The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-04-10
Our &ops ano Girls.
Our Study Of Words.

sentences of ten words or more which
should contain no Saxon words. Here
is the one by "V.": " Accept trouble
patiently; pass insolence unnoticed,
unrevenged; accord sympathy cheer
fully" 1t is true this sentence was not
so difficult to frame as those where only
a single verb was used, and some
whose sentences were of the latter
kind have remarked concerning them
that they had but little sense. But we
quite agree with the wise little maiden
of our club who says, We can't ex
pect much sense when we don't use
Saxon"
AS to the proportion of words of
Anglo-SaXon origin in the first three
verses of the twenty-third Psalm, there
are as many ways of stating the answer
as there are answers; but they all agree
essentially with this statement, which
is also by "V.": " Counting no word
twice, there are thirty-one different
words, and twenty-nine are of Anglo
Saxon origin, making the proportion
twenty nine thirty-frsts."
One answer expresses doubt about
"in," "name " and righteousness. :"
The first two of these, and also
"right," are examples of large
class which have the same or similar
words in Latin, and yet are Anglo
Saxon. This is because the words in
their original form were common to
several branches of the Aryan speech.
There is something interesting in the
word righteousness The Anglo
Saxon word is rihtWiSneSS; from riht,
which is allied to, but not derived from,
the Latin rectuS, meaning right, and
t0iS, wise. Hence the original meaning
of righteous was wise in the right, or
having the right wisdom. AS to these
three verses, we would say that they
are but fair illustration of those por-
tions of the Bible which have always
come nearest to the heart of English
speaking people. In word history we
give the following from" Cloverpatch":
Sincere is thought to come from the
Latin sine, without, and cerd, wax. 1t
originally referred to the purity of
strained honey, and afterwards, with its
root idea of purity, it was transferred
to other objects. Trivial is from tres,
three, and ria, way The idle gossip
of the day was carried on by the groups
on the tririun,, or place where three
roads met, and the word, with slight
change in its ending, came to mean any
thing of light character. Iribuldtion
is from the Latin word tribulum, a drag
or roller for thrashing grain, and tribu-
latio was this act of separation and was
so used by the classical writers. But
some later Christian author appro-
priated the word and its image and APP
piled it to sorrow and distress, as be-
ing metaphorically the thrashing instru-
ments of spiritual life, separating the
light and worthless from the solid and
valuable. The American word "cau-
Gus" reveals in its origin bit of his
tory not generally known. 1t is a cor
ruption of the word calkers," and
came into existence about the time of
the revolution. 1t seems that in ITO
there was fight in Boston between
some British soldiers and a number of
ropemakers, in which several of the
latter were killed. This caused great
excitement and led to the formation of
society of rope-makers and calkers
(whOse occupations were allied) for the
purpose of debates and discussions on
the subject of the relations with the
mother country. The society was of
most Extensively partisan type, as the
phrase now is, and was held in great
contempt by the Tories, who called it the
calkers' meeting, which was afterwards
corrupted to "caucus."
We regret that we can mention only
very few of the many interesting
words whose history has been sent us
by members of the Hill Country Club,
but we are glad to have received so
many, because it shows the interest
that has been awakened in word-study.
This is the best preparation for the
study of English literature, and can be
carried on by ones self to any extent,
if one is interested in it. 1t has been
said that Gin the history of single
words sometimes more knowledge of
more value may be conveyed than by
the history of a campaign" One of
the words in the list sent by NJ. r. d. d.
illustrates this: "' Curfew is from the
French coucre fen, cover fire. In the
days of William the Conqueror, when
the curfew tolled the knell of parting
day., at eight O'Clock they raked up and
covered their fires and went to bed"
"They" doesn't mean all the people,
but the conquered Saxons, and they
didn't cover their fires and 90 to bed
because they wanted to, but because
their Norman conqueror said they must.
The Norman lords wanted to keep them
in subsection, so they not only made
them work hard through the day, but
would not let them have opportunity in