5868 



Etymology of 



hermaphrodite etymologies — by which we mean words compounded of 

 two roots which are taken from different languages — are very rare, 

 and to be received with suspicion^ Talbot has suggested that our word 

 may have been originally the French or Norman 'Ma dormeuse," the 

 second syllable of which would soon be corrupted, by country people, 

 into mouse. 



The word moiise^ itself, is a very ancient and wide-spread name. 

 In Anglo-Saxon it is mus ; in German, maus ; in Latin, mus ; in 

 Greek, (xvg. It is ordinarily derived from a root which is expressed 

 in the Greek f/^vziv, to hide, although Pott considers that it may come 

 from the Sanscrit mush, to steal. 



Rat is the French rat^ and appears in modern Latin as rattus, 

 Wachter refers its origin to the German reisseti ; Anglo-Saxon, 

 lireddan ; our own rid; to which the Latin rodo^ to gnaw, is akin. 

 The name, therefore, may combine the ideas of gnawing and plun- 

 dering. It is difBcult to account for the name of Norway rat^ as this 

 species is aboriginal to Asia, and was not even known to exist in 

 Norway when our name was given to it. There is an ill-natured tra- 

 dition that it was introduced to our country by the same ship as 

 brought in the Hanover dynasty ; but this throws no light on the 

 name : more probably it was imported on board of some Norwegian 

 trader, which may have touched at one of our ports. 



Hare is a word that has sadly puzzled etymologists. Conjectures 

 concerning its origin are innumerable, and, as it has no equivalent in 

 the Latin and its kindred languages, its affinities are very hard to trace. 

 It is the x\nglo-Saxon hara, and it is the same word in Swedish. In 

 Dutch and German the r gives way to .9, as it is Dutch haas^ German 

 hase. One very plausible conjecture is that the word is akin to the 

 Anglo-Saxon licer^ hair; from the long soft fur of the hare. It 

 has been suggested to me by a friend that it may come from the same 

 root as our hoar^ hoary ; Anglo-Saxon, hara ; in allusion to its pre- 

 vailing colour. Talbot says, ''Hare, the most timorous of animals, 

 is perhaps named from the Anglo-Saxon timid ; earh^ swift." 



Leveret is the French lievre^ Latin lepus, and is closely akin to the 

 French lapin, rabbit. Indeed a close search will reveal to us a very 

 curious connexion existing between the names for the hare and rabbit, 

 in the kindred languages. The root is to be found in the Latin levis 

 and our word leap^ indicative of lightness and agility. 



Rabbit is akin to the Dutch robbe^ which probably comes, as Skin- 

 ner suggests, from the Latin rapidus, our rapid. It would not be 

 diflScult to establish the etymological identity of this word with the 



