DERIVATION OF MAWMET.—CAME.
(Vol. viii., pp. 468. 515.)
That the word mawmet is a derivation from the name of Mahomet, is rendered exceedingly probable by two circumstances taken in connexion: its having been in common use to signify an idol, in the age immediately following that of the Crusades; and the fact, that in the public opinion and phraseology of that time, a Saracen and an idolater were synonymous. In the metrical romances of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Mahometanism is described as "hethenesse," and Saracens as "paynims," "heathens," and "folks of the heathen law." The objects of their faith and worship were supposed to be Mahomet, Jupiter, Apollo, Pluto, and Termagaunt. Thus, in the romance of Richard Cœur de Lion:
"They slowe euery Sarezyn,
And toke the temple of Apolyn."—L. 4031-2.
"That we our God Mahoun forsake."—L. 4395.
"And made ther her (their) sacryfyse,
To Mahoun, and to Jupiter."—L. 4423.
"But to Termagaunt and Mahoun,
They cryede fast, and to Plotoun."—L. 6421-2.
Weber's Metrical Romances, vol. ii.
The editor says:
"There is no doubt that our romance existed before the year 1300, as it is referred to in the Chronicles of Robert de Gloucester and Robert de Brunne."—Vol. i. Introd., p. xlvi.
In the same poem, the word mawmettes is used to signify idols:
"Sarazynes before hym came,
And asked off hym Crystendame.
Ther wer crystend, as I find,
More than fourty thousynd.
Kyrkes they made off Crystene lawe,
And her (their) Mawmettes lete down drawe."
L. 5829-44.
In Wiclif's translation of the New Testament also, the word occurs in the same sense: mawmetis, idolis, and false goddis being used indifferently where idola or simulacra are employed in the Latin Vulgate: thus—
"Fle ghe fro worschipyng of mawmetis."
1 Cor. x. 14.
"My litel sones kepe ye you fro mawmetis."
1 John v. 21.
And in Acts vii. 41., the golden calf is designated by the same word, in the singular number:
"And thei maden a calf in the daies, and offriden a sacrifice to the mawmet."
In the first line of the quotation last given from Richard Cœur de Lion, your correspondent H. T. G. will find an early instance of the word came; whether early enough, I cannot say. In Wiclif's version, cam, came, and camen are the usual expressions answering to "came" in our translation. If above five hundred and fifty years' possession does not give a word a good title to its place in our language, without a conformity to Anglo-Saxon usage, the number of words that must fall under the same imputation of novelty and "violent infringement" is very great indeed.
J. W. Thomas.
Dewsbury.