The Portland daily press., 1894-12-11
THE WORDS WE USE.
Where Some of Them Came Fror

\ were permitted to speak to visitors through
IA grating. Coterie comes from the Latin
| quot-how much, how many? Originally a
| coterie meant number of merchants who
| combined for particular venture OF
| speculation. each furnishing his quota of
| goods OIL money and receiving his qnota of
| profit. In our day it has come to mean a
| circle of particular friends, or a meeting for
| social or literary purposes. The origin of
| the stock exchange is given in the London
| Tines of July Is, l773-'' Yesterday the
brokers and others at New Jonathan's'
came to resolution that. instead of its be-
ing called New Jonathan's' it should be
called The Stock Exchange which is to
be wrote over the door. The brokers then
collected pence each. and chrlstened the
house with punch. Ogilyie tells us that the
common expression, "to cotton to one," is
United States talk. and signifies to take
liking 10 one literally ito stick to him as
cottonwood does to clothes"
The United States is held responsible for
the word bogus which said to be cor
ruption of the foreign name Borghese.
About the year 1873 an individual of this
name flooded the West and Southwest with
counterfeit bills on fictitious banks. The
name Borghese was soon cut down by his
victims to the shorter one of Bogus. Very
soon not only BoIghese bills but all others
of like character were called bogus curren-
Cyl In the time of King James /. the
word 'bombast" meant sort of padding
| of cotton and silk. that was used to stuff
| out the enormously large breeches that
| were then in fashion. Hence bombast in
our time means anything written or spoken
| in high sounding, inflated way. 1t seems
that there is fashion in diseases as we'll
as in clothes and furniture. In 1850 bron-
| chitis came to the front as the affection a
| la mode, Just as appendicitis has in the last
| two or three years. In December. 1901,
| John Leech published sketch entitled
s.Scenes from the last new fashionable dis
| ease, 'bronchitis,'
| The word quiz originated in a wager
made by Dublin theatrical manager that
a word unknown and conveying no mean
| ing should be on every body's tongue inside
| of twenty four hours. He Immediately
caused ''quiz'' to be posted chalked on
| all the walls of Dublin. He won the wager.
mind your P's and Q's is thought by
| some authorities to have come from the old
| custom of chalking up behind the doors of
| ale houses the amounts due from custom
1 ers, pints ard quarts being represented by
| the letter and @. Other authorities think
that the term originate in the printing
| Office, from the similarity o he ps and as
| in small Roman type, so the apprentice
| printer had frequently to b. tol to mind
his ps and qs.
| Mine days. wonder'' dates back to the
| reign of Lady Jane Grey as Queen of En-
gland, which lasted nine days
| The tyor,,a ofstapnins WAS ORIGINALLY nine
| pins But in the United States it was a
gambling game, and therefore in some
states prohibited By the law. 1t was an
easy.matter, however. for the devotees of the
game to add another pin. Under the name
of tenpins this had an UNINTERRUPTED career.
Hifalutin is thought to have originated
| in the western states. and at first meant
anything spoken in a hight1own, bombastic
manner.
| The beginning of the use of the terms
thigh church, and ''1ow church" dates bac k
| to Cromwells time. The people of the
fenny part of Cambridgshire were nearly all
dissenters. The old parish churches were
situated on the surrounding hills, and were
called by the dissenters the high churches,
| while their places of worship were IN turn
1 called 'low churches"
|
down. came from Druidical chant Hal
| down, in, deri danno, meaning Come let
| us hasten to the oaken grover" "Blac K
woods Magazine of July, 1878, says it has
| been SO traced.
| And the word magazine. as applied to
these monthly publications, is marked ex.
| ample of the way some things have
| wandered from their raison d'etre. Ed
/ irtp idao of
zine, to be periodically published. was that
| it should be receptacle for selections from
| the newspapers. which were to be received
as in a storehouse or magazine, and thus
redeemed fl ON the ephemeral destiny to
which the remaining matters OF the public
journals we're condemned.
Thus the earlier volumes of the Gentle
| mems Magazine which originated in 1881
are full of chronicles of homely and simple
| matters, which, not being recorded else
where, are now a mine of wealth to those
| fond of research. The word magazine is g
slightly altered form Of the Arabic magla
Yin. or storehouse. The term charlotte. sc
common in our cook books in conjunction
with russo. apple, ETC., is very ancient, re.
cipes for the compromising of the delieaciet
| being found as far back as 1880. The or
typography is signify Ciu eIeub aS IL Is tuert
| spelled charlotte. Dainty in its original sig
ni1icance was a venison pie. or pastry
from dame, the French for deer.
George Fox, the founder of the Friends
once admonished magistrate to tremble Al
the name of the Lord. The magistrate ap
piled the word ''Quakers' to Fox and hi
followers, and it survives to this day.
''To rain cats and dogs" is an expression
thus explained in ''Notes and Queries
The male blossoms of the willow tree. which
are used on Palm Sunday to represent the
branches of palm. called ''cats ant
Dogs in many parts of the country. They
| increase in size RAPIDLY after a few warn
April showers, and the belief formerly pre-
| vailed that the rain brought them. Hence
| the saying, ''to rain cats and dogs
| Cur means curtailed dog. from the old
| forest laws of England.
| That terror of childhood-the bogieman-
comes from the Scotch, meaning a pha n
tom. The word gas is from the GermaI
| geist-a ghost or spirit. Its introduction
| in this sense is due to DR.. Van Helmon
| of Belgium, who used the term for all the
| non-condensiole airs, but his first applica