Part 14 (1/2)
_signor_, Span. _senor_, with their compounds _monsieur_, _messer_, etc., all representing either _senior_ or _seniorem_. Ger. _Eltern_, parents, is the plural comparative of _alt_, old, and the first element of _seneschal_ (see _marshal_, p. 90) is cognate with Lat. _senex_. From Fr. _sire_ comes Eng. _sir_, and from this was formed the adjective _sirly_,[70] now spelt _surly_, which in Shakespeare still means haughty, arrogant--
”See how the _surly_ Warwick mans the wall.”
(3 _Henry VI._, v. 1.)
[Page Heading: LIST--MATELOT]
A _list_, in the sense of enumeration, is a ”strip.” The cognate German word is _Leiste_, border. We have the original meaning in ”_list_ slippers.” Fr. _bordereau_, a list, which became very familiar in connection with the Dreyfus case, is a diminutive of _bord_, edge.
_Label_ is the same word as Old Fr. _lambel_ (_lambeau_), rag. _Scroll_ is an alteration, perhaps due to _roll_, of Mid. Eng. _scrow_ or _escrow_, from Old Fr. _escroue_,[71] rag, shred. _Docket_, earlier _dogget_, is from an old Italian diminutive of _doga_, cask-stave, which meant a bendlet in heraldry. _Schedule_ is a diminutive of Lat.
_scheda_, ”a scrowe” (Cooper), properly a strip of papyrus. Ger.
_Zettel_, bill, ticket, is the same word. Thus all these words, more or less kindred in meaning, can be reduced to the primitive notion of strip or sc.r.a.p.
_Farce_, from French, means stuffing. The verb to _farce_, which represents Lat. _farcire_, survives in the perverted _force_-meat. A parallel is _satire_, from Lat. _satura_ (_lanx_), a full dish, hence a medley. Somewhat similar is the modern meaning of _magazine_, a ”store-house” of amus.e.m.e.nt or information.
The closest form of intimacy is represented by community of board and lodging, or, in older phraseology, ”bed and board.” _Companion_, with its related words, belongs to Vulgar Lat. _*companio_, _companion-_, bread-sharer. The same idea is represented by the pleonastic Eng.
_messmate_, the second part of which, _mate_, is related to _meat_.
_Mess_, food, Old Fr. _mes_ (_mets_), Lat. _missum_, is in modern English only military or naval, but was once the usual name for a dish of food--
”Herbs and other country _messes_ Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses.”
(_Allegro_, l. 85.)
With _mate_ we may compare Fr. _matelot_, earlier _matenot_, representing Du. _maat_, meat, and _genoot_, a companion. The latter word is cognate with Ger. _Genosse_, a companion, from _geniessen_, to enjoy or use together. In early Dutch we find also _mattegenoet_, through popular a.s.sociation with _matte_, hammock, one hammock serving, by a Box and c.o.x arrangement, for two sailors.
_Comrade_ is from Fr. _camarade_, and this from Span. _camarada_, originally a ”room-full,” called in the French army _une chambree_. This corresponds to Ger. _Geselle_, comrade, from _Saal_, room. The reduction of the collective to the individual is paralleled by Ger. _Bursche_, fellow, from Mid. High Ger. _burse_, college hostel; cf. _Frauenzimmer_, wench, lit. women's room. It can hardly be doubted that _chum_ is a corrupted clip from _chamber-fellow_.[72] It is thus explained in a _Dictionary of the Canting Crew_ (1690), within a few years of its earliest recorded occurrence, and the reader will remember Mr Pickwick's introduction to the _chummage_ system in the Fleet (Ch. 42).
[Page Heading: c.u.mMER--GREENHORN]
English _gossip_, earlier _G.o.d-sib_, related in G.o.d, a sponsor, soon developed the subsidiary meanings of boon companion, crony, tippler, babbler, etc., all of which are represented in Shakespeare. The case of Fr. _compere_ and _commere_, G.o.dfather and G.o.dmother, is similar.
Cotgrave explains _commerage_ as ”gossiping; the acquaintance, affinity, or league that growes betweene women by christning a child together, or one for another.” Ger. _Gevatter_, G.o.dfather, has also acquired the sense of Fr. _bonhomme_ (p. 80), Eng. _daddy_. From _commere_ comes Scot. _c.u.mmer_ or _kimmer_--
”A canty quean was Kate, and a special _c.u.mmer_ of my ain.”
(_Monastery_, Ch. 8.)
While christenings led to cheerful garrulity, the wilder fun of weddings has given the Fr. _faire la noce_, to go on the spree. In Ger.
_Hochzeit_, wedding, lit. high time, we have a converse development of meaning.
Parallel sense development in different languages sometimes gives us a glimpse of the life of our ancestors. Our verb to _curry_ (leather) comes from Old Fr. _correer_[73] (_courroyer_), to make ready, put in order, which represents a theoretical _*con-red-are_, the root syllable of which is Germanic and cognate with our _ready_. Ger. _gerben_, to tan, Old High Ger. _garawen_, to make ready, is a derivative of _gar_, ready, complete, now used only as an adverb meaning ”quite,” but cognate with our _yare_--
”Our s.h.i.+p-- Which, but three gla.s.ses since, we gave out split-- Is tight, and _yare_, and bravely rigg'd.”
(_Tempest_, v. 1.)
Both _curry_ and _gerben_ must have acquired their restricted meaning at a time when there was literally nothing like leather.
Even in slang we find the same parallelism exemplified. We call an old-fas.h.i.+oned watch a _turnip_. In German it is called _Zwiebel_, onion, and in French _oignon_. Eng. _greenhorn_ likens an inexperienced person to an animal whose horns have just begun to sprout. In Ger.
_Gelbschnabel_, yellow-bill, and Fr. _bec-jaune_, we have the metaphor of the fledgling. Ludwig explains _Gelbschnabel_ by ”chitty-face,”
_chit_, cognate with _kit_-ten, being a general term in Mid. English for a young animal. From _bec-jaune_ we have archaic Scot. _beejam_, university freshman. Cotgrave spells the French word _bejaune_, and gives, as he usually does for such words,[74] a very full gloss, which happens, by exception, to be quotable--
”A novice; a late prentice to, or young beginner in, a trade, or art; also, a simple, ignorant, unexperienced, a.s.se; a rude, unfas.h.i.+oned, home-bred hoydon; a sot, ninny, doult, noddy; one that's blankt, and hath nought to say, when he hath most need to speake.”
The Englishman intimates that a thing has ceased to please by saying that he is ”fed up” with it. The Frenchman says, ”J'en ai soupe.” Both these metaphors are quite modern, but they express in flippant form the same figure of physical satiety which is as old as language. _Padding_ is a comparatively new word in connection with literary composition, but it reproduces, with a slightly different meaning, the figure expressed by _bombast_, lit. wadding, a derivative of Greco-Lat. _bombyx_, originally ”silk-worm,” whence also _bombasine_. We may compare also ”_fustian_ eloquence”--