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Otago Witness, Issue 1324, 14 April 1877, Page 21

Every-day Words and Pharess.

FIRST PAPER.

(Written for the Otago Witness.) By Hekey Lapham.

All lovers of literature must to a certain extent be interested in the science of Philology— in the study of words. They may not care to go deeply into the subject, or read, collect, and arrange with the industry demanded from a student of Comparative Philology ; but they will surely feel an interest in the rise and progress ofthat language in which Shakspeare has drawn scenes and characters as dear and familiar as those of our real acquaintances — in which Milton has pourtrayed the awful secrets of Hell and Heaven, and shown how* lovely was our fair ' green earth before the shadow of sin and death fell on it — they will surely look with interest on the first beginnings of that mighty tie which, through English energy and English enterprise, bids fair to become ere long the link that shall make the whole world kin. The science of Philology is one that has employed the keenest and subtlest intellects of the last and present centuries, and the volumes devoted to the subject are numerous enough to fill a library ; yet the subjects on which they treat are " caviare to the general." The popular aspect of the science is foreign to the graver purpose of the philologist. It is for him to trace , out the connection between a word and some queer Sanscrit syllable ; or, it may be, to follow up the chain of derivation until its last links disappear in the depths of that mysterious language that may have been exchanged between the inhabitants of Nineveh and Calmer in the days when the earth was young. The words and phrases of everyday life are beneath the notice of so | 'grave and reverend a seignor." But it ia these very words that present the greatest interest to a general reader. Dean Trench, in his books, has given much and pleasant information about words, but is almost silent as to our colloquial phrases. Etymological dictionaries are good and cheap, but the information they contain must of necessity be condensed, and thus often fails to convey any meaning at all.

The following series of papers have been undertaken with the hope of conveying to general readers some information as to the origin of our every-day words and phrases ; and if they should succeed in inducing any reader to search out more carefully the beauty and in-

tereat connected with the very commonest words and phrases, the writer will have felt himself amply repaid. And now to begin. As an instance of the meagreness of etymological dictionaries, let us take the word Treacle. Turning to the dictionary, we find "Treacle— F. triacle, G. theriakon— an antidote against the bite of a poisonous serpent." But what, in the name of etymology, can be the connection between the bite of a serpent and the much-loved molasses of our childhood ? The connection is thus explained : The . Greeks believed, and the uneducated class do still believe, that the best antidote to the bite of a serpent is a confection made from the reptile's fat, and the name theriakon was given to a compound of this description. Then it was applied to an antidote of any kind. Thus Chaucer writes : " Christ, who for all our woes is soverain treacle;" and Boyle — "The physician who has observed the medicinal virtues of treacle, without knowing the nature of each of the sixty odd ingredients, may cure many patients with it?'— (Quoted by ! Johnson.) In time, as the name became more commonly used, it was applied to any thick oily condiment, till, finally, the I juice of the sugar-cane monopolised the word. Another condiment will furnish an I instance in which the name has altered | strangely from its original form. Mustard, or as it was formerly called senipi, was manufactured in the town of Dijon. To this town Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, had granted a coat of arms, .the motto being "Moult me tard"— " I long, or wish greatly." These words were engraven above the gates of the city. In time, however, the central word became effaced, and then the sentence ran "Moult— tard." The manufacturers of the senapi, copying the mutilated form of the phrase, affixed it to the jars ; and the unlearned, gradually mistaking the motto for the name of the article, contracted the syllables into moultard, which soon became generally used. ; I have often wondered how the slang word ** a brick" came to have its present complimentary signification. Usually, to compare a man to any hard substance is to insinuate his obdurate hardness of character — as to say " a man ia as hard as a stone," or the like. The following little anecdote from Grecian history will explain how the word might have a complimentary signification, though I do not put it forward as the correct derivation : — An ambassador asked King Agesilaus why they had no walls for Sparta. "We have," replied the monarch ; and, pointing to his marshalled army, continued— "There, sir, are our walls, and every man is a brick /" History, however, will furnish us with one derivation admitting of no cavilling. There lived in the reign of Charles 11. a certain Mr Sludge. He had been in the army, and claimed" rank as captain. He delighted to swagger about, recounting his doughty deeds. Mention a campaign, and be sure the captain had seen service there ; or a general, and the gallant Mr Fudge had borne arms under him. In no long time his real character — that of a mere boastful poltroon — became generally known, till, at last, at any particularly outrageous story, men shrugged their shoulders, and said, " Ah, one of Fudge's tale 3!" And so, to this day, any story which is utterly nonsensical and untrue calls forth a contemptuous ' 'Fudge !" Unhappy Captain Fudge !— all your gallant deeds forgotten, and yourself remembered only as the greatest liar of your day !