Dr Johnson defines it as "a hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid," an outburst which Lord Mansfield considered "actionable." The name, like the tax, came from the Netherlands, where it was called accijs—
"'Twere cheap living here, were it not for the monstrous excises which are impos'd upon all sorts of commodities, both for belly and back."
(Howell, Letter from Amsterdam, 1619.)
In modern Dutch it has become accijns, through confusion with cijns, tax (Lat. census; cf. Ger. Zins, interest). But the Dutch word is from Fr. accise, which appears in medieval Latin as accisia, as though connected with "cutting" (cf. tallage, from Fr. tailler, to cut), or with the "incidence" of the tax. It is perhaps a perversion of Ital. assisa, "an imposition, or taxe, or assesment" (Torriano); but there is also an Old Fr. aceis which must be related to Latin census.
When folk-etymology and contamination work together, the result is sometimes bewildering. Thus equerry represents an older querry or quirry, still usual in the 18th century. Among my books is—
"The Compleat Horseman, or Perfect Farrier, written in French by the Sieur de Solleysell, Querry to the Present King of France" (1702).
The modern spelling is due to popular association with Lat. equus. But this querry is identical with French écurie, stable, just as in Scottish the post often means the postman. And écurie, older escurie, is from Old High Ger. scura[100] (Scheuer, barn). The word used in modern French in the sense of our equerry is écuyer, older escuier, Lat. scutarius, shield-bearer, whence our word esquire. This écuyer is in French naturally confused with écurie, so that Cotgrave defines escuyrie as "the stable of a prince, or nobleman; also, a querry-ship; or the duties, or offices belonging thereto; also (in old authors) a squire's place; or, the dignity, title, estate of an esquire."
PLEONASM
Ignorance of the true meaning of a word often leads to pleonasm. Thus greyhound means hound-hound, the first syllable representing Icel. grey, a dog. Peajacket is explanatory of Du. pij, earlier pye, "py-gown, or rough gown, as souldiers and seamen wear" (Hexham). On Greenhow Hill means "on green hill hill," and Buckhurst Holt Wood means "beech wood wood wood," an explanatory word being added as its predecessor became obsolete. The second part of salt-cellar is not the same word as in wine-cellar. It comes from Fr. salière, "a salt-seller" (Cotgrave), so that the salt is unnecessary. We speak pleonastically of "dishevelled hair," while Old Fr. deschevelé, lit. dis-haired, now replaced by échevelé, can only be applied to a person, e.g., une femme toute deschevelée, "discheveled, with all her haire disorderly falling about her eares" (Cotgrave). The word cheer meant in Mid. English "face." Its French original chère scarcely survives except in the phrase faire bonne chère, lit. "make a good face," a meaning preserved in "to be of good cheer." In both languages the meaning has been transferred to the more substantial blessings which the pleasant countenance seems to promise, and also to the felicity resulting from good treatment. The true meaning of the word is so lost that we can speak of a "cheerful face," i.e., a face full of face.
UNEXPLAINED DISTORTIONS