Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 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-Orig1n OF
the Term Bankrupt.

Words, like men, have histories, while
others embody history. To the latter
class belongs the word "rlgmarole.
Every body understands it as signlfylnS
confused and meaningless JumDle'
but few recall the fact that 1t comes
from ragman's roll. Now, the ragman $
roll was crown document of no small
Importance. 1t is a real roll of ancient
parchment and records categorically
the instruments and deeds by when
Scotland's nobility and gentry gave IN
their adhesion and swore allegiance 10
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
it's 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 thers.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 venison-that
is to say, deer's flesh. Formerly, how
ever, that word had wider meaning,
being used for any flesh hunted-that
is, meat of venery. Venery 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 yillein-
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 vii
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 eurtle-dog, in time became
simply a 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
phrase-'to 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 "on the pad" as
| signifying 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 it may seem, the word
''tallyhow in a manner connects the
| hunting field with the coach. Tails
hors, pronounced tallyho : Norman
French for ''out. of the thicket''-was
the proper cry when the fox broke COW
err The huntsman and the master of
| the foxhouDds answered the cry with
long blasts of the horn. Then when
public coaches began to run their horns
blew the tallyho blasts; further as lux
! ury progressed finer coaches often teok
| to the meet, and the throwing off, fine
| people who did not intend to follow the
| hounds, but to see them spectacularly.
| Between use and luxury the coach with
seats on top crystallized as the tallyho.
The tallyho it is likely to remain, unless
all the world should go automobile mad.
Though the bankrupt is so common
among us nowadays, few know whence
he derived his unenviable cognomen.
| 1t is among the most interesting of
| words with histories. Lombards, mon
ey-changers of Venice. sat on benches
round about the plaza of st. Mark s.
Banco is Italian for bench. When one
Of the money-changers defaulted the
others fell to and broke his bench in
little pieces. Afterward he was known
as "banco-rhpto'-tha is, the man OF
the broken bench. Hence comes our
word bankrupt.
| These are only few examples, but
they serve to show how interesting is
| the study of word histories.
DON'T LIKE WOMEN.
| VI l.