"Come, mourn with me for that I do lament,
And put on sullen black incontinent."
(Richard II., v. 6.)
while the "solemn curfew" (Tempest, v. 1) is described by Milton as "swinging slow with sullen roar" (Penseroso, l. 76). The meaning of antic, a doublet of antique, has changed considerably, but the process is easy to follow. From meaning simply ancient it acquired the sense of quaint or odd, and was applied to grotesque[102] work in art or to a fantastic disguise. Then it came to mean buffoon, in which sense Shakespeare applies it to grim death—
"For within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king,
Keeps death his court; and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp."
(Richard II., iii. 2.)
and lastly the meaning was transferred to the capers of the buffoon. From Old High Ger. faltan (falten), to fold, and stuol (Stuhl), chair, we get Fr. fauteuil. Medieval Latin constructed the compound faldestolium, whence our ecclesiastical faldstool, a litany desk. Revel is from Old Fr. reveler, Lat. rebellare, so that it is a doublet of rebel. Holyoak's Latin Dictionary (1612) has revells or routs, "concursus populi illegitimus." Its sense development, from a riotous concourse to a festive gathering, has perhaps been affected by Fr. réveiller, to wake, whence réveillon, a Christmas Eve supper, or "wake." Cf. Ital. vegghia, "a watch, a wake, a revelling a nights" (Florio).
The very important word money has acquired its meaning by one of those accidents which are so common in word-history. The Roman mint was attached to the temple of Juno Moneta, i.e., the admonisher, from monēre, and this name was transferred to the building. The Romans introduced moneta, in the course of their conquests, into French (monnaie), German (Münze), and English (mint). The French and German words still have three meanings, viz., mint, coin, change. We have borrowed the French word and given it the general sense represented in French by argent, lit. silver. The Ger. Geld, money, has no connection with gold, but is cognate with Eng. yield, as in "the yield of an investment," of which we preserve the old form in wergild, payment for having killed a man (Anglo-Sax. wer). To return to moneta, we have a third form of the word in moidore—
"And fair rose-nobles and broad moidores
The waiter pulls out of their pockets by scores."
(Ingoldsby, The Hand of Glory.)
from Port. moeda de ouro, money of gold.