GHOST-WORDS
The readiness of lexicographers to copy from each other sometimes leads to ludicrous results. The origin of the word curmudgeon is quite unknown; but, when Dr Johnson was at work on his dictionary, he received from an unknown correspondent the suggestion that it was a corruption of Fr. cœur méchant, wicked heart. Accordingly we find in his dictionary, "It is a vitious manner of pronouncing cœur méchant, Fr. an unknown correspondent." John Ash, LL.D., who published a very complete dictionary in 1775, gives the derivation "from the French cœur, unknown, and méchant, a correspondent," an achievement which, says Todd, "will always excite both in foreigners and natives a harmless smile!"
It is thus that "ghost-words" come into existence. Every considerable English dictionary, from Spelman's Glossarium (1664) onward, has the entry abacot, "a cap of state, wrought up into the shape of two crowns, worn formerly by English kings." This "word" will no longer appear in dictionaries, the editor of the New English Dictionary having laid this particular ghost.[164] Abacot seems to be a misprint or misunderstanding for a bicocket, a kind of horned head-dress. It corresponds to an Old Fr. bicoquet and Span. bicoquete, cap, the derivation of which is uncertain. Of somewhat later date is brooch, "a painting all in one colour," which likewise occurs in all dictionaries of the 18th and 19th centuries. This is due to Miège (French Dict. 1688) misunderstanding Cotgrave. There is a Fr. camaïeu, a derivative of cameo, which has two meanings, viz., a cameo brooch, and a monochrome painting with a cameo effect. Miège appears to have taken the second meaning to be explanatory of the first, hence his entry—brooch, "camayeu, ouvrage de peinture qui n'est que d'une couleur." In Manwayring's Seaman's Dictionary (1644), the old word carvel, applied to a special build of ship, is misprinted carnell, and this we find persisting, not only in the compilations of such writers as Bailey, Ash, etc., but even in technical dictionaries of the 18th century "by officers who serv'd several years at sea and land." The Anglo-Saxon name for the kestrel (see p. [100]) was stangella, stone-yeller (cf. nightingale), which appears later as stonegall and staniel. In the 16th century we find the curious spelling steingall, e.g., Cooper explains tinnunculus as "a kistrel, or a kastrell; a steyngall." In Cotgrave we find it printed fleingall, a form which recurs in several later dictionaries of the 17th century. Hence, somewhere between Cooper and Cotgrave, an ornithologist or lexicographer must have misprinted fleingall for ſteingall by the common mistake of fl for ſt, and the ghost-word persists into the 18th century.
The difficulty of the etymologist's task is exemplified by the complete mystery which often enshrouds a word of comparatively recent appearance. A well-known example is the word Huguenot, for which fifteen different etymologies have been proposed. We first find it used in 1550, and by 1572 the French word-hunter Tabourot, generally known as des Accords, has quite a number of theories on the subject. He is worth quoting in full—
"De nostre temps ce mot de Huguenots, ou Hucnots s'est ainsi intronisé: quelque chose qu'ayent escrit quelques-uns, que ce mot vient Gnosticis hæreticis qui luminibus extinctis sacra faciebant, selon Crinit: ou bien du Roy Hugues Capet, ou de la porte de Hugon à Tours par laquelle ils sortoient pour aller à leur presche. Lors que les pretendus Reformez implorerent l'ayde des voix des Allemans, aussi bien que de leurs armees: les Protestans estans venus parler en leur faveur, devant Monsieur le Chancelier, en grande assemblee, le premier mot que profera celuy qui portoit le propos, fut, Huc nos venimus: Et apres estant pressé d'un reuthme (rhume, cold) il ne peut passer outre; tellement que le second dit le mesme, Huc nos venimus. Et les courtisans presents qui n'entendoient pas telle prolation; car selon la nostre ils prononcent Houc nos venimous, estimerent que ce fussent quelques gens ainsi nommez: et depuis surnommerent ceux de la Religion pretenduë reformee, Hucnos: en apres changeant C en G, Hugnots, et avec le temps on a allongé ce mot, et dit Huguenots. Et voylà la vraye source du mot, s'il n'y en a autre meilleure."[165]
The only serious etymology is Ger. Eidgenoss, oath companion, which agrees pretty well with the earliest recorded Swiss-French form, eiguenot, in Bonivard's Chronique de Genève.
UNSOLVED PROBLEMS
The engineering term culvert first appears about 1800, and there is not the slightest clue to its origin. The victorious march of the ugly word swank has been one of the linguistic phenomena of recent years. There is a dialect word swank, to strut, which may be related to the common Scottish word swankie, a strapping youth—
"I am told, young swankie, that you are roaming the world to seek your fortune."
(Monastery, Ch. 24.)