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Otago Witness, Issue 1325, 21 April 1877, Page 21

Every-day Words and Phrases.

(Written for the Otago Witness.) By Henxy Lapham. Second Paper.

In my last paper I used the word poltroon in speaking of Captain Fudge, and wish now to refer to the close affinity between that and another — malingerer. This latter is used chiefly in the army, and is applied to a soldier who feigns sickness, in order to shirk his duty. It is derived from the French — malingre= evil will. A poltroon is a coward, but the word is derived from the fact that' during the Norman rule in England, men used to cut off their thumbs (Z. pollice trunens) in order to render themselves unfit for military service, since, they could t ,not then bend the bow. This was "malingering" with a vengeance, and few. men would now care to resort to it, though the expedients devised by soldiers are wonderfully clever, enough to deceive for a time the vigilant eye of the army surgeon himself. ' It is generally supposed that slang is an evil of modern growth, but that this is far from being the case will be evident to any one who will spend an hour over that most interesting volume, "The Slaog Dictionary." Some .words, indeed, can boast of very long descent, as for instance, the term "skedaddle" : "Anew word that has been introduced during the progress* of the American civil war. It first appeared in the New York papers, as applied to the Southern forces. The Fedrals having obtained a victory, their opponents were said to have skedaddled, or run away • Bince which time the word has been much used. Some writers have endeavoured to give it a derivation from a Scotch term. In that country, say they, if a maid were carrying a pail of milk, and spilt some of it over, she would be said to have skedaddled it. But a similar word was used in the ancient Greek. Homer employs it frequently. In his ' Odyssey,' we find the word skedasis used, in describing the scattering of the suitors of Penelope" when Ulysses should come. At the capture of Terene, Thucydides describes the result of the rush of Brasidus and his troops towards the highest parts of the town, and observes, ' The multitude eskedannunto (scattering or dispersed) in all directions' Thus it is most probable that the word was first used by some persons well acquainted with Greek authors."

Again, the word tick seems to have been in familiar use ever since the 17th century, if the following extract is to be trusted ; " Tick, for credit,

is a word at least as old , as the 17th century, it is corrupted ,\ from ticket, a3 a tradesman's bill, was formerly called. The phrase was originally 'on ticket '-Mhat is, things i taken to 'be put in the bill: Sedley, in thV< Mulberry Garden,' l66B, says-i ;\ ( ' * ' I confess my tick is not' good.' And Oldham (Poems,: 1683) has :—: — rßeducedr ßeduced to want, he in due time fell 'sick, Was fain to die, and be interred on tick.'. The, statute 16, Car. II.; against gaming, .enacts that "If any person shall lose any sum of money so played for, exceeding the sum of £100, at any one time or meeting, or, credit, &c." The derivation of the word '<* bluestocking" has given riae to muchdiscussion, and many are the suggestions hazarded on the subject ; but the following by De Quincey has'the merit of being, amusingly' put whether it be correct or not ; ',' By the way, the origin of this term bluestocking has never been satisfactorily accounted for, unless the reader should 5 ' incline to think my account satisfactory. 1 I incline to that opinion myself. Dr. Bisset (in his Life of Burke) traces it to a sobriquet imposed by Mrs Montagu, and the literary ladies of her circle, upon a certain obscure Dr StiUingfleet, who' was tiie sole, masculine assistant to th3ir literary •sittings in Poriman Square, i and' chose upon some inexplicable craze, to wearblue stockings. The translation, however, of this name from the Doctor's legs -to the ladies' legsia still unsolved.: The great hiatus needs filling up. I therefore erroneously or not,, have rejected' the Portman Square- doctor altogether' and traced the term to an old Oxidrd. statute — one \of the many which meddle 'with dress, and which charges it as a point of conscience upon royal scholastic students , that they shall wear cerulean socks. Suchsocks, therefore, indicated scholastic,ism; worn by females, they would indi--cate a self-dedication to what for them .would be regarded as pedantic studies. But, says an objector, no rational female would wear cerulean socks. Perhaps not • , female taste being too good. But as such aocks would • symbolise r such a profession of pedantry/so, inversely, <. any profession I of pedantry by whatey'ersigns.expressed, /would be symbolised reproachfully by the imputation of wearing cerulean socks." In this happier- age, when 'women stand first in .the ranks of literature, as naturalists; poeis, historians, \ and'noveiists,the term 1 has no longer a 'sense of reproach^ and, is, fast becoming, obsolete. ,This will, .be] an appropriate place .to mention the ( derivation" of • the word •" Tomboy,", and to show that it,' too, is not .so much a. term of reproach as many young ladies fear.* - ' ,~r * % \ X is customary to. call a young giri who has. extraordinary, spirits and is fond of romping,' " a tomboy."' This word is said to be derived from the ancient Saxon; , Verategau, who lived in the 17th century, Jroto on the languages adopted, in lEngland m.previous times, and gives us the following passage :^-Tumbe, to dancetumbod,./danced ; hereof, we r yet call' a wench that skippeth' lyke, a.boy, a Tomboy ; our name also :of tumbling cometh from hence." lam indebted 'far the last abstract, and for the derivation of skedaddle and tick to Cassell's .Magazine., With V one \ more derivation of a well-known word, I ' will conclude my paper. In the days before railways, and when canals were the speediest and most comfortable mpde.of transit, the workmen employed in cutting these water paths were called "nav£ gators," a word much "too long, for common use,! and it was soon curtailed into "navvy." When railways : . came to supersedecanals, the term was transferred unchanged to the workmen,, for - the reason that it wa3 handiest to use a familiar name, and much easier than to invent a new one. ■ v