Part 12 (1/2)

”Certain it was that s.h.a.gram _reisted_, and I ken Martin thinks he saw something.”

(_Monastery_, Ch. 4.)

Dryden even uses _restive_ in the sense of sluggish--

”So James the drowsy genius wakes Of Britain, long entranced in charms, _Restive_, and slumbering on its arms.”

(_Threnodia Augustalis._)

_Reasty_, used of meat that has ”stood” too long, is the same word (cf.

_testy_, Old Fr. _testif_, heady), and _rusty_ bacon is probably folk-etymology for _reasty_ bacon--

”And then came haltyng Jone, And brought a gambone Of bakon that was _reasty_.”

(SKELTON, _Elynour Rummyng_.)

_Sterling_ has an obscure history. It is from Old Fr. _esterlin_, a coin which etymologists of an earlier age connected with the _Easterlings_, or Hanse merchants, who formed one of the great mercantile communities of the Middle Ages; and perhaps some such a.s.sociation is responsible for the meaning that _sterling_ has acquired; but chronology shows this traditional etymology to be impossible. We find _unus sterlingus_ in a medieval Latin doc.u.ment of 1184, and the Old Fr. _esterlin_ occurs in Wace's _Roman de Rou_ (Romaunt of Rollo the Sea King), which was written before 1175. Hence it is conjectured that the original coin was named from the _star_ which appears on some Norman pennies.

When Horatio says--

”It is a nipping and an _eager_ air.”

(_Hamlet_, i. 4.)

we are reminded that _eager_ is identical with the second part of vin-_egar_, Fr. _aigre_, sour, Lat. _acer_, keen. It seems hardly possible to explain the modern sense of _nice_, which in the course of its history has traversed nearly the whole diatonic scale between ”rotten” and ”ripping.” In Mid. English and Old French it means foolish.

Cotgrave explains it by ”lither, lazie, sloathful, idle; faint, slack; dull, simple,” and Shakespeare uses it in a great variety of meanings.

It is supposed to come from Lat. _nescius_, ignorant. The transition from _fond_, foolish, which survives in ”_fond_ hopes,” to _fond_, loving, is easy. French _fou_ is used in exactly the same way. _Cf._ also to _dote_ on, _i.e._, to be foolish about. _Puny_ is Fr. _puine_, from _puis ne_, later born, junior, whence the _puisne_ justices. Milton uses it of a minor--

”He must appear in print like a _puny_ with his guardian.”

(_Areopagitica._)

_Petty_, Fr. _pet.i.t_, was similarly used for a small boy.

In some cases a complimentary adjective loses its true meaning and takes on a contemptuous or ironic sense. None of us care to be called _bland_, and to describe a man as _worthy_ is to apologise for his existence. We may compare Fr. _bonhomme_, which now means generally an old fool, and _bonne femme_, good-wife, goody. _Dapper_, the Dutch for brave (_cf._ Ger. _tapfer_), and _pert_, Mid. Eng. _apert_, representing in meaning Lat. _expertus_, have changed much since Milton wrote of--

”The _pert_ fairies and the _dapper_ elves.”

(_Comus_, l. 118.)

_Pert_ seems in fact to have acquired the meaning of its opposite _malapert_, though the older sense of brisk, sprightly, survives in dialect--

”He looks spry and _peart_ for once.”

(Phillpotts, _American Prisoner_, Ch. 3.)

_Smug_, cognate with Ger. _schmuck_, trim, elegant, beautiful, has its original sense in Shakespeare--

”And here the _smug_ and silver Trent shall run In a new channel, fair and evenly.”

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

The degeneration of an adjective is sometimes due to its employment for euphemistic purposes. The favourite subst.i.tute for _fat_ is _stout_, properly strong,[57] dauntless, etc., cognate with Ger. _stolz_, proud.

Precisely the same euphemism appears in French, e.g., ”une dame un peu _forte_.” _Ugly_ is replaced in English by _plain_, and in American by _homely_--

”She is not so handsome as these, maybe, but her _homeliness_ is not actually alarming.”

(MAX ADELER, _Mr Skinner's Night in the Underworld_.)