The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-11-03
CURIOUS WORD DERivATIoNs.
Instances OF the Peculiar Meanings
of Mother Tongue.
From the Times-Herald.

Instances OF the Peculiar Meanings
of tho Mother Tongue.
From the Times Herald.
English as a written and spoken
language is derived from so many va
rying sources that 1t Is small wonder
If the meanings of number of its
words, even those among the more
usual, should be shrouded in doubt.
Which these are the man who has
never made a special study OF the
question would find certain difficulties
in ascertaining If he did not have ac-
cess to the books wherein the differ
ences of the doctors are set forth in
detail. Such a work is Hensleigh
Wedgwood's Some Disputed Etymo-
logies," and its contents are made up
of the words whereupon the respec-
tive dictionaries of Wedgwood and Of
Professor Skeat disagree.
Among these it is curious to note
that while breakfast has a perfectly
obvious significance, dinner and
luncheon are doubtful, not in what
they mean today, but in what they
meant, say, a thousand years ago.
Lunch, which is not a word in the
highest favor at the present time in
its meaning of a slight meal, or the
repast taken between breakfast and
dinner, is an ancient provincial term
for a lump, particularly of bread, and
hence of a simple meal. We use snack
now in the same sense, signifying what
can be snatched without any especial
preparation. This seems pretty well
settled, but a number of students of
language persist in deriving luncheon
with luncheon, which has the kindred
sense of the drink set forth, for work.
men and others, during the afternoon.
This, however, descends to us from the
Saxon scencan, to drink, which gave
rise to the word skinker, or one who
pours out drink. We have no term for
this at present, the German word kell-
ner, or cellarer, taking its place in
America to a certain extent.
DINNER.
Just what dinner denotes etymolog-
ically has never been found out There
is a French word disner, which used
to be applied to the first meal of the
day, that taken Immediately after go
ing to mass. which was done fasting.
This, it is conjectured, comes from the
same word as dejeuner or breakfast,
finding their common origin in the
Latin verb jejunare, to be hungry,
from which he have the modern word
jejune, or starved, generally used me-
taphorically. 1t is singular that the
French, who have, been so largely instru-
mental in teaching practically all the
other nations how to eat, should have
but a single root for the two most inn
portant meals of the day.
In this connection it may be re-
marked that scullery. the place where
dishes are washed and rinsed, comes
| from the same original source as scull
to row In a certain manner, or the
thing to be rowed with. tracing an
analogy with the Icelandic sSola, t.
wash, and with Morse skol, a splash
| ing or dashing, as the waves or heavy
rain. Pot, too. in the sense of going
to pot, has nothing to do with the cul.
mary utensil. or with that used by
| jewelers. to melt down metal, but Ii
| akin to pit, in the sense of the bottom.
less abyss, so that sending a person
to pot comes perilously near to actua
profanity of the most intense type.
IN GOOD REPUTE.
Many of the words we look upon a!
slang today have long and in mos
cases respectable lineage. Bully in the
sense of excellent, a term beloved o.
small boys, is in Shakespeare in eX
aCtly the sense in which they use i
now-"O sweet bully Bottom" "bullN
knight" and bully Sir John" beinl
examples. 1t seems to be the same al
the middle high German buole, broth
er, spouse, dear friend, or somethinl
greatly beloved. From this may b,
seen how, first as boon companions
next as those who drink in taverns
and then as those who dring and brawl
it came to mean, as a noun, those wht
are boisterously hectoring.
Cad, meaning a low fellow, one VIII,
excites contempt or disgust by hi
speech or actions, has no relation t
the Scotch word cadie or caddy, nov
being popularized with the game O
golf. This is nothing more or less thai
a boy, and is akin to the word cadet
Cad, on the other hand, is related t
the Lincolnshire word cad,which stand
simply for carrion, a cad crow bein
carrion crow. Analogies may b
found in the italian carogna, signify
ing both carrion and a jade; or tn
Dutch schelm, carcass or a pestilen
fellow.
Fiibuster, it is worth while remem
bering in the connection of the wor
with state and other legislature, is tn
same word as the older freebooter. Tn
earlier pirates who came to be know
as fihbusters We're in many cases Eng
lishmen, and these introduced tn
name freebooter. Later, when so man
recruits We're had from the Lati
races that the language used amOn
them was a confused Spanish an
French the word was corrupted int