
Compassion, 199.      Crookshanks, 223,     Devoir, 276.
Comply, 155.          Crudity, 24.          Dexterity, 34.
Companion, 90.        Crusades, 92,         Diadem, 42.
Comrades, 102.        Cuckold, 150.         Diary, 256.
Con, 157.             Cunning, 50, 196.     Dickens (the)l 133.
Con amore, 278.       Cupidity, 194, 242.    Dictum, 262.
Conceit, 196.         Cur, 120.             Disaster, 61.
Concetti, 107.        Curfew, 88.           Disgust, 24.
Concise, 244.         Curmudgeon, 128.      Distaste, 24.
Conductitious, 259.    Currants, 214.       Diurnal, 256.
Coney-catch, 148.     Currier, 227.         Do., 157.
Confiscate, 43 (note).  Curry, 280.         Doff or don, 157.
Congregation, 261.    Cyclops, 59.          Dogma, 195.
Connive, 262.                               Dogmatical, 195.
Consider, 60.         Dahlia, 203.          Dollar, 215.
Convenient, 264.      Daisy, 59.            Dolt, 128.
Convivial, 180.       Damask, 214.          Domestic, 251.
Convolvulus, 59.      Dame, 127 (note).     Donneruad Teufel 134
Cooper, 220.          Dandelion, 105..Donner und TBuitzen,
Coral, 60.            Dandy, 191.             134.
Cordial, 37, 248.     Dastard, 123.         Domineer 262.
Cordwainer, 214.      Dead-letter, 168,     Doolittle, 222.
Coroner, 106.         Dean, 144.            Doughface, 131.
Corsair, 116.         Death, 223.           Douay (Bible), 216.
Cosier, 226.          Debauch, 39.          Drachm, 43.
Countrsyman, 241.     Debate, 41.           Dragoman, 279.
Coup, 283.           Debris, 283.           Drinkwater, 222.
Coup-d'etat, 283.     Debut, 283.           Droit, 185.
Coup-de-grace, 283.   Debutant, 283.        Drab, 129.
Coup-de-main, 283.    Debonair, 105, 276.   Drape, 226.
Coup-de-soleil, 283.    Decease, 72.        Dunce, 203.
Coup-de-theAtre, 283.  Decency, 179.        Duty, 197.
Courteous, 264.       Decent, 18.           Dyers, 219.
Coward, 123, 150.     Decore, 179.
Coxcomb, 149.         Decorous, 179.        Earle, 221.
Coz, 157.             Aeka, 44.             Earnest, 181.
Crabbe, 222.          Deliberation, 14.-    Earthly, 248.
Crafty, 196.          Delirium, 39.         Earthling, 237.
Craggs, 219.          Demise, 72.           East, 219, 242.
Crane, 222.           Demon, 63.            Eau de vie, 168.
Cravat, 212.          Demure, 35.           Eccentric, 243.
Craven, 104, 123.     Dental, 251.          Edgar, 225.
Credit, 198.          Desert, 242.          Edward, 226.
Cremona, 214.         Designing, 196.       Eel, 219.
Crime, 178.          Desire, 242            Egad and all that, 165




296                         INDEX
Egg on, 167.          Fervor, 32.           Gascona-de, 211.
Egregious, 37.        Fetishism, 278.       Gauls, 213.
Elbow, 251.           Fie, 243 (note).      Gazette, 96, 278.
Electricity, 104.     Field, 219.           General, 250.
Elegant, 242.        Fiend, 243 (note).     Generous, 182.
Eleemosynary, 252.   Fille de Joie, 46.     Genteel, 182.
Elite, 283.           Finesse, 223.         Gentile, 182.
Elixir, 279.;        Fire-eater, 131.      Gsentle, 181.
Emolument, 85.        Fiscal, 15, 43.       Ghost, 63.
Emperor, 221.         Fisher, 219, 220.     Giaours, 125.
Encounter, 45.        Flay, 66.             Gifford, 222.
Ennui, 283.           Fletcher, 220.        Ginger, 167.
Ensemble, 283.        Flim-flam, 169.       Glacial, 249.
Envy, 21.             Flint, 223.           Godwin, 226.
Enthusiasm, 39.       Fly, 222.             Goldsmith, 220.
Epicier, 113.         Flunkey, 113,         Good, 184.
Epicure, 202.         Foe, 243.             Goodenough, 222.
Equine, 251.          Foh, 243 (note).      Good-bye, 108.
Erratic, 243.         Fold, 219.            Gordian, 202.
Error, 186.           Foresight, 241.       Gosling, 223.
Esprit, 106.          Forest, 219.          Gospel, 64.
Essential, 250.       Forget-me-not, 59.    Gossip, 48.
Ethical, 186.         Fortnight, 249 (note). Go the whole hog, 167
Etiquette, 170.       Fortye, 223.          Goths, 212.
Euphuism,: 154.      Forlorn-hope, 51.      Gouk, 150 (note).
Exaggeration, 40.     Forward, 195.         Gout, 284.
Exile, 263.           Fowler, 220.          Grand, 4.
Extenuate, 33.       Foxglove, 101.         Grange, 219.
Eye, 20.             Fractious, 35.         Grcecari, 211.
Frank, 211.           Gramercy, 135.
Fagade, 283.          Franklin, 221.        Graves, 219.
Falconer, 220.        Free, 211.            Grandee, 46.
Fame, 183.            Freeman, 222.         Grey, 222.
Fanatic, 17.          Friar, 276 (note).    Grocer, 227.
Fancy, 27.           Friendly, 247.         Grotesque, 169.
Fantastical, 27.     Frost, 223.            Grove, 219.
Farce, 95.            Frown, 36.            Gudgeon, 150.
Farrier, 226.        Frugal, 15.            Guild, 177 (note).
Farthing, 223.        Fudge, 204.           Guillotine, 206.
Farthingale, 160.     Furlong, 43.          Guilt, 177.
Farewell, 108.        Fustian, 38.          Guinea, 215.
Fascination, 63.-                           Gull, 148.
Fast, 167.            Gaillard, 276.        Gust, 235.
Faugh, 243 (note).    Gallant, 46.          Gustatory, 251.
Feline, 251.          Galvanism, 202.       Gusto, 21.
Felon, 80.            Garaboge, 280.
Feminine, 245.        Gas, 63 (note).'H,' 159.




INDEX.                          297
Haberdasher, 141.    Hood-wink, 167.        Inoculation, 97.
Hag, 119.             Hopper, 220.          Insinuate, 34.
Hail, 223.            Horace, 158.          Insipid, 25.
Hair-brained, 129.    Horoscope, 61.        Insolence, 179.
Halcyon Days, 65.    Horse, 120.            Interlard, 141.
Hale, 69.             Host, 256.            Intoxicate, 168.
Hallelujah, 279.      Hostile, 256.         Intrepid, 242.
Handy, 263.           House, 219.           Intuition, 28.
Happy, 193.           Hubbub, 169.          Inuendo, 168.
Hard Shell, 131.      Hule, 223.            Invidious, 28.
Harmless, 177.        Humble, 250.          Iranian, 269 (note).
Hart, 222.            Humbug, 192.          Ire, 242.
Harum-scarum, 169.   Humility, 192.
Haughtiness, 46.      Humor, 106, 161.
Hauteur, 46.          Hunker, 131.          Japan, 214.
IIawk, 150.           Hunter, 22014.
Iawke, 150.           Hunter, 220.          Jaundice, 104.
Hawker, 151, 220.    Hurly-burly, 169.      Jay, 222
HIead, 223.           Hurricane, 235.       Jenner 220.
Heady, 239.           Husband, 81 (note).   Jeopardy, 95.
Health, 69.           Hussy, 128. 
Heart, 223.           Hut, 239.             Jesuit206.
Hearty, 37, 248.      Hypocrite, 99.        Jewell  223
Heaven, 8.            Hyperborean, 58.              2
Hectoring, 203.       Hypoes, 1610.
Jouissance, 276.
Helots, 210.          Hypothesis, 261.      Journal, 255.
i-elter-skelter,   169.
Helter-skelter, 169.                        Journey, 108, 255.
Herculean, 202.       Idea, 28.
Heretic, 124.        IeIdiot, 117., 
Hermetic, 202.        Igneous, 249.         Juds-colored, 208
Hleron, 222.          Ignoramus, 146.
Jumper, 220.
Herring, 222.         Ill-starred, 61.      Junto, 128.
Hidalgo, 181.         Imbecile, 37.        KJust, 185.
Higgledy-pi,gledy,    Immolate, 85.
169.                Imp, 63, 126.
Highness, 46.         Impertinent, 193.     Ken, 50.
Hill, 219.            Imposter, 127.        Kickshaw, 144.
Hoax, 146.            Incantation, 63.      Kind, 182.
Hob or nob, 157.      Incog, 157.           King, 81, 221.
Hocus-pocus, 16, 145. Inculcate, 110..      Kingly, 242.
Hodge-podge, 169.    Indolence, 180.        Knave, 113.
Hogg, 222.            Infant, 104.          Knavish, 113.
Holland, 214.         Infantile,  246.      Knight, 93.
Holmes, 219.          Infantine, 246.       Knock under, 167.
Home, 106.            Infidel, 125.         Knowing, 196.
Honesty, 179, 256     In fine, sir, 165.    Knowles, 219.
Honey-moon, 166.    Influence, 61.          Know-nothing, 131.
Honnete, 179.         Innocence, 177.       Kosmos, 65.
13*




298                        INDfEX.
Labial, 251.         Ttandragora, 121.    Morrow, 58.
Lac, 280.            Mandrake, 120.       Jfors, 72.
Laconic, 212.        Manger, 104.         Mortified, 42.
Lamb, 149.           Manly, 198.          Mose, 206.
Law, 185.            Manual, 249.         Moss, 219.
Lawyer, 220          Marriage, 237.       Mot, 283.
Leave, 242.          Marsh, 219.          Mountain, 219.
Legend, 47.          Martial, 61.         Mountebank, 148.
Lemon, 223.          Mason, 220.          Mouse, 132.
Lethe, 58.           Mausoleum, 202.      Mumpsimus, 146.
Levant, 58, 242.     Maxim, 47.           Mundane, 248.
Lewd, 114.           Mayor, 221.          Muscle, 150.
Libel, 47.           Mealy-mouthed, 167.  Muslin, 215.
Liberal, 262.        Mean, 115, 181.      Myriad, 43.
Libertine, 194.      Medullary, 251       Myrtle, 223.
Lieutenant, 104, 238. Meek, 222.
Lion, 149.           Meeting, 45.         Naive, 284.
Lively, 246,         Menstruum, 102.      Naivete, 284.
Loco-foco, 131, 141.   Mental, 250.       Nankeen, 214, 280.
Lointain, 276.       Mercurial, 61.       Nasal, 250.
Longfellow, 222.     Methodist, 130.      Nasty, 21.
Longman, 222.        Mesmerism, 202.      Natal, 251.
Longshanks, 223.     Messiah, 279.        Nature, 54.
Loose, 191.          Metaphysical, 261.    Natural, 128.
Loose-fish, 130.     Mill, 219.           Ne'er-do-weel, 116.
Lord, 221.           Miller, 220.         Negro, 103.
Lose, 191.           Mille onne'res, 134.    Negus, 203.
Loss, 191.           Minion, 194.         Nervous, 49.
Lout, 129.           Minister, 105.       News, 141.
Lowndes, 219.        Misanthropist, 198.   Night-mare, 140.
Luggage, 168.        Miscreants, 125.     Nihil, 143 (note).
Lunatic, 102, 238.   Miser, 8, 190.       Nincompoop, 128.
Lust, 194, 242.      Misery, 193.         Ninny, 128.
Lyceum. 41.          Misericorde, 276.    Noble, 181, 222.
Lynch, 207.          Mob, 98, 157, 281.    Nocturnal, 249.
Lyon, 222.           Moccasin, 279.       Nonchalance, 284.
Modest, 179.         Non-plus, 141.
Macadamize, 203.     Momentous, 262.      North, 219.
Macdonald, 224.      Moneypenny, 223.    Nose, 20.
NMachiavelism, 206.    Monster, 129, 180.    Nostrum, 16, 148.
Main, 58.            Month, 102.          Not a  straw,  143
Magnate, 46.         Moonshine, 102.        (note).
Magnet, 215.         Moral, 186.          Novel, 244.
Magnificent, 46.     Mordant, 25.         Nuisance, 41.
Majesty, 46.         Morn, 58.            Numskull, 130.
MalUi7olent, 168.    Morning Glory, 59.    Nuncle, 157.
Malheur, 61.         Morose, 35.




INDEX.                          299
Objective, 279.       Parlor, 254.          Pilgrim, 92, 221.
Obs. and sols., 157.    Parsons, 219.       Piquant, 25.
Obsequies, 48.        Passe, 284.  e        Pithy, 244.
Obsequious, 48.       Pasquin, 207.         Pitt, 219.
Obvious, 34.          Patavinity, 212       Pity, 253.
Occident, 58.         Patois, 212.          Placer, 282.
Ocean, 202.           Patron, 254.          Plagiary, 84.
Ocular, 251.          Pattern, 254.         Plague, 40.
Odd's death  134.     Peasant, 241.         Platonic, 202.
Officious, 195.       Pease, 223.           Plough, 279.
Ogres, 212.           Pectoral, 251.        Poltroon, 122.
Olfactory, 250.       Peculate, 86.         Powder, 37
O Lord, sir, 165.     Peculiar, 86.         Poole, 219.
Omnibus, 104.         Pecuniary, 15, 85     Pope, 221.
Once, 223.            Pedal, 251.           Portmanteau, 104.
On the anvil, 106.    Pedler, 227.          Port, 214.
On the carpet, 106.    Peel, 223.           Potato, 279.
Out-Herod Herod, 142. Ihepreg0Oat, 44.      Potent, 262.
On tick, 141.         Penchant, 284.        Powell, 225.
Opponent, 243.        Penetrability, 258.    Pragmatical, 195.
Optic, 251.           Penny, 223.           Prayer, 238.
Ordeal, 78.           Pensive, 180, 239     Precipitancy, 34.
Orient, 58, 242.     HIIre, 44.             Prdcis, 284.
Orrery, 203.          Pepper, 223.          Precocious, 34.
Outre, 284.           Peremptory, 42.       Prejudice, 193.
Perdy, 135.           Premature, 34.
Pagan, 115.           Pernicious, 41.       Preposterous, 141.
Palate, 24.           Perspicuous, 20.      Presbyterian, 82.
Palaver, 27 8.        Pert, 40.             Prestige, 284.
Pale, within and with- Peterson, 225.       Prevaricate, 38.
out the, 143.       Petrified, 50.        Priest, 219.
Palmer, 92, 221.      Pettifogger, 129.     Primrose, 59.
Palmy, 66.            Petty, 46.            Prince, 221.
Pamper, 44.           Phantasm, 27.         Prison, 105.
Pander, 206.          Phantasy, 27.         Pritchard, 225.
Pantheist, 39.        Phantom, 27.          Privilege, 105.
Paper, 104.           Phase, 27.            Pro, 157.
Papouse, 279.         Phenomena, 27.        Probity, 192.
Paradise, 43.         Philanthropist, 198.   Profligate, 191.
Paramour, 46.         Philippic, 202.       Programme, 284.
Parasite, 100.        Phren, 26.            Promethean, 202.
Par bleu, 134.        Physic, 233.          Property, 254.
Parchment, 215.       Pickle, 167.          Propinquity, 258.
Pardon, 262.          Picts, 209.           Proprietary, 259.
Parish, 219.          Pierrie, 276.         Propriety, 254.
Park, 219.            Piety, 253.           Protege, 285.
Parliament, 254.      Pike, 222.            Providence, 27, 241.




300                         INDEX.
Prudence, 241.       Reeve, 221.           Rubbish, 129.
Puerile, 246.        Reflect, 36.          Rubric, 103.
Pug, 157.            Refraining, 33.       Ruby, 103.
Pulmonary, 251.      Regal, 242.           Ruffian, 129.
Punctilious, 262.    Regard, 28.           Ruin, 37.
Punic faith, 212.    Regular, 186.         Rule the roost, 167.
Purgatory, 104.      Relish, 25.           Run amuck, 167.
Puritan, 130.        Reluctance, 41.       Rustic, 115, 241.
Puritan names, 223, Remorse, 192.
224.               Renaissance, 285.'S,' 159.
Rendez-vous, 104.    Sabbath, 279.
Quaker, 131.         Renown, 183.-         Safe, 252.
Quandary, 16, 145.    Reor, 22.            Safety, 252.
Quantity, 262.       Repugnance, 41.       Sage, 223.
Quarantine, 144.     Reputation, 183.      Sago, 280.
Quarrel, 45.         Resentment, 195.      Salaam, 108.
Queen, 120.          Resist, 262.          Salary, 85.
Quiddits, 147.       Respect, 28.          Sallust, 158.
Quidity, 147.        Respectable, 28.      Salutary, 248.
Quidnuncs, 147.      Restorateur, 104.     Salvation, 253.
Quillets, 167.       Revealed, 29.         Salve, 108.
Quixotic, 206.       Reverend, 47.         Salt, above and below
Quiz, 167.           RlIyming  to  death,   the, 143.
Quodlibets, 147.       151.                Sanctimonious, 196.
Quorums, 147.        Ribald, 204.          Sands, 219.
Rich, 167.           Sandwich, 203.'R,' 159.            Riff-raff, 169.       Sanguine, 247.
Racy, 25.            Right, 184.           Sanguinary, 248.
Radical, 98, 250.    Ritto, 185.           Sansculotte, 98.
Rage, 242.           Rival, 8, 90.         Sapience, 25.
Rajpoot, 214.        Robe, 43.             Sarcasm, 66.
Rank, 21.            Robert, 226.          Sardonic (laugh), 88
Rapport, 825.        Robustious, 196.      Saucy, 25.
Rapscallion, 130.    Rodomontade, 203.   Satire, 66.
Rascal, 16, 111.     Rogue, 131.           Saturnine, 61.
Rational, 250.       Roguish, 132.         Saunter, 15, 92.
Rationalism, 195.    Romance, 18.          Savage, 115.
Rattan, 280.         Rondeur, 276.         Savory, 25.
Ravenous, 150.       Rooke, 222.           Saxon, 208.
Real, 27, 250.       Rosary, 104.          Scamp, 130.
Recherche, 242.      Rosemary, 159.        Scandal, 34.
Recipe, 104.         Rosicrucian, 101.     Scape-grace, 129.
Rectitude, 186.      Rostrum, 170.         Scarlet, 279.
Red, 157.            Rou6, 129.            Sceptre, 43.
Redacteur, 285.      Roundheads, 131.      School, 93.
Redaction, 285.      Royal, 242.           Schooner, 279.
Reed, 222.           Rub-a-dub, 169.       Schuld, 178.




INDEX.                          301
Scruple, 33.          Sociology, 282.       Subtle, 8.
Scotland, 213.        Soft Shell, 131.      Suitable, 263.
Scots, 209.           Soiree, 285           Sun, 222.
Scoundrel, 8, 123.    Solar, 249.           Supercilious. 33.
Scurrility, 129.      Sole, 223.            Superfluity, 261.
Seance, 285.          Solidarity, 282.      Supernatural, 261
Sedate, 35.           Solomon, 206.         Supine, 35.
Seer, 29.             Sophist, 195.         Suppliance, 35.
Select, 242.          Sordid, 191.  Support, 242.
Senate, 82.           Sore, 191.            Supposition, 261.
Se'night, 249 (note).   Sorrow, 191.        Surloin, 105.
Sense, 23.            South, 219.           Surprise, 205.
Senses, to be out of, Sparrow-grass, 160.   Surd, 36.
22.                Specious, 262.         Surveyor, 262.
Sensible, 21.         Speculation, 27.      Suspense, 14.
Sensual, 23, 196.     Spell, 64.            Suspicion, 33.
Sensuous, 196.        Spencer, 203, 221.    Sustain, 261.
Septembrist, 98.      Spicy, 25.            Sweet, 222.
Serenade, 68.         Spinster, 83.         Sweet William, 59.
Serious, 15.          Spire, 219.           Swift, 222.
Sermon, 262.          Spleen, 106.          Sycophant, 8, 100.
Severe, 180.          Splendidious, 153.    Sylvan, 249.
Sexton, 227.          Spoil, 87.            Symmetrical, 261.
Shabby, 105.          Squire, 221.          Sympathy, 199.
Sheepishness, 149.    Staidness, 35.        Synagogue, 261.
Shepherd, 220.        Star, 222.
Shrew, 119.           Stationer, 227.       Tabernacle, 43.
Shrewd, 119 (note).   Staves-acre, 160.     Tact, 20.
Shrove-tide, 105.     Steele, 223.          Taboo, 279.
Siderial, 249.        Sterling, 215.        Tailor, 226.
Sign-manual, 91.      Sterne, 222.          Tale, 243.
Silly, 128.           Steward, 238.         Tandem, 174.
Sincere, 7.           Stickler, 124.        Tangible, 21.
Sinister, 34.         Stigma, 40.           Tantalize, 202.
Six, 223.             Stigmatize, 40.       Tariff, 215.
Skipper, 220.         Stiletto, 66.         Tartar, 212.
Slave, 209.           Stone, 223.           Taste, 20.
Slip-slop, 169.       Storm, 235.           Tasty, 251.
Sloop, 279.           Story, 194, 244.      Tawdry, 121.
Slubberdegullion, 130, Stout, 222.          Taylor, 220.
153.               Stratagem, 233         Tea, 279.
Small, 222.           Street, 219.          Teetotalism, 141.
Smeared, 258.         Strong, 222.         -Telegiam,  282.
Smell-feast, 130.     Study, 181.           Tell-tales, 193.
Smith, 220.           Stupendous, 40.       Tempest, 235.
Snob, 113.            Style, 66.            Ten, 44 (note).
Snow, 223.            Subjective, 279.      Terminus, 202.




302                          INDEX.
Terrestrial, 248.     Trick, 233.           Vulgar, 114.
Testy, 239.           True, 188.            Vulgate, 114.
Theory, 27.           Truth, 187.           Wanton, 11.
Thickskull, 130.      Tulip, 279.           Ware, 80.
Thought, 22.          Turban, 279.          Ware, 80.
Thoughtful, 239.      Turk, 211.            W arp, 22.
Throne, 43.           Turke, 214.87
Tiger, 149.           Tutor, 105.           Wealt, (note ).
Tin, 167.             Twice, 223.           Wet, 82.
Tip-top, 169.                               Webster, 220.
Tobacco, 279.         Umbrage, 33.          Wedding, 230.
To act, 99.           Umbilical, 251.       Welkin  2365.
To caper, 150.        Undine, 64.           Welkn, 8.
To care a fig, 143.    Uncouth, 81 (note).    Well,  27.
To cow, 150.          Upright, 186.         Welsh names, 225.
To cower, 150.        Usquebaugh, 168.      West, 219.
To crow, 149.         Usury, 194.           Whig, 130.
To  1urry favor, 168.hite, 22.
To gad, 149.          Vaccine, 251.         Whiten, 239.
To bark, 149.         Vagabond, 115.        Whiten, 222.
To play fox, 149.     Vagrant, 116.         Wifet,, 182.
To sow  one's wild Vale, 108.               Wig,   78.
Wilgwa, 279.
Toe, 223.             Valor, 179.           William, 226.
Toilet, 42.           Vandals, 212.         Witch, 101.
Tolerate, 242.        Vanity, 18, 190.      Witch, 101.
Toutine, 203.         Varlet, 113 (note).   Wizt, b1e.
Tornado, 235.         Vaunting, 190.        Wizomanlyrd, 101245.
Tort, 185 (note).    Very, 245.             Woodcock, 149.
Torto, 185 (note).   Viands, 44.            Worldly, 248.
Tortuous, 186.        Villain, 115.         Worship, 11, 19.
Tory, 130.            Virgil, 158.          Wrath, 242.
Tower, 219.           Virtu, 179.           Wretch, 117.
Tractable, 32, 35.    Virtue, 179.          Wrong 7, 185.
Traduce, 194.         Virtuoso, 278.
Transgression, 32,186 Visionary,21.         Yacht, 279.
Transient, 53.        Visual, 251.          Yankee, 279.
Travail, 101.         Vital, 247.           Yearning, 181.
Travel, 101.          Vitreous, 249.        Yeoman, 221.
Tree, 209, 223.       Vixen, 17, 120.
Trenchant, 262.       Volcano, 202.         Zero, 279.
Trencher-friend, 130.  Voluntary, 250.      Zoundsl 135.