Part 7 (1/2)

A very large number of wares are named from the places from which they come. This is especially common in the case of woven fabrics, and the origin is often obvious, e.g., _arras_, _cashmere_ (by folk-etymology, _kerseymere_), _damask_, _holland_. The following are perhaps not all so evident--_frieze_ from _Friesland_[36]; _fustian_, Old Fr. _fustaine_ (_futaine_), from _Fustat_, a suburb of Cairo; _muslin_, Fr.

_mousseline_, from _Mosul_ in Kurdistan; _shalloon_ from _Chalons_-sur-Marne; _lawn_ from _Laon_; _jean_, formerly _jane_, from _Genoa_ (French _Genes_[37]); _cambric_ from _Kamerijk_, the Dutch name of Cambrai (_cf._ the obsolete _dornick_, from the Dutch name of _Tournay_); _tartan_ from the _Tartars_ (properly _Tatars_), used vaguely for Orientals; _sarcenet_ from the Saracens; _sendal_, ultimately from _India_ (_cf._ Greco-Lat. _sindon_, Indian cloth); _tabby_, Old Fr. _atabis_, from the name of a suburb of Bagdad, formerly used of a kind of silk, but now of a cat marked something like the material in question.

Brittany used to be famous for hempen fabrics, and the villages of _Locrenan_ and _Daoulas_ gave their names to _lockram_ (see quotation from _Coriola.n.u.s_, p. 42) and _dowlas_--

_Hostess._ You owe me money, Sir John; and now you pick a quarrel to beguile me of it: I bought you a dozen of s.h.i.+rts to your back.

_Falstaff._ _Dowlas_, filthy _dowlas_; I have given them away to bakers' wives, and they have made bolters of them.

(1 _Henry IV._, iii. 3.)

_Duffel_ is a place near Antwerp--

”And let it be of _duffil_ gray, As warm a cloak as man can sell.”

(WORDSWORTH, _Alice Fell_.)

and _Worstead_ is in Norfolk. Of other commodities _majolica_ comes from _Majorca_, called in Spanish _Mallorca_, and in medieval Latin _Majolica_; _bronze_ from _Brundusium_ (Brindisi), _delf_ from _Delft_, the _magnet_ from _Magnesia_, the _shallot_, Fr. _echalote_, in Old French also _escalogne_, whence archaic Eng. _scallion_, from _Ascalon_; the _sardine_ from _Sardinia_. A _milliner_, formerly _milaner_, dealt in goods from _Milan_. _Cravat_ dates from the Thirty Years' War, in which the _Croats_, earlier _Cravats_, played a part. _Ermine_ is in medieval Latin _mus Armenius_, Armenian mouse, but the name perhaps comes, through Fr. _hermine_, from Old High Ger. _harmo_, weasel.

_Buncombe_, more usually _bunk.u.m_, is the name of a county in North Carolina. To make a speech ”for Buncombe” means, in American politics, to show your const.i.tuents that you are doing your best for your 400 a year or its American equivalent. Cf. _Billingsgate_ and _Limehouse_.

The adjective _spruce_ was formerly _pruce_ and meant Prussia. Todd quotes from Holinshed--

”Sir Edward Howard then admirall, and with him Sir Thomas Parre in doubletts of crimsin velvett, etc., were apparelled after the fas.h.i.+on of Prussia or _Spruce_.”

Of similar origin are _spruce-leather_, _spruce-beer_, and the _spruce-fir_, of which Evelyn says--

”Those from Prussia (which we call _spruce_) and Norway are the best.”

[Page Heading: BEZANT--MAZURKA]

Among coins the _bezant_ comes from _Byzantium_, the _florin_ from _Florence_, and Shylock's _ducat_, chiefly a Venetian coin, from the _ducato_ d'Apuglia, the Duchy of Apulia, where it was first coined in the 12th century. The _dollar_ is the Low Ger. _daler_, for Ger.

_Taler_, originally called a _Joachimstaler_, from the silver-mine of Joachimstal, ”Joachim's dale,” in Bohemia. Cotgrave registers a curious Old French perversion _jocondale_, ”a _daller_, a piece of money worth about 3s. sterl.” Some fruits may also be mentioned, _e.g._, the _damson_ from _Damascus_, through Old Fr. _damaisine_, ”a damascene or _damsen_ plum” (Cotgrave); the _currant_ from _Corinth_, and the _peach_, Fr. _peche_, from Vulgar Lat. _pessica_, for _Persica_.

A _polony_ was originally a _Bolonian_ sausage, from _Bologna_.

_Parchment_, Fr. _parchemin_, is the adjective _pergamenus_, from _Pergamus_, in Asia Minor. _Spaniel_ is the Old Fr. _espagneul_ (_epagneul_), lit. Spanish. We have the adjective _Moorish_ in _morris_, or _morrice_, _pike_--

”He that sets up his rest to do more exploits with his mace than a _morris pike_.”

(_Comedy of Errors_, iv. 3.)

In _morris dance_, Fr. _danse mauresque_, the same adjective is used with something of the vagueness to be noticed in connection with India and Turkey (p. 52). Shakespeare uses the Spanish form--

”I have seen him Caper upright, like to a wild _morisco_, Shaking the b.l.o.o.d.y darts as he his bells.”

(2 _Henry VI._, iii. 1.)

Other ”local” dances are the _polka_, which means Polish woman, _mazurka_, woman of Mazuria, and the obsolete _polonaise_, lit. Polish, _cracovienne_, from Cracow, and _varsovienne_, from Warsaw. The _tarantella_, like the _tarantula_ spider, takes its name from Taranto, in Italy. The tune of the dance is said to have been originally employed as a cure for the lethargy caused by the bite of the spider. Florio has _tarantola_, ”a serpent called an eft or an evet. Some take it to be a flye whose sting is perillous and deadly, and nothing but divers sounds of musicke can cure the patient.”

The town of _Troyes_ has given its name to _troy_ weight. The armourers of _Bilbao_, in Spain, made swords of such perfect temper that they could be bent point to hilt. Hence Falstaff describes himself in the buck-basket as--

”Compa.s.sed, like a good _bilbo_, in the circ.u.mference of a peck, hilt to point, heel to head.”

(_Merry Wives_, iii. 5.)

The _Andrea Ferrara_, or Scottish broadsword, carried by Fergus M'Ivor, bears, according to some authorities, the name of an armourer of Ferrara, in Italy. According to others, _Andrea dei Ferrari_ was a sword-maker at Belluno. I have heard it affirmed by a Scottish drill-sergeant that the real name of this genius was _Andrew Ferrars_,[38] and that he belonged to the same nationality as other great men.