[141] This word has degenerated. It is a doublet of deft.
CHAPTER XIII
ETYMOLOGICAL FACT AND FICTION
Romance and Germanic etymology dates from the middle of the 19th century, and is associated especially with the names of two great Germans, Friedrich Diez, who published his Wörterbuch der romanischen Sprachen in 1853, and Jakob Grimm, whose Deutsches Wörterbuch dates from 1852. These two men applied in their respective fields of investigation the principles of comparative philology, and reduced to a science what had previously been an amusement for the learned or the ignorant.
EARLY ETYMOLOGISTS
Men have always been fascinated by word-lore. The Greeks and Romans played with etymology in a somewhat metaphysical fashion, a famous example of which is the derivation of lucus a non lucendo. Medieval writers delight in giving amazing information as to the origin of the words they use. Their method, which may be called learned folk-etymology, consists in attempting to resolve an unfamiliar word into elements which give a possible interpretation of its meaning. Thus Philippe de Thaün, who wrote a kind of verse encyclopedia at the beginning of the 12th century, derives the French names of the days of the week as follows: lundi, day of light (lumière), mardi, day of toil or martyrdom (martyre), mercredi, day of market (marché), jeudi, day of joy (joie), vendredi, day of truth (vérité), samedi, day of sowing (semence). Here we perhaps have, not so much complete ignorance, as the desire to be edifying, which is characteristic of the medieval etymologists.
Playful or punning etymology also appears very early. Wace, whose Roman de Rou dates from about the middle of the 12th century, gives the correct origin of the word Norman—
"Justez (put) ensemble north et man
Et ensemble dites northman."