Chapter IV · THE ROMANCE OF WORDS

Words and Archeology.

The 18th century rediscovery of the close connection between Sanskrit roots and European speech has opened up a mine of information about the culture of our primitive ancestors. Our word pecuniary, for instance, from Lat. pecunia, money, is derived from pecus, cattle, pointing to the time when property consisted, not of coins (Lat. cuneus, a wedge, Gr. konos, a peg or cone, from which cuneiform, cone, coign, hone) but of cattle (from Lat. caput, head, whence capital, chattel, chief, chef, Eng. head, etc.) Carrying the word pecus further back, its meaning changes from cattle to sheep; then to wool; then to a verb stem meaning to pull or pluck. Thus the whole idea of property may be traced in the wanderings of meaning of this one word. Cognate words in the Indo-European languages for hound, ox, cow, ewe, goat, sow, swine, pork, and for ech, an early English word for horse (kin to Skt. acva, Gr. hippos, Lat. equus, Irish ech, etc.) indicate an acquaintance with at least six domestic animals before the separation of the European peoples.

Philologists have dug deeply in such cases. Thus the English beech has as cognates Ger. Buch, Lat. fagus, meaning beech; also Gr. phegos, oak; Curdish buz, elm; Old Bulg. buzu, elder. The English fir appears in Ger. Fohre, fir; Lat. quercus, oak, etc. In such cases, as in the involved etymology of tree, the term before the separation, undoubtedly starting as the name of a specific tree, may have been broadened into the class-name for tree, and been applied in each country to the chief tree at the time of the migration.

The Indo-European tongues have cognate words for field and mow and furrow, indicating agriculture before they separated. It is quite different with the names for metals. The word metal itself first appears in Herodotus, as metallon, a mine. Hammer, found in cognates in many Indo-European languages, meant originally stone, and points back to the Stone Age. The one metal known during the late Stone Age was copper; we find Lat. aes, Gothic aiz, Skt. ayas, Avestan ayah, all meaning copper. The name copper comes from the island of Cyprus; just as bronze is connected with the city of Brindisi, in the Lat. aes Brundisinum, Brindisi copper.

In the cases of the other metals, there are no such cognates. The Greek word for gold, chrusos, is said to be of Hebrew origin; Lat. aurum originated from a Latin word meaning yellow or shining. Another form is seen in gold, found both in Teutonic and Slavic speeches. Its origin is unknown; it may have been geographic. Silver has no common Indo-European name; it gets this name from the Pontic city Salube. Iron and lead are in the same category; the Teutons received from the Celts both metals and names. Steel, appearing in many Teutonic dialects, is comparatively late. Of recent metals, cobalt is from the German kobold, a sprite; nickel, named by the Swedish mineralogist Cronstedt in 1754, came from Ger. Kupfernickel; the element nickel referring to another demon, nickel, pet form of Niklaus (compare The Old Nick; from St. Nicholas, whence Santa Claus, originally from Gr. Nicholas, akin to nica, victory.) Tungsten, still more recent, is named from Swed. tung-sten, heavy stone. Platinum comes from Span. plata, silver, from the metal’s appearance. Aluminum or aluminium was discovered in 1812, and is named from alum (Lat. alumen, alum, origin unknown).

House is from Teutonic origins, probably connected with hut, hoard, hide; the Lat. domus, house, is the older root, akin to Gr. demein, to build, Skt. dama, etc.; our dome, domicile, domestic, come from it, as does timber. Bolster, bed, and other words for the contents of the house, are found in the Indo-European group of cognates; wheel, wagon, axle, thill, yoke, lynch (pin), also so found, point to their antiquity in Indo-European culture. Thus the study of words gives us a rude picture of our primitive ancestors, long before they left the Asian plateaus for their bloody scattering over the world.

The Romance of Words.

One of the most amusing phases of word study is the false etymologies around which much early history is gathered. Thus Britain, an old Celtic word, was traced back to the fall of Troy by the invention or connection with a Brut, or Brutus, a descendant of Aeneas, supposed to have settled in England. A similar process connects Corineus, a companion of Brutus, with the naming of Cornwall, properly Corn-Wales, strangers in the land. Lisbon was mistraced to Ulysses by spelling in Olisipo. The Scots go the nations one better by tracing descent to Scota, daughter of Pharaoh. The Early Greeks invented a mythical Hellen, whose sons Aeolus and Dorus, and grandsons Achaeus and Ion, were the parents respectively of the collective Hellenes or Greeks, and the tribes of Aeolians, Dorians, Achaeans, and Ionians, all in an endeavor to prove general kinship.

Consider the recent attempts to derive Yankee. Among the explanations offered are (1) an Indian attempt to pronounce Anglois, French for English; (2) Eankke, coward, in an Indian dialect; (3) Scotch yankie, a great falsehood; (4) Yankoos, a tribe of Indians conquered; (5) Jannekin, a Dutch taunt at New Englanders; (6) a corruption of Yorkshire; (7) Chinese Yang jung, East Indian Yang Gee, you are a foreigner; (8) as Yankee Doodle, from Persian Yanhi Dunia. We may confidently expect (9) from Egypt. Tut-Ankhamen, colloquially Dude-Ankhy, whence Doodle-Yankee. The greatest philological mishmash we have encountered is entitled “Prehistoric Times, or Milestones in the Evolution of Man,” by four woman authors, proceeding:

It is because words related originally to sex, which is dual, that we have the double letters in a word, as in woRRy, EEl, fOOl (both kinds)! The two letters are, one for the one sex, one for the other. BRIC-a-BRAC is the CRIBbing male and the CRABbed female. WIG-WAG is the WICKed male, always so considered, and the WAGon-like female, which carries the young.

After this, we are not surprised at the River Picket-wire in Texas, locally derived from its shape, though the French named it Purgatoire, Purgatory. Many local legends account for the English inn names Plum and Feathers (from the Plume of Feathers, the Prince of Wales’ crest); the Bull and Gate (from the Boulogne Gate, to commemorate the taking of Boulogne by Henry VIII); and the Goat and Compasses (from the fine old Puritan signboard, “God encompasseth us”).

Place Names.

Place names, like coins in circulation, have in many cases lost their original markings. Thus York, as named by the old Britons, was Eburacon, perhaps from a man Eburos. The Teutonic Angles altered this to Evuroc, which was further modified and took on the Anglian termination -wic, arriving at the form Eoforwic, read as Boar Town (eofor, boar, and wic, dwelling place). The Danes gave it a new spelling and pronunciation, Iorvik, which was corrupted to the present York. Thus the German city Mainz is remote from the original Lat. Mogontiacum; Laon from Lat. Laudunum. More recently Chateau Vert, Green Castle, near Oxford, appears in English as Shotover.

There is hardly a river in England that has not a Celtic name. The Celt. avon, river, is used for a dozen streams. The Celt. dun, fortress, appears as far apart as Carrodunum on the Dneister and Singidunum, old name for Belgrade, to Dundalk, Dungannan, etc., in Ireland. In France it is hidden in Autuc (Augustodunum), Lyons (Lugdunum), Verdun, (Verodunum); in Great Britain it appears in Dumfries, Dumbarton, Dundee, Dunstable, etc. The Latin castra, camp, dots England in -caster, -chester, and -cester terminations; strata, road, is fixed in Stratford, Stratton, Streatham, Stretford, etc. Simpler derivations are Oxford, (ox-ford), Swinford (swine-ford), etc. Anglo-Saxon place-names are often derived from persons; as Brighton, from Brihthelmestun, farmstead of Brihthelm. The termination -ing enters into a tenth of the number of names of English villages and hamlets. Thus Washington is the town (ton) of the family (ing) living on the Wash. The Norse occupation is shown by -by, -thwaite, beck, and dale; -thorp is usually Scandinavian.

In America, the native Indian names range from the harshness of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the grotesque in Canojoharie, Kalamazoo, Ypsilanti, Skaneateles, to the liquid beauty of Miami, Appalachicola, Tuscarora, Tuscaloosa. Dutch names, Hoboken, Brooklyn, Spuyten Duyvil, Catskills, Yonkers, point to Dutch occupation. The French gave Vermont, Detroit, Joliet, Terre Haute, St. Louis, Baton Rouge, Mobile, New Orleans. The Spanish contributed Florida, San Antonio, El Paso, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Colorado, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Montana, and many others. Occasional German and Scandinavian place-names point to their occupation.

Free use was made in America of the old names. There are more than 600 postoffices beginning with New. London appears in 11 states; Paris, 21; Berlin, 24; Florence, 34. There is 1 Babylon, 3 Ninevehs, 16 Romes, 19 Spartas, 22 Athenses, 29 Troys. There are 18 Alphas, but only 11 Omegas. There are 12 Bethlehems, 22 Bethels; 13 Paradises, and 1 Hell Creek, Colo. There are 11 Freedoms, 26 Independences, 38 Unions; 28 Enterprises, and 1 Money Creek; 16 Harmonies, but 25 Lonelies; 7 Sunshines, 1 Twilight; 3 Faiths and 18 Hopes. There are 2 Nellies, 11 Coras, and 17 Adas. There is a Beef Creek, a Greasyridge, a What Cheer, a Yelk, a Yell, a Dead Broke, a Murderer’s Bar. The progress of culture is indicated in the Kansas village that changed its name from Wild Cat to Keats. There are 3 Whynots, 1 Josh; infinite Washingtons, Franklins; 22 Brooklyns, 75 Buffalos (in various compounds). There is Seven, Tenn.; Fourteen, W. Va.; Seventeen, O.; Seventy-Six, Ky. and Md.; Ninety-Six, S. C. So has the American spirit spoken.

Among unique English perversions, in addition to Shotover, are Leighton Beau-desert to Leighton Buzzard, Burgh Walter to Bridgewater, and Beau Chef to Beachy (Head). Chemin Couvert became, in Arkansas, Smackover. Even Bunker, in Bunker Hill, was once Bon coeur. There is more approval for the transformation of the amazing Indian Quah-Tah-Wah-Am-Quah-Duavic to French Petamkediac, and later English Tom Kedgwick. In similar fashion Gramercy Square, New York, was not originally French but Dutch for crooked lane, De Kromme Zee.

Personal Names.

Most Englishmen of the Anglo-Saxon period were content with a single name. A frequent element is Aelf-, elf or fairy, as in Aelfgar, Aelfhelm, Aelfred. Aethel-, meaning noble (Germ. Edelman, nobleman) appears in Aethelbald, Aethelred. Ead-, association with eadig, happy, appeared in Eadgar, Eadgyth, Eadmund, Eadweard, Eadwine. Other elements are bald, bold; ecg, edge; god, good; wig, battle; sie, victory; wulf, wolf, as prefixes: and, as suffixes, heard, strong; here, army; mund, hand; roed, counsel; wine, friend. Less pretentious are such names as Brand, sword; Cytel, kettle; Wulf, Hild (a), Hengest, Horsa, Hudda, perhaps pet forms of longer names. These survive, often greatly disguised, in such modern names as Baldwin (Bealdwine), Harold (Herewald), Bardell (Beorhtwulf), Elmer (Aelfmaer), Herbert (Herebearht), Herrick (Hereric), Hubert, Hubbard, Hobart, Hibbert, Hibbard (Hygeeorht), Wyman (Wigmund), Kemp (Cempa, warrior), Cob (Cobba), Froude (Froda, prudent), Tucker (Tuccao), etc.

After the Norman Conquest, the names most widely used were John, William, Thomas, Richard, Robert, in the order given. John (Lat. Johannes), found in other languages Ital. Giovanni (from which Zany), Fr. Jean, Welsh Evan, Scotch Ian, Breton Yves, Russian Ivan, Dan. and Dutch Hans, is responsible also for Shawn, Jane, Joan, Jones, Johnson, Jennings, etc. Thomas, also Scriptural in origin, owed its popularity to pilgrimages to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket. We have from it Thoms, Thomson, etc., and from the ending, a French clipped form, Macey, Massie, Machin, Masson, etc. The other three names are Teutonic. William, M. H. G. Willehelm, helm of resolution, had in French two forms, Guillaume and the one with the initial W-. From these comes the parallel forms Gautier and Walter, Guy and Wyatt. Williams, Wills, Williamson, Wilson, Wilkins, Willett, Gilliam, come from it. Robert was O. H. G. Hruodbert, fame-bright; Richard was Richart, powerful. From these came Rick, Hick, Dick, Rob, Hob, Dob, Bob; also Ricketts, Hicks, Hixon, Dix, Dixon, Rich, Ritchie, Hitch, Higgs, Bigg, Robb, Ditch, Robbins, Robson, Robinson, Hobbs, Hobson, Dobbs, Dodson, etc.

Along with this went the relative infrequency of Arthur, Charles, and George. Their popularity was later, from the royal houses of Stuart and Hanover, and from Arthur, Duke of Wellington. Similarly Frederick’s vogue came from Frederick the Great.

In the period before the Conquest, individuals often earned an epithet, as Edmund Ironsides, Aethelred the Unready, Edward the Confessor; but these were not transmitted from father to son. The earliest form of surname proper was the patronymic, the name of parent or ancestor. Thus Alfred the Great was properly Alfred Aethelwulfing, or son of Aethelwulf. Thus the Beowulf characters are the Scyldings and Scylfings, sons of Scyld and Scylf respectively; similarly the Greeks Hippias and Hipparchus were Pisistratidae, sons of Pisistratus, etc. With later Hebrews, Abou ben-Adhem meant son of Adhem. In Slavic languages the patronymic ends with -vitch; in Norman fitz (Mod. Fr. fils, son) served the same purpose; among Scotch and Irish Mac, relative. In Welsh, Map, or later Ap or Ab, was used: it appears disguised in many names, as Pugh (ap-Hugh), Bowen (ap-Owen), Powell (ap-Howell), Price (ap-Rhys), Pritchard (ap-Richard), Prothero (ap-Roderick), Blood, (ap-Lud), as well as Upjohn, Updike, etc. The Irish O’ serves practically the same function as Mac. Scandinavians use -son; thus Olson (Olaf-son), Anderson (Andrew-son), Pedersen (Peter’s son). In the South of England the old genitive ending -s accomplished a similar function; thus Tom’s Mary would be distinguished from Herbert’s Mary. From this we get many surnames ending in -s. especially among the Welsh, such as Jones, Williams, Hughes, Evans, Roberts, Edwards.

A second source of surnames is from the locality where a man lived. Scott is an English name applied to Scotchmen; the reverse is true of English. Cornish and Cornwallis, for dwellers in Cornwall, originated in neighboring Devonshire. Similar are Brett, Britton (Brittany), Picard, Power (Picardy), Loring (Lorraine), Bullen (Boulogne), Bloss (Blois), Loving (Louvain), Sessions (Scissons). Place-names more purely local, with or without the terminal -s, are Ford, Bridges, Field, Craig (crag), Lake, Rivers, Brooke, Cairnes, Glenn, Dunne and Dun (hill), Hill, Wood, Forrest. From the O. E. burh (dative byrig), fortified place, came Burrows, Burroughs, Borrow, Brough, Burke, Bury, Berry. Peak, Pike, Peck, Pick, meant hill-top; Law, Low, Lynn, Shaw, Holt, Hurst, Barrows are similar. More definite are the place-names in Tuttle (Toot-hill), Tyndall (Tyne-dale), Haywood (Hay, hedge, and wood), Radcliffe, Wycliffe, Dodd-ridge, Bradshaw (broadwood), Crashaw (crow-wood), Earnshaw (eagle-wood), Renshaw (raven-wood), Schofield (school field). From the cliff root came also Clifford, Clifton, Cleaves, Cleveland. The old northern form yett for gate appears in Yeats and Yates. Hyatt is high-yett. Dialect variants of Hedge appear in Hay, Haig, Haigh, Haw, Hey; plurals, Hayes, Hawes.

A third principal source of modern surnames is found in names of occupations. Smith, Butcher, Carpenter, Miller, Taylor, are fairly obvious. From crafts less in evidence come Chaucer (shoemaker), Hunt (hunter), Day (dairyman), Webb, Weaver (weaver), Frick (warrior), Wright (worker). Webster, Brewster, Baxter are feminines of weaver, brewer, baker; others are Millard (millward or guardian), Plummer (plumber), Inman (landlord), Ward (guard), Firminger (cheese-maker), Barker (tanner), Chapman (merchant), Clark (clerk or scholar). Among obsolete occupations are Arrowsmith, Fletcher, and Flower (all arrowmaker: compare O. E. fla, arrow); Boulter (bolt-maker), and Bowyer, Bower, Boyer (bow-maker). Fuller, Tucker, Shearer, Sherman, Walker, point to early cloth-making. Tyler (tile-man), Chandler (candlemaker), Hawker (itinerant salesman), Parmenter (parchment-maker), Pilcher (fur cloak maker), Quiller (maker of quilted ruffs), Cutler (knife maker), Spooner (spoon maker), Collier (coal worker, charcoal burner), Croker, Crocker (maker of crocks), Cooper, Cowper (maker of casks), Lorimer (bridle maker), Sellars (saddle maker), Parker (park guardian), Hayward (literally hedge ward, guardian of tilled fields), Constable (stable-man), Stuart, Stewart (steward) are a few more. Graves blends two forms: O. E. gerefa, reeve, and Greaves for Grove. The same is true of Howard, both from Hayward and earlier Hereward.

A fourth source of surnames is nicknames. Henry Plantagenet, Richard the Lion-Hearted, Edward Longshanks, are examples. Wolf, Lovell, Lovett, are all from wolf; Drinkwater, Doolittle, Larned (from learned), Longfellow, Fairfax (fair hair), Purdy and Pardee (from a French oath), Shakespeare, Wagstaff, Hurlbutt, Benbow (from bend-bow), Lovejoy, these require no comment. There were also Stout (meaning brave), Little, Seeley (happy), Moody (courageous), Bragg (brave). From the French came Burnett (diminutive of brown), Blunt and Blount (blond), Power (poor), Curtis (courteous). The Celtic gave Gough and Roe, both red; Bain, Wynne, and Gwynne, white; Glass and Lloyd and Floyd, gray; Sayce, Saxon; Vaughan, little; Cameron, Scotch for crooked nose; Campbell, wry mouth; Kennedy, Irish for ugly head.

There was no uniformity in the spelling of personal names at first. In addition to the varied spellings of Shakespeare, Dr. Crown, 17th century, spelt his name variously Cron, Croon, Crown, Crone, Croone, Croune. Pierce, Peirce, Pearce, Pearse, Pears, all derive from Piers, Fr. for apostle Peter. Lea, Lee, Ley, Leigh, Legh, Legge, Lay, Lye, all come from O. E. for meadow. Elspeth, Elsie, Eliza, Liza, Lisa, Lizzie, Beth, Bet, Bettie, Betsy, derive from Elizabeth. Suffixes like the diminutives -kin, -in, -ie, -ett, give to Pierce, Perkins, Pierson, etc. Matthew gave rise to Matthews, Mayhew, Mayo, May, Mee, Mayes, Mekins, Meeson, and at times Mason. The list is interminable.

Corrupt spelling, following slurred pronunciation, gave Farrar from Farquhar, Mean from Meaghan, Calhoun from Colquhoun, Beecham from Beauchamp. The Saints’ names suffered a speech-change: Bartholomew to Tolley; Edmund to Munn; St. Aubyn, Tobin; St. Osith, Toosey; St. Maur, Seymour; St. Clair, Sinclair; St. Paul, Semple. The reverse tendency is found in Alys, Edythe, Nellie, etc.

Dutch names in the United States suffered such alterations as Reiger to Riker, Haerlen to Harlan. French changed Caille to Kyle, Soule to Sewell, Bon Pas to Bumpus, de l’ hotel to Doolittle. German shifts were Blum to Bloom, Reuss to Royce, Oehm to Ames, Furth to Ford. At times they were translated: Pfund to Pound; Konig, King; Schwartz, Black; Weber, Weaver. Jewish names have also seen such changes as Rosenberg to Rosen to Rose to Ross; Hilkovitch to Hilquit to Hill; Schneider to Taylor; Schlachtfeld to Warfield; Schonberg to Belmont. In the New York City directory, Smith, Brown, Miller, Murphy, Meyer, are first five in order of popularity. Cohen and Levy come 8th and 9th; Jones 10th, Taylor 23rd.

The American Language.

There are those who think that typical American speech is found in such a sentence as, Them guys ain’t got no pep. Here the first is ungrammatical; the second, slang; the third, bad grammar again; the fourth, colloquial; the fifth, illogical; the sixth, slang once more. And yet the meaning is plain and unambiguous, even though no word passes accepted English standards. Luckily, American speech means more than this. America has added to the language, in making it its own, such words as blaze (a trail), blizzard, back number, back-bone, barber shop, barroom, beeline, belittle, bleachers, blinders, bloomers, blue laws, bluff, bob-sled, bogus, boom, boost, brainy, brief (lawyers), bully (adj.), campus, cave in, cocktail, commuter, contraband, crib, cow-catcher, crawfish, derail, diggings, dipper, doughnut, dovetail, fizzle out, grit (courage), make good, joyride, maverick, shyster, scalawag, snap, splurge, spree, spry, wilt, whole-souled, yegg, among thousands of others. Her new political terms are innumerable; in every walk of life she creates her own speech. These are live words, rich in soil-tang and the glow of health. It would be an evil hour if we relied on England for our speech. But the study of our words, embalmed in English and other tongues, including the earliest, is a helpful and informative way of broadening our own understanding, and adding to the speech of our maturing soul.