Part 6 (2/2)

_Jilt_ was once a stronger epithet than at present. It is for earlier _jillet_, which is a diminutive of _Jill_, the companion of Jack.

_Jill_, again, is short for _Gillian_, i.e. _Juliana_, so that _jilt_ is a doublet of Shakespeare's sweetest heroine. _Termagant_, like _shrew_ (p. 34), was formerly used of both s.e.xes, _e.g._, by Sir John Falstaff--

”'Twas time to counterfeit, or that hot _termagant_ Scot (Douglas) had paid me scot and lot too.”

(1 _Henry IV._, v. 4.)

In its oldest sense of a Saracen G.o.d it regularly occurs with _Mahound_ (Mahomet)--

”Marsilies fait porter un livre avant: La lei i fut Mahum e _Tervagan_.”[35]

(_Chanson de Roland_, l. 610.)

Ariosto has _Trivigante_. Being introduced into the medieval drama, the name became synonymous with a stage fury--

”I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing _Termagant_.”

(_Hamlet_, iii. 2.)

The origin of the word is unknown, but its sense development is strangely different from that of Mahomet (p. 43).

FOOTNOTES:

[24] But _Finsteraarhorn_ is perhaps from the river _Aar_, not from _Aar_, eagle.

[25] A place where a number of settlers were ma.s.sacred by the Zulus.

[26] ”Two mountains near Dublin, which we, keeping in the grocery line, have called the Great and the Little Sugarloaf, are named in Irish the Golden Spears.”--(Trench, _On the Study of Words_.)

[27] The French name for the fruit is _ananas_, a Brazilian word. A vegetarian friend of the writer, misled by the superficial likeness of this word to _banana_, once petrified a Belgian waiter by ordering half a dozen for his lunch.

[28] A reader calls my attention to the fact that, when the hippopotamus is almost completely submerged, the pointed ears, prominent eyes, and large nostrils are grotesquely suggestive of a horse's head. This I have recently verified at the Zoo.

[29] For the rather illogical formation, cf. _dogged_ from _dog_.

[30] Connection has even been suggested between _haggis_ and Fr.

_aga.s.se_, ”a pie, piannet, or _magatapie_” (Cotgrave). _Haggis_, now regarded as Scottish, was once a common word in English. Palsgrave has _haggas_, a podyng, ”caliette (caillette) de mouton,” _i.e._, sheep's stomach.

[31] For _eyas_ see p. 114.

[32] To the same period belongs the colour _magenta_, from the victory of the French over the Austrians at Magenta in 1859.

[33] For _lockram_, see p. 48.

[34] _Jehannette_, ”_Jug_, or Jinny” (Cotgrave). For strange perversions of baptismal names see Chap. XII. It is possible that the rather uncommon family name _Juggins_ is of the same origin.

[35] ”Marsil has a book brought forward: the law of Mahomet and Termagant was in it.”

CHAPTER IV

WORDS AND PLACES

<script>