Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-11
ODD FACTS iBOUT WORDS.
INTERESTING THINGS WHICH MAY BE
FOUND IN THE DICTIONARY.
Words which Have Lost Caste and
Which Have Come Up in
the World.

No one who has not tried it can appre-
ciate the fascination that attends a ramble
through the dictionary in search Of the
pedigrees of words. Such pursuit is apt
to lead the person engaged in it to jump
in seemingly desultory way from A to
lizard, and back again as different words
strike his fancy, but it is an occupation
that always arouses the liveliest interest.
1t is an occupation, too, that is always in
structive; for any one must acknowledge
the advantage of knowing such curious bits
of information as that divine" and devil
come from the same original root that
aclauseo and ''closet" and "close" had all
the same primary meaning that ''claret"
is really only clear wine, and that such
words as aloyap' and legal" dissimilar as
they are in meaning now, both came to us
from the same starting point, but with
this difference in their journeyings-that
one hurried over to US directly from the
Latin, while the other tarried on the way
in France.
The word "quandary" furnishes strik-
ing example of verbal derivation. 1t is
compounded of the French phrase az en-
dirai-je, and expresses very aptly the
thought of man in a dilemma Other
words that we have borrowed from the
French have equally entertaining his
tories. Qaelquescbose we have jnmbled
into "kiekshaws," and cur "gewgaws" rep
resent the joQrjou1 or playthings of former
French children. "Rotten row." the
famous London street, recalls Ia route du roi
(the kings passageway). Our 'dandelion"
is dent de leon (the lions tooth), and wine
gar" was uin diqrs (sour wine). Rediagote
is ''riding coat" borrowed by the French
| from our own language, and returned to us
in a new guise with the dressmaker's
stamp of approval. biscuit" keeps alive
the Latin bis coct1,s twice cooked, and a
verdict is simply gere dictum (true say
ing),
Some of our words have had sad fall
from their original high place. "Huzzy''
was once respectable housewife; 'knave'
was simply boy, the German Kna5e of to-
day, and 'caitif'' was in the first place
merely captive. A william" before the
stigma of disgrace was attached to him,
was the laborer on the villa of Roman
country gentleman, but like the Anglo
Saxon "boor," likewise a rustic laborer
originally, he has been dealt with harshly
by the hand of time. A "pagan" was a
countryman, too, and as he was dilatory
about embracing the new religion of Christ
| he gave the word its present meaning.
"Varlet" is the same word as "yalet," and
each is an ofshoot of the feudal ''vassal.n
| A like fall from grace has been the lot OF
| gossip" once denoting good tidings,
while "orchard" has risen a little from its
original designation of "root yard.n
Kings in the earliest days were merely
the fathers of families and the word is
derived from the same source as kin .
Queen at first meant ''wife" or "mother,"
and a survival of its early Specification
exists in 'quean," used now only in bad
sense An earl was an "eldern in the
primitive society, while Pope is the same
as papa" and Gar and Kaiser are both
"Caesars'' Lord is the Anglo-Saxon Hatord
(Ioof distributor). The Latin term for
''lord" (dominuS) has given us dominic,
the old term for preacher, and the same
root is found in dame and 'tame'
Madame is "my lady" and sir has been ex-
tracted from the Latin senior through the
French.
Our "currants" are the dimlnutivt
grapes of Corinth, in Greece. "Roamers
are people who go to Rome to see the
Pope, and "seunterers" was the appellation
bestowed on the religious enthusiasts who
made the pilgrimage to the Sainte telTe-
the Holy Land. A Country" dance is a
coatra (opposite) dance, and the frequently
mistaken etymology of this word calls to
mind the fact that "tuberose" has moth.
ing of the rose about it, being simply a
tuberous plant, while "slav" is not the
slave of the old etymologists, but in reality
a man of noble lineage. Similarly "slop'
shop has nothing to do with Stops, as some
amateur etymologists have asserted, but
means clothing shop, the word coming
from the Icelandic stopper, coat The
"slop chest" on board ship has the same
derivation. "Foolscap," too, is not SC
called from the existence on it of a water
mark resembling a FOOLS cap, as most PEG.
pie believe, but from the shape of the
folio. 1t is from the same root that we
get our word foliage" When a man saws
he does not care course" he means that
he does not care cress, the lingual meta
thesis here being similar to that which
makes 'sgooseberries' out of gorseberries
"ax" out of ask and "wapse" out of wasp
Some other novel curiosities of deriva-
ton are exemplifed in such words as
"tart," which is merely twist" Latin
tortus), such as we have in dis-tort and
"crullers" are really curriers'" "Claret'
and clear" "clarify" and de-"clare" have
all the same root in them. "Ghostlyn is
the same as "ghastly' and "vixen" is a
female fox. What boy means when he
speaks of "gob' Ii. e., mouthfuD is a
meaning that is found also in "gobble,'
"gabble" and "gibberish," all of which
have their source in the Gothic word for
mouth" The Glib" of ship and the
"gibbetn on which condemned murderer
dies, take their origin from word that
meant 1crossbeam.n "Firkin" and "far-
thing each denote a Fourth part" one
being the Fourth" of barrel and the
other of penny. "Licorice" is the giycoris
or Sweet root" of the Greeks, and "mum-
meries" perpetuates what the early Chris
tians regarded as the absurdities of sMa-
hometanism" "Thimble" is "thumb-belr'
and "nostril" is strictly "nose-drill.p A
paradise is "park," and we get the
| name from the Greek writers who en-
ployed it to describe the gardens surround
ing the palaces of Oriental kings.
| One group of words of more than ordi-
nary interest embraces terms like Scalyx"
and ''chalice," which, though derived from
the same original sources, have been diff
ferentiated in their meaning in modern
English. Calyx and chalice both describe
primarily 'cup," but one is the simple
cup of flower and the other the more
elaborate and ornate vessel of the church
One we have taken directly from its origi-
nal home; the othea passed through
France before it reached us and bears the
stamp of the Norman mint. Other words
that have had similar career are "beni-
SOM and "benediction," madison" and
''malediction," "major" and mayor" "ori-
SON. and "oration," "loyar and illegal"
"royaP' and "regal,p "privy" and apri-
vate." esteem and estimate" With