CHAPTER XI
HOMONYMS
Modern English contains some six or seven hundred pairs or sets of homonyms, _i.e._, of words identical in sound and spelling but differing in meaning and origin. The _New English Dictionary_ recognises provisionally nine separate nouns _rack_. The subject is a difficult one to deal with, because one word sometimes develops such apparently different meanings that the original identity becomes obscured, and even, as we have seen in the case of _flour_ and _mettle_ (p. 144), a difference of spelling may result. When Denys of Burgundy said to the physician--
"Go to! He was no fool who first called you _leeches_." (_Cloister and Hearth_, Ch. 26.)
he was unaware that both _leeches_ represent Anglo-Sax. _laece_, healer. On the other hand, a resemblance of form may bring about a contamination of meaning. The verb to _gloss_, or _gloze_, means simply to explain or translate, from Greco-Lat. _glossa_, tongue; but, under the influence of the unrelated _gloss_, superficial lustre, it has acquired the sense of specious interpretation.
That part of a helmet called the _beaver_--
"I saw young Harry, with his _beaver_ on, His cuisses on his thigh, gallantly arm'd, Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury." (1 _Henry IV._, iv. 1.)
has, of course, no connection with the animal whose fur has been used for some centuries for expensive hats. It comes from Old Fr. _baviere_, a child's bib, now replaced by _bavette_, from _baver_, to slobber.
It may be noted _en passant_ that many of the revived medieval words which sound so picturesque in Scott are of very prosaic origin. Thus the _basnet_--
"My _basnet_ to a prentice cap, Lord Surrey's o'er the Till." (_Marmion_, vi. 21.)
or close-fitting steel cap worn under the ornamental helmet, is Fr. _bassinet_, a little basin. It was also called a _kettle hat_, or _pot_. Another obsolete name given to a steel cap was a privy _pallet_, from Fr. _palette_, a barber's bowl, a "helmet of Mambrino." To a brilliant living monarch we owe the phrase "mailed fist," a translation of Ger. _gepanzerte Faust_. _Panzer_, a cuirass, is etymologically a _pauncher_, or defence for the paunch. We may compare an article of female apparel, which took its name from a more polite name for this part of the anatomy, and which Shakespeare uses even in the sense of _Panzer_. Imogen, taking the papers from her bosom, says--
"What is here? The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus, All turn'd to heresy? Away, away, Corrupters of my faith! You shall no more Be _stomachers_ to my heart." (_Cymbeline_, iii. 4.)
[Page Heading: COMPOUND--CHASE]
Sometimes homonyms seem to be due to the lowest type of folk-etymology, the instinct for making an unfamiliar word "look like something" (see p. 128, _n._). To this instinct we owe the nautical _companion_ (p. 165). _Trepan_, for _trapan_, to entrap, cannot have been confused with the surgical _trepan_ (p. 109), although it has been assimilated to it. The _compound_ in which the victims of "Chinese slavery" languished is the Malay _kampong_, an enclosure.
The scent called _bergamot_ takes its name from _Bergamo_, in Italy, whence also Shakespeare's _bergomask_ dance--
"Will it please you to see the epilogue, or hear a _Bergomask_ dance between two of our company?" (_Midsummer Night's Dream_, v. 1.)
but the _bergamot_ pear is derived from Turkish _beg armudi_, prince's pear. With _beg_, prince, cf. _bey_ and _begum_. The _burden_ of a song is from Fr. _bourdon_, "a drone, or dorre-bee; also, the humming, or buzzing, of bees; also, the drone of a bag-pipe" (Cotgrave). It is of doubtful origin, but is not related to _burden_, a load, which is connected with the verb to _bear_.
To _cashier_, _i.e._, break, a soldier, is from Du. _casseeren_, which is borrowed from Fr. _casser_, to break, Lat. _quassare_, frequentative of _quatere_, to shatter. In the 16th and 17th centuries we also find _cass_ and _cash_, which come immediately from French, and are thus doublets of _quash_. Cotgrave has _casser_, "to _casse_, _cassere_, discharge." The past participle of the obsolete verb to _cass_ is still in military use--
"But the colonel said he must go, and he (the drum horse) was _cast_ in due form and replaced by a washy, bay beast, as ugly as a mule." (KIPLING, _The Rout of the White Hussars_.)
The other _cashier_ is of Italian origin. He takes charge of the _cash_, which formerly meant "counting-house," and earlier still "safe," from Ital. _cassa_, "a merchant's _cashe_, or counter" (Florio). This comes from Lat. _capsa_, a coffer, so that _cash_ is a doublet of _case_, Fr. _caisse_. The goldsmith's term _chase_ is for _enchase_, Fr. _enchasser_, "to _enchace_, or set, in gold, etc." (Cotgrave), from _chasse_, coffer, shrine, also from Lat. _capsa_. From the same word comes (window) _sash_.
_Gammon_, from Mid. Eng. _gamen_, now reduced to _game_, survives as a slang word and also in the compound _backgammon_. In a _gammon_ of bacon we have the Picard form of Fr. _jambon_, a ham, an augmentative of _jambe_, leg. Cotgrave has _jambon_, "a _gammon_." _Gambit_ is related, from Ital. _gambetto_, "a tripping up of one's heels" (Torriano). A _game_ leg is in dialect a _gammy_ leg. This is Old Fr. _gambi_, "bent, crooked, bowed" (Cotgrave), which is still used in some French dialects in the sense of lame. It comes from the same Celtic root as _jambe_.
_Host_, an army, now used only poetically or metaphorically, is from Old Fr. _ost_, army, Lat. _hostis_, enemy. The _host_ who receives us is Old Fr. _oste_ (_hote_), Lat. _hospes_, _hospit-_, guest. These two _hosts_ are, however, ultimately related. It is curious that, while modern Fr. _hote_ (_hospes_) means both "host" and "guest," the other _host_ (_hostis_) is, very far back, a doublet of _guest_, the ground meaning of both being "stranger." "It is remarkable in what opposite directions the Germans and Romans have developed the meaning of the old hereditary name for 'stranger.' To the Roman the stranger becomes an enemy; among the Germans he enjoys the greatest privileges, a striking confirmation of what Tacitus tells us in his _Germania_."[112] In a dog _kennel_ we have the Norman form of Fr. _chenil_, related to _chien_; but _kennel_, a gutter--
"Go, hop me over every _kennel_ home." (_Taming of the Shrew_, iv. 3.)
is a doublet of _channel_ and _canal_.
[Page Heading: MAN[OE]UVRE--MYSTERY]
"Oh villain! thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert taken with the _manner_." (1 _Henry IV._, ii. 4.)
says Prince Hal to Bardolph. In the old editions this is spelt _manour_ or _mainour_ and means "in the act." It is an Anglo-French doublet of _man[oe]uvre_, late Lat. _manu-opera_, handiwork, and is thus related to its homonym _manner_, Fr. _maniere_, from _manier_, to handle. Another doublet of _man[oe]uvre_ is _manure_, now a euphemism for dung, but formerly used of the act of tillage--
"The _manuring_ hand of the tiller shall root up all that burdens the soil." (MILTON, _Reason of Church Government_.)
_Inure_ is similarly formed from Old Fr. _en[oe]uvrer_, literally "to work in," hence to accustom to toil.
John Gilpin's "good friend the _calender_," _i.e._ the cloth-presser, has nothing to do with the _calendar_ which indicates the _calends_ of the month, nor with the _calender_, or Persian monk, of the _Arabian Nights_, whom Mr Pecksniff described as a "one-eyed _almanack_"--
"'A one-eyed _calender_, I think, sir,' faltered Tom.
"'They are pretty nearly the same thing, I believe,' said Mr Pecksniff, smiling compassionately; 'or they used to be in my time.'" (_Martin Chuzzlewit_, Ch. 6.)
The verb to _calender_, to press and gloss cloth, etc., is from Old Fr. _calendrer_ (_calandrer_), "to sleeke, smooth, plane, or polish, linnen cloth, etc." (Cotgrave). This word is generally considered to be related to _cylinder_, a conjecture which is supported by obsolete Fr. _calende_, used of the "rollers" by means of which heavy stones are moved.
A craft, or association of _masters_, was once called a _mistery_ (for _mastery_ or _maistrie_), usually misspelt _mystery_ by association with a word of quite different origin and meaning. This accidental resemblance is often played on--
"Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a _mystery_; but what _mystery_ there should be in hanging, if I should be hanged, I cannot imagine." (_Measure for Measure_, iv. 2.)
For the pronunciation, cf. _mister_, for _master_, and _mistress_.[113] The French for "mistery" is _metier_, earlier _mestier_, "a trade, occupation, _misterie_, handicraft" (Cotgrave), from Old Fr. _maistier_, Lat. _magisterium_. In its other senses Fr. _metier_ represents Lat. _ministerium_, service.
_Pawn_, a pledge, is from Old Fr. _pan_, with the same meaning. The origin of this word, cognates of which occur in the Germanic languages, is unknown. The _pawn_ at chess is Fr. _pion_, a pawn, formerly also a foot-soldier, used contemptuously in modern French for a junior assistant master. This represents a Vulgar Lat. _*pedo_, _pedon-_, from _pes_, foot; _cf._ Span. _peon_, "a footeman, a _pawne_ at chesse, a pioner, or laborer" (Percyvall). In German the _pawn_ is called _Bauer_, peasant, a name also given to the knave in the game of euchre, whence American _bower_[114]--
"At last he put down a _right bower_[115] Which the same Nye had dealt unto me." (BRET HARTE, _The Heathen Chinee_.)
[Page Heading: QUARRY--QUARREL]
When Jack Bunce says--
"If they hurt but one hair of Cleveland's head, there will be the devil to _pay_, and no pitch hot." (_Pirate_, Ch. 36.)
he is using a nautical term which has no connection with Fr. _payer_. To _pay_, _i.e._ to pitch (a ship), is from Old Fr. _peier_ or _poier_, Lat. _picare_, from _pix_, pitch. Fr. _limon_, a lime, has given Eng. _lemon_,[116] but "_lemon_ sole" is from Fr. _limande_, a flat-fish, dab. A _quarry_ from which stone is obtained was formerly _quarrer_, Old Fr. _quarriere_ (_carriere_), a derivative of Lat. _quadrus_; cf. _quadratarius_, "a squarer of marble" (Cooper). The _quarry_ of the hunter has changed its form and meaning. In Mid. English we find _quarre_ and _quirre_, from Old Fr. _cuiree_, now _curee_, "a (dog's) reward; the hounds' fees of, or part in, the game they have killed" (Cotgrave). The Old French form means "skinful" (cf. _poignee_, fistful), the hounds' reward being spread on the skin of the slain animal. It is thus related to _cuirass_, originally used of leathern armour. In Shakespeare _quarry_ usually means a heap of dead game--
"Would the nobility lay aside their ruth, And let me use my sword, I'd make a _quarry_ With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high As I could pick my lance." (_Coriolanus_, i. 1.)
In modern English it is applied rather to the animal pursued. Related to the first _quarry_ is _quarrel_, the square-headed bolt shot from a crossbow--
"It is reported by William Brito that the arcubalista or arbalist was first shewed to the French by our king Richard the First, who was shortly after slain by a _quarrel_ thereof." (CAMDEN, _Remains concerning Britain_.[117])
It comes from Old Fr. _carrel_, of which the modern form, _carreau_, is used of many four-sided objects, _e.g._, a square tile, the diamond at cards, a pane of glass. In the last sense both _quarrel_ and _quarry_ are still used by glaziers.
In a "_school_ of porpoises" we have a Dutch word for crowd. The older spelling is _scull_--
"And there they fly, or die, like scaled _sculls_, Before the belching whale." (_Troilus and Cressida_, v. 5.)
A _sorrel_ horse and the plant called _sorrel_ are both French words of German origin. The adjective, used in venery of a buck of the third year, is a diminutive of Old Fr. _sor_, which survives in _hareng saur_, red herring, and is perhaps cognate with Eng. _sear_--
"The _sere_, the yellow leaf." (_Macbeth_, v. 3.)
The plant name is related to _sour_. Its modern French form _surelle_ occurs now only in dialect, having been superseded by _oseille_, which appears to be due to the mixture of two words meaning sour, sharp, viz., Vulgar Lat. _*acetula_ and Greco-Lat. _oxalis_.
The verb _tattoo_, to adorn the skin with patterns, is Polynesian. The military _tattoo_ is Dutch. It was earlier _tap-to_, and was the signal for closing the "taps," or taverns. The first recorded occurrence of the word is in Colonel Hutchinson's orders to the garrison of Nottingham, the original of which hangs in the Nottingham City Library--
"If any-one shall bee found tiplinge or drinkinge in any taverne, inne, or alehouse after the houre of nyne of the clock at night, when the _tap-too_ beates, he shall pay 2s. 6d." (1644.)
_Cf._ Ger. _Zapfenstreich_, lit. tap-stroke, the name of a play which was produced some years ago in London under the title "Lights Out." Ludwig explains _Zapfenschlag_ or _Zapfenstreich_ as "die Zeit da die Soldaten aus den Schencken heimgehen muessen, the _taptow_."
_Tassel_, in "_tassel_ gentle"--
"O, for a falconer's voice, To lure this _tassel_-gentle back again." (_Romeo and Juliet_, ii. 2.)
is for _tercel_ or _tiercel_, the male hawk, "so tearmed, because he is, commonly, a third part less than the female" (Cotgrave, s.v. _tiercelet_). The true reason for the name is doubtful. The pendent ornament called a _tassel_ is a diminutive of Mid. Eng. _tasse_, a heap, bunch, Fr. _tas_. _Tent_ wine is Span. _vino tinto_, _i.e._, coloured--
"Of this last there's little comes over right, therefore the vintners make _Tent_ (which is a name for all wines in Spain, except white) to supply the place of it." (Howell, _Familiar Letters_, 1634.)
The other _tent_ is from the Old French past participle of _tendre_, to stretch.
The Shakesperian _utterance_--
"Rather than so, come, fate, into the list, And champion me to the _utterance_." (_Macbeth_, iii. 1.)
is the Fr. _outrance_, in _combat a outrance_, _i.e._, to the extreme, which belongs to Lat. _ultra_. It is quite unconnected with the verb to _utter_, from _out_.
[Page Heading: WRONG ASSOCIATION]
We have seen how, in the case of some homonyms, confusion arises, and a popular connection is established, between words which are quite unrelated. The same sort of association often springs up between words which, without being homonyms, have some accidental resemblance in form or meaning, or in both. Such association may bring about curious changes in sound and sense. _Touchy_, which now conveys the idea of sensitiveness to _touch_, is corrupted from _tetchy_--
"_Tetchy_ and wayward was thy infancy." (_Richard III._, iv. 4.)
The original meaning was something like "infected, tainted," from Old Fr. _teche_ (_tache_), a spot. The word _surround_ has completely changed its meaning through association with _round_. It comes from Old Fr. _suronder_, to overflow, Lat. _super-undare_, and its meaning and origin were quite clear to the 16th-century lexicographers. Thus Cooper has _inundo_, "to overflowe, to _surround_." A French bishop carries a _crosse_, and an archbishop a _croix_. These words are of separate origin. From _crosse_, which does not mean "cross," comes our derivative _crosier_, carried by both bishops and archbishops. It is etymologically identical, as its shape suggests, with the shepherd's _crook_, and the bat used in playing _lacrosse_.
The prophecy of the pessimistic _ostler_ that, owing to motor-cars--
"_'Osses_ soon will all be in the circusses, And if you want an _ostler_, try the work'uses." (E. V. LUCAS.)
shows by what association the meaning of _ostler_, Old Fr. _hostelier_ (_hotelier_), has changed. A _belfry_ has nothing to do with _bells_. Old Fr. _berfroi_ (_beffroi_) was a tower used in warfare. It comes from two German words represented by modern _bergen_, to hide, guard, and _Friede_, peace, so that it means "guard-peace." The triumph of the form _belfry_ is due to association with _bell_, but the _l_ is originally due to dissimilation, since we find _belfroi_ also in Old French. The same dissimilation is seen in Fr. _auberge_, inn, Prov. _alberga_, which comes from Old High Ger. _hari_, an army, and _bergen_; _cf._ our _harbour_ (p. 2) and _harbinger_ (p. 90). _Scabbard_ is from Old Fr. _escauberc_, earlier _escalberc_, by dissimilation for _escarberc_, from Old High Ger. _sc[=a]r_, a blade (_cf._ plough_share_), and _bergen_. Cf. _hauberk_, guard-neck, from Ger. _Hals_,[118] neck.
[Page Heading: WRONG ASSOCIATION]
The _buttery_ is not so named from _butter_, but from _bottles_. It is for _butlery_, as _chancery_ (see p. 88) is for _chancelry_. It is not, of course, now limited to bottles, any more than the _pantry_ to bread or the _larder_ to bacon, Fr. _lard_, Lat. _laridum_. The _spence_, aphetic for _dispense_, is now known only in dialect--
"I am gaun to eat my dinner quietly in the _spence_." (_Old Mortality_, Ch. 3.)
but has given us the name _Spencer_. The _still-room_ maid is not extinct, but I doubt whether the _distilling_ of strong waters is now carried on in the region over which she presides. A _journeyman_ has nothing to do with _journeys_ in the modern sense of the word, but works _a la journee_, by the day. _Cf._ Fr. _journalier_, "a _journey man_; one that workes by the day" (Cotgrave), and Ger. _Tageloehner_, literally "day-wager." On the other hand, a _day-woman_ (_Love's Labour's Lost_, i. 2) is an explanatory pleonasm (cf. _greyhound_, p. 135) for the old word _day_, servant, milkmaid, etc., whence the common surname _Day_ and the derivative _dairy_.
A _briar_ pipe is made, not from _briar_, but from the root of heather, Fr. _bruyere_, of Celtic origin. A _catchpole_ did not catch _polls_, _i.e._ heads, nor did he catch people with a _pole_, although a very ingenious implement, exhibited in the Tower of London Armoury, is catalogued as a _catchpole_. The word corresponds to a French compound _chasse-poule_, catch-hen, in Picard _cache-pole_, the official's chief duty being to collect dues, or, in default, poultry. For _pole_, from Fr. _poule_, cf. _polecat_, also an enemy of fowls. The _companion_-ladder on ship-board is a product of folk-etymology. It leads to the _kampanje_, the Dutch for _cabin_. This may belong, like _cabin_, to a late Lat. _capanna_, hut, which has a very numerous progeny. _Kajuit_, another Dutch word for cabin, earlier _kajute_, has given us _cuddy_.
A _carousal_ is now regarded as a _carouse_, but the two are quite separate, or, rather, there are two distinct words _carousal_. One of them is from Fr. _carrousel_, a word of Italian origin, meaning a pageant or carnival with chariot races and tilting. This word, obsolete in this sense, is sometimes spelt _el_ and accented on the last syllable--
"Before the crystal palace, where he dwells, The armed angels hold their _carousels_." (ANDREW MARVELL, _Lachrymae Musarum_.)
Ger. _Karussell_ means a roundabout at a fair. Our _carousal_, if it is the same word, has been affected in sound and meaning by _carouse_. This comes, probably through French, from Ger. _garaus_, quite out, in the phrase _garaus trinken_, _i.e._, to drink bumpers--
"The queen _carouses_ to thy fortune, Hamlet." (_Hamlet_, v. 2.)
Rabelais says that he is not one of those--
"Qui, par force, par oultraige et violence, contraignent les compaignons trinquer voyre _carous_ et _alluz_[119] qui pis est." (_Pantagruel_, iii., Prologue.)
The spelling _garous_, and even _garaus_, is found in 17th-century English.
[Page Heading: FOOTPAD--PESTER]
It is perhaps unnecessary to say that a _maul-stick_, Dutch _maal-stok_, paint-stick, has nothing to do with the verb to _maul_, formerly to _mall_,[120] _i.e._, to hammer. Nor is the painter's _lay-figure_ connected with our verb to _lay_. It is also, like so many art terms, of Dutch origin, the _lay_ representing Du. _lid_, limb, cognate with Ger. _Glied_.[121] The German for lay-figure is _Gliederpuppe_, joint-doll. Sewel's _Dutch Dict._ (1766) has _leeman_, or _ledeman_, "a statue, with pliant limbs for the use of a painter." A _footpad_ is not a rubber-soled highwayman, but a _pad_, or robber, who does his work on foot. He was also called a _padder_--
"'Ye crack-rope _padder_, born beggar, and bred thief!' replied the hag." (_Heart of Midlothian_, Ch. 29.)
_i.e._, one who takes to the "road," from Du. _pad_, path. _Pad_, an ambling nag, a "roadster," is the same word.
_Pen_ comes, through Old French, from Lat. _penna_, "a penne, quil, or fether" (Cooper), while _pencil_ is from Old Fr. _pincel_ (_pinceau_), a painter's brush, from Lat. _penicillus_, a little tail. The modern meaning of _pencil_, which still meant painter's brush in the 18th century, is due to association with _pen_. The older sense survives in optics and in the expression "pencilled eyebrows." The _ferrule_ of a walking-stick is a distinct word from _ferule_, an aid to education. The latter is Lat. _ferula_, "an herbe like big fenell, and maye be called fenell giant. Also a rodde, sticke, or paulmer, wherewith children are striken and corrected in schooles; a cane, a reede, a walking staffe" (Cooper). _Ferrule_ is a perversion of earlier _virrel_, _virrol_, Fr. _virole_, "an iron ring put about the end of a staffe, etc., to strengthen it, and keep it from riving" (Cotgrave).
The modern meaning of _pester_ is due to a wrong association with _pest_. Its earlier meaning is to hamper or entangle--
"Confined and _pestered_ in this pinfold here." (_Comus_, l. 7.)
It was formerly _impester_, from Old Fr. _empestrer_ (_empetrer_), "to _pester_, intricate, intangle, trouble, incumber" (Cotgrave), originally to "hobble" a grazing horse with _pasterns_, or shackles (see _pastern_, p. 76).
_Mosaic_ work is not connected with _Moses_, but with the _muses_ and _museum_. It comes, through French, from Ital. _mosaico_, "a kinde of curious stone worke, of divers colours, checkie worke" (Florio), which is Vulgar Lat. _musaicum opus_. _Sorrow_ and _sorry_ are quite unrelated. _Sorrow_ is from Anglo-Sax. _sorg_, _sorh_, cognate with Ger. _Sorge_, anxiety. _Sorry_, Mid. Eng. _sori_, is a derivative of _sore_, cognate with Ger. _sehr_, very, lit. "painfully"; _cf._ English "_sore_ afraid," or the modern "_awfully_ nice," which is in South Germany _arg nett_, "_vexatiously_ nice."
It is probable that _vagabond_, Lat. _vagabundus_, has no etymological connection with _vagrant_, which appears to come from Old Fr. _waucrant_, present participle of _waucrer_, a common verb in the Picard dialect, perhaps related to Eng. _walk_. Cotgrave spells it _vaucrer_, "to range, roame, vagary, wander, idly (idle) it up and down." Cotgrave also attributes to it the special meaning of a ship sailing "whither wind and tide will carry it," the precise sense in which it is used in the 13th-century romance of _Aucassin et Nicolette_.
Other examples of mistaken association are _scullion_ and _scullery_ (p. 43), and _sentry_ and _sentinel_ (p. 102). Many years ago _Punch_ had a picture by Du Maurier called the "_Vikings_ of Whitby," followed by a companion picture, the "_Viqueens_." The word is not _vi-king_ but _vik-ing_, the first syllable probably representing an Old Norse form of Anglo-Sax. _w[=i]c_, encampment.
FOOTNOTES:
[112] Kluge, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch_.
[113] Now abbreviated to _miss_ in a special sense.
[114] The _Bowery_ of New York was formerly a homestead.
[115] Knave of trumps.
[116] In modern French the lemon is called _citron_ and the citron _cedrat_.
[117] In the chapter on "_Artillery_." So also, in the _Authorised Version_--"Jonathan gave his _artillery_ (his bow and arrows) unto his lad, and said unto him, 'Go, carry them into the city.'" (1 Samuel, xx. 40.) It is curious that the words _artillery_ and _gun_ both belong to the pre-gunpowder period.
[118] Hence, or rather from Du. _hals_, the _hawse_-holes, the "throat" through which the cable runs.
[119] Ger. _all aus_, all out.
[120] Hence the _Mall_ and _Pall-Mall_, where games like croquet were played.
[121] The _g-_ represents the Old High German prefix _gi-_, _ge-_. _Cf._ Eng. _luck_ and Ger. _Glueck_.