The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-11-18
QUEER USE OF WORDS.
Instances of Where They
Have Entirely Departed
From Their origi-
nal Meaning.
A BIBLE ONCE MEANT A BOOK
The Rise and Fall of Words Ex-
emplified-How Shakespeare
Used "Music."
A BIBLE ONCE MEANT A BOOK

The word bible furnishes a striking in
stance of a woro's rise from very low to
high estate. says the National Reciel0.
To the bulk of Engllsh-speaking folk it
now means the book of books. In Chau-
GERS day 1t meant any book whatever, or
scroll, Tracing :the word bible straight
home, we find it but another name for
the papyrus reed of Egypt. Cancel1arius
is another word which has risen from
humble origin to high rank. Under the
early Roman emDerors IL meant simply
duorkeeper. By which oxen Gibbon
speaks of the wrath of the people of
Rome when the worthless Emperor Carl
nus set his lowborn cancsliarius to rule
over them. And nowadays the Lord
High Chancellor of England-though
shorne of some of the influence he WELD
ed in the days of Thurlow and Elden-
ranks rather higher than q mere door
keeper. Consul is O word which retains
scarce a shred OF its olden grandeur.
During their year of office Rome's eonsuls
ranked above kings. And Cieero's pride
In having filled this lofty post seems likely
to live forever in that luckless jingle of
his:
30 fortu natum patum, me consule Roman"
But now nearly every fourth-rate town
on the face of the globe can boast half a
GILGu COuS4lS u Sohth C4Rl I1OtGOs
s'Qaid feclg Ubi lapsnsl" might fit not
only this poor, degraded word. but the
name of Cicero himself, which. under the
thin disguise of gicerone, now decks every
eabhling guide. who hashes names. dates
aud the queens English, or whate Yer nay
chance to he his mother tongue, Patricius,
III its English shape patrician-unmangled
still keeps some OF its old dignity. But
10 quote Gibbon) 'the meanest subjects
of the Roman empire assumed the Illus
trious title Patricius, which, by the con
version of Ireland, has been commune
Gated to a whole nation" Gibbon-who
sometimes fails to make his meaning
clear-hsre means that freland's mission
AIRY. Sueeathus by name, received the
title Patricius, whence st. Patrick,
whence Pat.
VILLAINS.
See how ~villanus has sunk. At the
outset it meant the worthy hind who
titled the broad acres surrounding a
Roman squirrels country seat. Cor villa
another word which has gone down in
the world-eriginally indicated, not a
snug suburban dwelling, but demesneS
as well as mansien.) In the middle ages,
however, villanus-or Yllleln-eame to
mean a downtrodden tlller of The soil
who could scarcely call his soul
his own, and whose gross ill-treat-
ment bore its fruit-gross ill-conduct.
Hence the rank i'll odor in which
the once harmless word villain
now lies STEPPED. Note, too. how seRhist
has sunk. At its birth sophites-from
sophia, wisdom-meant a wise man, Had
it acquired a taint even when P~ytha2oras
eschewed tt as too arrogant! Or was it
sheer modesty Ghat led him TO coin for
himself the uppretending word philoso-
phos, lover ofEwisdomi Anyhow, sophist
has sunk sallow that it now denotes one
skilled ID the base art of making the
WORSE S5fppear the better reason: Hype=
.crita has shared the same fate of sophis6.
: Originally the sole and entirely honorable
sense of upokreies was actor on the stage