Part 11 (1/2)

21) and to _canva.s.s_, _i.e._ sift through _canvas_, meant the same thing. Yet how different is their later sense development.

[Page Heading: BAN--BUREAU]

There is a word _ban_, found in Old High German and Anglo-Saxon, and meaning, as far back as it can be traced, a proclamation containing a threat, hence a command or prohibition. We have it in _banish_, to put under the _ban_. The proclamation idea survives in the _banns_ of marriage and in Fr. _arriere-ban_, ”a proclamation, whereby those that hold authority of the king in mesne tenure, are summoned to a.s.semble, and serve him in his warres” (Cotgrave). This is folk-etymology for Old Fr. _arban_, Old High Ger. _hari-ban_, army summons. Slanting off from the primitive idea of proclamation is that of rule or authority. The French for outskirts is _banlieue_, properly the ”circuit of a league, or thereabouts” (Cotgrave) over which the local authority extended. All public inst.i.tutions within such a radius were a.s.sociated with _ban_, e.g., _un four_, _un moulin a ban_, ”a comon oven or mill whereat all men may, and every tenant and va.s.sall must, bake, and grind” (Cotgrave).

The French adjective _ba.n.a.l_, used in this connection, gradually developed from the meaning of ”common” that of ”common-place,” in which sense it is now familiar in English.[52]

_Bureau_, a desk, was borrowed from French in the 17th century. In modern French it means not only the desk, but also the office itself and the authority exercised by the office. Hence our familiar _bureaucracy_, likely to become increasingly familiar. The desk was so called because covered with _bureau_, Old Fr. _burel_, ”a thicke course cloath, of a brown russet, or darke mingled, colour” (Cotgrave), whence Mid. Eng.

_borel_, rustic, clownish, lit. roughly clad, which occurs as late as Spenser--

”How be I am but rude and _borrel_, Yet nearer ways I know.”

(_Shepherd's Calendar_, July, l. 95.)

With this we may compare the metaphorical use of _home-spun_--

”What hempen _home-spuns_ have we swaggering here, So near the cradle of the fairy queen?”

(_Midsummer Night's Dream_, iii. 1.)

The source of Old Fr. _burel_ is perhaps Lat. _burrus_, fiery, from Gk.

p??, fire.

_Romance_ was originally an adverb. To write in the vulgar tongue, instead of in cla.s.sical Latin, was called _romanice scribere_, Old Fr.

_romanz escrire_. When _romanz_ became felt as a noun, it developed a ”singular” _roman_ or _romant_, the latter of which gave the archaic Eng. _romaunt_. The most famous of Old French romances are the epic poems called _Chansons de geste_, songs of exploits, _geste_ coming from the Lat. _gesta_, deeds. Eng. _gest_ or _jest_ is common in the 16th and 17th centuries in the sense of act, deed, and _jest_-book meant a story-book. As the favourite story-books were merry tales, the word gradually acquired its present meaning.

A part of our Anglo-Saxon church vocabulary was supplanted by Latin or French words. Thus Anglo-Sax. _ge-bed_, prayer, was gradually expelled by Old Fr. _preiere_ (_priere_), Lat. _precaria_. It has survived in _beadsman_--

”The _beadsman_, after thousand aves told, For aye unsought-for slept among his ashes cold.”

(KEATS, _Eve of St Agnes_.)

_beadroll_, and _bead_, now applied only to the humble device employed in counting prayers.

Not only the Romance languages, but also German and Dutch, adopted, with the Roman character, Lat. _scribere_, to write. English, on the contrary, preserved the native to _write_, _i.e._ to scratch (runes), giving to _scribere_ only a limited sense, to _shrive_. The curious change of meaning was perhaps due to the fact that the priestly absolution was felt as having the validity of a ”written” law or enactment.

[Page Heading: PUDDING--STICKLER]

The meaning which we generally give to _pudding_ is comparatively modern. The older sense appears in _black pudding_, a sausage made of pig's blood. This is also the meaning of Fr. _boudin_, whence _pudding_ comes. A still older meaning of both words is intestine, a sense still common in dialect. The derivation of the word is obscure, but it is probably related to Fr. _bouder_, to pout, whence _boudoir_, lit. a sulking-room.

A _hea.r.s.e_, now the vehicle in which a coffin is carried, is used by Shakespeare for a coffin or tomb. Its earlier meaning is a framework to support candles, usually put round the coffin at a funeral. This framework was so named from some resemblance to a harrow,[53] Fr.

_herse_, Lat. _hirpex_, _hirpic-_, a rake.

_Treacle_ is a stock example of great change of meaning. It is used in Coverdale's Bible (1535) for the ”_balm_ in Gilead” of the _Authorised Version_--

”There is no more _triacle_ at Galaad.”[54]

(Jeremiah, vii. 22.)

Old Fr. _triacle_ is from Greco-Lat. _theriaca_, a remedy against poison or snake-bite (???, a wild beast). In Mid. English and later it was used of a sovereign remedy. It has, like _sirup_ (p. 146), acquired its present meaning _via_ the apothecary's shop.

A _stickler_ is now a man who is fussy about small points of etiquette or procedure. In Shakespeare he is one who parts combatants--

”The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth, And, _stickler_-like, the armies separates.”

(_Troilus and Cressida_, v. 8.)