CHAPTER XXVI

WORDS FROM PLACES OR PERSONS

ONE of the most entertaining chapters in the history of our vocabulary deals with words from proper names. These are of every conceivable kind. Some are mere nicknames, originating in slang or the humors of the hour, and perpetuated either because they seem to fill a gap in the language or because they suggest allusions or anecdotes which it tickles our fancy to remember; others are serious technical terms, coined in honor of an inventor or a discoverer. They may come from history or from literature, indifferently. Sometimes their origin is obscure, because the story or the incident to which they allude, though striking enough to attract attention at the moment and thus to give rise to a new word or phrase, has not proved of sufficient importance to be put on record.

The process that we are considering may go no farther than to transfer the name of a well-known personage to some one who resembles him. Thus, we may call a great orator'a Demosthenes' or 'a Burke' or 'a Webster,' a great general a Wellington' or 'a Marlborough,' a cruel tyrant 'a Nero,' the assertor of his country's liberties 'a Washington.' This happens every day and calls for no remark. A further step is taken when the name of such a character is used for all who resemble him. It is then a pure common noun, and, if our coinage passes current, the language has gained a word. Perhaps the most impressive example

is Caesar which, originally the name of a Roman family of no great distinction, has become a synonym for 'emperor' in languages so widely different as German (Kaiser) and Russian (Tsar).1

Examples of such nouns are: hector, 'a bully,' from a wrong conception of the great Trojan's character; mentor, 'a wise counsellor,' from the sage adviser of Telemachus in the Odyssey; Nestor, 'a veteran,' from the aged hero in the Iliad, who had ruled three generations of men; Solon, from the Athenian lawgiver (one of the Seven Wise Men), 'a sage,' often used jocosely of a person who has an habitual air of sagacity; Shylock, a merciless usurer,' or, in general, a grasping money-getter'; Judas, 'a traitor,' or, in particular, ‘a false friend' (cf. ‘a Judas kiss'); pandar (or pander), from the part played by Pandarus (Pandare) in Chaucer's romance of Troilus and in Shakspere's Troilus and Cressida ; 2 Bayard, a knight without fear and without reproach,' then, generally, ‘a high-minded and chivalrous gentleman'; Braggadocio (from a character in Spenser's Faerie Queene), formed from brag and a quasiItalian termination, a cowardly boaster'; Drawcansir, ‘a swashbuckler,' from a character in The Rehearsal, the famous burlesque play written to caricature Dryden; Maecenas, a patron of literature,' from one of Augustus's ministers, who favored literary men; dunce (from Duns Scotus, a celebrated scholastic philosopher), 'a stupid

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1 The Anglo-Saxons had the word in the form căsere, whence kaser in Middle English, but kaiser, another Middle English form, shows High German influence. Spenser's kesar is an intentional archaism.

2 Pandarus is a Trojan hero in the Iliad, but his activity as a go-between dates from the Middle Ages. Chaucer's Pandare is a development from Boccaccio's Pandaro, but is very different from his prototype, being, indeed, the most remarkable character-study in our literature before the Elizabethan age. Shakspere's Pandar is Chaucer's, utterly debased.

person,' first applied in contempt to the schoolmen who opposed the new or humanistic learning; Timon, ‘a misanthrope,' from a celebrated Athenian whose life was written by Plutarch and dramatized by Shakspere; Lucretia, ‘a virtuous woman,' from Collatinus's wife, whose tragic fate forms a part of the legendary history of Rome; Benedick or Benedict, a newly married man,' from a character in Much Ado About Nothing, who rails against wedlock, but finally succumbs to the charms of Beatrice;1 Satan, 'a person of diabolical wickedness' (cf. devil), or, jocosely, a little Satan,'' a mischievous child'; Termagant, ‘ a scold,' from a supposed god of the Saracens, whom the Middle Ages regarded as idolaters.2

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The Bible has given us a number of similar terms: as, -a Joseph, a Job, a Samson, a Solomon, a Methusalah, an Ishmael, a doubting Thomas,' a 'Good Samaritan,' a Dives, a lazar (from Lazarus), 'to raise Cain.' Jezebel has contributed her name to our vocabulary in two senses. In accordance with the wicked queen's true character, every haughty woman may be called a Jezebel, and it is with this in mind that Sir Andrew Aguecheek applies the name, with fine disregard of gender, to the strutting Malvolio. But Jezebel more commonly means 'a flaunting jade,’· especially in the phrase 'a painted Jezebel,' from the passage in which we read that Jezebel painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window' (II Kings ix. 30).

A pasquinade is a lampoon, such as used to be attached to a mutilated statue in Rome called Pasquin, from Pas

1 The word is used with particular allusion to a passage in which Benedick is jeeringly greeted by Don Pedro as 'Benedick, the married man.'

2 Hence Saracen in Middle English is frequently pagan,' and sometimes is substituted for 'heathen Dane' (as in one version of the romance of King Horn).

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lived and

quino, a cobbler celebrated for his wit, who worked near the place where it was exhumed. A lovelace is a person like the rake in Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe ; a gay Lothario gets his name from a similar character in Rowe's Fair Penitent; Don Juan was a Spanish libertine, whose adventures were traditionally current in Seville before they received literary and musical treatment at the hands of Tellez, Molière, Goldoni, Glück, and Byron. Paul Pry is a character in a comedy by John Poole. Simon Pure is a Quaker in Mrs. Centlivre's Bold Stroke for a Wife. Tartuffe for hypocrite' is from Molière. Squire of Dames is a character in Spenser's Faerie Queene (iii, 7, 51). Fidus Achates is Æneas's friend in Virgil. A Mrs. Harris for a 'non-existent person,' a 'myth,' is from Mrs. Gamp's fictitious patron in Martin Chuzzlewit, and practical Gradgrind is in Hard Times. Mrs. Grundy is often referred to as a standard of propriety by Dame Ashfield in Morton's Speed the Plow. Dulcinea was Don Quixote's ladylove. The Rev. Dr. Dryasdust is a device of Sir Walter Scott's. Roorback, a campaign lie,' is named after The Travels of Baron Roorback, a fiction intended to injure Polk when he was a candidate for the presidency in 1844. Rip Van Winkle needs no interpreter.

The driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously' has given us jehu, ‘coachman.' As for Nimshi, his father, his name is still used in New England for a mischievous child-'a regular little Nimshi.'1 Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord'; Achitophel led Absolom astray by evil counsel; 'a Daniel come to judgment' is Shylock's allusion to the story of Susannah.

There are also an abundance of classical proper names

1 A similar use of Jebusite is more intelligible.

that are used in the same manner: as,

an amazon, a Juno,

a Circe (cf. Circean wiles'), 'a perfect Adonis,' an outand-out Xanthippe.'

Now and then the name of a town or the like is used in

the same way: as, 'a babel of sounds,' from the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel; Mecca, for a place of pilgrimage, or, even the goal of one's aspirations; 'one's Capua,' for an easy position which tempts to neglect of duty, from the enervating effect of Hannibal's winter quarters in this luxurious town. The Land of Nod, for 'slumber-land,' is a pretty pun (see Genesis iv. 16). The constellation Ursa Minor was called Dog's Tail,' Kνvós oйpá (kunós ourá), by the Greeks. It was a guide to mariners (like the Pole Star), and this has given us cynosure, for the observed of all observers.' A passage in Milton's L'Allegro has done much to keep the word alive. Palace is palatium, the house of Augustus on the Palatine Hill.

Thẹ adjective maudlin, 'ridiculously tearful or sentimental,' comes, through the French, from Magdalen. This was the surname of Mary of Magdala (a town in Palestine), one of the early disciples of Christ. She was identified (without good grounds) with the 'woman who was a sinner' (Luke vii. 36), whence Magdalen, 'penitent.' The adjective use of maudlin was doubtless suggested by pictures of the weeping Magdalen.

Some of the words that we have mentioned have had a further development of meaning. Judas is applied to a peep-hole in a gate or door. Braggadocio has been transferred from the person to the quality, and usually signifies empty boasting.' So chimera, the name of a fabulous monster composed of different parts of incongruous animals, has become a synonym for a 'wild fancy