Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note:

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Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
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Greek text has been transliterated and is shown between {braces}.

Non-ASCII characters are represented as follows:
[)a] a with breve
[)e] e with breve
[)u] u with breve
[=a] a with macron
[=e] e with macron
[=i] i with macron
[=o] o with macron
[=u] u with macron
[oe] oe ligature
[/s] long s

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE ROMANCE OF NAMES

"Mr Weekley inspires confidence by his scholarly method of handling
a subject which has been left, for the most part, to the amateur or
the crank."--_Spectator._ THIRD EDITION. 6s. net.

SURNAMES

"Under Professor Weekley's guidance a study of the origin and
significance of surnames becomes full of fascination."--_Truth._
SECOND EDITION. 6s. net.

AN ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF MODERN ENGLISH

"One knows from experience that Mr Weekley would contrive to avoid
unnecessary dullness even if he was compiling a railway guide, but
that he would also get the trains right."--Mr J. C. SQUIRE in _The
Observer_. Crown 4to. £2. 2s. net.

A CONCISE ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF MODERN ENGLISH

The abridgment has not involved any diminution in the vocabulary; in
fact, many new words such as _copec_, _fascist_, _insulin_, _rodeo_,
etc., are here registered for the first time. Large Crown 8vo. 7s.
6d. net.

WORDS ANCIENT AND MODERN

"We cordially recommend to the discriminating reader a book
altogether fresh, amusing and delightful."--_Morning Post._ Second
Impression. 5s. net.

_All rights reserved_

THE ROMANCE OF
WORDS

BY ERNEST WEEKLEY, M.A.

PROFESSOR OF FRENCH AND HEAD OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, NOTTINGHAM; SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AUTHOR OF "THE ROMANCE OF NAMES," "SURNAMES"

"Vous savez le latin, sans doute?"--
"Oui, mais faites comme si je ne le savais pas."
(MOLIÈRE, _Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme_, ii. 6.)

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.

FIRST EDITION MARCH 1912 _Reprinted_ JUNE 1912 SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED NOVEMBER 1913 THIRD EDITION MAY 1917 FOURTH EDITION JANUARY 1922 _Reprinted_ FEBRUARY 1925 _Reprinted_ JANUARY 1927