DESCENT OF WORDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17027, 28 April 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

DESCENT OF WORDS.

WHAT THE DICTIONARY REVEALS. A clergyman calling on an old Scottish lady found her studying the dictionary. When asked the reason she replied that she was rending for pleasure. “ It’s vera interesting,” she concluded,, “ but extremely disconnects.” The dictionary is in fact full of good stories and quaint derivations, writes E. L. Shaw, in the Sydney “Sun.” We speak of a jib-crane for heavy lifting as a “derrick!” The first derrick was a gallows. The original Derrick was a hangman in the days of good Queen Bess. Some of these words derived from

proper names are comparatively new, and are just losing the tell-tale capital. A\e all that Wellington and blueher boots date from the time of Waterloo. The aristocrat still keeps the capital, while the. favoured by thc working man has lost it. Or is the capital present or absent because the cne boot reaches the knee while the other just covers the ankle? Then Macadam made known bis process of road-making about the time of Queen Victoria’s birth, so that it is only since the time that we have traveller on macadamised roads. When we see grandma in her phaeton, do we remember Phaeton, the son of Helios, who undertook to do his father’s work for a day, and made rather a mess of it? For Helios was the god who piloted the sun across the sky. The little sun worshipper on the earth—the heliotrope—gives its name to the colour. Of classical origin is the word “ panic,” for Pan .delighted in frightening anima 1s or passers-by The church calendar has contributed its share to the dictionary. The ad jective “tawdry” commemorates a saint, be-ing first used in connection with flimsy but show • lacc bought at the fair on St Audrey’s Day. St Peter has his namesakes. Stormy petrels appear to walk on the waves, so they were called “ Little Peters,” while Peter was a favourite name for pet birds. “ Paraquet ” —or as we spell it “ parrokect ” —through the Spanish and •• parrot ” through the French both have the same meaning. The nut of the hazel is a filbert because St Philbert’s Day falls on 22na August, the beginning of the nutting season. When new plants or beasts are discovered they must have names. Thus the dahlia was introduced from Mexico by one Dahl, a Swede. Fuchs, a German, brought the fuchsia to Europe. The gardenia, was liamed by Doctoi Alexander Garden, an American, and the magnolia by Pierre Magnol, a French professor at Montpellier. Another Frenchman is immortalised in the botanical name of the plant he in troduced. This is Jean Xicot, an ambassador, who, m 1060, sent tobacco from Portugal to France. Galvini was an Italian who first described the production of electricity b\ chemical action. Though iron can be coated by galvanic action, the iron of our tanks and roofs has simply beet, bathed in melted zinc, a so-called galvanising which prevents it rusting. We might easily connect the flannel bed-jacket when the first Red Cros> nurse when we hear it called a “ night ingale,” while a word beloved of las 11 ion-makers, “silhouette” comes from that meagre form of portrait, a black paper shape on a white ground, name:! in derision after Etienne de Silhouette. From whom, in ’he days of our youth, did we learn that jeering rhyme. ‘Dunce! Dunce! Double I>! Don’t know your A B C-” The folk who were first guilty of that particular form of rudeness were followers oi Thomas Aquinas, who jeered at the disciples of Duns Scotus. And how often have we spoken of

hermetically sealing a flask or a jam tin without caring whether Hermes was Greek or Homan? As a matter of fact, the messenger of the gods had nothing to do will- th e derivation of the word except that liis name was given to Hinnies Trismcgistus, an Egyptian who kept 42 hooks of occult sciences under secret guard. jkhe clothes favoured by various folk h:ive taken tile names of the wearers. The Dutch painter Van Dyck wore a collar with deep points. Sixty years ago every fashionable woman' o'wneo a garibaldi, while Earl Spencer sponsored the short wooden jacket. The w’ord “ jacket ” itself is from the old French Jacquette, derived from the These and many more facts are listed "in the old dame’s exciting vo 1 - ume. But can any of ns hope to get our names in the dictionary when it is an event for most of us to see them in the paper ?