GOLOSHES.
(Vol. ix., p. 304.)
This word, Seleucus says, "is of course of American derivation." By no means: it is found in German, gallosche or gallusche; and in French, galoche or galloche. The word itself most likely comes to us from the French. The dictionaries refer to Spenser as using it under the form galage; and it occurs written galege, galosh, calosh, &c. The French borrowed the term from the Latin Gallicæ; but the Romans first derived the idea and the thing itself from Gaul, Gallicæ denoting Gallic or Gaulish shoes. Cicero speaks of the Gallicæ with contempt.—"Cum calceis et toga, nullis nec gallicis nec lacerna;" and again, "Cum gallicis et lacerna cucurristi" (Philip. ii. 30.). Blount, in his Law Dictionary (1670), gives the following, which refers to one very early use of the term in this country:
"Galege (galiciæ), from the French galloches, which signified of old a certain shoe worn by the Gauls in foul weather, as at present the signification with us does not much differ. It is mentioned 4 Edw. IV. cap. 7., and 14 & 15 Hen. VIII. cap. 9."
Therefore the thing itself and the word were known among us before America was discovered. As it regards the Latin word Gallicæ, I only know of its use by Cicero, Tertullian, and A. Gellius. The last-named, in the Noctes Atticæ, gives the following anecdote and observations relating to this word. T. Castricius, a teacher of rhetoric at Rome, observing that some of his pupils were, on a holiday, as he deemed, unsuitably attired, and shod (soleati) with gallicæ (galloches, sabots, wooden shoes or clogs), he expressed in strong terms his disapprobation. He stated it to be unworthy of their rank, and referred to the above-cited passage from Cicero. Some of his hearers inquired why he called those soleati who wore goloshes (gallicæ) and not shoes (soleæ). The expression is justified by a statement which sufficiently describes the goloshes, viz., that they call soleæ (shoes) all those which cover only the lower portions of the foot, and are fastened with straps. The author adds:
"I think that gallicæ is a new word, which was begun to be used not long before Cicero's time, therefore used by him in the Second of the Antonians. 'Cum gallicis,' says he, 'et lacerna cucurristi.' Nor do I read it in any other writer of authority, but other words are employed."
The Romans named shoes after persons and places as we do: for examples, see Dr. W. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, sub voc. "Calceus."
B. H. C.
Poplar.
This word is not of American derivation. In the Promptorium Parvulorum we find,—
"Galache or Galoche, undersolynge of manny's fote."
Mr. Way says in his note:
"The galache was a sort of patten, fastened to the foot by cross latchets, and worn by men as early as the time of Edward III. Allusion is made to it by Chaucer,
'Ne were worthy to unbocle his galoche.'—Squires Tale, 10,869."
Among many other quotations Mr. Way gives the following:
"To geten hym gilte spores,
Or galoches y-couped."—Piers Ploughman, 12,099.
And in the Wardrobe Book of Prince Henry, A.D. 1607, are mentioned—
"1 pair of golossians, 6s.; 16 gold buckles with pendants and toungs to buckle a pair of golosses."—Archæol. xi. 93.
Nares says:
"Galage. A clown's coarse shoe from galloche, a shoe with a wooden sole, old French, which itself is supposed to be from gallica, a kind of shoe mentioned by Cicero, Philip. ii. 30., and A. Gellius, xiii. 21. If so, the word has returned to the country whence it was first taken, but I doubt much of that derivation; by the passages referred to in the above authors, it seems more likely that the gallica was a luxurious covering, than one so very coarse as the galloche. Perhaps the caliga, or military strong boot of the Romans, from which Caligula was named, may be a better origin for it. The word galloche is now naturalised among us for a kind of clog, worn over the shoes."
See also Richardson's Dictionary, s. v. "Galoche."
Zeus.
Seleucus need not have gone quite so far as to "the tribe of North American Indians, the Goloshes," or to America at all, for his derivation. If he will look in his French dictionary he will find,—
"Galoche (espèce de mule que l'on porte par dessus les souliers), galoshoe."
I quote from Boyer's Dictionnaire Royal, edit. 1753.
Cole, in his English dictionary, 1724, has—
"Galeges, galages, galloches, galloshoes, Fr., wooden shoes all of a piece. With us outward shoes or cases for dirty weather, &c."
C. de D.