Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1873-04-10
ORIGIN OF WORDS.
Very Curious and Interesting
Record Worth Preserving


Most men, and women too, desire
fame. or notoriety. Yet great name
may come to base uses. Yet st. Eth
eldreda's name became shortened to
st. Audrey, from whence comes the
word "tawdry," signifying cheap and
gaudy. 1t is said that the images OF
the saint were so much overdressed by
her votaries, that they thus uncon-
sciously furnished the English Ian
guage with this very expressive term.
And further endorsement was given
to the word by fairs held on st. Ethel
dreda's Day, at which articles of female
finery were sold. Another sainted lady
who lived in the same century, the
Seventh, gives a household name to
the cat. 'Tabby" is said to come from
ST. Able. Two towns in England are
named in her honor, Ta5ley, but come
from the corrupted name, "Tab."
'sBoston," as some few people know,
is st. Butolph's-town, shortened, and
there is in the American as well as the
English Boston, a street named "Bu-
tolph," after the saint.
Among the most curious derivations
is the Turkish name of Constantinople,
Starnboul. The colloquial phrase
among the Greeks to designate the
place was "eis ten polin," ''to the
city," OF this the Turks made "Istam-
nol," and finally Stamboul. In an eff
fort to produce English words in Turk
ish characters, Turkish scholar could
get no nearer to "scoundrel" than
"Aseonderel." The transformation in
this case is as curious as Stamboul pro-
nounced Istamboul, from els ten polin.
York, from the Latin Emboracnm,
would seem to present at the first
glance little resemblance to its original.
The process of change in common use
was something as follows: Eboracum,
Etrauc, Eorforwic, Eore, York. This
is almost equal to the derivation of the
name of a pickle from jeremiah King
Jerry King, Jer. King, gerkin. But
colloquial changes are not always to be
despised. They mean history. The
common expression "a game Leg" for
lame leg, would at first seem to be
making game for misfortune. The
true word is "gam," old English,
meaning detectives. We have Cam.
bridges in great numbers in the United
States, in places where there is neither
Q river, cam, nor bridge. Every ma
chinist knows that "cam" is the
name given to piece of machinery
which causes an eccentric motion. The
river Cam is a crooked river.
Names of places in this country are
meaningless in their application, ex-
cept as In the case old towns, showing
where the first settlers came from, like
Chester and others. There are many
Nottinghams, but those who date their
letters in those towns do it without
consciousness that they are noting the
fact that the respected ancestors OF
some of us were troglodytes, and lived
in caves. Snotincgaham, the original
name of Nottingham in England, sig
nifies the "home of the dwellers in
caves" and antiquarian examinations
have found traces of the residences OF
the curious transformations to which
words and names were subject, while
as yet people were unable to read.
The sound changed the orthography,
and thus nearly every trace of the orig
inal disappeared in the course of time.
If the world were in like condition
now, with no printed books and news
papers to preserve the correct spelling,
wild work might be made even with
prominent names. Fel-del-fy would
hardly be recognized by the founder,
could he return. Balt-mer would be a
puzzle to Lord Baltimore. Two other
leading cities, when mentioned togeth-
er, seem to have in the sound of their
names distinction as tOage, namely
New York and Newer Leans-though
the latter loses syllable in the second
word to the enrichment of tho first.