Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-04-21
ORIGIN OF WORDS.
Anecdotes and CuriOsities Of Ian
guage.

/ FaR.-SynOnym for autum is sup
! posed to have been derived from the
| fall of the leaf in that season perhaps
4 from the fall or decline of the year.
/ EdDlily.-From the Latin word fam
/ lila, which in Rome denoted the
slaves of the family; and slave was
original purport of the word. IT comes
/ from famulus, a servant, and fanu-s
lus from the old Osean farm famul, Of
/ the same import.
/ t0st.-This word is used in a curl
/ Ously contradictory manner. We say
a river is fast when it is frozen over,
and that the ice disappears very fast
when thaw is breaking it up rapid
". \ clock is said to be fast when il
keeps in advance of time. But
man is to hold fast when he is wanted
to stand still I; people fast when they
have nothing to eat, and eat fast, con-
sequentiy, when the opportunity Of
fers.
FebrltdTy.-Derived from the Latin
word febrCO, to purify by sacrifice
and OblatiOns. Ovid in his "Fasti,"
curious record Of Roman customs,
states that all objects which were
thought TO have the effect of moral
purgatiOn in the religious ceremoni-
ais of that people were called februO.
Ceremonials of this kind took place
at this season, and hence the name Of
the month.
Fee.--FrOm the feO, 'cattle-from
their use in transfers of property; or
from payments in cattle, which it
was once the custom TO make. Hence
1t became synonym, for money.
FeilOtC.- This word originally
meant companion, and is sometimes
used with that sense at this day. lt
Is retained in fellowship. In Eng
land it is used in degraded sense,
Implying low, mean person but in
the United States il has no particular
ly disparaging Specification.
FeRiGn.-Stephens, the late Presi-
dent or Head Center of the Fenian
organization, who escaped from Ire
land to tins country, and after some
very equivOeal acts, fed TO unknown
parts, or at least mysteriOusly disap-
peared, asserted that lis word was
from '.FeOniu,r which was from
Fionn MacCOmhal or McCool. an Irish
Chieftain, who commanded the Irish
militia or ancient Fepians. called
''E'ianna EriOn.n But q writer in the
Chicago Times, sometime since, says
that the term ''FeniaR, which, if
properly spelled should be Finian,
originates from Fiann, which means
in Irish, sportsman or huntsman.
Fiaeh is hunting, ard hence the term
kiann which is the Irish for Fenian.
They got this title as they were COM
PEELED to hunt and fish for a living
six months of the year, and it was
title that they prided in I'D tc their
last conflict, which was in GarristOwn.
near Dublin They got the privilege
of fishing in all the rivers in Ireland,
and Ofhunting throughout the length
and breadth of the land for their ser
vices in guarding Ireland from a for
eign foe"
FLAP Jdck.-This old word is
common term TO this day in England
for pan or gridle cake. Though it
would be laughed at in some sections
of the Union, and is nearly obsolete
in England, it is really of eonsideTa-
ble antiquity. 1t will be found in use
in Shakespear as follows
Come, thou shalt go home, and
We'll have flesh for holidays, fish for
fasting days, and more DER puddings
and flap jacks"
Mention is made of il in Smiths
Sea Grammer, 1927: For when a
man is i'll, or at the point of death. i
would know whether q dish of but
tered rice with little cyHamOn, gin
ger, and sugar, or rost beefe, a few
stewed prunes, a vace of greene gin
ger, a fiap-jaek, &C., be not better
than little pOOre John.n Stevens,
in a comment on this word, remarks
that in his day, in some counties, il
still signified an "apple-puffn But
it originally meant just such q cake
as Is applied TO now in the New Eng
land States. Its use at this day in a
portion of the United States, eOnsJi-
tutes another of the several remarka-
bic instances of the preservation of
words which have disappeared, or
nearly so, from their native locality,
Eitib1tsteTs or FLi6Ester.-From the
obsolete French word Fliebustiers. a
term by which the freebOOters of the
sea were some centuries since desig-
mated. In corrupted form and with
slight difference of application II
may now be considered as q restored
word, and for the present, at least,
liked in the language which has
adopted it.
F0rtRight.-COntraeted from four
teen nights-Our ancestors reckoning
time by nights and winters. We
have also 1sen-nfghts, or seven
nights for week.
Eriday.-FrOm the Saxon friydOey,
which is derivedfrom Frigga, the We
nus of the North, as the day so desig-
mated was eonsecrated to that goddess.
FFipPeTy.-This anciently meant
/ shop where old clothes were sold.
EiWerdL.-From the Latin word fu-
lale or funis, rope, cord, torch; as
Orches made Of cords were used in
)urials among the Romans.
Gd5.-FrOm the French word Ga
Der, which signifies sort of spSrt
among the French ehivalry, which
consisted in vying with each other in
making the most romantic gaseOn-
ldes. In Sir Walter SCOTS Talisnan
5 the following:t
Thou art one of the Knights OF
France who hold it for glee and past
iIne to CAB, as they term it, of ex-
,lOits beyond human power. y
Galr0aisns.-This word was formed
rom GSlvani, the name Of an Italian.
I ShO6rst instituted the experiments
which established the phenomenon. .
he was not the diseOverer.
Gas. From the German geist, ghost.
ipirit. Van HelmOt, a philosopher,
vino, in the pursuit of the Elixir of
Life discovered the spirits of harts-
lOrn, in his efforts TO raise a ghost,
aised something serial from spa-wa-
eF, which, mistaking for ghost, hr
20 named it, and hence came the word
'gas.n
G0zGtte.-FFOm the italian Gazette.
which is said to have been a Venetian
DIN ,aBd the price of the first news
,aper, for which, it is asserted BY
ONE, we are indebted to the Italians.
By Others, however, it is believed to
ONE from gazzera, a magpie OF. chat
erer. One etymOlogist derives il
rom the Latin gaia, which coll
EQUALLY lengthen into gazetta, sig
flying a little treasury of news
he Spanish derive il from a word
7hich signifies q treasury, riches.
iealth, etc
Gibr0lter.-FrOm Tarik, an Arabi-
II who landed there in 1872. A. d.
ienee Gibel Tarik, and by cOrrup-
ion the present word.
GiBlcrdck.-A toy or trifiing piece
mechanism. This word was orig
lally ''gimmal," in the Saxon, a
iece of jOinted work, where one
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