Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1885 — ORIGIN OF POPULAR PHRASES. [ARTICLE]

ORIGIN OF POPULAR PHRASES.

Fairy.—According to some authorities this word cornea from the Persian peri The word in English comes through the Arabian, in whose alphabet there is no p. In Arabic it therefore becomes feri, which word being introduced by the Crusaders, received the broader English sound, fairy. Other etymologists derive it from the Low Latin verb fato, fatare, from Latin faturu, fate, toenobant, In the France becomes faer, and from tbe verb tbe French made the noun faerie, an illusion. From this, it is said, the meaning gradually widened to ita present signification. Vindicate. —To justify, to avenge. The word has a remarkable etymon, Vindicint was a slave of the Vittelle, who informed tbe Senate of the conspiracy of the sons of Junius Brutns to restore Tarquin, for whioh service he was rewarded with liberty; hence the rod with which a slave was struck in manumission was called vindicta, a Vindicina rod; and to set free was in Latin vindicire in liberatem. Oneway of settling disputes was to give the litigants two rods, which they crossed as if iu fight, and the person whom the praetor vindicated broke the rod of hia opponent. These roils were called vindicffl, and hence vindicate, meaning to “justify.” To avenge ja simply to justify one’s self by punishing the wrongdoer. I’m a Dutchman if I Do.—A strong refusal.. During the rivalry between England and Holland the word Dutch was synonymous with all that was false and hateful, and when a man said* “I would rather be a Dutchman than do what you ask me,” he used the strongest term of refusal that words can express. Hammock.—This was orritrinally a North American Indian word. The following occurs in “Columbus’ First Voyage, quoted in Webster: “A great many indians came to the ship to-day for the purpose of bartering their cotton and hamecas, or nets, in which they sleep.” Sir Walter Baleigh, in “Discovery of Guiana," 1596, mentions “Cotton for the making of hamecas, which fire Indian beds.” Sir R. Hawkins, in his book entitled ‘ Voyage to South Sea,” says, “The Brazilians call their beds liamacas.” To Throw Dost in One’s Eyes.—To mislead. The allusion to a Mahometan practice of casting dust into the air for the sake of confounding the enemies of the faith. This was done by Mahomet on two or three occasions in the battle of Hovein; and the Koran refers to it when it says, “Neither didst thou, O Mahomet, cast dust into their eyes; but it was God who commanded them.” But the following incident will suffice: One day the Koreishits surrounded the honse of Mahomet, resolved to murder him. They peeped through the crevice of his chamber door and saw him lying asleep. Just at this moment his son-in-law, Ali, opened the door silently and threw into the air a handful of dust. Immediately the conspirators was confounded. They mistook Ali for Mahomet and Mahomet for Ali; allowed the prophet to walk throught their midst uninjued and laid hands on Ali. No sooner was Mahomet safe than their eyes were open and they saw their mistake. Dungeon.—A corruption of dominium (dominjum, contracted into domjum), that part of the castle in which the lord took his meals, and which dominated over the whole building. The underground story of this grand toWer was used as a prison, and persons of rank were confined in keep-tower itself, as being the strongest part of the castle. The word is sometimes spelt donjon, and at Canterbury (England) is a mound corruptly called the Dane John, on which formerly stood the donjon or keep of the castle. Chaucer, in “Canterbury Tales,” has: The ereto tour, that was so thikke and strong, ■Which ot castel was tlio chaef dongoun.