Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-01-09
SOME CURIOUS WORDS.



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-
tion by compounding different ele-
ments into one new vocable are very
interesting as a 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 unaccountabe origin, or
rather the utter absence OF systematic
origin, of some of the commonest
words. Thus, gas is a name that has
never been explained, beyond the mere
statement that it was invented by
Belgian chemist named Van Helmont.
Luesses have been made about what
suggested it to him, but he gave no in
formation as to its source, but merely
wrote in Latin: This vapor hitherto
unknown, | call by a new name, gas"
Caucus and teetotal are common
words without satisfactory eXplana-
tion, but with very interesting histor-
les.
Certain snakes are called adders. Is
it not Il 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 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 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 TO 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.
q
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,
mt 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 its
clements means Ito the heart" Real
agreement or harmony must have been
considered so sweet and so rare that
the only fitting name for it must con-
rain that of the. heart as the seat of
luman affection.
Caprice and capricious seem to arise
rom the fact that people could find no
letter comparison for certain actions
han 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 capcr is from
that Latin word.
Pilgrims were so called from a very
queer reason, and the word was made
in queer way. They walked 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 land.-Philadelph
Times.