WORDS AND WHEELS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19949, 9 June 1930, Page 4

WORDS AND WHEELS.

SOME FAMILIAR TERMS AND Tllßm ORIGINS, SPOKE AND "TO SPEAK.* When I was very young I used to j chuckle at the idea of calling a part of » wheel by such a curious name as "spoke," but now that I know a little about languages I can see the point. The work "spoke" has nothing to do ; With the vorb ''to speak." At first I used to imagine that it was connected with the Latin "spice," meaning an ear of com or a point, but t have since learned that it is from an Icelandic word "spik," meaning a point or a naiL How the "i" changed into "o M we cannot tell, "Bpoke" is not the only word com neeted with wheels which is worth examining. The word "wheel" is a very I romantic one. The Anglo-Saxon word was "hweol," which was a short form of "hweowol," which was QEL in the early days of man's history. To show that language is a wonderful thing, one has-only to.obseve that this same root QEL has given us both "cycle" and "pole." Spade forbids a description of how these words were corrupted, but we can see the process in other words connected with wheels. Very often small alterations in spelling me&na big alterations in meaning, for instance, in the old Scandinavian languages there was a word "hobbs," which was the name for a small island. This passed into English as "hob," and was applied to the pile of clay behind a fireplace. When fireplaces were built differently the projecting shelf at the Side of the fire was called a "hob," and When machinery was built the projecting part of a wheel, instead of being caTled a "hob," was called a "hub." The word "rim," on the contrary, has altered very little from the time when a narrow bordering strip of land in Iceland was called "rimi." punctures and Patches. The "puncture" has a definite classical Origin. There was a very old Latin word "pug," which had the meaning of striking. It has given us our modem ■word "pugffirtj" but a. derivative.m«e.«K

ing to,strike ,- "pugnns," .which is r*iM&qg«Hßl means to prick, and »»' -*|lfi§Bß| strange histories. fiollttijffi'fliHfflßl is "solved" or word "solve," «UftJU||HmH| meaning "I wash. 1 ! 'WWMMm meant "X loosen by : WMJajlß|ffl|l when we make a WlffffilllWßßi solid b^„ M^"l *lJi^S^HH the difficulty of .priJiEiBMMl the dropping of slightly different Dutch means a PWMWI then, by a kind g*™fjl|B to a piece of eloth What of the La Gondamlae »Wt Hl||kjlHMH a blackish reeiimßi^ftgifflM| lish. The actual word is not so ehttk," whieh is' original Caribbean /P|P^hH| The early uses of/th«jß?«ggjfflP ohiefly for rubbing oW and Priestly in 1??0 vtammmUßi of it and noted th oAyffjgjH|W cost only three jhiluaJ&V;oj^^H The early explorer! Jtfj|gH| thought they had the "caoutchouc" beeeifflffitCTHMi and now we drop the in the "Light Car. 0 ; V -'^n|