Butler — Household ^Vords: Their Etymology. 367 



Family may well come first among household words. The 

 word originally meant a collection of servants or slaves. The 

 man did not belono; to his familv, but his familv belonfrod to 

 him. The prehistoric wife like the Sabine women, was obtained 

 like other slaves, by capture, and the children could have no 

 higher standing than their mother. Such is the English of the 

 Roman legal formula ; 'partus sequitur ventrem. The word fam- 

 ily is derived from famulus = servant, which in the adjective 

 familiar stands in the English Bible without change of meaning. 

 I Sam. XXVIII. 3. The familiar spirit of the witch of Endor 

 was a servant spirit who at her bidding brought up Samuel from 

 the dead. Servants of the inquisition, especially constables, are 

 now called familiars, and the root-word famulus is used by Car- 

 lyle more than once, and that in its radical sense. Servant is 

 et;)Tiiologically one ^'preserved,'' a prisoner, saved from the 

 slaughter which in earlier times had been the doom of all the 

 vanquished, but preserved no longer than suited the caprice of 

 his master — or house-despot — as he was styled in Greek. Slave, 

 a word of similar import to servant, originally denoted captives 

 of the Slavic or Slavonic race from v/hich the Teutons took 

 most captives. By one of the ironies in linguistic history it 

 happens that slave in its original tongue signifies glory. The 

 primitive constitution of families early underwent some changes 

 to the surprise of Solomon, who says, ^'I have seen servants on 

 horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth." More 

 recent changes as to what the word family implies are knowTi and 

 read of all men. 



House and hut, words radically the same with hide, mean a 

 shelter or protection, often in secret. Home, at first associated 

 with lair or place of lying down, also implied a hiding place. 

 Mansion (mainsion) the house where a man remained after he 

 had emerged from the roving, nomadic stage, naturally became 

 superior to a transient pastoral hut. The permanent abiding- 

 place of a dignitary is a residence, that is resit-ance, where he 

 permanently sits, the syllable re being here intensive. Loft, a 

 contraction from lifted, describes the highest room, called also 

 garret, which means a look-out. Thatch, tile, and roof are all 

 derivations from a classical root meaning to cover. Shingle, 

 that is a split, alludes to the way in which that sort of covering 



