used by the
Elizabethans, in its original form _Diego_, of the Spaniards. The
derivation of _guy_ and _bobby_ (peeler) is well known. _Jockey_ is a
diminutive of the north country _Jock_, for _Jack_. The history of
_jackanapes_ is obscure. The earliest record of the name is in a
satirical song on the unpopular William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk,
who was beheaded at sea in 1450. He is called _Jack Napes_, the allusion
being apparently to his badge, an ape's clog and chain. But there also
seems to be association with Naples; cf. _fustian-anapes_ for Naples
fustian. A poem of the 15th century mentions among our imports from
Italy--
"Apes and japes and marmusettes tayled."
_Jilt_ was once a stronger epithet than at present. It is for earlier
_jillet_, which is a diminutive of _Jill_, the companion of Jack.
_Jill_, again, is short for _Gillian_, i.e. _Juliana_, so that _jilt_ is
a doublet of Shakespeare's sweetest heroine. _Termagant_, like _shrew_
(p. 34), was formerly used of both sexes, _e.g._, by Sir John Falstaff--
"'Twas time to counterfeit, or that hot _termagant_ Scot (Douglas)
had paid me scot and lot too."
(1 _Henry IV._, v. 4.)
In its oldest sense of a Saracen god it regularly occurs with _Mahound_
(Mahomet)--
"Marsilies fait porter un livre avant:
La lei i fut Mahum e _Tervagan_."[35]
(_Chanson de Roland_, l. 610.)
Ariosto has _Trivigante_. Being introduced into the medieval drama, the
name became synonymous with a stage fury--
"I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing _Termagant_."
(_Hamlet_, iii. 2.)
The origin of the word is unknown, but its sense development is
strangely different from that of Mahomet (p. 43).
FOOTNOTES:
[24] But _Finsteraarhorn_ is perhaps from the river _Aar_, not from
_Aar_, eagle.
[25] A place where a number of settlers were massacred by the Zulus.
[26] "Two mountains near Dublin, which we, keeping in the grocery line,
have called the Great and the Little Sugarloaf, are named in Irish the
Golden Spears."--(Trench, _On the Study of Words_.)
[27] The French name for the fruit is _ananas_, a Brazilian word. A
vegetarian friend of the writer, misled by the superficial likeness of
this word to _banana_, once petrified a Belgian waiter by ordering half
a dozen for his lunch.
[28] A reader ca
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