e fanned snow, that's bolted
By the northern blasts twice o'er."
(Winter's Tale, iv. 3.)
Corner means horn-blower, Fr, cor, horn, and is also a contraction of
coroner, but its commonest origin is local, in angulo, in the corner.
Curren and Curryer are generally connected with leather, but Henry
VII. bestowed L3 on the Curren that brought tidings of Perkin
War-beck. Garner has five possible origins: (i) a contraction of
gardener, (ii) from the French personal name Garner, Ger. Werner,
(iii) Old Fr. grenier, grain-keeper, (iv) Old Fr, garennier, warren
keeper, (v) local, from garner, Fr. grenier, Lat. granarium. In the
next chapter will be found, as a specimen problem, an investigation of
the name Rutter.
PHONETIC CHANGES
Two phonetic phenomena should also be noticed. One is the regular
insertion of n before the ending -ger, as in Firminger (Chapter XV),
Massinger (Chapter XX), Pottinger (Chapter XVIII), and in Arminger,
Clavinger, from the latinized armiger, esquire, and claviger,
mace-bearer, etc. (Chapter XV). The other is the fact that many
occupative names ending in -rer lose the -er by dissimilation (Chapter
III). Examples are Armour for armourer, Barter for barterer, Buckler
for bucklerer, but also for buckle-maker, Callender for calenderer,
one who calendered, i.e. pressed, cloth
"And my good friend the Callender
Will lend his horse to go."
(John Gilpin, 1. 22)--
Coffer, for cofferer, a treasurer, Cover, for coverer, i.e. tiler, Fr.
couvreur, when it does not correspond to Fr. cuvier, i.e. a maker of
coves, vats, Ginger, Grammer, for grammarer, Paternoster, maker of
paternosters or rosaries, Pepper, Sellar, for cellarer (Chapter III),
Tabor, for Taberer, player on the taber. Here also belongs Treasure,
for treasurer. Salter is sometimes for sautrier, a player on the
psaltery. We have the opposite process in poulterer for Pointer
(Chapter II), and caterer for Cator (Chapter III).
NAMES FROM WARES
Such names as Ginger, Pepper, may however belong to the class of
nicknames conferred on dealers in certain commodities; cf. Pescod,
Peskett, from pease-cod. Of this we have several examples which can
be confirmed by foreign parallels, e.g. Garlick, found in German as
Knoblauch, [Footnote: The cognate Eng. Clove-leek occurs as a surname
in the Ramsey Chartulary.] Straw, represented in German by the
cognate name Stroh, and Pease, which is certified by Fr. Despois. We
find Witepea
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