The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-03-22

Most men, and women too, desire |
may come to base uses. st. Etheldreda's |
name became shortened to St. Audry,
from whence. comes the word tawdry,7
signifying cheap and gaudy. 1t is said
that the images of the saint were so
much Overdressed by her vOtaries, that
they thus uncOnsciOusly furnished the
English language with this very expires
sive term. And further endorsement
was given to the word by fairs held on
st. Etheldreda's day, at which articles
of female finery were sold. Another
sainted lady, who lived in the same cen
tuly, the Seventh, gives a! household
name to the cat. "Tabby" is said to
come from st. Able, Two towns in
Englandare named in her honor, Tabley,
but come from the corrupted name,
know, is st. Butolph's- town, shortened,
and there is in the American as we'll as
the English Boston, a street named
"Butolph," after the saint.
Among the most curious derivatiOns is
the Turkish name of COnstantinOplc,
Stamboul. The cOlloquial phrase among
the Greeks to designate the place was
I" els ten polin," "to the city, OF this
the Turks made "Istampol," and finally,
StambOul. In an effort to produce Eng
| lish words in Turkish character, a Turk
ish scholar could get no nearer to
"scOundreln than ascOnderel.' The
transformation in this case is as curious
as Stamboul, pronounced 1stambOul,
from els enpOlin. York, from the Latin
EbOracum, would seem to present at the
first glance little resemblance to the
original. The process of change in com
| CNO0nthI a fnIlnJyS
EbOracllm, Etrauc, EorfOrwic, EOrc,
York. This is almost equal to the deri-
vatiOn of the name of pickle from
jeremiah King, Jerry King, Jer. King,
girl1in. But cOllOquial changes are not
always to be despised. They mean his
tory. The common expression, "a game
Beg," for lame leg, would at first seem
to be making game of a misfortune. The
true word is "gam," old English, mean
ing defective. We have Cambridges in
great numbers in the United States, in
places where there is neither a river,
cam, nor bridge: Every machinest
knows that a "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, except
as in the case of old towns, showing
where the first settlers came from, like
Chester and others. There are many
NOttinghams, but those who date thei1
letters in those towns do it without con-
sciOusness 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 Not
tingham, in England, signified 8 the
home of the dWellers in caves;7 anC
antiquarian examinations have fOunC
traces OF the residences of these cave
dwellers. Such are few of the curious
transformations to which words an6
names were subject, while as yet people
were unable to read. The sound changed
the photography, and thus nearly every
trace of the original disappeared in tht
course of time. If the world were il
like condition now, with no printed
books and newspapers to preserve th'
correct spelling, wild work might b.
made even with prominent names. Eel
! del-fy would hardly be recognized b,
the founder, could he return. BaWlt
mer would he a puzzle to Lord Balti
more. Two other leading cities, whel
mentioned together, seem to have in tn
sound of their names, adistinctiOn as t,
age, namely-New York and NeWe
! ! Leans-though the latter loses a syllabl
= in the second word to the enrichment o
the first.