314 



Linguistic Discussions. 



was the slang word in 1800 to represent an invalid or superannuated 

 soldier. Its transition to designate any elderly person whose opinions 

 differ from our own is of course very easy. 



Houaage is a word found in the deeds of sale and wills of the 

 seventeenth century. It means more than housen, the old plural of 

 house, inasmuch as it includes besides dwelling-houses all the out- 

 buildings attached to a farm house. 



The use of the word prevent to signify to precede or to anticipate is 

 well known in few passages in the Bible. [Ps. 21:3, Matt. 1?:25.] 

 In a letter from the Rev. John Goodwin to the Rev. Thomas Good- 

 win, written in 1639, in regard to some theological difference of 

 opinion, occurs the following : "The heavens, I doubt not will accord 

 us ; yet were it our greater comfort and glory, if the earth herein might 

 prevent the heavens." 



YARIOUS ETYMOLOGIES. 



Jury-mast. Two derivations of this word are suggested — both from 

 the accidental resemblance of other words to this. The first, given 

 by Webster, is that it is an abbreviation of injury-mast. But there are 

 two objections to this — first, the accented syllable of the original word 

 is dropped in the derivative, which would not happen in the natural 

 order of things; and second, the first half of the word probably comes 

 from the same linguistic family as the second half, and mast belongs 

 to the northwest of Europe, to Teuton and Scandinavian. The sug- 

 gestion of Worcester (who seems to like to differ from Webster when he 

 can) is that it is from the French word jour (a day) as if a mast 

 used for a day and therefore a temporary mast. The fault of this 

 theory consists in it ascribing the first part to another linguistic family 

 than its mate, and in the great hiatus between the meaning of the 

 generic word day and the specific meanmg of the word temporary. 

 Too much is taken for granted. The wisest course for us to take is to 

 have the courage to admit that the utmost we are warranted in saying 

 is, that so far as the facts are known they j^oint to a Scandinavian 

 origin of the word, and that both the thing and the name came from 

 the Yikings of the North. 



As other examples of false etymology we may take the following : 

 Catnip is not so named because cats nip it, but comes from the old 

 English word nepp ornipp, a general term for mint. Catnip then is 

 really catmint. Runagate is not one who necessarily runs a toll-gate 

 but a renegado, one who denies his faith, from renegando religionem. 

 Causeivay is not because some one has caused a way to exist where for- 

 merly there was none, but simply a paved road from the French 

 chaussee. Tiiberose is another example of gravitation and false ety- 



