Junket is from Old Fr. joncade, "a certaine spoone-meat, made of creame, rose-water, and sugar" (Cotgrave), Ital. giuncata, "a kinde of fresh cheese and creame, so called bicause it is brought to market upon rushes; also a junket" (Florio). It is thus related to jonquil, which comes, through French, from Span. junquillo, a diminutive from Lat. juncus, rush. The plant is named from its rush-like leaves. Ditto, Italian, lit. "said," and ditty, Old Fr. dité, are both past participles,[110] from the Latin verbs dico and dicto respectively. The nave of a church is from Fr. nef, still occasionally used in poetry in its original sense of ship, Lat. navis. It is thus related to navy, Old Fr. navie, a derivative of navis. Similarly Ger. Schiff is used in the sense of nave, though the metaphor is variously explained.
The old word cole, cabbage, its north country and Scottish equivalent kail, Fr. chou (Old Fr. chol), and Ger. Kohl, are all from Lat. caulis, cabbage; cf. cauliflower. We have the Dutch form in colza, which comes, through French, from Du. kool-zaad, cabbage seed. Cabbage itself is Fr. caboche, a Picard derivative of Lat. caput, head. In modern French caboche corresponds to our vulgar "chump." A goshawk is a goose hawk, so called from its preying on poultry. Merino is related to mayor, which comes, through French, from Lat. maior, greater. Span. merino, Vulgar Lat. *majorinus, means both a magistrate and a superintendent of sheep-walks. From the latter meaning comes that of "sheepe driven from the winter pastures to the sommer pastures, or the wooll of those sheepe" (Percyvall). Portcullis is from Old Fr. porte coulisse, sliding door. Fr. coulisse is still used of many sliding contrivances, especially in connection with stage scenery, but in the portcullis sense it is replaced by herse (see p. [75]), except in the language of heraldry. The masculine form coulis means a clear broth, or cullis, as it was called in English up to the 18th century. This suggests colander, which, like portcullis, belongs to Lat. colare, "to streine" (Cooper), whence Fr. couler, to flow.
Solder, formerly spelt sowder or sodder, and still so pronounced by the plumber, represents Fr. soudure, from the verb souder; cf. batter from Old Fr. batture, fritter from Fr. friture, and tenter (hooks)[111] from Fr. tenture. Fr. souder is from Lat. solidare, to consolidate. Fr. sou, formerly sol, a halfpenny, comes, like Ital. soldo, from Lat. solidus, the meaning of which appears also in the Italian participle soldato, a soldier, lit. a paid man. This Italian word has passed into French and German, displacing the older cognates soudard and Söldner, which now have a depreciatory sense. Eng. soldier is of Old French origin. It is represented in medieval Latin by soldarius, glossed sowdeor in a vocabulary of the 15th century. As in solder, the l has been re-introduced by learned influence, but the vulgar sodger is nearer the original pronunciation.
FOOTNOTES:
[102] I.e., grotto painting, Ital. grottesca, "a kinde of rugged unpolished painters worke, anticke worke" (Florio).
[103] See p. [120]. The aristocracy of the horse is still testified to by the use of sire and dam for his parents.
[104] Sometimes this name is for cheater, escheatour (p. [84]).
[105] Cf. avoirdupois, earlier avers de pois (poids), goods sold by weight.
[106] It is possible that this is a case of early folk-etymology and that persona is an Etruscan word.
[107] This is the accepted etymology; but it is more probable that furnieren comes from Fr. vernir, to varnish.