The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-02-12
READING THE UNABRIDGED.

Did you know, that one of the most
interesting books to read is the die
tionary? am not joking. Some time
when time hangs heavy take down the
big unabridged. lay it on the table and
ramble through its leaves.
For you will find in words more
surprise and romance and history
than in the latest "best seller" It is
not to be wondered at that some men
can devote their lives to philology and
that this study can grow into as abb
sorbing madness as chess or the
collecting of antiques or the solving
of riddles.
Let us ramble leisurely through the
pages of the big dictionary and see
what strange things we can find. Here
is the word generous" and we find
it originally meant well born"
"Geranium" is a Greek word, signi-
flying crane" and the Towering plant
gets it's name from the resemblance
of it's seed pod to a cranes bill.
Gas is taken from the German word
"geist," meaning ghost or spirit, just
as spirit" at first meant breath.
Among the F's I read the curious
fact that 'forestall" was originally to
waylay dealer and buy his goods be-
fore he reached his stall in the mar
ket; that fond" is from "fon," an
idiot, as used by Spencer, and once
meant weak, silly and foolish, and that
''fiorin" was so-called because this
coin came from Florence.
This latter word suggests looking
I'D some other terms derived from
Italian cities, and we find that "pis-
toll" comes from Pistoia, 'leghorn"
hat is named from the City of Leg
horn, and we have 'mantuamakers"
from Mantua.
How do we get our meaning of
failure into the Italian word "fasco,"
which means simply bottle or flask?
The process is curious. Venice is
noted for it's glass workers, who for
centuries have made all sorts of deli
cate things out of this substance. 1t
used to be their custom when they
spoiled fine piece of work to make
a bottle out of 1t; hence the term
''fiasco," signifying that what one is
doing is useless"
Let us give the leaves a flop for
fear this should look like study. We
land over in the HIS. The word "hus-
band" strikes our eye. He is the
"house bond" the one who holds the
household together. Let us look for
the names of the other members OF
the family. There is history and poe.
try in each one.
wife is she who "weaves" for the
house; ''son" is the cleaner,
daughter" is the mixer" and
such as the husbands or wife's sis
ter, who spins We can see the
primitive English family all at work
We glance along and come to the
word humble" and there is the
phrase humble pie" We've always
wondered how such a saying arose;
and now that we find it we find a Bit
of picturesque old time. For the wore
is properly tumble pie The "um
bles" of deer correspond to the glib
lets of goose. When the big venisor
pastries were made for the lord ant
lady and guests pies made of tn,
scraps and "umbles" were baked TO
the inferior folk, those that sat "be
low the SALT" or at the foot of tn,
table.
Over on another page we strike
word whose origin is about'as curiou
as any in the language, "pocket-hand
kerchief." The French "couvre chef
meant head covering, and from j
comes our word 'kerchief" BY pre-
fixing "hand" we get handkerchief,
as the head covering was carried Il
the hand. Then pocket" was adde,
to signify it was carried in the pocket
and now the head covering to b.
held in the hand and carried in tn
pocket" is not used for covering tn
head at all.