The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-26
HISTORIES OF WORDS.
Interesting Facts Concerning Their
Derivation.

FOUND II NNhAOA EAEdSess W nlch
Have Acquired Greater Strength
with Age.
From the Chicago Times.
was lately asked by an ambitious
bool girl TO assist her in her researches
MO the original meaning Of various words
and terms, some of them in daily use. It
was interesting work-weH calculated to
rspay investigation.
II is a curious fact that one workman
l8r-originated in the French nunneries.
II came from the verb parler. to speak.
The parlor was the room in the convent
where the nuns were permitted to see and
sneak to visitors through a grating. Co.
terie from the Latin puot-how much.
how many? Originally a coterie meant a
number of merchants. who combined. for
SOME particular venture or speculation
each furnishing his quota of goods or
money and receiving his quota 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 excha 1ge is given in the London
i Times Of July Is, 1773-'Y Yesterday the
brokers' and others at New Jonathan's'
/ came TO a resolution that instead of its be-
u- called New Jonathan's' it should be
called the Stock Exchange which is to be
wrote over the door. The brokers then
collected S pence each and christened the
house with punch" Ogilvie tells us that
is United States talk and signifies to take
j liking to one literally Ito stick to him as
| cotton wool does to clothes"
The United States is held responsible for
thu word bogus which is said to be
/ corruption of the foreign name of BOrghese
About the year 1887 an individual of this
4 name flooded the west and southwest with
/ counterfeit bills on fictitious banks The
/ name BOrghese was soon cut down by his
4 victims to the shorter one of Bogus
4 Very soon not only Borghese bills, but all
4 others of like character, were called DO
gus currency In the time of King James
the word "bombast meant a sort of pad
ding of cotton and silk, that was used to
stuff out the enormously large breeches
that were then in fashion. Hence bombast
4 tn our time meant anything written or
spoken i'm a high sounding inflated style
Il seems that there is a fashion in diseases
Il as well as IN clothes and furniture. In
1850 bronchitis came to the front as the
affection Ia mode, just as appendicitis
has IN the last two or three years. In Dec.
i $50. John LeeCh published a sketch enti-
tied Scenes from the last new fashionable
disease, bronchitis. "
The word "quis" originated in a wager
made by Dublin theatrical manager
that a word unknown and conveying no
n meaning should be on everybody's tongue
inside OF tWenty-four hours. He immedi-
ately caused quiz" TO be posted or chalked
on all the walls of Dublin. He won the
4 wager.
4 Mind your P's and O's is thought by
some authorities to have come from the
Old customs of chalking up behind the
doors of alehOuses the amounts due from
customers pints and quarts being repre-
. sented by the letters and Q. Other au-
Il thouties think that the term originated
u n printing office, from the similarity of
81 the PTS and as in small Roman type so
4 lhe apprentice printer had frequently to
be- told to mind his p's and q's.'
"A Nine days wonder dates back to the
81 reign of Lady Jane Grey as queen of Eng
land. which lasted just nine days.
The game of ten pins was originally
nine pins. But in the United States it was
-anhling game and therefore in some
states prohibited by law. 1t was an easy
natter, however, for the devotees of the
game to add another pin. Under the name
Of ten pins it has had an uninterrupted
Halutin is thought to have originated
"a IN The western states, and at first meant
anything spoken in high-hown bonn
5astic manner.
The beginning of the use of the terms
high church and low church that we
hear so frequently in these days, dates
ack to CrOmwelis time. The people of
be fenny part of Cambridgeshire were
nearly all dissenters. The old parish
hurches We're situated on the surround
ng hills, and were called by the dissenters
Die high churches, while their places of
Worship We're in turn called the low
XChuches"
Who would ever think that they derry
down came from a Druidical chant. Hal
81 own, ir deri dannO-meaning, come, let
hasten to the oalSen grove" Black
woods Magazine of July, 1878, says it has
zen so traced.
And the word magazine, as applied to
hese monthly publications, is a marked
Nample of the way some things have
wandered from their raison d'etre. Ed
yards says: The original idea of mag
zne, to be periodically published, was
Pat it should be a receptacle for selec-
ions from the newspapers, which were to
received as in storehouse or maya
Pine. and thus redeemed from the ephem-
ral destiny to which the remaining mat
ers Of the public journals were con-
emned.
Thus the earlier volumes of the Gentle
pan S Magazine. which originated in 1871,
re fun of chronicles of homely and simple
2latters which not being recorded else
"a here are now a mine of wealth to those
ond of research. The word magazine is a
#iehtly altered form of the Arabic mag
azln, or stOrehouse. The term of char
otte, so common in our cook books in con-
hetn with russo, apple, etc, is very an
ent. recipes for the compromising of these
hcacies being found as far back as 1880.
he photography is slightly different as
is there spelled charlotte. Dainty, in its
~ lSlnal significance, was a Vens1on pie,
"a pastry, from dame, the French for
George Fox, the founder of the Friends,
ence admonshed a magistrate to tremble
I'd The name of the Lord. The magistrate
Applied the word "Quakers'' to Fox and
Is followers, and it survives to this day.
To rain cats and dogs is an expression
81 us explained in Notes and Queries:
ne male blossoms of the willow tree,
hich are used on Palm Sunday to rep
Hsent the branches of palm, are called
pats and dogs in many parts of the coun-
+. They increase in size rapidly after q
kw warm April showers, and the belief
# rmerly prevailed that the rain brought
Penn. Hence the saying to rain cats and
#bgs'
Cur means a curtailed dog, from the old
.rest laws of England, obliging all sports
Ren to cut tails short
That terror of childhood-the bogy man
ONES from the Scottish, meaning a
antom The word gas is from the Ger
an geist-a ghost of spirit. Its intro
Mction in this sense is due to DR.. Van
mont of Belgium, who used the term
Il all the noncondensible airs but his first
81 ilication was to what he called the gas
water"
may be a comfort to learn that don't
r. damn" is by no means a profane
~ .etive. The damn meant here is a
AL coin current in India. Another COM
expression, mot a silver" comes
m a Dutch coin OF the value of l penny.
ere are also English stivers for circu-
~ on in British Guiana.
he name of Etienne de Silhoutte,