31. (c) Cookery.—Beef, veal, pork, mutton, pullet.
The Saxon hind had the charge of the cattle and animals on the farm while they were alive; but he never saw anything of them after they were killed. He never met them at dinner. The flesh of these animals received French names from the Norman-Frenchmen who ate them; and their Saxon or English names were forgotten. A German says calf’s flesh, but we use the Norman-French word veal. Thus the corresponding English words to those printed above are ox, calf, swine, sheep, and fowl. The word beef comes from the Fr. bœuf, which comes from the Lat. bos (acc. bovem), an ox.—Veal comes from the old French word veel, which comes from the Lat. vitellus, a little calf.—Pork comes from Fr. porc, which is derived from the Lat. porcus, a pig.—Mutton comes from the Fr. mouton, from the Low Latin word multo, a sheep.—Pullet comes from Fr. poulet, which comes from the Low Latin word pulla, a hen.
32. (d) Law.—Chancellor, judge, parliament, court, assize, sue, damages, and many others.
The word chancellor comes from the Fr. chancelier; from the Lat. cancellarius, the keeper of written papers. ‘The officer who had the care of the records stood behind the screen of lattice-work or of cross-bars which fenced off the judgment-seat.’ Cancer is the Latin name for a crab; cancellus is a little crab; cancelli are cross-bars or lattice-work, like the claws of crabs crossed. Hence also to cancel, which means to draw cross strokes through writing.—Judge comes from the French word juge, which comes from the Lat. judex (= jus-dic-s, a sayer of right). The old English term was dempster, from the verb deem; noun, doom.—Parliament comes from the Fr. parler, to speak; from Low Lat. parabolāre, to talk; whence also parlour, a room for speaking in.—Court comes from the old Fr. cort; from Lat. cohors or cors, an inclosed space. A cohors was a sheep-pen; but it was afterwards applied to a number of soldiers.—Assize comes from the old Fr. assise, an assembly of judges; from the Lat. assidēre, to sit beside.—Sue comes from the old Fr. suir (modern Fr. suivre); from the Lat. sequi, to follow. We have from the same root the words suit, suite, pursue, ensue, issue.—Damages, from the old Fr. damáge, which comes from the Low Lat. damnaticum, harm; which comes from the Lat. damnum, loss.
33. (e) Church.—Friar, relic, tonsure, ceremony, etc.
Friar is a word which comes from the old Fr. freire, which is derived from the Lat. frater, a brother.—Relic, chiefly used in the plural, from Fr. reliques; from Lat. reliquiæ, remains.—Tonsure comes from the Fr. tonsure; from Lat. tonsura, a cutting.—Ceremony, from the Fr. cérémonie, a rite; from Lat. cærimonia.
[34.] SYNONYMS GIVEN US BY NORMAN-FRENCH.—Among other benefits which we have received from the coming in of Norman-French into our language, is a number of synonyms.[11] These have enabled us to give a different shade or colouring to certain words, or to put them to a special use. Thus we speak of the blessing of God, and the benediction of a clergy-man; of the bloom on a peach, and the flower of a lily; of a person as a member of a learned society, but not a limb. Now blessing, bloom, and limb are all English; benediction, flower, and member are all Latin words—Latin words which have come to us through the doorway of the French language. The following are some more of these synonyms; and, after examining them, it will generally be found that the English words are stronger, simpler, and more homely than the French words.
| English. | French. |
| Bough | Branch. |
| Buy | Purchase. |
| Feeling | Sentiment. |
| Friendly | Amiable. |
| Hearty | Cordial. |
| Luck | Fortune. |
| Meal | Flour. |
| Mild | Gentle. |
| Wish | Desire. |
| Work | Labour. |
| Wretched | Miserable. |
| Wright | Carpenter. |
[35.] BILINGUALISM.—During the three centuries which lay between 1066 and 1362, the English and the Normans had to meet each other constantly in the field, in the church, at markets, and in towns and villages. They had to buy and sell from each other; to give and take orders from and to each other; and to speak with each other on many kinds of business. They also intermarried. Thus the Norman got slowly into the habit of joining an English word with his French word—so as to make it clear to the Englishman; while the Englishman, on his side, joined the corresponding French word—when he happened to know it—to the English word he had to employ. These words, ever after, ran in couples; and this habit of going in couples became a habit of the language. Hence it is that, in the opening words of our Prayer-Book, we use such couples as assemble and meet together; acknowledge and confess; dissemble and cloak; and humble and lowly. The words meet together, acknowledge, cloak, and lowly, represent the purely English part of the congregation; while the Norman-French supplies such words as assemble, confess, dissemble, and humble. The great poet of the fourteenth century—Chaucer—has hundreds of examples of such phrases. He gives us, for example, hunting and venerye; mirth and jollity; care and heed; swinke and labour; pray and beseech; a wright and carpenter. The practice of using these pairs of words has very greatly diminished in our day; but a few examples still keep their place in the language. Such are will and testament, use and wont, aid and abet, and several others.
[36.] DOUBLETS.—It is chiefly to the same Norman-French influence that we owe a minor phenomenon of the language—the appearance of two forms of the same word. These two forms are called doublets. The Norman-French could not pronounce our semi-vowel w. They had either to make a v of it, or a hard g. They preferred the hard g; and, to keep it hard, they added a u. Thus, for wile, they said guile; for wise (= manner), they said guise; for ward, guard; for warden, guardian; for wardrobe, garderobe; for warrant, guarantee; and so on.