Where the Language has come from.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17865, 5 June 1926, Page 17 (Supplement)

Where the Language has come from.

r PIIE glory of common things is no- •*- where more evident, and yet nowhere more unnoticed, than in language. Science and legend, the four corners of the earth, the earliest history of man, have all contributed to the growth of our common speech, writes a contributor. So romantic are the stories of many of our words, lhat even the simplest sentence contains histories quite as interesting as novels. We have seen how in recent years our common tongue has been enriched by such words as - “ camouflage,” “ radio,” and “ Blighty,” and we know that over a thousand y*ears ago the invaders of England brought new words with them. This growth of language, therefore, is no new thing—it has been going on through all the centuries. When we say' a thing is as “ plain as a pikestaff ” we refer to the times

when pilgrims carried staffs as a symbol of their vocation; while not “to care a brass farthing ” is an allusion to the debased coinage issued by Janies 11. When we partake of supper we ought, according to the origin of the word, to take a “ sop ” of bread soaked in gravy; and because many years ago the status of a guest was indicated at the table by* his position above or below the salt-cellar, an unworthy person placed above the mark of degree was said to be not “ worth his salt.” Who does not know the desultory person, the man who commences a task and half-way' through leaves it for another? He is so called because • a Roman circus the athlete who sprang from one horse to another was a “ desultor.” A horse going at an easy gallop is said “ to canter,” simply* because he is proceeding at a pace similar to that of the pilgrims to Canterbury; and a milliner was at first a dealer in all kinds of goods from Milan. Many words and expressions in common use come from the Bible. A few needing no explanation are “ forbidden fruit,” “ Ishmaelite,” “ babel,” “ good Samaritan,” and “ widow’s mite.” Sir Thomas More s visionary land of “Utopia” has now given its name to any idealistic state; and from “Lilliput,” the land of little people visited by Gulliver, we have our adjective “ lilliputian.” From a book called “ Euphues,” which was written in a very high-flown artificial style, has come our word ! “ euphuistic,” which describes language affected or bombastic. There are even words specially coined to supply a deficiency*. Charles Hands first used the word “ suffrag- | ette,” and Darwin the phrase “ survival of the fittest.” j Other instances which spring to the mind are Mr Winston Churchill’s synonym for a" lie, “terminological inexactitude”; and Mr Lloyd George’s popular expression “ silver bullets.”