Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1870-01-06
The Origin of Words.

| Words have natural, and derived
or secondary, meaning; and often sew.
.ral meanings, each further from the
natura! meaning than the preceding,
until, finally, the true literal meanin .
OF the word is entirely lost.
One OF the most amusing and IN
structive recreations may be found in
tracing words to their origin, and learn
ing how they came to mean wha: they
do. OF course there is scarcely any
limit to the number of examples that
might be given. But in order that
the pursuit shall be permanently inter
csting, the reader must Lave some idea
OF a few fundamental principles of the
language. No great amount of lin.
guistic knowledge is necessary tor this
Nearly all the words have natural
meaning, derived from the meaning of
the letters that compose it. Those few
that have entirely lost their literal
meaning may be treated rs curiosities
Such are the following:
Mcandcr-From the river Meander,
in Phrygia, which is noted for its wind
ing course.
Millinery-Art,cles So called because
first imported from Milan.
Mesmerisn-From Mcsmer, Ger.
man physician, who originated the
theory OF animal magnetism.
Tan,alize-From Tan talus, = king
of ancient LYDIA, punished, according
to Roman mythology, 10y perpetual
hunger and thirst, though boughs Ia,
dencd with delicious fruit hung over
his head and he stood in water up to
his chin Beth the fruit and water re-
cedcd from his lips when he attempted
! 10 taste them.
Bayone,-From Bayonne, the name
of the city where they were first made
Academy-From Acadcmus, pub
lie grove where Plato taught. The
grove is said to have been named after
a man OF that name who gave it to the
people of Athens as place Tor gym
nastic exercises.
Hurrah-This word is said to have
originated among the Eastern nations,
where it was used rs a war cry. They
believed that every man who died in
battle for his country went to heaven.
It is derived from the Sclavonic word
"Hurrah," which means "To Paradise y
Other words have proper signitica-
ton derived from somo foreign Ian
guage, as
Maxim-From the Latin word "max.
imum" signitylng the greatest" 4
maxim is something of the greatest i'm
portance-worth remcm bering.
Malta measure.) The distance
from the second joint Of the finger to
the end of the nail.
Nails--(Sx-penny, eight ht-pcnny, ten
penny, etc.) At Sheffield, England,
where immense quantities of nails were
made, it was formerly the custom to
sell 100 of one kind for four-pcncc,
another for slx-pcnce, etc.
Another class, like the last example,
were recently expressive in our own
language, but have become less so by
change OF custom.
Mold Board-The part OF the plow
which turns the mold OF earth was
formerly made of board.
Ink horn, powder horn, shoeing
horn, ctc.-So called from the fact that
these articles were formerly made of
horn.
Landscape-Lanlsl,apc.
But the word News does not appear
to come under any law OF language
Sons suppose this to be composed Of
the initial letters OF North, East, West
and South We find tae following
lines in "Witt's Recreation first pub
lished in l640:
"Whcn News doth come, il any would discuss
The Letter Of the word, resolve it thus:
News is conveyed BY letter, word or mouth.
And comes from North, East, West or South