The Charlotte Democrat., 1895-01-18
Origin of Common Words.
Familiar Expressions Derived From Unex-
pected Sources

was iaCoIy dSkeu Uy an amOlLlOu6
school girl to assist in her researches
into the original meaning of various
| words and terms, some of them in daily
use. 1t was interesting work-well cal
cuIated to repay investigation.
1t is curious fact that one word
parlor-originated in the French nun,
| neries. 1t came from the verb parlor to
speak. The parlor was the room in the
convent where the nuns were permitted
to see and speak to visitors through
grating. Coteries from the Latin quot
how much, how many. Originally a
| coterie meant number of merchants
who combined for some particular VEN
ture 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 meeting for social or liter
ary purposes. The origin of the Stock
Exchange is given in the London
"Times' of July Is, 1773-"Y esterday
| the brokers and others at "New JON
athan's came to a resolution, that in.
stead of it's being called New iona
| than's,' it should be called The Stock
| Exchange which is to be wrote over the
| door. The brokers then collected pence
| each, and christened the house with
punch" Ogilvie tells us that the COM
mon expression, "to cotton to one," is
United States talk, and signifies to take
| liking to one, literally "to stick to him
as cotton wool does to clothes"
The United States is neld responsible
for the word "bogus," which is said to
be corruption of the foreign name,
Borghese. About the year 1887 an in-
dividual 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 Borghese bills; but all others of like
character, were called "bogus currency"
In the time of King James 1. the word
| 'bombast" meant a Rort 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 a high>sounding, inflated
| way. 1t seems that there is fashion in
diseases as we'll as in clothes and furni>
ture. In 1850 bronchitis .came to the
front as the afiiction la mode, just as
appendicitis has in the last two or three
years. In December, 1851, John Leech
published a sketch entitled, "Scene from
| the Last New Fashionable Disease,
Bronchitis"
The word "quiz," originated in wager
| made by a Dublin theatrical manager,
that word unknown and conveying no
| meaning should be on everybody's
tongue inside of twenty>four hours. He
Immediately caused "quiz" to be posted
or chalked on all the walls of Dublin He
| won the wager.
"Mind your P's and Qs" 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 customers, pints and quarts being
| represented by the letters P and @. other
authorities think that the term origi,
mated in the printing Office, from the
similarity of the p's and qs in small Ro-
man type, so the apprentice printer had
frequently to be told mind his p's and
qs.
"Nine days wonder" dates back to
the reign of Lady Jane Grey as Queen of
England, which lasted just nine days.
The game of ten pins was originally
nine pins. But in the United States it
was gambling game, and therefore in
somes states prohibited by law. 1t was
an easy matter, however, for the de-
votees of the game to add another pin.
Under the name of tenpins it has had an
uninterrupted career.
Hifaluten was thought to have origi-
| mated in the western states, and at first
meant anything spoken in a high flown,
| bombastic manner.
The beginning of the use of the terms
"high church" and Glow church" that we
hear so frequently in these days, dates
back to Cromwell's time. The people of
the fenny part of Cambridgeshire were
nearly all dissenters. The old parish
| churches were situated on the surround,
ing hills, and were called by the dissent
ers the high churches, while their places
of worship were in turn called GLOW
| churches"
| Who would ever think that "Hey, der
ry>down" came from Druidical chant
Hal down in, deri danno, meaning
"Come, let us hasten to the oaken
grove ?" "Blackwood's Magazine" of
July, 1873, says it has been so traced
And the word magazine, as applied to
these monthly publications is a marked
example of the way some things have
wandered from their raison d'etre. Eds
wards says /: "The original idea of ma
gazine, to be periodically published, was
that it should be receptacle for selec-
tions from the newspapers, which were
to be received as in a storehouse or ma.
gazine, and thus redeemed from the
ephemeral destiny to which the remain
ing matters of the public journals were
/ condemned.
Thus the earlier volumes of the "Gen.
tlemen's Magazine" which originated in
1871, are full of chronicles of homely and
simple matters, which, not being recorded
elsewhere, are now a mine of wealth
to those fond of research. The word ma
gazine isa slightly altered form of the
Arabic magazine, or storehouse. The
term charlotte, so common in our cook
books in conjunction with russo, apple,
etc., is very ancient recipes for the CONS
pounding of these delicacies being found
as far back as 1880. The orthography
is slightly different, as it is there spelled
charlotte. Dainty in its original signii-
cance was a venison pie, or pastry, from
daine, the French for deer.
George Fox, the founder of the Friends.
l.,