[9.] Other Foreign Words.—The English have always been the greatest travellers in the world; and our sailors always the most daring, intelligent, and enterprising. There is hardly a port or a country in the world into which an English ship has not penetrated; and our commerce has now been maintained for centuries with every people on the face of the globe. We exchange goods with almost every nation and tribe under the

sun. When we import articles or produce from abroad, we in general import the native name along with the thing. Hence it is that we have guano, maize, and tomato from the two Americas; coffee, cotton, and tamarind from Arabia; tea, congou, and nankeen from China; calico, chintz, and rupee from Hindostan; bamboo, gamboge, and sago from the Malay Peninsula; lemon, musk, and orange from Persia; boomerang and kangaroo from Australia; chibouk, ottoman, and tulip from Turkey. The following are lists of these foreign words; and they are worth examining with the greatest minuteness:—

[African Dialects.]
Baobab.
Canary.
Chimpanzee.
Gnu.
Gorilla.
Guinea.
Karoo.
Kraal.
Oasis.
Quagga.
Zebra.
[American Tongues.]
Alpaca.
Buccaneer.
Cacique.
Cannibal.
Canoe.
Caoutchouc.
Cayman.
Chocolate.
Condor.
Guano.
Hammock.
Jaguar.
Jalap.
Jerked (beef).
Llama.
Mahogany.
Maize.
Manioc.
Moccasin.
Mustang.
Opossum.
Pampas.
Pemmican.
Potato.
Racoon.
Skunk.
Squaw.
Tapioca.
Tobacco.
Tomahawk.
Tomato.
Wigwam.
[Arabic.]
(The word al means the. Thus alcohol = thespirit.)

Admiral (Milton writes ammiral).

Alcohol.
Alcove.
Alembic.
Algebra.
Alkali.
Amber.
Arrack.
Arsenal.
Artichoke.
Assassin.
Assegai.
Attar.
Azimuth.
Azure.
Caliph.
Carat.
Chemistry.
Cipher.
Civet.
Coffee.
Cotton.
Crimson.
Dragoman.
Elixir.
Emir.
Fakir.
Felucca.
Gazelle.
Giraffe.
Harem.
Hookah.
Koran (or Alcoran).
Lute.
Magazine.
Mattress.
Minaret.
Mohair.
Monsoon.
Mosque.
Mufti.
Nabob.
Nadir.
Naphtha.
Saffron.
Salaam.
Senna.
Sherbet.
Shrub (the drink).
Simoom.
Sirocco.
Sofa.
Sultan.
Syrup.
Talisman.
Tamarind.
Tariff.
Vizier.
Zenith.
Zero.
[Chinese.]
Bohea.
China.
Congou.
Hyson.
Joss.
Junk.
Nankeen.
Pekoe.
Silk.
Souchong.
Tea.
Typhoon.
[Hindu.]
Avatar.
Banyan.
Brahmin.
Bungalow.
Calico.
Chintz.
Coolie.
Cowrie.
Durbar.
Jungle.
Lac (of rupees).
Loot.
Mulligatawny.
Musk.
Pagoda.
Palanquin.
Pariah.
Punch.
Pundit.
Rajah.
Rupee.
Ryot.
Sepoy.
Shampoo.
Sugar.
Suttee.
Thug.
Toddy.
[Hungarian.]
Hussar.
Sabre.
Shako.
Tokay.
[Malay.]
Amuck.
Bamboo.
Bantam.
Caddy.
Cassowary.
Cockatoo.
Dugong.
Gamboge.
Gong.
Gutta-percha.
Mandarin.
Mango.
Orang-outang.
Rattan.
Sago.
Upas.
[Persian.]
Awning.
Bazaar.
Bashaw.
Caravan.
Check.
Checkmate.
Chess.
Curry.
Dervish.
Divan.
Firman.
Hazard.
Horde.
Houri.
Jar.
Jackal.
Jasmine.
Lac (a gum).
Lemon.
Lilac.
Lime (the fruit).
Musk.
Orange.
Paradise.
Pasha.
Rook.
Saraband.
Sash.
Scimitar.
Shawl.
Taffeta.
Turban.
[Polynesian Dialects.]
Boomerang.
Kangaroo.
Taboo.
Tattoo.
[Portuguese.]
Albatross.
Caste.
Cobra.
Cocoa-nut.
Commodore.
Fetish.
Lasso.
Marmalade.
Moidore.
Molasses.
Palaver.
Port (= Oporto).
[Russian.]
Czar.
Drosky.
Knout.
Morse.
Rouble.
Steppe.
Ukase.
Verst.
[Tartar.]
Khan.
[Turkish.]
Bey.
Caftan.
Chibouk.
Chouse.
Dey.
Janissary.
Kiosk.
Odalisque.
Ottoman.
Tulip.
Yashmak.
Yataghan.

[10.] Scientific Terms.—A very large number of discoveries in science have been made in this century; and a large number of inventions have introduced these discoveries to the people, and made them useful in daily life. Thus we have telegraph and telegram; photograph; telephone and even photophone.

The word dynamite is also modern; and the unhappy employment of it has made it too widely known. Then passing fashions have given us such words as athlete and æsthete. In general, it may be said that, when we wish to give a name to a new thing—a new discovery, invention, or fashion—we have recourse not to our own stores of English, but to the vocabularies of the Latin and Greek languages.

[ LANDMARKS IN THE HISTORY OF THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE.]
A.D.
1. The Beowulf, an old English epic, “written on the mainland”450
2. Christianity introduced by St Augustine (and with it many Latin and a few Greek words)597
3. Caedmon—‘Paraphrase of the Scriptures,’—first English poem670
4. Baeda—“The Venerable Bede”—translated into English part of St John’s Gospel735
5. King Alfred translated several Latin works into English, among others, Bede’s ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation’ (851)901
6. Aelfric, Archbishop of York, turned into English most of the historical books of the Old Testament1000
7. The Norman Conquest, which introduced Norman French words1066
8. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, said to have been begun by King Alfred, and brought to a close in1160
9. Orm or Orrmin’s Ormulum, a poem written in the East Midland dialect, about1200
10. Normandy lost under King John. Norman-English now have their only home in England, and use our English speech more and more1204
11. Layamon translates the ‘Brut’ from the French of Robert Wace. This is the first English book (written in Southern English) after the stoppage of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle1205
12. The Ancren Riwle (“Rules for Anchorites”) written in the Dorsetshire dialect. “It is the forerunner of a wondrous change in our speech.” “It swarms with French words”1220
13. First Royal Proclamation in English, issued by Henry III.1258
14. Robert of Gloucester’s Chronicle (swarms with foreign terms)1300
15. Robert Manning, “Robert of Brunn,” compiles the ‘Handlyng Synne.’ “It contains a most copious proportion of French words”1303
16. Ayenbite of Inwit (= “Remorse of Conscience”)1340
17. The Great Plague. After this it becomes less and less the fashion to speak French1349
18. Sir John Mandeville, first writer of the newer English Prose—in his ‘Travels,’ which contained a large admixture of French words. “His English is the speech spoken at Court in the latter days of King Edward III.”1356
19. English becomes the language of the Law Courts1362
20. Wickliffe’s Bible1380
21. Geoffrey Chaucer, the first great English poet, author of the ‘Canterbury Tales’; born in 1340, died1400
22. William Caxton, the first English printer, brings out (in the Low Countries) the first English book ever printed, the ‘Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye,’—“not written with pen and ink, as other books are, to the end that every man may have them at once”1471
23. First English Book printed in England (by Caxton) the ‘Game and Playe of the Chesse’1474
24. Lord Berners’ translation of Froissart’s Chronicle1523
25. William Tyndale, by his translation of the Bible “fixed our tongue once for all.” “His New Testament has become the standard of our tongue: the first ten verses of the Fourth Gospel are a good sample of his manly Teutonic pith”1526-30
26. Edmund Spenser publishes his ‘Faerie Queene.’ “Now began the golden age of England’s literature; and this age was to last for about fourscore years”1590
27. Our English Bible, based chiefly on Tyndale’s translation. “Those who revised the English Bible in 1611 were bidden to keep as near as they could to the old versions, such as Tyndale’s”1611
28. William Shakespeare carried the use of the English language to the greatest height of which it was capable. He employed 15,000 words. “The last act of ‘Othello’ is a rare specimen of Shakespeare’s diction: of every five nouns, verbs, and adverbs, four are Teutonic” (Born 1564)1616
29. John Milton, “the most learned of English poets,” publishes his ‘Paradise Lost,’—“a poem in which Latin words are introduced with great skill”1667
30. The Prayer-Book revised and issued in its final form. “Are was substituted for be in forty-three places. This was a great victory of the North over the South” 1661
31. John Bunyan writes his ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’—a book full of pithy English idiom. “The common folk had the wit at once to see the worth of Bunyan’s masterpiece, and the learned long afterwards followed in the wake of the common folk” (Born 1628)1688
32. Sir Thomas Browne, the author of ‘Urn-Burial’ and other works written in a highly Latinised diction, such as the ‘Religio Medici,’ written1642
33. Dr Samuel Johnson was the chief supporter of the use of “long-tailed words in osity and ation,” such as his novel called ‘Rasselas,’ published1759
34. Tennyson, Poet-Laureate, a writer of the best English—“a countryman of Robert Manning’s, and a careful student of old Malory, has done much for the revival of pure English among us” (Born 1809)

[ PART IV.]

OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF
ENGLISH LITERATURE