August 1, 1887.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



231 



most commonly mean when we speak of a "garden," 

 Americans call a "yard" — a term usually limited in 

 England to inclosed spaces which are not planted with 

 trees, shrubs, or flowers — and perhaps most generally under- 

 stood to signify an inclosed space which is wholly or 

 partially paved. For instance, a school playground would 

 hardly be called a " yard " in England. The word " garden " 

 in America is applied to what we would call a market 

 garden either for vegetables or flowers. The word 

 " orchai'd " is used much as with us. 



It is hardly necessaiy to tell the philological reader that 

 the words "garden," " yard," and " orchard " are closely 

 akin — orchard, however, being a compound — ort-yard or 

 wort-yard. The following series of words may be worth 

 noticing — it includes, however, but a few of the words akin 

 in divers languages to our " yard " and " garden " : — 



EsG. Gnrdea, garth, yard, or-chard. (Greensioard must 

 not be confounded witli these words, as if greens-ward ; it is 

 green-sward, " sward " being an old name for " skin " or 

 " rind.") 



Geard, orfgeard, vyrt-geard ; Old English, 



Saxox. 

 gearth. 

 Gothic. 

 German. 

 Erench. 

 Danish. 

 Latin. 



Gards, aurti-gards. 

 Garten ; Low German, garden. 

 Jardin ; Old French, gardin. 

 Guard, urtgaard ; Icelandic, gartlir. 

 Hortiis. 



Greek. Chortos. 



The same root is found in guard, giuirdiai), gird, girdle, 

 ward, warden, and other kindred words. Yard the metisure 

 of length, yard in yard-arm, goad, gad, hasta (Lat.), and 

 many other words, some of which have no apparent asso- 

 ciation with " guarding " or with girding or girdling, belong 

 to the same familv. 



Query. What is the derivation of the name " Hard," 

 used for a pier or landing-place for small boats ? — as 

 " Admiral's Hard," at Plymouth. This word does not 

 appear in any English dictionaries I have, though it is in 

 Webster. It may be akin to yard, as such landing-places 

 are partly inclosed, or girt round. In a dockyard we see 

 that a space so inclosed for ships is called a yard. Marryat 

 uses the word I/ard in " Peter Simple " ; and it is quite 

 commonly understood in the sen.se of a landing-place at 

 such places as Plymouth, Portsmouth, &c. The word 

 "hard" is also applied to fording-places where a river 

 bottom is hard. 



Garrison, for "Fort," seems to be a specially W^estern 

 usage — continued long after a soldier has been in a place 

 which was once a fort. 



Gat or Gate, for a gap, is a usage borrowed from the old 

 Dutch davs. Washington Irving tells how from the old 

 llelle-gat, or lIM-gap, there came Hell-gate, afterwards 

 altered " by the mealj'-mouthed to Hirl-gi\te, forsooth " ! 

 (Shakespeare has the " gate of hell," be it remarkeil in 

 passing, and Milton speaks of the gates of that abode of the 

 condemned, in giving his marvellously unscientific account 

 of the transit of Satan from bell to earth — with gravity 

 acting anyhow.) 



Gather. Used in the West in.stead of "take up" or 

 "pick up," and appropriate!)* pronounced "gether." 



Gaum (or Gorm). To smear. Still used in the eastern 

 counties. " If Mrs. Gummidge didn't up with a bucket 

 and lay it over that theer ship-carpenter's head," says Mr. 

 Peggotty (or to that effect), "I'm gormed, and I can't say 

 no fairer than that" — using the word for " smeared," as the 

 word " darned " is used in divers parts of England and 

 America, not as intended to suggest any re;il " darning " or 

 " smearing," but simply as a good mouth-filling word, sug- 

 gestive of that eternal condemnation of the wicked which 



has been so long considered an appropriate subject to swear 

 by. 



Gawnr's. a gawk, quasi lucus a non kicendo ; a " gaw- 

 nius," because not a genius. 



Gent. This word is used in two senses in America, one 

 interesting, the other fearful ; the interesting usage being 

 apparently a true Americanism, the fearful one being common 

 also in England. 



1. Gent, for genteel, is interesting as being so exceed- 

 ingly old. Said Chaucer five centuries ago : — 



Fair was this yonge wife, and therewithal 

 .\s any weasel her body gent and small ; 



and now — or yesterday, at any lute (circiter 1704) — 

 " Law you," we find in " ]Madam Knight's Journal," 

 " it's right gent ; it's awful pretty." The usage is 

 French — C'est bien gentil, it's very pretty. Bartlett 

 puts the word " gent," thus used, as equivalent to 

 "genteel"; but though "genteel" might be thus used 

 with propriety, it is seldom associated with the ide;x of 

 prettiness. More often " genteel " Ls used for smallness, 

 as "a genteel figure"; but this Ls not precisely the 

 same as even Chaucer's usage in the above passage. 

 For whereas " gent " with Chaucer means neatness and 

 prettiness, "genteel " u.sed of the figure implies not only 

 that the figure is neat, but that in ne;itness there is 

 what is understood by " gentility." A small figure is 

 considered genteel, and therefore, though not quite 

 logically, a genteel figure is understood to signify a 

 small one. In Chaucer's time the French language had 

 evidently adopted gentil as equivalent to neat and 

 elegant. The Old English '■ gimp," from the Welsh 

 " gwymp," may have suggested the monosyllabic form 

 " gent." 



2. "Gent" is used substantively as in England — a 

 supposed abbreviation for " gentleman," really another 

 name for the awfuUest of awful cads. We shudder and 

 pass on. 



Gentiles, as used in Utah to distinguish from the 

 Mormons those who are not Mormons, must now be regarded, 

 I supjjose, as an Americanism. When I lectured at Salt 

 Lake City, I found myself spoken of in a IMormon paper as 

 " a Gentile lecturer " — much as an aesthete calls an outsider 

 a Philistine, or as a racing man speaks of a non-racing man 

 as an outsider. 



Gentleman. This word, like its companion word 

 " lady," is so used in America that persons of respectability 

 are relieved when they find themselves called " men " and 

 " women." A negro boot-black is " a coloured gentleman." 

 A respectable uncoloured person is " a white man " ; and to 

 be called " a white man " is to be spoken of with respect ; 

 to be called in America a '' gentleman " is pretty nearly an 

 insult. Whenever any one Siiys to me, " Let me introduce 

 this man to you," I know the chances are I shall be introduced 

 to a good fellow ; but when I hear the ominous words, 

 " Here is a gentleman I should like to introduce to you," I 

 know I am to make the acquaintance of a j)erson engaged 

 in politics or some kindred form of swindling. 



In the East, however, they still try to keep up the old 

 use of this word to distinguish a man of gentle breeding and 

 good position from the uncultured. How successfully they 

 do this may be inferred from those most hateful " gentle- 

 men " who appear in Howells' novels, surely the gi'eatest 

 cads literature ba.s yet produced, and from casual remarks in 

 so-adled " society " papers. An amusingly suggestive story 

 appeared lately in one of these papere. A lady, described 

 as "a leader of society in Washington," remarked that she 

 knew X was not a gentleman, for she noticed that " he 

 lifted hLs coat-tails as he sat down ; a real gentleman never 



