Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1912 — Some Literary Blunders. [ARTICLE]

Some Literary Blunders.

Doctor Smythe-Palmer gave some delightful instances of literary blunders about works in a recent London Institution lecture. The case of “curmudgeon” should be add Doctor Johnson, dealing with the puzzle of its etymology, recorded it as coming from the French “coeur merchant” (wicked heart), adding “unknown correspondent” to indicate that some anonymous helper bad contributed this conjecture. Another lexicogr'apher, Ash, annexing this etymology, explained the world as derived from “coeur, unknown; merchant, a correspondent.”