The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1900-11-23
GENESIS OF WORDS.
MANY COMMON ONES HAD PECu.
LIAR BEGINNINGS,
How Some Popular Phrases Came Into
the English Language-Many Came
From the Hunting Field-Origin of
the Term Bankrupt.


the English Language-Many Cam
From the Hunting Field-Origin o
the Term Bankrupt.
Words, like men, have histories, Will
Others embody history. To the latte
class belongs the word "rigmarole.
Everybody understands it as signifyin,
confused and meaningless tumble
but few recall the fact that it comes
from ragman's roll. Now, the ragman'i
roll was crown document Of no small
importance. 1t is a real roll of ancien
parchment and records categorically
the Instruments and deeds by which
Scotland's nobility and gentry gave IL
their adhesion and swore allegiance tC
Edward l. of England toward the close
OF the thirteenth century. Naturally
1t Is a somewhat confused document,
but possibly not quite so much con-
fused as confusing to the good people OF
Its own era.
1t must have been upsetting in those
days to discover that the lords and gen.
tlemen thought to be stanchest for the
old order had gone over to the invading
King. Yet there is something to be said
for the lords and gentlemen-they loved
not Scotland's independence less, but
their heads and their estates rather
more.
Most Of us are fond of venlson-that
Is to say, deer's flesh. Formerly how
ever, that word had wider meaning,
being used for any flesh bunted-that
Is, meat of venery. yenery is the old
word for hunting-thus foxes and
wolves and badgers furnish "venison"
no less than the lordly stag.
Cur, the synonym for worthless dog,
has somewhat the same derivation. In
feudal England the dogs of the villein-
age, no doubt mostly starving mon
grels, were by law required to be cur
tailed-that is, have their tails cut
short so that they might be readily dis
tinguished from the stag and boar
hounds of the lords and gentlemen. The
stag hounds ran true upon the scent,
the mongrels would confuse and draw
them off from it. Sometimes the vill
lein-dogs had likewise to suffer "hom-
bling"-that is, cutting away the two
middle toes from each foot, SO they
could not run with the hounds. A cur
tail-dog, or curtle-dog, in time became
simply cur. His owners, the villeins,
who lived In clustered novels outside
the castle walls, in like manner gave
rise to the word village.
Another wonderfully expressive |
run riot"-also comes from
the hunting field. Foxhounds run riot
when they leave the drag of the fox
and go racing and chasing off upon the
scent OF hares and rabbits, whose COM
pany the fox seeks when he finds HIM
self pursued. Indeed, in fox-hunting
parlance, hare scent is known as riot"
The familiar phrase ION the pad" as
signlfying going hither and yon, also
throws back to Reynard the fox. His
feet are known technically as pads
when he gets up and begins to move
about sportsmen say he is ION the pad"
Strange as 1t may seem, the word
'tallyhow In manner connects the
lunting field with the coach. Tallis
lors, pronounced tallyho = Norman
french for "out of the thicket'-was
he proper cry when the fox broke GOV.
#. The huntsman and the master of
he foxhouDds answered the cry with
ong blasts of the horn Then when
ubllc coaches began to run their horns
lew the tallyho blasts; further, as lux
ry progressed finer coaches often took
0 the meet, and the throwing off. fine
eople who did not intend to follow the
ounds, but to see them spectacularly Q
'etween use and luxury the coach with t
eats on top crystallized as the tallybo a
he tallyho 1t is likely to remain, unless !
u the world should go automobile mad U
Though the bankrupt is so common n
mong us nowadays few know whence n
e derived his unenvlabe cognomen "
Is among the most interesting of e
ords with histories. Lombards. mon. b
1-changers of Venice, sat on benches o
'u1d about the plaza of st. Marks h
anco is Italian for bench. When one p
the money changers defaulted the y
hers fell 10 and broke his bench in g
tie pieces. AfterWard he was kno,rr d
"banco-rupto'-that is, the man of p'
e broken bench. Hence comes our al
ord bankrupt. In
These are only a few examples, but A
ey serve to show how interesting is A
e study Of word histories. b,