HOUSEHOLD WORDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 January 1939, Page 8

HOUSEHOLD WORDS

SOME INTERESTING ORIGINS. The busy housewife handling her daily tools of trade seldom has time to pause and think of their original meanings. Yet many are very interesting and well worth remembering.

“Lunch," for instance, originally was “lump,” because the first “lunch” was I simply a lump of bread. “Bread" itself was “a bit." "Jam.” of course, was just I something "jammed." But a "cup was yriginally a "tub." because the first cup ad two handles like a tub. which was ■ n use long before a cup with a handle. “Cabbages" used to be called "cappages," because the name is derived from the Latin "caput,’ meaning a aead. We took the name "potato” from .he Spanish name "patala." How many mothers have corrected their children for calling an orange a "norance”? Yet the original Persian word is “naranj,” and “norance” was once good English. Children still say a "madder” and “napron” for an “adder" and an "apron” Here again they arc using the words as first spoken. In the case of these two woFds the “an” was wrongfully broken up and the “n” taken off "apron” and "adder.” Now. of course, it would be incorrect to put back the “n” as the children sometimes do.

"Tomato” when it first appeared was called "toinatl,” the correct Mexican word for this fruit. Many have puzzled over the spelling of "flour,” which really means exactly the same thing as “flower.” "Spices” are the same as “species.” and a “saucer” had nothing to do with tea or coffee at first, but was something to hold “sauce.” Many simple household words are foreign, while some are quite classic. “Clove” is from “clou,” a “nail” in French; and “bacon” is a Danish word meaning “the back of the pig.”

“Rhubarb,’/ one of the most interesting words, unites Greek and barbarian. This fruit originally came from the Volga River, and the “rhu” means “river,” while the “barb” refers to the barbarian country of its origin. To the cultured Greeks in the past all people were “barbarians” if they did not speak Greek. So that “rhubarb,” a Greek word, is just the plant from the barbarian river. Our old friend “porridge” is not, as many suppose, a Scottish word, but comes to us through the Latin “porrum,” a leek, the original ’porridge being a green leek pottage.