Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-12-19
SOME CURIOUS WORDS.
The Origin of Seas" Unexplained and "Oa-
price" Relates to the Playful Goat.

The Origin of Seas" Unexplained and "Oa-
price" Relates to the Playful Goat.
One need not search far in the die
tionary to find curious words. Most
words have an interesting history as
to development and change of sense.
and the regular processes of forma-
ton by compromising different ele-
ments into one new vocable are very
interesting as study. If you desire
to know the English language well,
and to be able to express thought
clearly, you cannot afford to neglect
the study of etymology.
One of the most interesting discov-
cries made by the student of etymology
will be the unaccountable origin, or
rather the utter absence OF systematic
origin, of some of the commonest
words. Thus, gas is name that has
never been explained, beyond the mere
statement that it was invented by
Belgian chemist named Van Helmont.
Guesses have been made about what
suggested it to him, but he gave no in
formation as to it's source. but merely
wrote in Latin: ''This vapor hitherto
unknown, 1 call by new name, gas"
Caucus and teetotal are common
words without satisfactory eXplana.
ton, but with very interesting histor.
les.
Certain snakes are called adders. Is
it not a curious fact that the name ad.
der originated simply through erroneous
understanding of sound? The Anglo
Saxon word was naedre, and the Ger.
man is natter. Adder comes from mis-.
understanding madden as an adder,
and the Century dictionary says that
apron, anger, orange and umpire arose
through similar mistake.
Just opposite to this peculiar change
from madden to adder is that which
gives us the name newt for what used
to be an ewt.
A common saying is that surprised
person is taken aback. This is said to
have originated from some expression
used nautically, as in saying that sails
are taken aback when they are driven
by the winds back against the mast.
Probably it would be hard 10 prove that
either of the sayings had it's origin in
the other, but they both use the word
aback in its literal sense-backward
Aback and similar words disclose
curious fact in their etymology, name
ly, that the first syllable is merely
letter that stands for the original
Anglo-Saxon word on, which meant not
only what our present ION" means,
but also at, to, in, into, or almost any
thing of that kind, according to cir
cumstances.
Accord, concord and discord come
from what seems queer thing to sug
gest some words for the sense in
which they have always been used. In
each the second syllable is from the
Latin word for heart. Accord in it's
elements means "to the heart" Real
agreement or harmony must have been
considered so sweet and so rare that
the only fitting name for it must con-
tain that of the heart as the seat of
human affection.
Caprice and capricious seem to arise
from the fact that people could find no
better comparison for certain actions
than the capering of a goat. The ETY.
mology of these words that connects
them with the Latin word for goat is
questioned by the Century dictionary,
but there is no, doubt that caper is from
that Latin word. = N"1 '1ot SO
Pilgrims were 50 called from q very
queer reason, and the word was made.
in queer way. They vailed through
the land, and, as this was their promi-
nent characteristic, it suggested the
name for them, which is made from
the Latin words per, meaning through,
and ager, meaning laud.-Philadelphia
Times.
Superiority.