FOLK-ETYMOLOGY.*

"Max;" says the compiler of this valuable and entertaining dic- tionary, "is an etymologising animal. He abhors the vacuum of an unmeaning word. If it seems lifeless, he reads a new soul Folk-Rtyinology a Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions, or Words Perverted in Form or Meaning by False Derivation or Mittalen Analogy. By the Rev. A. Sms the Palmer. London : George Bell and Sons. 1882.

into it, and often, like an unskilful necromancer, spirits the wrong soul into the wrong body." Allowance made for any error that may lark in these metaphors, Mr. Palmer's proposi- tions are undeniable. Men are fond of etymological investiga- tions, and are prone to err in making them. Dagald Stewart was of opinion that they are hardly worth making at all. He' regarded them as unfavourable to elegance of composition, re- fined taste, or enlargement of the mental faculties, and he dwelt

with some plausibility upon the ill-effect which. they might. conceivably have with respect to our poetical vocabulary:— "Few words," he said; " in our language have been used more happily by some of our older poets than harbinger ; more particularly= by Milton, whose Paradise Lost has rendered even the organioal sound. pleasing to the fancy,- ' And uow of love they treat, till th' evening star, Lore's harbinger, appear'd.'

How powerful are the associations which such a combination of ideas. must establish in the memory of every reader capable of feeling their beauty ; and what a charm is communicated to the word, thus blended - in its effect with such pictures as those of the evening star, and of the loves of our first parents. When I look into Johnson for the sty.- mology of harbinger, I find it is derived from the Dutch herbergeri, which denotes one who goes to provide lodgings or a harbour for those who follow. Whoever may thank the author for this conjec- ture, it certainly will not be the lover of Milton's poetry. The injury, however, which is here done to the word in question is slight, in coin- parison to what it would have been, if its origin had been traced to some root in our own language equally ignoble and resembling it as nearly in point of orthography."

The Scotch philosopher would have' strengthened his position if he had written " far more ignoble," instead of " equally ignoble." But nothing can render the position itself impreg- nable. As Mr. Garnett points out, the principle involved in it , would make us quarrel with half of our national vocabulary,., which must, in the nature of things, have been applied to low and familiar objects, when it was the language of a rude and barbarous people. Readers who are familiar with the essays of

this admirable philologist will remember how aptly he illustrated . his own remark with "the yesty waves" of Shakespeare, and

how brusquely he disposed of the critic who would quarrel with. that forcible and appropriate epithet on account of its con- nection with malt, hops, and beer-barrels. Horne Tooke's, assumption that words ought always to be used in their primitive signification is absurd enough. But it is quite as absurd to sup- pose that anything can be gained by shutting one's eyes to that.

primitive significance, when a clear sight of it is still attainable.. There are some, perhaps, who may be shocked to learn from Mr.

Palmer's dictionary that the words " good" and " God" are not etymologically connected. Others may be vexed to learn that

" Sweet Cicely," that pretty name for the plant Myrrhis. odorata, so suggestive of old English country life and fair milkmaids, has no more to do with the feminine name " Cicely " than " Sweet Alison" has to do with the old form of Alice. But

all may do as Prospero bid. Miranda do, and rest collected in the assurance that Mr. Palmer's wand is as beneficent as that of. "the rightful Duke of Milan." We are speaking broadly, and would by no means imply by this remark that we assent to all the corrections of folk or popular etymology that are proposed by Mr. Palmer. This is far from being the case. But we regard his book as a valuable contribution to philology, and'

philology as a study which, when treated in an enlightened and. philosophical spirit, is worthy of all the exertion of the subtlest as well as most comprehensive intellect. It happens, also, that.

Mr. Palmer approaches this study on its most attractive side.. His book is not " caviare to the general," and may be dipped into with pleasure and profit by readers who have small Latin and less Greek. Those who understand it best will like it best, of course ; but the merest tyro in book-lore will find something,.

to amuse and instruct him in each of its six hundred pages.

It is time, however, that we should give from these pages a. specimen or two of that "verbal pathology" which they, diagnose, on the whole, so well. The plant whose name in Greek. is " zerra6piou," in Latin, " centaurea," in French, " centauree," in English, " centaury," appears in German as " Tansendgiilden- kraut " (the " thousand-gulden-plant "). Bat how? Well, approximately speaking, a " gulden " was about equal to our florin, and a Roman "aureus " to our pound, A hundred " aurei," therefore, equal a thousand florins. It is bootless tv inquire whether the philologist who discerned " centnm aurei".

in " centaurea " did so of jocularity prepense, as Swift dis- cerned " oat-stealer " in " ostler," or whether be was a pedant of the sixteenth-century order. It is just possible that he was. not a German at all, and that this quaint error may have owed its birth to some ancient Roman legionary: Its vitality is+ virtually indestructible, and it is curious to think how many sick. German folk may have thought that the medicinal herb which wrought them so much good was rightly named as worth its weight in gold. Our next specimen is a " corroption," if corruption indeed it be, of a very different order, though it may iv said to come to us in " concatenation accordingly " through "amens." " Aureole " is a word which we need not stop to explain. Mr. Palmer's account of it is well worth read- ing, and his quotation from De Quincey carries weight with it. We dissent, however, from his conclusion. He wishes us to believe that " areola " (a little halo), a diminutive of " area," is the true and original farm. He refers us to " areole," in French, but can he quote any passage from a French author where areole" is used in the significance of " a little halo "? Can he, and this is more to the purpose, quote any passage from a Latin author where " area " is used in the sense of a halo ? We are aware, of course, from the dictionaries, that Seneca speaks of haloes as " splendores quos Graeci areas (i.e., Iixawas) vocavere." But this passage of itself proves nothing, and cannot outweigh the fact that Littre is content to derive the French " aureole " from " aureola," with " corona " understood. Littr6 is not infallible ; but he is so righteously prompt with his origine inconnue, that we must call Mr. Palmer's attention to the fact that, misunderstanding the great French lexicographer, he has misrepresented him under the word " aspic." " Bloody Mars "—for if Nature proceeds not per saltum, we must through the remainder of this notice—is a curious corruption of "hie de Mars," and a popular name for a kind of wheat. If this wheat be not "red "—and Mr. Palmer gives no hint that it is —then the identity of the planet's name and the month's was never more curiously illustrated. Mr. Palmer rightly treats " curmudgeon " as an altered form of " cornmudgiu," and takes no notice of the derivation " cceur mechant," which was supplied to Johnson by his "unknown correspondent." Neither should we, but for the amusing mistake into which it led poor Dr. Ash. Oblivious or ignorant of the fact that Johnson was acknowledging the source of his derivation, he quaintly says in his Dictionary that " curmudgeon " comes from the French " creur," unknown, and" mechant," a correspondent !

What is a tabby cat ? The dictionaries say, a striped or brinded cat, as if marked like "tabby" (tabinet), a waved or -watered silk. Mr. Palmer suggests that "tabby," when applied to -a cat, stands for " Tibbie," and is derived from " Tibalt," or Tybalt " ( =Theobald), the proper name for Pnss in the old beast epic of the middle-ages. He is probably right; but he is wrong in quoting from De Quincey, " springs upward like a pyramid of fire ;" as if De Quince,- were not quoting him- self from Milton a line which he felt, and rightly felt, was too well known to need marking with inverted commas. "Please the pigs" is pretty widely known to mean "Please the good Solk," as the fairies were euphemistically called, and is .a corruption of "Please the pixies." "Please the Pharisees" has not passed into our language, though it deserves to do so, for ' other and quite different reasons. Yet " Pharisees " is a popular corruption in Sussex, Hampshire, and elsewhere of "fairies," old -Scotch "phairies or phareis, the guid wichtis." We shall conclude with an .anecdote, quoted by Mr. Palmer, in illustra- tion of the fact. Before doing so, we must warn intending pur- chasers of this book—and their name should be legion—that we have only been able to set before them a few crumbs from this "table richly spread in regal mode, with dishes piled." The Ettrick Shepherd held that there was a deal of fine confused eating in a sheep's head, and there is a deal of fine confused reading in .a dictionary like this. Had such a dictionary fallen in Charlp-s Lamb's way, he might have been moved to exempt it explicitly from those biblia a-biblia, or books that are not books, in which he has implicitly placed it. We ought, however, to say that although Mr. Palmer has very properly made a fivefold division of his corrupted words, in order to give his readers perfect contentment he ought to supplement these divisions with a general index. The anecdote is this :—"A preacher in a country village once preached on the text : 'There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. The same came to Jesus by night' An old woman of the parish said she liked the discourse very much indeed, ' And I always did hear say, that it was by night the fairies danced on Harborongh Hill."