The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1881-04-09
For the Democratic Adrocafe.
Selected RtymolOgies.

To use words with precision and accu-
racy We should know their history as we'll
as their present meaning, and some of our
most common words have histories as sur
prising as they are interesting. Mythology
serves not only to ornament our literature
with its 6etions, but is a source from which
many of the words now incorporated in
the English vocabulary have been taken
Let US note few of these.
Iu mythology, there was once nymph,
condemned by Juno to repeat the last syl-
liable of all she should hear said. She law
ished her affection upon the youth Mar
cissus, and in her love for him she pined
away to sound, and still haunts the rocks
and solitary caverns. Her name was
Echo, so we apply that name to reflected
sound
Then, there was the youth, Phaeton
who having obtained permission from his
father, Phoebus, to guide the chariot of the
Sun, conducted it so skillfully that Jupiter
struck him with thunderbolt aud hurled
him in the river Po. Thus poor Pha-
eton caa.e to grief but his memory is per-
petuated in the vehicle which bears his
name.
Tantalus, for some crime, was placed in
lake. He stood burning with thirst but
was not permitted to touch the water.
He was ravenous from hunger but when
ever he extended his hand to grasp the
luscious fruit by which he was surround
ed; it was whirled into obscurity. When
one is now subject to any similar torment,
is it wonder that we call it tantaLized?
So, many words as Cyclopean, Hercula-
mean, Hymeneal aud the like, may be
traced, but they are not yet sufficiently
auglicized to drop their capitals,
Then, too, history furnishes many valu-
able words in the names of its characters
and places. Thus, Mausoleus was once
the King of Cairo; upon his death his
widow erscted him gorgeous tomb, and
since then the name Mausoleum has been
applied to all large tombs.
Our word academy was acquired by the
simple fact that Plato taught in the grove
of Academus.
Mentor, a wise old Greek, was celebra-
ted in giving kindly advice aud direction,
and fiom him we have Monitor.
An old shop keeper in Milan, Italy, was
called Milaner, as she generally supplied
the ladies', we have come to have milliner
Worsted and muslin are from Worstead
and Moussul, respectively, the towns where
they were extensively manufactured. Bay
onets were first used at an assault upon
the city of Bayonne in 1868, hence it is
easy to see why they are so called.
At the southern point Of Spain is a
promontory called now, as it was in the
times of Moorish Nominations, "Tarifa -
Ii was the custom of the Moors to watch
from this point all merchant-ships, going
into or coming out of the mediterranean
sea; aud issuing from this stronghold, to
levy duties according to a fixed scale on
all goods passing in aud out the STARTS, and
this was called "tarifa" or tariff, and in this
way we have acquired the word.
A companion of Romulus named Celer,
driven by fear fed rapidly into Tuscany.
To see one running swiftly now so reminds
US of Celer, that We say he is running with
eelerity.
Galvanism and guillotiue are both called
for their inventors Galvani and Guillatin.
the former French chemist the latter a
French physician.
Lycurgus introduced among his coun-
trymen a concise and pithy style of speak
ing Since the Spartan brevity has become
proverbial, and we now term skort and
forcible observation laconio, from LacOnia
province in Sparta. Attic, meaning
classical or pure, is similarly derived from
| Attica 10 Greece. W. r. Med.