Part 26 (1/2)

_waucrant_, present participle of _waucrer_, a common verb in the Picard dialect, perhaps related to Eng. _walk_. Cotgrave spells it _vaucrer_, ”to range, roame, vagary, wander, idly (idle) it up and down.” Cotgrave also attributes to it the special meaning of a s.h.i.+p sailing ”whither wind and tide will carry it,” the precise sense in which it is used in the 13th-century romance of _Auca.s.sin et Nicolette_.

Other examples of mistaken a.s.sociation are _scullion_ and _scullery_ (p.

43), and _sentry_ and _sentinel_ (p. 102). Many years ago _Punch_ had a picture by Du Maurier called the ”_Vikings_ of Whitby,” followed by a companion picture, the ”_Viqueens_.” The word is not _vi-king_ but _vik-ing_, the first syllable probably representing an Old Norse form of Anglo-Sax. _wic_, encampment.

FOOTNOTES:

[112] Kluge, _Etymologisches Worterbuch_.

[113] Now abbreviated to _miss_ in a special sense.

[114] The _Bowery_ of New York was formerly a homestead.

[115] Knave of trumps.

[116] In modern French the lemon is called _citron_ and the citron _cedrat_.

[117] In the chapter on ”_Artillery_.” So also, in the _Authorised Version_--”Jonathan gave his _artillery_ (his bow and arrows) unto his lad, and said unto him, 'Go, carry them into the city.'” (1 Samuel, xx.

40.) It is curious that the words _artillery_ and _gun_ both belong to the pre-gunpowder period.

[118] Hence, or rather from Du. _hals_, the _hawse_-holes, the ”throat”

through which the cable runs.

[119] Ger. _all aus_, all out.

[120] Hence the _Mall_ and _Pall-Mall_, where games like croquet were played.

[121] The _g-_ represents the Old High German prefix _gi-_, _ge-_. _Cf._ Eng. _luck_ and Ger. _Gluck_.

CHAPTER XII

FAMILY NAMES

In the study of family names we come across very much the same phenomena as in dealing with other words. They are subject to the same phonetic accidents and to the distortions of folk-etymology, being ”altered strangely to significative words by the common sort, who desire to make all to be significative” (Camden, _Remains concerning Britain_).

Doublets and h.o.m.onyms are of frequent occurrence, and the origin of some names is obscured by the well-meaning efforts of early philologists. It might be expected that a family name would by its very nature tend to preserve its original form. This is, however, not the case. In old parish registers one often finds on one page two or three different spellings for the same name, and there are said to be a hundred and thirty variants of _Mainwaring_.[122] The telescoped p.r.o.nunciation of long names such as Cholmondeley, Daventry, Marjoribanks, Strachan, is a familiar phenomenon, and very often the shorter form persists separately, _e.g._, _Posnett_ and _Poslett_ occur often in Westmoreland for _Postlethwaite_; _Beecham_ exists by the side of _Beauchamp_; _Saint Clair_ and _Saint Maur_ are usually reduced to _Sinclair_ and _Seymour_; _Boon_[123] and _Moon_ disguise the aristocratic _Bohun_ and _Mohun_. In a story by Mr Wells, _Miss Winchelsea's Heart_, the name _Snooks_ is gradually improved to _Sevenoaks_, from which in all probability it originally came, via _Senoaks_; cf. _sennight_ for _seven-night_, and such names as _Fiveash_, _Twelvetrees_, etc.

Folk-etymology converts _Arblaster_, the cross-bowman, into _Alabaster_, _ThurG.o.d_ into _Thoroughgood_, and the Cornish _Hannibal_ into _Honeyball_. _Beaufoy_ is a grammatical monstrosity. Its older form is _Beaufou_, fine beech (see p. 129), with an ambiguous second syllable.

_Malthus_ looks like Latin, but is identical with _Malthouse_, just as _Bellows_ is for _Bellhouse_, _Loftus_ for _Lofthouse_, and _Bacchus_, fined for intoxication, Jan. 5, 1911, for _Bakehouse_. But many odd names which are often explained as corruptions may also have their face-value. The first _Gotobed_ was a sluggard, _G.o.dbehere_ was fond of this pious form of greeting, and _Goodbeer_ purveyed sound liquor. With _Toogood_, perhaps ironical, we may compare Fr. _Troplong_, and with _Goodenough_ a lady named _Belle-a.s.sez_, often mentioned in the Pipe Rolls. _Physick_ occurs as a medieval nickname.

Family names fall into four great cla.s.ses, which are, in descending order of size, local, baptismal, functional, and nicknames. But we have a great many h.o.m.onyms, names capable of two or more explanations. Thus _Bell_ may be for Fr. _le bel_ or from a shop-sign, _Collet_ a diminutive of _Nicholas_ or an aphetic form of _acolyte_. _Dennis_ is usually for _Dionysius_, but sometimes for _le Danois_, the Dane; _Gillott_, and all family names beginning with _Gill-_, may be from _Gillian_ (see p. 46), or from Fr. _Guillaume_. A famous member of the latter family was _Guillotin_, the humanitarian doctor who urged the abolition of clumsy methods of decapitation. His name is a double diminutive, like Fr. _diablotin_, goblin. _Leggatt_ is a variant of _Lidgate_, swing gate, and of _Legate_. _Lovell_ is an affectionate diminutive or is for Old Fr. _louvel_, little wolf. It was also in Mid.

English a dog's name, hence the force of the rime--

”The Rat (Ratcliffe), the Cat (Catesby), and _Lovell_, our dog, Rule all England under the Hog.” (1484.)

It has a doublet _Lowell_. The name _Turney_, well known in Nottingham, is from the town of _Tournay_, or is aphetic for _attorney_. In the following paragraphs I generally give only one source for each name, but it should be understood that in many cases two or more are possible. The forms also vary.

[Page Heading: BAPTISMAL NAMES]

Baptismal names often give surnames without any suffix. Sometimes these are slightly disguised, e.g., _Cobbett_ (Cuthbert), _Garrett_ (Gerard), _Hammond_, Fr. _Hamon_ (Hamo), _Hibbert_ (Hubert), _Jessop_ (Joseph), _Neil_ (Nigel), _Custance_ (Constance); or they preserve a name no longer given baptismally, e.g., _Aldridge_ (Alderic), _Bardell_ (Bardolph), _Goodeve_ (G.o.diva), _Goodlake_ (Guthlac), _Goodrich_ (G.o.deric), _Harvey_[124] (Hervey, Fr. _Herve_), _Mayhew_ (Old Fr.

_Mahieu_, Matthew). With the help of diminutive suffixes we get _Atkin_ (Adam), _Bodkin_ (Baldwin), _Larkin_ (Lawrence), _Perkin_, _Parkin_ (Peter), _Hackett_ (Haco), _Huggin_, _Hutchin_, _Hewett_, _Hewlett_, _Howitt_ (Hugh), _Philpot_ (Philip), _Tibbet_ (Theobald or Isabella), _Tillet_ (Matilda), _Wilmot_ (William), _Wyatt_ (Guy), _Gilbey_, _Gibbon_ (Gilbert), etc., with numerous variants and further derivatives. The changes that can be rung on one favourite name are bewildering, _e.g._, from _Robert_ we have _Rob_, _Dob_, _Hob_, and _Bob_; the first three with a numerous progeny, while _Bob_, now the favourite abbreviation, came into use too late to found a large dynasty.

From _Richard_ we have _Richards_ and _Richardson_, and from its three abbreviations _Rick_, _d.i.c.k_, _Hick_, with their variants _Rich_, _Digg_, _Hig_, _Hitch_, one of the largest families of surnames in the language.[125] As the preceding examples show, family names are frequently derived from the mother. Other examples, which are not quite obvious, are _Betts_ (Beatrice), _Sisson_ (Cecilia), _Moxon_ and _Padgett_ (Margaret, Moggy, Madge, Padge), _Parnell_ (Petronilla), _Ibbotson_ (Ib, Isabella), _Tillotson_ (Matilda). One group of surnames is derived from baptismal names given according to the season of the Church. Such are _Pentecost_, _Pascal_, whence Cornish _Pascoe_, _Nowell_, and _Middlemas_, a corruption of _Michaelmas_.[126] With these may be grouped _Loveday_, a day appointed for reconciliations.