"'They call ut Locomotus attacks us,' he sez, 'bekaze,' sez he, 'it attacks us like a locomotive.'"
(Love o' Women.)
Our language is, owing to our borrowing habits, particularly rich in these gems. Examples familiar to everybody are crayfish from Fr. écrevisse, gilly-flower from Fr. giroflée, shame-faced for shamefast. Other words in which the second element has been altered are causeway, earlier causey, from the Picard form of Fr. chaussée, Lat. (via) calciata, i.e., made with lime, calx; penthouse, for pentice, Fr. appentis, "the penthouse of a house" (Cotgrave), a derivative of Old Fr. appendre, to hang to. Fr. hangar, a shed, now introduced into English by aviators as unnecessarily as garage by motorists, may also contain the same idea of "hanging."
In hiccough, for earlier hickup, an onomatopœic word, the spelling, suggested by cough, has not affected the pronunciation. Surcease is Fr. sursis, past participle of surseoir, "to surcease, pawse, intermit, leave off, give over, delay or stay for a time" (Cotgrave), Lat. supersedere. Taffrail has been confused with rail, its older form being tafferel, from Du. tafereel, diminutive of tafel, picture, from Lat. tabula. It meant originally the flat part of the stern of a ship ornamented with carvings or pictures. This is called tableau in nautical French. Fr. coutelas, an augmentative of Old Fr. coutel (couteau), knife, gave Eng. cutlass, which has no more etymological connection with "cutting" than a cutler, Fr. coutelier, or a cutlet, Fr. côtelette, little rib, Lat. costa. Cutlas was popularly corrupted into curtal-axe, the form used by Rosalind—
"A gallant curtal-axe upon my thigh,
A boar-spear in my hand."
(As You Like It, i. 3.)
We have a similar corruption in pick-axe, Mid. Eng. pikeys, Old Fr. piquois, picquois, "a pickax" (Cotgrave), from the verb piquer. The word posthumous has changed its meaning through folk-etymology. It represents the Latin superlative postumus, latest born. By association with humus, ground, earth, it came to be used of a child born, or a work published, after its author's death, a meaning which the derivatives of postumus have in all the Romance languages.
The first part of the word has been distorted in pursy, short-winded—
"And pursy insolence shall break his wind
With fear and horrid flight."
(Timon of Athens, v. 5.)