Chapter I: The Sources of Our Words

_What Is Philology?_

Philology is the study of human speech, the science of language. Not only does it give us a chatting acquaintance with the fascinating history of the words we use or might use in speech; but it is an indispensable searchlight cast inward upon the cloudy nature, and backward upon the obscure early history, of man. The term philology once meant the study of the literature of a people (from Greek _philein_, love, and _logos_, a word, speech, discourse). Modern usage is limiting it to the science of language itself.

The best introduction to the science lies in a study of our own language, the English, rapidly becoming the American. What is true of word-building and word-journeying in English is largely true of every civilized speech; and we will find that the story of our own tongue brings it into contact with practically every language ever spoken. A recent standard English dictionary contained over 500,000 words—a good beginning for us, when the psychologists say that the vocabulary of the superior adult contains only 13,500 words.

How many words are possible? Far more than Einstein could count. By putting the 23 letters of an alphabet in every possible combination, we would have 25,852,016,738,884,976,640,000 words; with 24 letters we would get 620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000 words. Add to this that some languages, like Chinese, sing or drone their sounds, with varied accents for further varieties. Thus _dai_, in the Chinese speech of Annam, signifies 23 different things, depending upon the accent. The sentence

Ba ba ba ba

is said to mean, if properly pronounced, each syllable differently accented, “Three ladies gave a box on the ear to the favorite of the prince.” This would multiply the potentialities of speech beyond the numerical confines of this page.

Yet the hundreds of thousands, the millions, of existing words came from a far smaller number of original word-stems or roots. Max Muller lists 121 original Sanskrit roots, which lie at the base of all Indo-European languages. There was a Dr. Murray who imagined that he could derive our language from nine roots, AG, BAG, CWAG, DWAG, LAG, MAG, NAG, RAG, SWAG; an even more thorough-going Dr. Schmidt traced the whole Greek dictionary back to the root E, and the whole Latin dictionary back to the root HI. Let us do a little word-digging, and see where it lands us.

_The First Recorded English Speech._

The English race may be regarded historically as a blend of Celtic or Briton, Teutonic (Anglo-Saxon), and French-Norman elements. The Celts once covered Europe from Asia Minor to Spain, Brittany in France, and Ireland; their place-names and a few other simple elements of language testify mutely today to their forgotten occupancy. The Teutonic conquerors who reached England, mainly Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, spoke a Teutonic speech. The Normans, or Northmen, were colonists from Scandinavia who founded Normandy in modern France, adopted the French tongue and French manners, and from their new home set forth and conquered England, Sicily, and several parts of Italy. The French tongue at this time was a corrupt provincial Latin. These three elements, Celtic, Teutonic, and French-Latin, are integral in our living English and American speech.

The historical fate of the early Britons dispossessed of their homes by the Anglo-Saxons is still obscure. Some undoubtedly joined their Celtic kinsmen in Ireland and Scotland; some blended in a servile condition with the new English race; a large number were annihilated with more or less rapidity. We find few words, beyond place names, definitely to be attributed to them. Among these are _bin_, _brat_, _down_ (hill), _mattock_, _crock_. Later on the Welsh Celts contributed _flannel_, _maggot_, _coracle_. From the Gaels of Scotland came _clan_, _mackintosh_, _ptarmigan_, _reel_ (dance), _slogan_, _whiskey_. From the Erse of Ireland were derived _brogue_, _bog_, _galore_, _shamrock_, _spalpeen_, _Tory_. This list is surprisingly small.

_The Teutonic Element._

The earliest speech properly called English (from the tribe of Angles) was brought to the islands of Great Britain in the 5th century A. D. by Teutonic invaders from what is now northern Germany. This imported _Englisc_, later _English_, speech was a branch of the Western Germanic languages, which includes also High German, the literary language of modern Germany, as well as the Frisian, the Flemish language of Belgium, and the literary language of Holland. A degree more distant was the East Teutonic division which included the Gothic, and the North Teutonic, including Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Norwegian.

A few of the native English words have survived practically without change of form or meaning: among these are _oft_, _and_, _in_, _word_, _full_, _from_, _for_, _to_, _God_. At times there has been a slight change in sound or meaning, as in _ofer_, over; _thaet_, that; _aer_, ere; _aefter_, after. More often the change has been greater. Take the word _wanton_. This combines the old privative prefix _wan_, without, and an altered form of the past participle _togan_ of the O. E. (Old English) verb _teon_, to train or rear. Thus wanton meant without training, and was applied first to children; its meaning today has a far wider application. These changes followed definite rules. The O. E. _k_ sound, represented by the letter _c_, under certain conditions regularly became _ch_, as in choose, from _ceosan_; rich, from _rice_; much, from _mycel_. In the same way O. E. _sc_ became regularly sh, as in should, from _sceolde_; shame, from _sceamu_; shadow, from _sceadu_. The vowels show changes as symmetrical: thus the long _a_ sound in _ath_, _tacn_, _aras_, _stan_, _lar_, _swa_, _mar_, _gast_, becomes long _o_ in oath, token, arose, stone, lore, so, more, ghost. Other vowels illustrate changes as regular.

The meaning in most cases showed a gradual alteration. Thus _wadan_, to advance, became wade, to advance in water; _stingan_, to pierce, became sting, when a bee pierces; _spillan_, to destroy, became spill, to waste liquid; _craeft_, force, became craft, cunning. The first two of these indicate how a word of general meaning is limited to a more specific meaning, as the language sharpens in its ability to convey ideas; _spill_ shows a general tendency for words to become lighter and less impressive in meaning, as time corrupts their force; _craft_ points to the historic fact that cunning succeeded force in the dealings of men. _Mod_, courage, weakens to mood, a state of feeling; _wif_, woman, is limited to wife, married woman; _deor_, beast, to deer, a particular wild beast; _hamm_, the back of the leg, is generally restricted to the leg of a beast used for food, especially of pork, although the old meaning is still slightly alive. _Ceorl_, freeman, was degraded to churl, a boorish fellow, by the conquering Normans. At times the Christian religion caused the alteration, as when it appropriated _feond_, enemy, and made fiend, devil; _bletsian_, to consecrate by blood (compare _blood_, _bleed_), has become bless. At times the general degradation of ideas caused the change. Thus _cnafa_, boy (compare German _Knabe_) grew to knave. Queer alterations have taken place, in such pairs of words as beam and tree. _Beam_, originally meaning tree (Ger. _Baum_, tree) means now a hewn product of the tree; _treo_, once applied to wood cut for use (compare single-tree, whiffle-tree, etc.) today in _tree_ applies to the source of the wood. _Bread_ and _loaf_ have similarly exchanged their meanings: the old meaning of loaf appears disguised in _lord_ (_hlaford_, bread-warden or guardian) and _lady_ (_hlaefdige_, bread-kneader).

Thus of the original Old English, a few words persist with original form and meaning; more have altered one or both; and a large number have died, and are no longer in the living vocabulary. For words die as surely as men do. Among the corpses found only in archaic poetry and old prose are _ween_, to think; _meed_, reward; _fain_, gladly; _rathe_, early; _lore_, learning; _bale_, harm; _dight_, decked; _don_, put on (literally, do-on), and also _doff_, put off.

_How English Became Our Speech._

Literary English is, in reality, the East Midland dialect of the spread Wessex dialect of the Anglo-Saxon dialect of the Teutonic tongue, that split off from the Indo-European speech. It was not made the official speech by Act of Parliament or popular vote; languages do not grow that way. Skeat classifies forty-two dialects in the British Isles—nine in Scotland, three in Ireland, and thirty in England and Wales. If the political history or the geography of England had differed, we would today speak a tongue based on some other dialect. First, Old English became the basic speech in the 9th century, largely due to the literary activities of Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, in South England. The Wessex (lit., _West Saxon_) dialect at the time was only one of many; the political and literary prominence of Alfred made it selected as the speech of Anglo-Saxon England.

Then the Normans swept over the isle, and ended the reign of the English standard of speech. The English-speaking population became so reduced in social importance, that English was a forgotten speech in the ruling circles for almost 300 years; French and Latin became the accepted languages. Under Edwards I and III a national feeling grew up hostile to the continued use of French; and about 1400, at the time of Chaucer, English, as modified by French-Norman influence, became again the accepted speech, a position it has since held. This English again was only a dialect, the East Midland dialect, that of London, then merely one out of many dialects. If Alfred had come from the Scotch marches, if the island had been so skewed around geographically that the capital city had been on Tweed instead of Thames, we would speak a derivative of another set of dialects. Every language, living and dead, has grown so from some local dialect favored by circumstances geographical, political, or literary, or a combination of these.

More than this, a fact not as yet discovered by academic philology, climate plays a large shaping element in speech. The speech is determined, it might also be said, by isothermic lines. Study your map of the world for place-names, as samples of the spoken languages. The harsh Siberian and Russian Yakutsk, Kamchatka, Okhotsk, Tobolsk, Krasnoyarsk, Pustozersk, Petrozavodsk, Scandinavian Bukke Fjord, Tromso, Sundsvall, Laurvik, correspond to the explosive Eskimo gutturals, and to Umanak, Svartenhuk, Sukkertoppen, Tchaneta, Attumwapiskat, Winisk, Waskaiowaku, names modified by southerly settlers. The guttural Teutonic speech is similar to the American Massachusetts, Connecticut, Chingashcook, Androscoggin, Umbagog, Squam, Memphramagog, Mattawamkeag, Hopatcong, Keokuk, Saskatchewan, Iskut, Kamloops. The melting softness of Italian, southern French, Spanish finds its American parallel in Miami, Pensacola, Tuscaloosa, Tuscarora, Appalachicola, Alapha, Susquehanna, and the like. Equatorial speech is similar broadly the world around; the Southern hemisphere builds back from a lazy dwelling softness to a curtness and at last a staccato brusqueness, as we approach the southern pole. Civilized conquest of the world imports inept place-names everywhere: but the original speech was determined by the close-mouthed cold and the languid drawl of tropic warmth.

Thus English took her Teutonic speech from a local dialect. At first there was no general standard; but within a century, the spread of printed books, and the King James version of the Bible, made the form of the language comparatively rigid. If it were entirely rigid, it would be dead: never forget that living speech is a constantly growing thing.

_The French Element._

The English language has been said to be French badly pronounced. There is some truth in the witticism; just as French, in turn, is mangled provincial Latin. Even before the Norman conquest, certain French words had crossed the channel, becoming among others _purse_, _sot_, _castle_, _turn_, _trail_, _market_, _clerk_, _false_. In the 12th Century, in the little written English coming down to us, these had been joined by such words as _justice_, _war_, _peace_, _tower_, _treason_, _prison_, _court_, _crown_, _empress_, _chaplain_, _saint_, _grace_, _mercy_, _charity_, _faith_. Notice how these words point to the part played by the Normans in English history, in military, court and religious circles. The middle of the 14th Century saw thousands of words borrowed. The legal terms especially were taken from the French: among these _mortgage_, _forfeit_, _bail_, _jury_, _larceny_, _lease_, _perjury_, _assets_, _embezzle_, _seize_, _culprit_, _improve_, _attach_, _quit_, _matter of fact_. General words, with the date of their first appearance from French sources in the Oxford dictionary, are _havoc_, 1585; _plot_, 1590; _march_, 1590; _lobby_, 1553; _massacre_, 1581; _sentinel_, 1579; _attach_, 1600; _quatrain_, 1585; _gazette_, 1605; _dessert_, 1600. Later additions are _campaign_, 1656; _corps_, 1711; _memoir_, 1673; _group_, 1686; _profile_, 1656; _serenade_, 1656; _caprice_, 1667; _beau_, 1687; _brunette_, 1713; _cravat_, 1656; _pantaloons_, 1661.

Some of these French words were from the Teutonic tribe of Franks: _blank_, _blue_, _booty_, _butcher_, _button_, _choice_, _coat_, _crush_, _dance_, _freight_. Some were from the French Celts: _attach_, _attack_, _baggage_, _bar_, _basin_, _branch_, _brave_, _car_, _career_, _carpenter_, _carry_. A large number were from the Latin through the French. _Cavalry_ and _chivalry_ come from the vulgar Latin _caballus_, a horse, rather than the classical Latin _equus_ (whence _equine_, _equestrian_); _cat_, from Vulg. Lat. _cattus_, not classical _felis_ (whence _feline_). We have words coming straight from the Latin, and from the Latin through the French, often with different meanings: this gave such pairs as _monastery_, _minster_; _regal_, _royal_; _presbyter_, _priest_; _security_, _surety_; _fidelity_, _faith_; _gentile_, _gentle_, _genteel_, _jaunty_; _annoy_, _ennui_; _feast_, _fete_; _corpse_, _corps_; _capital_, _chief_, _chef_. French is a lazy slurring tongue: it swallows and loses internal consonants, and adds often an initial vowel for euphony, or easier pronunciation. Thus _capital_, from the Latin, came through the French as _chattel_ and _cattle_; _study_ (Lat. _studia_) became _etude_; _magistrate_ became _master_ and _mister_; _senior_ became _sir_; _adjutant_, _aid_; _balsam_, _balm_; _collocate_, _couch_; _deacon_, _dean_; _deposit_, _depot_; _fragile_, _frail_; _juniper_, _gin_; _radius_, _ray_; _revindicate_, _revenge_; _separate_, _sever_. The cause of this French slurring of pronunciation is largely geographic; compare American colloquial speech of immigrant Italians, _police-a_ for _police_, _give-a me da mon’_, etc.

_The Classical Elements: Latin and Greek._

Not only did Latin come through the French; but the Renaissance, or revival of classical learning, of the Middle Ages, opened Latin and Greek to the language, and enriched our vocabulary with thousands of long-winded polysyllables—a process by no means ended yet. This borrowing, in non-classical cases as well, is true of all living European languages; but English is especially a blended tongue. Long before classical history began, the northern tribes had come into contact with Mediterranean civilization; had gained from it many products of art and industry; and had often taken at the same time the southern words to indicate these objects.

The evidence of archeology to show this southern interpenetration of the north is amply supported by what philology has discovered. Thus wine came from the South; the Lat. _vinum_ survives in Eng. _wine_, Germ. _wein_, Danish, _vin_; the Lat. _caupones_, wine-dealers, gave a number of Teutonic words dealing with commerce, such as O. E. _ceapian_ (from which Eng. _cheap_ and _chapman_, _merchant_), and Ger. _kaufen_, to buy; _Kaufmann_, _merchant_. _Mint_, _pound_ and _inch_ came in at this period from Lat. _moneta_, _pondere_ (to weigh), and _uncia_. _Dish_, _scuttle_, _kettle_, _mortar_ were names of receptacles borrowed at this early period from the Latin; the same language also yielded _cook_, _kitchen_, _mill_, _butter_ (Lat. _butyrum_), _cheese_ (_caseus_), _turnip_ (turn-_napus_), _pea_, _cabbage_, _plum_ (_pruna_, Greek _prounon_, earlier _proumnon_, a plum tree; Eng. _prune_ from same source), peach (_persicum_, Gr. _persicon_, from earlier _malon persicon_, the peach, literally, Persian apple. Similarly _quince_ came from the phrase meaning Cydonian apple; the orange was Medic apple; the apricot Armenian apple. The Greeks in these cases named specific fruits by adding a place-name to the general word for apple, broadened to mean fruit. Compare French _pomme de terre_, apple of the earth, for potato.)

The Romans in Britain left their mark in such words as _street_ (Lat. _strata_), _port_ (_porta_), Win-_chester_, Wor-_cester_, Don-_caster_ (_castra_, camp.) From early Roman Christianity came such words as _abbot_, _apostle_, _bishop_ _chalice_, _chapter_, _choir_, _creed_, _deacon_, _hymn_, _monk_, _pope_, _priest_, _saint_, _hymn_; many of these in their turn derived by the Romans from the Greeks. _School_ comes from Lat. _scola_, pointing to Roman control of education. A few typical words, showing their forms in modern and Old English, and in Latin, are:

_Modern _Old _Latin_
English_ English_

candle candel candela

chalk cealc calcem

cedar ceder cedrus

dragon draca draco

oil ele oleum

fever fefer febris

fork forca furca

giant gigant gigantem

gem gimm gemma

lobster lopestra locusta

mountain munt montem

poppy popig papaver

radish raedic radicem

sage salfige salvia

Many of these words re-entered English, long afterward, directly from the Latin; so that we have _chalk_ and _calcium_; _oil_ and _Oleomargarine_; _fever_, _febrile_; _giant_, _gigantic_; _lobster_, _locust_; _sage_, _salvia_, each pair with the same root. At times the Old English survived instead of the Latin: thus _gospel_ comes from O. E. _godspell_, not Lat. _evangelium_; _dawn_ from O. E. _daegroed_, not Lat. _aurora_. Of course, _evangelical_ and _aurora_ also entered the language, with slightly altered meanings.

In the century after the Norman conquest, words straight from the Latin, such as _generation_, _persecution_, _sedition_, _tradition_, made their appearance. These words, and the later additions, _fraction_, _duration_, _position_, which appear in Chaucer, may have been taken straight from the Latin, or come through Norman-French. The Renaissance brought in an immense number of words, among which (with year of first appearance in the Oxford dictionary) are _abbreviate_ (1530); _abduct_ (1834); _abjure_ (1501); _abnormal_ (1836); _abolition_ (1529); _absorb_ (1490); _absurd_ (1557); _abuse_ (1538), etc. Many such words failed to grow in the new speech: _adminiculation_, _allect_, _annect_, _applicate_, _assentation_, all used in 16th Century English, seem now pedantic monstrosities. Old English words fell by the wayside as surely: _moond_ for lunatic, _outpeopling_ for captivity, _hunderer_ for centurion, _frosent_ for apostle, _biwordes_ for parables, _crossed_ for crucified, _freschman_ for proselyte, all appearing in Sir John Cheke’s translation of the New Testament, have died; although _byword_, _crossed_, and _freshman_ took root with other meanings.

Law is full of Latin terms like _alibi_, _subpoena_, _alias_, _proviso_, and _affidavit_. Similarly came _item_, _prospectus_, _impetus_, _deficit_, _terminus_, _referendum_. The following table gives a list of the percentage of words from the Latin appearing in certain English writings:

Gibbon 30%

Samuel Johnson 28%

Tennyson 12%

Shakespeare 10%

King James 6%
Bible

This refers to all the words used, not taking account of repetitions. If allowance is made for the frequent use of the simplest words, the Latin and other foreign elements swell larger. To sum the matter up another way, about one word out of every four in the complete Latin vocabulary found its way into English. Of course, one Latin word at times gave birth to scores of English words. Words are by no means monogamous; some are very Solomons.

Greek has paid its toll since the Renaissance. Many early Latin importations were derived by the Romans from the Greek speech—_abbot_, _monk_, _priest_, _clerk_, _school_, are of this type. The Greek gave directly such words as _poetry_, _drama_, _comedy_, _tragedy_, _theater_, _scene_, _melodrama_, _episode_, _ode_, _theme_, _thesis_, _topic_, _climax_, _emphasis_, _phrase_, _paragraph_, _parenthesis_, _period_, _colon_, _idiom_, _dialogue_, _apology_, _comma_, _hyphen_, etc. In the science of botany alone Greek contributed _botany_, _protoplasm_, _stigma_, _petal_, _spore_, _parasite_, etc.; in athletics, _gymnastics_, _athlete_, _acrobat_, _trophy_, _stadium_; in physiology and medicine, words almost countless. The nomenclature of science today is taken partly from Latin and largely from Greek sources.

It must never be forgotten that historically the Mediterranean peoples were overrun many times by the northern Teutonic barbarians, not only in the breakup of their rule, but long before classical history commenced. The classical conquest of the world was largely led by men in whose veins the blood of forgotten Teutonic conquerors flowed.

_Other Teutonic Elements._

The Danish Conquest, which preceded the Norman victory, added all place-names in England ending in _-by_, _-thorp_, _-throp_, _-beck_, _-dale_, _-thwaite_, etc. It is not always easy to tell whether a word is Old English or of Scandinavian borrowing: the two speeches were often alike. One test lies in the fact that O. E. _sk_ changed regularly to _sh_, and _k_ before _e_ and _i_ altered to _ch_. Thus Teutonic words with these sounds unchanged, such as _skill_, _skin_, _scare_, _sky_, _keg_, _kettle_, _kirk_, are to be assigned to Scandinavian origin. The same roots appear from Old English in such words as _shin_ and _church_. Couplets from the two sources are _skirt_, _shirt_; _shriek_, _screech_. _Eggs_, _get_, _awe_, _give_, _husband_, _fellow_, _knife_, _wing_, _window_, _root_, _law_, _anger_, _gate_, _meek_, _low_, _odd_, _wrong_, _ill_, _ugly_, _rotten_, _die_, _cast_, _hit_, _take_, _call_, _want_, _scare_, _they_, _their_, _them_, are a few Scandinavian contributions indicating the everyday character of the words.

The Dutch gave us many sea-faring terms, such as _boom_, _cruise_, _sloop_, _yacht_, _ahoy_, _aloof_, _avast_, _belay_, _caboose_, _hoist_, _hold_ (of a ship), _reef_, _rover_, _skipper_, _smack_, _strand_. From them we also received _deck_, _frolic_, _fumble_, _glib_, _hogshead_, _jeer_, _mop_, _rant_, _ravel_, _ruffle_, _snap_, _snuff_, _switch_, _toy_, _trick_, _uproar_, _wagon_, _furlough_, _cashier_, _forlorn_, _hope_, _plunder_, _spool_, _stripe_, _scour_. The Dutch of South Africa have given _trek_, _veldt_, _spoor_; they brought in from the Arabic _monsoon_, from the Malayan _bamboo_ and _cockatoo_. In the United States the Dutch settlement gave _cold-slaw_, _boss_, _cookie_, _cruller_, _dope_, _hook_, _pit_ (of a cherry), _sleigh_, _spook_, _stoop_ (porch), and _waffle_.

The High German has given less; but _umlaut_, _kindergarten_, _meerschaum_, _poodle_, _waltz_, _carouse_, _cobalt_, _gneiss_, _quarts_, _shale_, _zinc_, point to their influence.

_Varied Sources._

Italy, with a Latin origin for its speech, has given _attitude_, _fiasco_, _influenza_, _isolate_, _motto_, _stanza_, _umbrella_, in the 16th century; and, later, _macaroni_, _spaghetti_, _wop_, _finale_, _intermezzo_, _oboe_, _opera_, _piano_, _bust_, _fresco_, _cameo_, _colonnade_, _cornice_, _corridor_, _grotto_, _motto_, _studio_, point to Italian influence in music, architecture, and elsewhere. Italian words coming to us through the French include _alarm_, _alert_, _arcade_, _apartment_, _artisan_, _bulletin_, _cadence_, _caress_, _contrast_.

The Spanish element entered first in the 16th century, in such words as _armada_, _comrade_, _desperado_, _dispatch_, _negro_, _renegade_. Later contributions include _brocade_, _anchovy_ (from the early Basque speech), _booby_, _capsize_, _caste_, _cigar_, _cork_, _embargo_, _mosquito_, _quadroon_, _sherry_, _tornado_, _vanilla_. Spain’s conquest of the New World made them the agents for the entrance of _cocoa_, _chocolate_, _tobacco_, _maize_, _hammock_, _barbacue_, and _potato_, from various early American sources. _Florida_, _alligator_, _dollar_, _sierra_, _Colorado_, _adobe_, _sombrero_, _canyon_, _lariat_, _corral_, _calaboose_, _lasso_, _ranch_, _locoed_, _broncho_, _cinch_, _bunco_, are Spanish words coming to us through Spanish occupation of America.

Portuguese gave less; its contributions include _cobra_, _palaver_, _madeira_, _port_ (wine), _molasses_, _tank_, _fetish_.

Russia, especially in its great prominence in the last few years, has made us familiar with _vodka_, _duma_, _progrom_, _czar_, _mujik_, _bolsheviki_, _intelligentsia_, _soviet_. In earlier times we had received from the Balto-Slavic group _siskin_, _mammoth_, _mazurka_, _polka_, _howitzer_, _slave_, _ruble_, _samovar_, _crash_ (linen) and _knout_. The Hungarian language, quite outside the Indo-European group, gave _vampire_ and _coach_.

The Semitic Hebrew, potent in the world’s religion, furnished _amen_, _bedlam_, _cherub_, _jubilee_, _Satan_, _Jehovah_, _Messiah_, _rabbi_, _sabbath_, _maudlin_; and also _camel_, _cider_, _ebony_, _elephant_, _cinnamon_, _sapphire_, _sodomy_, _leviathan_. The Semitic Arabic furnished even more. Through the Greek they gave _elixir_, _talisman_, _alchemy_, _carat_; more directly, _albatross_, _alkili_, _attar_, _fakir_, _harem_, _mohair_, _sheik_, _sherbet_, _shrub_, _syrup_, _sofa_; and in various roundabout ways _naphtha_, _jasper_, _alcohol_, _zero_, _magazine_, _crimson_, _carmine_, _amber_, _cipher_, _cotton_, _garble_, _giraffe_, _gazelle_, _sumach_, _sash_ (girdle), _talc_, _lime_ (fruit), _mummy_, _zenith_, _admiral_, _sugar_, _assassin_, _lute_, _mate_ (in chess), _mattress_, _saffron_, _sultan_. Many doublets came from this source: the Arabic word for drink gave _sherbet_, _shrub_ and _syrup_; Arabic _sifr_, cipher, through Span. and Fr. gave _cipher_; through Low Lat. and Ital., _zero_. Most of the astronomical names of the constellations are Latin: _Pisces_, _Ursus Major_, _Taurus_, _Lyra_, _Libra_, _Virgo_, etc.; but the Arabic names of individual stars, such as _Rigel_, _Betelguese_, _Altair_, _Algol_, _Aldebaran_, are generally used.

From the Persian, by routes largely indirect, have come _azure_, _pajamas_, _toddy_, _magic_, _caravan_, _tiger_, _rice_, _scimitar_, _taffeta_, _julep_, _rook_ (in chess), _check_, _checkers_, _chess_, _lemon_, _lilac_, _jasmine_, _spinach_, _tulip_ and _scarlet_. _Scarlet_ has had a unique journey, indicating what irresponsible vagrants words may be. It is found in Eng., Dan., Germ., Swed., Icel., Hung., Old Bulg., Serv., all from the late Gr. _skarlaton_; this Gr. term came from the Turkish _iskerat_; the Turkish word from the Arabic _saqarlat_, a variant of _saqallat_, from the Persian _saqalat_, meaning scarlet cloth. We are not through yet: the Persian word comes from Lat. _sigillatus_, figured or painted, especially as applied to cloth. This was from Lat. _signum_, a mark or sign, whose root meaning is uncertain. To show how many words may be born of one word-stem, we have from this root, among many others, _sign_, _signature_, _signal_, _signet_, _signify_, _assign_, _consign_, _design_, _countersign_, _ensign_, _resign_, _insignia_, _sigil_, _sigillate_, _seal_, _scarlet_—the dictionary contains 49 words from this stem beginning with _sig-_ alone. Thus far has the Persian step-word _scarlet_ taken us.

From the Turkish, a race dependent upon others for culture, there are few words, including _horde_, _turkey_, _turquoise_, _uhlan_. India, the original home of the Indo-European speech to which Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic belong, is responsible for many words. Early words representing Oriental contributions to European civilization are _pepper_, _camphor_, _indigo_, _china_ (ware), _orange_, _candy_, _calico_, _chintz_, _sandal_, _jungle_, _loot_, _punch_ (beverage). Later borrowings are: _juggernaut_, _pundit_, _rajah_, _sepoy_, _bandanna_, _thug_, _bungalow_, _shampoo_, _pariah_, _cot_ (bed), _polo_.

Relatively few words have come from China and Japan. _Silk_ may be of Chinese origin; _typhoon_, _tea_, _serge_, _mandarin_, certainly are. From Japan emanate _kimono_, _soy_ (bean), and few others. The South Seas have furnished more, including _bamboo_, _cheroot_, _teak_, _caddy_, _gong_, _guttapercha_, _junk_, _orang-outang_, _gingham_, _bantam_, _taboo_, _tattoo_, _atoll_, _ukelele_. Uncivilized Africa’s different races have given _canary_, _chimpanzee_, _voodoo_, _hoodoo_, _tango_, _guinea_, _gorilla_, _yam_, _zebra_. Australia is to be credited with _boomerang_ and _kangaroo_.

The native speech of the pre-European Americans has given the words listed under the Spanish influence, and also _mahogany_, _canoe_, _guava_, _cannibal_, _hurricane_, _guano_, _tapioca_, _buccaneer_, _pampas_, _alpaca_, _condor_, _tapir_, _banana_, _jaguar_, _coyote_, also through the Spaniards. North American Indians have added to this a large number of place-names, and also _caucus_, _pow-wow_, _hickory_, _hominy_, _moccasin_, _moose_, _opossum_, _raccoon_, _skunk_, _squaw_, _toboggan_, _wigwam_, _tomahawk_. The Philippines gave the useful word _hike_. The expressive _husky_ is said to be a corruption of _Eskimo_, first applied as a name for a dog.

With this we close the rapid survey of contributions to our language from every race of men. Each other language has grown by similar accretions; and the process is a continuing one. The world war added many words to the vocabulary; the uneasy peace now following is furnishing at least its daily dozen.