Chapter V: Preface: To the Fourth Edition

In preparing a new edition of this little book, ten years after its first appearance, I have corrected a few slight inaccuracies which had been overlooked in earlier revisions, and modified or expanded some statements which were not quite consonant with the present state of etymological knowledge. In word-lore, as in other sciences, it is seldom safe to lay down the law without a little conscientious "hedging." The only two considerable alterations have to do with the word _snickersnee_, the history of which is now clearly traced, and the name _Bendigo_. It is rather strange that no reader or reviewer has ever put me right on the subject of this Nottingham worthy, for the facts are plainly stated in the _Dictionary of National Biography_.

ERNEST WEEKLEY.
_NOTTINGHAM, January 1922._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For a list of these see p. xii.

[2] _Compilatio_, "pillage, polling, robbing" (Cooper).

[3] Among words on which the reader will find either entirely new information or a modification of generally accepted views are _akimbo_, _anlace_, _branks_, _caulk_, _cockney_, _felon_ (a whitlow), _foil_, _kestrel_, _lugger_, _mulligrubs_, _mystery_ (a craft), _oriel_, _patch_, _petronel_, _salet_, _sentry_, _sullen_, _tret_, etc.

[4] In spite of the fact that the _New English Dictionary_ now finds _shark_ applied to the fish some years before the first record of _shark_, a sharper, parasite, I adhere to my belief that the latter is the earlier sense. The new example quoted, from a Tudor "broadside," is more suggestive of a sailor's apt nickname than of zoological nomenclature--"There is no proper name for it that I knowe, but that sertayne men of Captayne Haukinses doth call it a _sharke_" (1569).

[5] See the author's _Surnames_ (John Murray, 1916), especially pp. 177-83.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. OUR VOCABULARY 1

II. WANDERINGS OF WORDS 17

III. WORDS OF POPULAR MANUFACTURE 29

IV. WORDS AND PLACES 47

V. PHONETIC ACCIDENTS 54

VI. WORDS AND MEANINGS 72

VII. SEMANTICS 86

VIII. METAPHOR 105

IX. FOLK-ETYMOLOGY 113

X. DOUBLETS 139

XI. HOMONYMS 155

XII. FAMILY NAMES 169

XIII. ETYMOLOGICAL FACT AND FICTION 184

INDEX 205

The following dictionaries are quoted without further reference:--

Palsgrave, French and English (1530). Cooper, Latin and English (1573). Percyvall, Spanish and English (1591). Florio, Italian and English (1598). Cotgrave, French and English (1611). Torriano, Italian and English (1659). Hexham, Dutch and English (1660). Ludwig, German and English (1716).

THE ROMANCE OF WORDS