Part 17 (1/2)
[86] Or perhaps _*alboculare_, as _albus oculus_, lit. white eye, is used of blindness in an early Vulgar Latin glossary.
[87] Of uncertain origin. Lat. _putare_, to cut (cf. _amputate_), or Gk.
?f?t??, implanted?
[88] From _oculus_, eye, in the sense of bud.
CHAPTER IX
FOLK-ETYMOLOGY
The sound, spelling, and even the meaning of a word are often perverted by influences to which the collective name of folk-etymology has been given. I here use the term to include all phenomena which are due to any kind of misunderstanding of a word. A word beginning with _n_ sometimes loses this sound through its being confused with the _n_ of the indefinite article _an_. Thus _an adder_ and _an auger_ are for _a nadder_ (_cf._ Ger. _Natter_) and _a nauger_, Mid. Eng. _navegor_, properly an instrument for piercing the _nave_ of a wheel. _Ap.r.o.n_ was in Mid. English _naprun_, from Old Fr. _naperon_, a derivative of _nappe_, cloth. The _aitch-bone_ was formerly the _nache-bone_, from Old Fr. _nache_, b.u.t.tock, Vulgar Lat. _*natica_ for _nates_. _Nache_ is still used by French butchers. _Humble-pie_ is a popular perversion of _umble-pie_, _i.e._, a pie made from the _umbles_, or inferior parts of the stag. But _umble_ is for earlier _numble_, Old Fr. _nomble_, formed, with dissimilation, from Lat. _lumbulus_, diminutive of _lumbus_, loin; cf. _niveau_ (p. 58). Thus _humble-pie_ has etymologically no connection with humility. _Umpire_ represents Old Fr. _non per_ (_pair_), not equal, the _umpire_ being a third person called in when arbitrators could not agree. This appears clearly in the following extract from a medieval letter--
”And if so be that the said arbitrators may not accord before the said feast of Allhalowes, then the said parties be the advise abovesaid are agreed to abide the award and ordinance of an _noumper_ to be chosen be the said arbitrators.”
(_Plumpton Correspondence_, 1431.)
For the sense we may compare Span. _tercero_, ”the third, a broaker, a mediator” (Percyvall). _An eyas_ falcon is for _a neyas_ falcon, Fr.
_niais_, foolish, lit. nestling, related to _nid_, nest. Rosenkrantz uses it in the literal sense--
”But there is, sir, an aiery of children, little _eyases_, that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyranically clapped for't.”
(_Hamlet_, ii. 2.)
Somewhat similar is the loss in French of initial _a_ in _la boutique_ for _l'aboutique_, Greco-Lat. _apotheca_, and _la Pouille_ for _l'Apouille_, Apulia, or of the initial _l_ in _ounce_, a kind of tiger-cat, from Fr. _once_, earlier _lonce_, ”the _ounce_, a ravenous beast” (Cotgrave), taken as _l'once_. It is almost a doublet of _lynx_.
The opposite has happened in the case of _a newt_ for _an ewt_ and _a nick-name_ for _an eke-name_. _Eke_, also, occurs in the first stanza of John Gilpin. It is cognate with Ger. _auch_, also, and Lat. _augere_, to increase. _Nuncle_, the customary address of a court fool to his superiors--
”How now, _nuncle_! Would I had two c.o.xcombs and two daughters.”
(_Lear_, i. 4.)
is for _mine uncle_. We also find _naunt_. _Nonce_ occurs properly only in the phrase _for the nonce_, which is for earlier _for then ones_, where _then_ is the dative of the definite article. Family names like _Nash_, _Nokes_ are aphetic for _atten ash_, at the ash, _atten oakes_, at the oaks. The creation of such forms was perhaps helped by our tendency to use initial _n_ in Christian names, e.g., _Ned_ for _Edward_, _Noll_ for _Oliver_, _Nell_ for _Ellen_.
[Page Heading: AGGLUTINATION OF THE ARTICLE]
Agglutination of the definite article is common in French, e.g., _lingot_, ingot, _lierre_, ivy, for _l'ierre_, Lat. _hedera_, and the dialect _levier_, sink, for _evier_, Lat. _aquarium_, whence Eng.
_ewer_. The derivation of Fr. _landier_, andiron, is unknown, but the _iron_ of the English word is due to folk-etymology. Such agglutination occurs often in family names such as _Langlois_, lit. the Englishman, _Lhuissier_, the usher (see p. 90), and some of these have pa.s.sed into English, e.g., _Levick_ for _l'eveque_, the bishop.
The two words _alarm_ and _alert_ include the Italian definite article.
The first is Ital. _all'arme_, to arms, for _a le arme_, and the second is _all'erta_ for _alla (a la) erta_, the last word representing Lat.
_erecta_. With rolled _r_, _alarm_ becomes _alarum_, whence the aphetic _larum_--
”Then we shall hear their _larum_, and they ours.”
(_Coriola.n.u.s_, i. 4.)
Ger. _Larm_, noise, is the same word. In Luther's time we also find _Allerm_.
We have the Arabic definite article in a great many words borrowed from Spanish. _Alcalde_, or _alcade_, and _alguazil_, common in Elizabethan literature, are two old friends from the _Arabian Nights_, the _cadi_ and the _wazir_, or _vizier_. The Arabic article also occurs in _acton_, Old Fr. _auqueton_, now _hoqueton_, for _al qutn_ (cotton), because originally used of a wadded coat--
”But Cranstoun's lance, of more avail, Pierced through, like silk, the Borderer's mail; Through s.h.i.+eld, and jack, and _acton_ past, Deep in his bosom broke at last.”
(SCOTT, _Lay_, iii. 6.)
In _alligator_, Span. _el lagarto_, the lizard, from Lat. _lacertus_, we have the Spanish definite article. See also _lariat_, p. 24.