394 ERRATA RECEPTA. 



This word we have vernacularized from meslier, a French transform- 

 ation of mespilus or mespilum, the classic name of the same fruit. — 

 Berheris, the botanical Latin for a well-known ornamental and useful 

 shrub growing in abundance wild on the New England coasts, we 

 have adroitly made larherry, catching at the sound of the last two 

 syllables. The original of the term corresponds to the Arabic 

 name of the shrub. — The Anglo-Indian jack-fruit is an obvious 

 modification of the native tsjaka and iaca. 



8. The appellations of animals, of fish and of birds, of insects and 

 various creeping things, furnish instances of vernacularized terms. 

 I take first the case of the Muscovy duck. Muscovy knows little of 

 him. His home is Nicaragua. He has his name from a tribe of 

 Mexican Indians, the Muyscas. He was at first known as the miiys- 

 ca, then as the musco duck. Finally, Muscovy being a name more 

 familiar than either of the other two to the British ear, he became 

 the Muscovy duck. — Again : the syllable prey in osprey has a good 

 predatory sound. The Latin name of the creature is literally the 

 hone-crusJier, ossifraga. The French have vernacularized it into 

 orfraie ; we, into the word of the satisfactory seeming just mentioned. 

 To our unsophisticated forefathers, caterpillar very probably appeared 

 a well-selected appellation. It hinted of insects somewhat cat-like, 

 whose habit was to " pill " and lay waste. But the element -piU 

 has reference to the hairiness of caterpillars. In the Italian of Lom- 

 bardy the silkworm \% gatta midi gattola, "little cat." {Chenille, the 

 French for caterpillar, is "little dog," canicula.) In Spanish it is 

 fel-pilla,felis pilosa, good Latin corrupted. In Norman French this 

 became chatte-pelouse, which we vernacularize into " caterpillar." — 

 In the first instance, we see, it meant the silk-worm only. In 

 connection with " cat," I may mention that in the "Walloon, i. e. 

 the Flemish spoken between the Scheldt and the Lys, the name of 

 this animal is said to be pisice, which may originate what Archbishop 

 Whately called the English irregular vocative of " cat." — In the 

 same connexion I add that scaie, the name"of a not unfamiliar fish> 

 is properly " sea-cat" pronounced short. Its Welsh name is tnor- 

 gath, which is, to the letter, " sea-cat." 



The monastic annalists had alarming ideas about cockatrices. In 

 heraldic zoology these beings still exist. It appears that o-ocodiles 

 were meant. The Low-Latin word was culcatrices, whence came the 

 Italian culcatrice, the French cocatrix, and the English cockatrice. 

 The emblasoners of arms, carried away by a vernacular sound, figured 



