This whole development took place in Latin, whence the word was borrowed (under French influence) as persoun, the form which Chaucer uses.

Meantime persona had taken another course. From B, 'dramatic part' or 'rôle,' had come (in classic Latin) the figurative meaning of the 'part' or 'character' which one sustains in the world, and then, by transference and fading out of the metaphor, a 'personage' or 'person' in the modern sense.

In English the old persoun has split into two words,1 which are not felt by most speakers as having any connection in sense or etymology. Parson is reserved for the ecclesiastical sense, and person is used for bodily form' or for human being' in general. It has lately acquired a somewhat slighting connotation, which, however, is not always felt. The form person is habitually associated with persona by everybody who has any acquaintance with Latin, which in part accounts for its pronunciation. Parson is a

phonetic spelling of the Middle English word. For 'characters in a play' we have borrowed the Latin phrase dramatis personae, which is to all intents and purposes an English term.

Strange transformations of meaning may come by the simple and natural process of applying the name of an object to something else which resembles it or is used for the same purpose. The progress of invention makes this process very common in the names of utensils and the like. Pen (L. penna) is originally a 'feather.' The name was appropriately applied to pens so long as quills were used for writing. It is kept, however, for various modern implements (steel pens, gold pens, stylographic pens) which have replaced feathers in this 1 Cf. pp. 355-7.

function. The change is comparatively slight in this instance, since steel pens actually resemble quills. Pencil is more noteworthy. The word was borrowed from L. penicillus, and meant a fine painter's brush, made of fur, hair, or bristles, like a 'camel's-hair pencil.' Penicillus is a diminutive of peniculus, 'a little tail,' such as was used by the Romans for purposes of cleaning, as we use brushes or brooms. From a painter's brush,' the name pencil was passed along to a marking instrument made of lead; hence the term lead-pencil, which we now apply to a stick of graphite enclosed in wood, where there is really neither lead nor pencil.

6

6

Chimney comes (through the French) from L. camīnus, a forge' or 'smelting-furnace.' It came to be used for any fireplace (the earliest sense in English), then, in particular, for the 'smoke flue.' Lamp-chimney shows a further narrowing in sense.

6

Chandelier (from L. candelabrum), 'a receptacle for candles,' has been so extended as to include gas-jets and electric lights. Scales (from L. scala, a ladder') now means a weighing instrument,' from the graduated marks on the beam of the balance, which suggest the equidistant rounds of a ladder. It has also been extended to musical scales.

A capital example of the shifting process is seen in handkerchief. A small piece of cloth to cover the head was naturally enough called a coverchef (O. Fr. couvre-chef; chef from L. caput) or kerchief (cf. curfew). When fashion decreed that a somewhat similar piece should be carried in the hand, handkerchief was coined, with no thought of the literal sense of kerchief. The next step was pocket-handkerchief, which is literally, it will be observed, a thing to

1 The same thing has happened to the German Feder.

cover the head, to be carried in the hand, to be put in the pocket.

The history of railroading illustrates the point in question remarkably well. English and American railroads developed independently, and long after the separation of the colonies from the mother-country. The special vocabulary, therefore, differs widely in the two countries. In Great Britain, coaching terms were utilized. Hence we find coaches, drivers, guards, and booking-offices in England, but cars, engineers, conductors, and ticket-offices in the United States. Booking-office is a particularly interesting transference. It was originally the bureau at which one entered or booked' one's name in advance, in order to secure a place in the coach. Many of the differences between the language of England and that of America depend, in like manner, on the independent development of industries or occupations in the two countries. Compare lift with elevator, tram with horse-car (or electric car), parish council with selectmen, and so on. The investigation of such divergences is a matter of much interest, but has usually been pursued in a somewhat perfunctory way, with little regard to linguistic principles. The conservative tendency to retain familiar terms in a new application is probably stronger in England than in America.

CHAPTER XIX

TRANSFERENCE OF MEANING

THE Romans had a proverb, 'Everything has two handles'; and nowhere is this more true than in mental conceptions and the words that express them. Almost every conception has two aspects; (1) that of the person or thing that possesses or exercises it; (2) that of the person or thing that is affected by it. This difference between the active agent and the effect produced, between the cause and that which it causes, between the subjective and the objective, is very great indeed. But, obvious as it seems, it has been slow to arise in the consciousness of the race. In the Latin vocabulary, to which we are so deeply indebted, little account is made of this fundamental distinction, so that the same word is often used indifferently for either side of the conception. Thus the Latin opinio means both opinion (from the point of view of him who has it) and reputation (from the point of view of him concerning whom it is held); and the same is true of the English word opinion in Shakspere. Nothing could be more natural, for my opinion of Richard Roe' is of course identical with Roe's reputation with me.' The difference is simply in the person from whose point of view the conception is regarded. As time goes on, however, we feel more and more that, although opinion and reputation are the same thing, yet they differ widely in their relations to other ideas which we may wish to

express. The distinction between them seems so important that we feel the need of making it clear in the vocabulary. Accordingly, we have limited or specialized opinion to its modern meaning, and have adopted reputation (from re-puto, 'to think over') to signify the other side of the same idea. It is to be observed, however, that there is no inherent difference between these two words, since both mean properly the act or process of considering,' 'consideration.' Their distinction in our vocabulary is due merely to the fact that opinion has been specialized in one direction, reputation in the other, with the result that we have two carefully discriminated words, which cannot possibly be confused, even if they have no context to fix their bearings.

A few examples will make clearer this important point. In shame kept him silent,' the subjective feeling of the person who is ashamed is meant; in 'shameful treatment,' the character of the act is objectively described. Honor may be the sentiment which a man cherishes in his own heart and which keeps him true to his better nature, or it may be the tribute of respect which others pay to such a man. Compare an honorable gentleman,' with 'an honorable invitation.' Our odium is the Latin word for hatred,' but it never means 'hatred' in English. It signifies the objective result of the hatred of others, something like unpopularity' (but in a stronger sense).1 In odium theologicum, however, we have borrowed the same word again, this time in the sense of hatred' pure and simple. The same confusion between subjective and objective may be seen in the uses of cases and propositions, and in

6

1 This was also a Latin meaning, in accordance with the habit of that language, in which almost any abstract noun may express both sides of an idea.

T