Part 20 (2/2)

_cervellato_, ”a kinde of dry sausage” (Florio), said to have been originally made from pig's brains. For _hatchment_ we find in the 16th century _achement_, and even _achievement_. It is archaic Fr.

_hachement_, the ornamental crest of a helmet, etc., probably derived from Old Fr. _achemer_, variant of _acesmer_, to adorn. Hence both the French and English forms have an unexplained _h-_, the earlier _achement_ being nearer the original. French _omelette_ has a bewildering history, but we can trace it almost to its present form. To begin with, an _omelet_, in spite of proverbs, is not necessarily a.s.sociated with eggs. The origin is to be found in Lat. _lamella_, a thin plate,[101] which gave Old Fr. _lamelle_. Then _la lamelle_ was taken as _l'alamelle_, and the new _alamelle_ or _alemelle_ became, with change of suffix, _alemette_. By metathesis (see p. 59) this gave _amelette_, still in dialect use, for which modern French has subst.i.tuted _omelette_. The _o_ then remains unexplained, unless we admit the influence of the old form _uf-mollet_, a product of folk-etymology.

_Counterpane_ represents Old Fr. _coute-pointe_, now corruptly _courte-pointe_, from Lat. _culcita puncta_, lit. ”st.i.tched quilt”; _cf._ Ger. _Steppdecke_, counterpane, from _steppen_, to st.i.tch. In Old French we also find the corrupt form _contrepointe_ which gave Eng.

_counterpoint_--

”In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns; In cypress chests my arras, _counterpoints_, Costly apparel, tents and canopies.”

(_Taming of the Shrew_, ii. 1.)

in modern English replaced by _counterpane_. Mid. English has also the more correct form _quilt-point_, from the Old Norman _cuilte (pur)pointe_, which occurs in a 12th-century poem on St Thomas of Canterbury. The hooped petticoat called a _farthingale_ was spelt by Shakespeare _fardingale_ and by Cotgrave _vardingall_. This is Old Fr.

_verdugalle_, of Spanish origin and derived from Span. _verdugo_, a (green) wand, because the circ.u.mference was stiffened with flexible switches before the application of whalebone or steel to this purpose.

The _crinoline_, as its name implies, was originally strengthened with horse-hair, Lat. _crinis_, hair. To return to the _farthingale_, the insertion of an _n_ before _g_ is common in English (see p. 84, _n._ 2), but the change of the initial consonant is baffling. The modern Fr.

_vertugadin_ is also a corrupt form. _Isingla.s.s_ seems to be an arbitrary perversion of obsolete Du. _huyzenblas_ (_huisblad_), sturgeon bladder; _cf._ the cognate Ger. _Hausenblase_.

Few words have suffered so many distortions as _liquorice_. The original is Greco-Lat. _glycyrrhiza_, lit. ”sweet root,” corrupted into late Lat. _liquiritia_, whence Fr. _reglisse_, Ital. _legorizia_, _regolizia_, and Ger. _Lakritze_. The Mid. English form _licoris_ would appear to have been influenced by _orris_, a plant which also has a sweet root, while the modern spelling is perhaps due to _liquor_.

FOOTNOTES:

[89] _Sack_, earlier also _seck_, is Fr. _sec_, dry, which, with spurious _t_, has also given Ger. _Sekt_, now used for champagne.

[90] Fr. _chaise_, chair, for older _chaire_, now used only of a pulpit or professorial chair, Lat. _cathedra_, is due to an affected p.r.o.nunciation that prevailed in Paris in the 16th century.

[91] The fact that in Old French the final consonant of the singular disappeared in the plural form helped to bring about such misunderstandings.

[92] For _haggard_ see p. 108.

[93] In Old French confusion sometimes arose with regard to final consonants, because of their disappearance in the plural (see p. 118, _n._). In _gerfaut_, gerfalcon, for Old Fr. _gerfauc_, the less familiar final _-c_ was, as in _boulevart_, replaced by the more usual _-t_.

[94] An unoriginal _g_ occurs in many English words derived from French, e.g., _foreign_, _sovereign_, older _sovran_, _sprightly_ for _spritely_, i.e., _sprite-like_, _delight_, from Old Fr. _delit_, which belongs to Lat. _delectare_.

[95] ”Also, that no 'denizen' poulterer shall stand at the 'Carfax' of Leadenhall in a house or without, with rabbits, fowls, or other poultry to sell ... and that the 'foreign' poulterers, with their poultry, shall stand by themselves, and sell their poultry at the corner of Leadenhall, without any 'denizen' poulterer coming or meddling in sale or purchase with them, or among them.”

The word _carfax_, once the usual name for a ”cross-way,” survives at Oxford and Exeter. It is a plural, from Fr. _carrefour_, Vulgar Lat.

_*quadrifurc.u.m_ (for _furca_), four-fork.

[96] This word is getting overworked, _e.g._, ”The Derbys.h.i.+re Golf Club links were yesterday the _venue_ of a 72-hole match” (_Nottingham Guardian_, 21st Nov. 1911).

[97] _Cf._ Ger. _schenken_, to pour, and the Tudor word _skinker_, a drawer, waiter (1 _Henry IV._, ii. 4).

[98] Perhaps it is the mere instinct to make an unfamiliar word ”look like something.” Thus Fr. _beaupre_, from Eng. _bowsprit_, cannot conceivably have been a.s.sociated with a fair meadow; and _accomplice_, for _complice_, Lat. _complex_, _complic-_, can hardly have been confused with _accomplish_.

[99] Lat. _praeposterus_, from _prae_, before, and _posterus_, behind.

[100] This etymology is, however, now regarded as doubtful, and it seems likely that Old Fr. _escurie_ is really derived from _escuyer_. If so, there is no question of contamination.

[101] We have a parallel in Fr. _flan_, Eng. _flawn_, Ger. _Fladen_, etc., a kind of omelet, ultimately related to Eng. _flat_--

”The feast was over, the board was clear'd, The _flawns_ and the custards had all disappear'd.”

(INGOLDSBY, _Jackdaw of Rheims_.)

<script>