dure much heat is called a salamander, since this animal was supposed to live in the element of fire. Phoenix may denote a person of unique excellence, a 'nonpareil,' since there was never more than one phoenix in the world at a time. More commonly, however, we use the word in allusion to the legend that the phoenix rose from its own ashes to a new life. In former times, pelican was a symbol both of parental self-sacrifice and of filial ingratitude. The mother pelican was thought to feed her young with her own blood, which the nestlings were so eager to taste that they sometimes wounded the old bird with their beaks. The dove was supposed to have no gall, and hence to be incapable of resentment. Scorpion for flatterer' comes from the action of this reptile in curving its tail over its body in the act of stinging. Hence the scorpion (which was represented with a human countenance) was said to flatter with its face while it stung with its tail.1 In addition to these conceptions, most of which were common property, countless other bits of unnatural history are scattered through the pages of our older writers. The Elizabethan Euphuists were fond of such figures and developed them with wearisome formality.2 Deaf as an 6 adder' is biblical and alludes to the old idea that the adder either could not or would not hear the music of the charmer. It was even asserted that in order to avoid the sound of the charmer's voice and pipe, the adder pressed one ear to the ground and inserted its tail in the other. Crocodile tears, for 'hypocritical weeping' alludes to the story that the crocodile shed tears over the prey which it devoured. Compare He plays with his victim as a cat plays with a mouse.' The chimera and the cha 1 See Chaucer, Man of Law's Tale, vv. 404-6. 6 meleon may also be mentioned. An unlicked cub' alludes to the belief that young bears are born as formless lumps, and have to be licked into shape' by their dam. The phrase is popularly associated with lick, ‘to beat,' on the principle that to spare the rod will spoil the child. · We have already mentioned fables. These have a complicated history, into which it is impossible to enter. Their origin, however, goes far back in the history of our race, suggesting a stage of civilization in which the psychological differences which we feel between man and the lower animals were not recognized. The stories of Uncle Remus ' illustrate a developed form of this type. As civilization advanced, naïve beast-stories, founded on such primitive conceptions of animated nature, grew slowly into the literary apologue which we know as the Æsopic fable. These fables have given us a number of proverbial phrases, of which to cry wolf,' to nurse an adder in one's bosom,' and 'the lion's share' are perhaps the most familiar and picturesque. 'A wolf in sheep's clothing' is biblical (Matthew vii. 15). In addition to this, the Middle Ages had a well-developed beast-epic or beast-romance, partly based on the literary Æsopic fable and partly on traditional stories about animals. In this epic, the leading characters had various names, two of which have maintained themselves in our language: reynard, for the fox, and chanticleer, for the cock. Isegrim, the wolf,' is lost in English, and Bruin, ‘the bear,' entered our language from a Dutch form of the epic at a comparatively late period. Dame Partlet for the hen (and figuratively for a bustling or fussy woman) has been traced no farther back than Chaucer's tale of the Cock and the Fox (The Nonne Prestes Tale). In taking leave of the interesting category of words and phrases derived from the names of animals, we must once more emphasize the distinctly 'popular' character of this part of our vocabulary. Even such of them as owe their presence in it to literary treatment are derived, in the last analysis, from primitive man's naïve conception of the world about him. So modern a word as the colloquial foxy, 'sly,' leads us straight back, by an unbroken clew, to the infancy of the race. Here is the explanation of the pertinacity with which animal symbolism has held its ground in the most cultivated tongues. The fox is a synonym for 'craft' with thousands of persons who have never seen reynard in propria persona, to whom, indeed, the fox is as literary a character as the behemoth or the leviathan. CHAPTER XXVI WORDS FROM PLACES OR PERSONS ONE of the most entertaining chapters in the history of our vocabulary deals with words from proper names. These are of every conceivable kind. Some are mere nicknames, originating in slang or the humors of the hour, and perpetuated either because they seem to fill a gap in the language or because they suggest allusions or anecdotes which it tickles our fancy to remember; others are serious technical terms, coined in honor of an inventor or a discoverer. They may come from history or from literature, indifferently. Sometimes their origin is obscure, because the story or the incident to which they allude, though striking enough to attract attention at the moment and thus to give rise to a new word or phrase, has not proved of sufficient importance to be put on record. The process that we are considering may go no farther than to transfer the name of a well-known personage to some one who resembles him. Thus, we may call a great orator'a Demosthenes' or 'a Burke' or 'a Webster,' a great general a Wellington' or 'a Marlborough,' a cruel tyrant 'a Nero,' the assertor of his country's liberties 'a Washington.' This happens every day and calls for no remark. A further step is taken when the name of such a character is used for all who resemble him. It is then a pure common noun, and, if our coinage passes current, the language has gained a word. Perhaps the most impressive example is Caesar which, originally the name of a Roman family of no great distinction, has become a synonym for emperor' in languages so widely different as German (Kaiser) and Russian (Tsar).1 6 6 6 Examples of such nouns are: hector, a bully,' from a wrong conception of the great Trojan's character; mentor, a wise counsellor,' from the sage adviser of Telemachus in the Odyssey; Nestor, a veteran,' from the aged hero in the Iliad, who had ruled three generations of men; Solon, from the Athenian lawgiver (one of the Seven Wise Men), 'a sage,' often used jocosely of a person who has an habitual air of sagacity; Shylock, a merciless usurer,' or, in general, a grasping money-getter'; Judas, a traitor,' or, in particular, a false friend' (cf. ‘a Judas kiss '); pandar (or pander), from the part played by Pandarus (Pandare) in Chaucer's romance of Troilus and in Shakspere's Troilus and Cressida ; 2 Bayard, a knight without fear and without reproach,' then, generally, a high-minded and chivalrous gentleman'; Braggadocio (from a character in Spenser's Faerie Queene), formed from brag and a quasiItalian termination, a cowardly boaster'; Drawcansir, ‘a swashbuckler,' from a character in The Rehearsal, the famous burlesque play written to caricature Dryden; Maecenas, a patron of literature,' from one of Augustus's ministers, who favored literary men; dunce (from Duns Scotus, a celebrated scholastic philosopher), a stupid 1 The Anglo-Saxons had the word in the form căsere, whence kaser in Middle English, but kaiser, another Middle English form, shows High German influence. Spenser's kesar is an intentional archaism. 2 Pandarus is a Trojan hero in the Iliad, but his activity as a go-between dates from the Middle Ages. Chaucer's Pandare is a development from Boccaccio's Pandaro, but is very different from his prototype, being, indeed, the most remarkable character-study in our literature before the Elizabethan age. Shakspere's Pandar is Chaucer's, utterly debased. |