Part 9 (1/2)

All words tend in popular usage to undergo a certain amount of shrinkage. The reduction of Lat. _digitale_, from _digitus_, finger, to Fr. _de_, thimble (little thumb) is a striking example. The strong tonic accent of English, which is usually on the first, or root, syllable, brings about a kind of telescoping which makes us very unintelligible to foreigners. This is seen in the p.r.o.nunciation of names such as _Cholmondeley_ and _Marjoribanks_. _Bethlehem_ hospital, for lunatics, becomes _bedlam_; Mary _Magdalene_, taken as a type of tearful repentance, gives us _maudlin_, now generally used of the lachrymose stage of intoxication. _Sacristan_ is contracted into _s.e.xton_. Fr.

_paralysie_ becomes _palsy_, and _hydropisie_ becomes _dropsy_. The fuller form of the word usually persists in the literary language, or is artificially introduced at a later period, so that we get such doublets as _proctor_ and _procurator_.

In the case of French words which have a prefix, this prefix is very frequently dropped in English, e.g., _raiment_ for _arrayment_; while suffixes, or final syllables, often disappear, _e.g._, treasure _trove_, for Old Fr. _trove_ (_trouve_), or become a.s.similated to some familiar English ending, e.g., _parish_, Fr. _paroisse_, _skirmish_, Fr.

_escarmouche_; _cartridge_, Fr. _cartouche_, _partridge_, Fr. _perdrix_.

A good example of such shrinkage is the word _vamp_, part of a shoe, Old Fr. _avant-pie_ (_pied_), which became Mid. Eng. _vampey_, and then lost its final syllable. We may compare _vambrace_, armour for the forearm, Fr. _avant-bras_, _vanguard_, Fr. _avant-garde_, often reduced to _van_--

”Go, charge Agrippa Plant those that have revolted in the _van_; That Antony may seem to spend his fury Upon himself.”

(_Antony and Cleopatra_, iv. 6.)

and the obsolete _vaunt-courier_, forerunner--

”You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, _Vaunt-couriers_ of oak-cleaving thunderbolts.”

(_Lear_, iii. 2.)

When the initial vowel is _a-_, its loss may have been helped by confusion with the indefinite article. Thus for _anatomy_ we find _atomy_, for a skeleton or scarecrow figure, applied by Mistress Quickly to the constable (2 _Henry IV._, v. 4). _Peal_ is for _appeal_, call; _mend_ for _amend_, _lone_ for _alone_, i.e., _all one_. _Peach_, used by Falstaff--

”If I be ta'en, I'll _peach_ for this.”

(1 _Henry IV._, ii. 2.)

is for older _appeach_, related to _impeach_. _Size_, in all its senses, is for _a.s.size_, Fr. _a.s.sise_, with a general meaning of allowance or a.s.sessment, from Fr. _a.s.seoir_, to put, lay. _Sizars_ at Cambridge are properly students in receipt of certain allowances called _sizings_.

With painters' _size_ we may compare Ital. _a.s.sisa_, ”_size_ that painters use” (Florio). We use the form _a.s.size_ in speaking of the ”sitting” of the judges, but those most familiar with this tribunal speak of being tried at the _'sizes_. The obsolete word _cate_, on which Petruchio plays--

”For dainties are all _cates_--and therefore, Kate, Take this of me, Kate of my consolation.”

(_Taming of the Shrew_, ii. 1.)

is for earlier _acate_, an Old French dialect form corresponding to modern Fr. _achat_, purchase. The man entrusted with purchasing was called an _acatour_ or _catour_ (whence the name _Cator_), later _cater_, now extended to _caterer_, like _fruiterer_ for _fruiter_, _poulterer_ for _poulter_ and _upholsterer_ for _upholdster_ or _upholder_.[46]

_Limbeck_ has been squeezed out by the orthodox _alembic_--

”Memory the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A _limbeck_ only.”

(_Macbeth_, i. 7.)

and _prentice_ has given way to _apprentice_. _Tire_ and _attire_ both survive, and _maze_ persists by the side of _amaze_ with the special sense which I have heard a Notts collier express by _puzzle-garden_ (_cf._ Ger. _Irrgarten_). _Binnacle_ is a corruption, perhaps due to a.s.sociation with _bin_, of earlier _bittacle_, from Lat. _habitaculum_, a little dwelling. It may have come to us through Fr. _habitacle_ or Port. _bitacola_, ”the _bittacle_, a frame of timber in the steerage, where the compa.s.s is placed on board a s.h.i.+p” (Vieyra, _Port. Dict._, 1794). As King of Scotland, King George has a household official known as the _limner_, or painter. For _limner_[47] we find in the 15th century _lumner_ and _luminour_, which is aphetic for _alluminour_, or _enlumineur_. Cotgrave, s.v. _enlumineur de livres_, says, ”we call one that coloureth, or painteth upon, paper, or parchment, an _alluminer_.”

[Page Heading: APHESIS]

But confusion with the article is not necessary in order to bring about aphesis. It occurs regularly in the case of words beginning with _esc_, _esp_, _est_, borrowed from Old French (see p. 56). Thus we have _squire_ from _escuyer_ (_ecuyer_), _skew_ from Old Fr. _eschuer_, to dodge, ”eschew,” ultimately cognate with Eng. _shy_, _spice_ from _espice_ (_epice_), _sprite_ from _esprit_, _stage_ from _estage_ (_etage_), etc. In some cases we have the fuller form also, e.g., _esquire_, _eschew_; cf. _sample_ and _example_. _Fender_, whether before a fireplace or slung outside a s.h.i.+p, is for _defender_; _fence_ is always for _defence_, either in the sense of a barrier or in allusion to the n.o.ble art of self-defence.[48] The _tender_ of a s.h.i.+p or of a locomotive is the _attender_, and _taint_ is aphetic for _attaint_, Fr.

_atteinte_, touch--

”I will not poison thee with my _attaint_.”

(_Lucrece_, l. 1072.)

_Puzzle_ was in Mid. Eng. _opposaile_, _i.e._, something put before one.

We still speak of ”a poser.”

_Spital_, for _hospital_, survives in _Spitalfields_, and _Spittlegate_ at Grantham and elsewhere. _Crew_ is for _accrewe_ (Holinshed). It meant properly a reinforcement, lit. on-growth, from Fr. _accroitre_, to accrue. In _recruit_, we have a later instance of the same idea. Fr.

_recrue_, recruit, from _recroitre_, to grow again, is still feminine, like many other military terms which were originally abstract or collective. Cotgrave has _recreue_, ”a supplie, or filling up of a defective company of souldiers, etc.” We have _possum_ for _opossum_, and _c.o.o.n_ for _rac.o.o.n_, and this for _arrahacoune_, which I find in a 16th-century record of travel; _cf._ American _skeeter_ for _mosquito_.

In these two cases we perhaps have also the deliberate intention to shorten (see p. 66), as also in the obsolete Australian _tench_, for the aphetic _'tentiary_, i.e., _penitentiary_. With this we may compare _'tec_ for _detective_.