Part 27 (2/2)
[122] This is probably the record for a proper name, but does not by any means equal that of the word _cus.h.i.+on_, of the plural of which about four hundred variants are found in old wills and inventories.
[123] Another origin of this name is Fr. _le bon_.
[124] ”The last two centuries have seen the practice made popular of using surnames for baptismal names. Thus the late Bishop of Carlisle was Harvey Goodwin, although for several centuries Harvey has been obsolete as a personal name” (Bardsley). Camden already complains that ”surnames of honourable and wors.h.i.+pful families are given now to mean men's children for christian names.” Forty years ago there was hardly a more popular name than _Percy_, while at the present day the admonition, ”Be'ave yerself, _'Oward_,” is familiar to the attentive ear.
[125] It is even possible that _Hood_, _Hudson_, sometimes belong here, as _Hud_ appears to have been used as a North Country alternative for Richard, though it is hard to see why. For proofs see BARDSLEY, _Dict.
of English Surnames_, s.v. _Hudd_.
[126] Such a corruption, though difficult to explain phonetically, is not without example in uneducated or childish speech. Cf. _tiddlebat_ or _t.i.ttlebat_, for _stickleback_. In _stickler_ (p. 76) we have the opposite change.
[127] Of course also of English origin.
[128] Hence also the name _Britton_.
[129] Whence the perversion _Portwine_, examples of which occur in the _London Directory_.
[130] Old Fr. _vernai_, whence our _Verney_, _Varney_, has the same meaning; cf. _Duverney_, the name of a famous dancer. Old Fr. _verne_, alder, is of Celtic origin.
[131] Cf. _Chenevix_, old oak, a name introduced by the Huguenots.
[132] Other examples quoted by Mr Hardy are _Priddle_, from _Paridelle_, and _Debbyhouse_--”The _Debbyhouses_ who now be carters were once the _de Bayeux_ family” (_Tess of the d'Urbervilles_, v. 35).
[133] These names are supposed to have been generally conferred in consequence of characters represented in public performances and processions. In some cases they imply that the bearer was in the employment of the dignitary. We find them in other languages, _e.g._, Fr. _Leroy_, _Leduc_, _Leveque_; Ger. _Konig_, _Herzog_, _Bischof_.
_Leveque_ has given Eng. _Levick_, _Vick_, and (Trotty) _Veck_.
[134] _Gross_, twelve dozen, seems to be of Germanic origin, the duodecimal hundred, Ger. _Grosshundert_, being Norse or Gothic. But Ger.
_Grosshundert_ means 120 only.
[135] _Surplice_, Old Fr. _surpelis_, is a compound of the same word. It was worn ”over fur” in unheated medieval churches.
[136] Another, and commoner, source of the name is from residence at a ”corner.”
[137] See quotation from _Henry IV._ (p. 155).
[138] The obsolete _hay_, hedge, is also a common surname, _Hay_, _Haig_, _Haigh_, etc.
[139] The following occur in the index to Bardsley's _English Surnames_:--Blackinthemouth, Blubber, Calvesmawe, Cleanhog, Crookbone, d.a.m.ned-Barebones, Drunkard, Felon, Greenhorn, Halfpenny, Hatechrist, Hogsflesh, Killhog, Leper, Mad, Measle, Milksop, Outlaw, Peckcheese, Peppercorn, Poorfish, Pudding, Ragman, Scorchbeef, Sourale, Sparewater, Sweatinbed, Twopenny, Widehose. Some of these are still found.
[140] Cf. also Ital. _Bevilacqua_.
[141] This word has degenerated. It is a doublet of _deft_.
CHAPTER XIII
ETYMOLOGICAL FACT AND FICTION
Romance and Germanic etymology dates from the middle of the 19th century, and is a.s.sociated especially with the names of two great Germans, Friedrich Diez, who published his _Worterbuch der romanischen Sprachen_ in 1853, and Jakob Grimm, whose _Deutsches Worterbuch_ dates from 1852. These two men applied in their respective fields of investigation the principles of comparative philology, and reduced to a science what had previously been an amus.e.m.e.nt for the learned or the ignorant.
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