The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-09-14
ANTECEDENTs OF
SOME WORDS

fOfelSn WOfQS nave OFTEN peeH
roughly handled In India, for example,
a certain kind of large orange is called
"a "pimple-nose.,' This is the Tamil
''bambuilmas'' "Jerked beef is not
Peruvian word ''charqui." A conn
pound'-the Enclosure round a bunga-
LOWS the Malayan "kampung" Cat
sup is the Chinese "kwaitchap."
Many folk etymoIogie are amusing.
We talk of Jerusalem artichokes.
Jerusalem has nothing TO do with the
vegetable at all. The name comes from
the italian "girasole," the flower which
turns with the sun. Nor do Jordan al
monds come from the banks of that
famous stream. Jordan is simply jar
din; Jordan almond is merely COM
mon or garden almond. Hawthorn is
not the thorn which bears haws; it is
the Old English hsga-thorn, or hedge
thorn. Pennyroyal is pulial royal,
from pulegium regium, or a feabane.
A good dialect name for the bat is
airy-mouse, or hairy mouse. These
are both corruptions of the Old English
hrere-mus, i. e., hying-mouse. The
name Neddy for donkey or simple
ton has no connection with Edward. 1t
is IAN eddy" the Old English ''edd!"
or "eadig," meaning innocent, and,
therefore, by implication easily impos-
ed upon.
The aisle of a church has no right
to it's fantastic spelling. The IS has
been thrust in on the mistaken idea
that it was connected with "sle'' or
island" 1t is really ala a wing.
When people talk of the middle aisle,
they further confuse it with the French
ale. Frontispiece should be fronti-
spiece. The last syllable is from the
Latin "spicio,'' and has nothing to do
with piece Choke-fu1l does not real
Iy suggest choking, but The chock or
chuck, which was the Saxon for throat.
Outrage has nothing to do with rage.
1t is not outrage, but outrage, the
root idea being excess (F'rench outre),
not passion. Jaunty is gently. e.,
genteel Gingerly is the same in the
comparative degree. A dressing-down
is a threshing- down. A boy who is up
to larks is boy who lakes or plays.
'Laking" for holiday-makingi still the
usual word in Yorkshire or Lancashire.
If you call maiden "a bonny Bird
the bird really means bride. The cpl
tibet rusty, for cross, has nothing to
''resty," applied to a horse, and mean
ing stubborn. Rusty bacon is reasty
bacon. That is to say, it has stood
too long. (French reste.) A rakehen,
or rake, is not a man who acts as
stpker for Satan, but in Old English
rakel-i. e., rash and riotous.
Argosy has nothing to do with Ja-
sons ship the Argo. but comes from
Ragosil a vessel of Ragusa. The
Black Art is wrongly named. 1t obvi-
ously obtained it's color-adiective from
negromancie. But the Low Latin neg
romantic was itself a corruption of the
Greek nekromanteia. Divination through
the dead was the idea. The idea Of
blackness was a delusion. Even a bel
fry is not connected with bells. A
housemaid's "glory-hole," or cupboard,
connotes anything but glory. 1t really
means a dirty hole; glaur is still used
in many localities for dirt, and glorgie
is good Scotch for muddy.
The castle in chess owes its shape
and name to a misunderstanding of its
old italian name rocco as if it were
''rocca," a castle or fortress. The
words rocco, rock and roc (French)
come from rohk, the old Persian name
of the piece, which was in the shape
of an elephant. Curiously enough. the
elephant carried a little castle on his
back. and the position of the piece on
the board seemed suitable for a castle.
A buttery is not place where they
keep butter. but a boterie or butt-ery,
i. e., place for storing butts or casks.
London Telegraph.