Late is from the Anglo-Saxon ‘lætan;’ to let, or allow. ‘Lazy’ is from the same root, as is also ‘loiter.’ He who ‘loiters’ must be ‘late.’
Lout. This comes from the Anglo-Saxon verb ‘lutian,’ to bow. It was originally applied to a cringing menial, who was continually bowing before his master; and as in this case, the act was probably performed in a clownish, ungraceful way, the word thus came to signify an awkward, clumsy fellow.
Menial. This adjective is derived from the old French noun ‘mesnie’ (or meny), which, in the Middle Ages, meant the servants or household of some noble or chieftain taken collectively. A menial occupation was, originally, one performed by some member of the ‘mesnie.’ It is from this last that the English expression ‘a many’ is derived. It was at first ‘a mesnie,’ or a collective number of servants.
Meringue. Shakspere says that ‘great events from trivial causes spring.’ But we may sometimes reverse this saying, and say with equal truth, that trivial effects spring from great causes. It may appear strange that the French could not hit upon a more dignified way of commemorating a victory than by giving its name to a then newly invented cake, but such is the fact. The battle of Marengo produced the ‘Meringue’!!
Miscreant, which is from the French mécreant (or mécroyant), was first used in the times of the Crusades, and then signified simply an unbeliever. But disbelief in Christianity being at that time regarded as the worst of crimes, the word soon passed into the more general sense of a wicked wretch.
Mouchard.—In the latter part of the sixteenth century, when the French Government was on the look-out for heretics, a certain Antoine Mouchy, a doctor of the Sorbonne and canon of Noyon, made himself notorious by his zeal against the Reformers. The secret spies he employed in detecting the heretics were called, from his name, Mouchards, a word which now signifies the basest and meanest of betrayers.
Mountebank.—This means a quack medicine vendor, so called from the Italian ‘montare’ (to mount) and ‘banco’ (a bench). Literally, one who mounts a bench, to boast of his infallible skill in curing diseases.
Naught. ‘Aught’ is a contraction of the Saxon ‘a wiht’ (or, a whit), any creature or thing. ‘Naught’ is the negative of ‘aught,’ and means ‘not a whit.’ The adjective ‘naughty’ is now confined in its application to the behaviour of children; but it was once much more extensively used.
Palace. This term, which is now used in a general sense for a king’s residence, was first applied to a dwelling of the Roman Emperor Nero. One of the seven hills of Rome was called ‘Palatinus,’ from Pales, a pastoral deity whose festival was there celebrated on April 21 as the birthday of Rome. Under Nero, all the private houses on the ‘collis Palatinus’ were pulled down to make room for the Emperor’s new residence. This house was called ‘Palatium,’ and it afterwards became the type of all the palaces of the kings and emperors of Europe.