Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1896 — CURIOUS WORDS. [ARTICLE]

CURIOUS WORDS.

Baron once meant only a strong man. Parlor was originally the talking place. Gauze was first manufactured at Gaza. A chancellor was once only a doorkeeper. To provide was once simply to “look ahead.” Despot originally signified "master of the house.” Paper comes from the name of an Egyptian red. The word chestnut came originally from Castenea. The word nice originally meant ignorant or foolish. The magnet is so called from the mineral magnesia. Scamper originally signified only “to go out of. a field.” To insult once signified to jump or dance on a dead body. Manumit formerly meant to “send away from the hand.” The word mob is a Latin word signifying movable. To encroach once signified to put a hook into and pull away. The dandelion was once written dent-de-lion, the lion’s tooth. Dimity, a popular dress material, wasonce made at Damietta. To speculate in its original sense was to look out of the window. Leaf recalls the palm leaves formerly used in the east as paper. Cemetery is from the Latin signifying “a sleeping chamber.” Husband was originally the houseband or bond of union of the house. Idiot once meant simply boy. It is used by Shakespeare in this sense. The word abandon originally signified "to run away with your colors.” The word scrupulous originally signified to “have a stone in one’s shoe.”' ' Milliners first plied their tfade at Milan, and mantua-makers at Mantua. The tarantula is named from its plentifulness in the vicinity of Taranto. The shallot 'takes its name from its plentifulness in the vicinity of Ascalon. Coffee is thus called because it was first exported from the Arabian port of Kaffa. Cambric originally came from Cambray, whence its name, and calico from Calicut. Puss, familiar name for cat, was once pers, the Persian name for the same animal. Termagant was once a ’ suppositious Mohamedan deity of fierce temper and language. The word vernacular once meant "a slave who was born in the house of his master.”