Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1895-11-26
CURE!
EME For Inebrcty and Morphueism. Old
HEs est and Best in the two Kansas Citys,
NE 7lO Wyandotte st.
MORE CURIOUS WORDS
That Have Come Into Use in Very Curious
Ways.
From the Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
one need not search far in the diction-
ary to find curious words Most words
have an interesting history as to de-
velopment and change of sense, and the
regular processes of formation by COM
pounding different elements into one
new voCablc are very interesting as
study. If you desire to know the En-
Elish language WELL and to be able to
express thought clearly you cannot af-
ford to neglect the study of etymology.
one of the most interesting discoveries
made by the students 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 eX-
planned, 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 information as to its
source, but merely wrote in Latin; This
vapor, hitherto unknown, l call by
new name, gas"
Caucus and teetotal are common words
without satisfactory explanation, but
with very interesting histories.
Certain snakes are called adders. Is 1t
not a curious fact that the name adder
originated simply through erroneous un-
derstanding of sound? The Anglo-SaXon
word was naedre, and the German Is
natter. Adder comes from mtsunder-
standing a nadder as an adder, and the
Century Dictionary says that apron,
anger. orange and umpire arose through
a similar mistake.
Just opposite to this peculiar change
from nadder to adder is that which gives
us the name newt for what used to be
an eWt.
A common saying is that n surprised
person is taken aback This is said TO
have originated from the same express
sion used nauucallW as in saving thar
sales are taken aback when they are
driven 10y the wind back against the
mast Probably it would be hard to
prove that either of the sayings had its
origin in the other, for they both use
the word aback in its literal SENSE
backward. Aback and similar words
disclose a curious fact in their etymol-
ogy, namely that the first syllable is
merely a letter that stands for the orig
inal Anglo-Saxon word on, which meant
not only what our present on means,
hut also at, TO- in, into, or almost any
thing OF that kind according to circum-
stances.
Accord, concord and discord come from
what seems n queer thing TO suggest
such words for the sense I'm which they
have always been used. In each the sec
ond syllable Is from the Latin word
for heart Accord i'm its elements means
"to the heart" Real agreement or har-
mouy must have been considered so
sweet and SO rare that the only hitting
name for II must contain that or 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 caperng of a goat, The ETY.
m5logy Of these words that connects
them with the Latin word for goat is
questioned by the Century Dictionary,
hut there is no doubt that caper is from
that Latin word
Pilgrims were so called for a very
queer reason, and the word was made
in a queer way. They walked through
the land, and. as this was their prom
inent characteristics, IL suggested tho
name for them, which is made from the
Latin words per, meaning through, and
ager, meaning land.