opposition between the two services, and we
come now to the origin of it: the one belonged
to the aristocratic, or ruling power; the other,
to the people; and was lovingly held and upheld
by the people: and the same distinction stands
good to the present day, though, of course, in a
highly modified sense. All those uncouth
sounding sea-names are Saxon: luff, and thwart,
and starboard, and larboard, and abaft, and
yards, as originally used for poles, neap and
full tides which ebb and flow, reefed sails,
vessels taken in tow, a tug, and how many
knots she goes, the yard manned, and the ship
trimmed, with a long pull, a strong pull, and a
pull all together at the slack rope, which is to be
made taut—they are all as pure as time and
transition will allow. So are the skippers and
the midshipman, the cockswain, the boatswain,
the steward, and the steersman, the sailor by
himself, and the crew altogether. So are the
words speaking of home and family. Home,
and homestead, the place of home, are Saxon;
and husband is only contrasted from house or
hus-band, while wife, and some say women, is
wif-man, or woof-man, in contrast to woep-man
or weapon man: words which signified the
fighter and the worker, as now the Indian brave
and squaw. Spinster is from spinner, as we all
know; and women did not marry until they had
spun a certain amount of linen cloth for their
bridal finding. Step-father is but the sted-
father, the father in place of; foster is foodster,
the provider of food—the foster-mother, the
food-mother; daughter is deore, whence our
dear; bairn, is the born; and father and
mother, and son and daughter, and brother and
sister, and child and bairn, are all right honest
native speech, with never the echo of a foreign
tongue among them. Lord, is laford, or leaford,
the provider of bread; and lady, is leafdian,
the dispenser of bread; for loaf is leaf, or
laf; the king is cun, or cyn, valiant; and queen
is the contraction of cuningina, the feminine of
cun; steward was stedward, the holder of the
place, and holdward, was the keeper of the hold,
or castle; and in time they came to Steward,
Stuart, and Howard, as the tabard or herald's
coat got down to Talbot. Warder was guardian,
the Normans always changing w into g,
as Gualles, Wales; Corngualles, Cornwall;
guerre, war; constable was the king's stable or
support; and the lord high constable was the
king's first minister; a modern constable is the
queen's support, and is better named than when
he was catchpole. Gossip, is good Saxon;
meaning god-sib, or god-relations, to show the
spiritual kinship of the god-father and god-
mother. The importance of this god-sib, or god-
kinship, was so thoroughly understood, that two
people who had stood in that relation to each
other by the christening cradle of a new bairn,
could not marry, being now spiritually brother
and sister. From this word, god-sib, came our
gossip, once used for cummer, co-mère, fellow
mother, but now taken only to represent light
and idle talk; for Dean Hoare says, "as the
gossips, especially the two god-mothers of a
girl, were accustomed to meet at the house of
their god-child and have a little chat together,
all trivial talking came to be called 'gossiping.'"
Titter used to mean love-making, or courtship;
hence tittering, silly whispering, according to
the manner of lovers from Eve downward. And
by-the-by, silly is a corruption of seeliz, blessed,
by gradual steps brought down to mean foolishness,
not blessedness, though often used for
simplicity and innocence.

The origin of girl is uncertain: some take it
from garrula, talkative, as we should say a chatter-
box because all young girls are chatter-boxes,
chartered so by nature; and others say it is a
contraction of gerula, low Latin for a young
creature of what people call the "fair sex."
The laity may judge between the two, and
perhaps be equally out in both. England,
too, is a word of uncertain origination. Some
say because of its angles, some because of its
narrowness, eng meaning narrowness or straitness;
but Marryat tells us that eng in Danish
means meadow, and that England more likely
stood for meadow land than for anything else,
narrow, angular, or angelic. The word mob
came into use in the time of Charles the Second,
when the members of the Green Ribbon Club
used it as contraction for mobile vulgus, as we
to-day say bus, and cab, and sham. Heaven is
that which is leaved or heaven up; wrong is
the perfect participle of to wring, or wrest; the
brunt of a battle is the heat of a battle, for
brunt and brent are burnt, but brant is steep;
thus Brentwood is burnt wood, but Brantwood
is the steep wood. A shire is a thing shired or
shared off the rest; thus shire, shore, share,
shear, shred, sherd, potsherd, all come from the
same root; and a knight of the shire—in early
Saxon, cnyht—was one admitted to serve his
county in parliament. For knight or cnyht
meant originally servant or follower, as did
knave, this meaning also a boy; villain was a
peasant, boor a farmer, varlet a serving-man,
menial one of the many or household, church a
strong fellow, minion a favourite, and lout, now
an awkward clown, was a graceful bow or
obeisance. Knights louted low when they were
dubbed or struck. Imp was the child of a
noble or royal house; Spenser calls the Muses,
"Ye sacred imps, that on Parnasso dwell," and
on some of the old tombstones may be read,
"Here lies that noble imp," if death had
claimed a youngling. Fourier would indorse
this interchange of idea; see his classification
of Diablotins and the rest.

To worry comes from a Saxon word signifying
to choke, wherefore dogs worry sheep when
they strangle them; bran-new is brand-new, fire-
new, fresh from the forge or furnace; spick-
and-span new, shining new from the warehouse,
for spang was shining—hence spangle—and
spick was a warehouse; a book was buckon,
the offspring of the beech-tree, because the
Saxons used to write on thin slips of beech
before they came to the knowledge of paper;
twine was two threads, twist that which was
twiced or doubled. Whit-Sunday is Weid-