The early etymologists were fond of identifying foreign wares with place-names. They connected diaper with Ypres, gingham with Guingamp (in Brittany), drugget with Drogheda, and the sedan chair with Sedan. Such guesses are almost always wrong. The origin of diaper is doubtful, that of drugget quite unknown, and gingham is Malay. As far as we know at present, the sedan came from Italy in the 16th century, and it is there, among derivatives of Lat. sedere, to sit, that its origin must be sought, unless indeed the original Sedan was some mute, inglorious Hansom.[41]
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Whence also cheval de frise, a contrivance used by the Frieslanders against cavalry. The German name is die spanischen Reiter, explained by Ludwig as "a bar with iron-spikes; cheval de frise, a warlick instrument, to keep off the horse."
[37] The form jeans appears to be usual in America—"His hands were thrust carelessly into the side pockets of a gray jeans coat." (Meredith Nicholson, War of the Carolinas, Ch. 15.)
[38] A Scotch reviewer (Glasgow Herald, 13th April 1912) corrects me here—"His name was certainly not Ferrars, but Ferrier. He was probably an Arbroath man." Some readers may remember that, after General Todleben's brilliant defence of Sebastopol (1854-5), Punch discovered a respectable ancestry for him also. In some lines commencing—
"I ken him weel, the chield was born in Fife,
The bairn of Andrew Drummond and his wife,"
it was shown that the apparently foreign name had been conferred on the gifted child because of the agility with which he used to "toddle ben the hoose."
[39] Calicut, not Calcutta.
[41] As the hansom has now become of archæological interest only, it may be recorded here that it took its name from that of its inventor—"The Hansom's patent (cab) is especially constructed for getting quickly over the ground" (Pulleyn's Etymological Compendium, 1853). Sic transit!