ted from the depreciation in the
meaning of a word, e.g. le lewd, the layman, the unlettered, was once
as common as its opposite le learned, whence the name Larned. But
many uncomplimentary names are no longer objected to because their
owners do not know their earlier meanings. A famous hymn-writer of
the eighteenth century bore all unconsciously a surname that would
almost have made Rabelais blush. Drinkdregs, Drunkard, Sourale,
Sparewater, Sweatinbed, etc. have gone, but we still have Lusk--

"Falourdin, a luske, loot, lurden, a lubberlie sloven, heavie sot,
lumpish hoydon" (Cotgrave)--

and many other names which can hardly have gratified their original
possessors.

A very interesting group of surnames consists of those which indicate
degrees of kinship or have to do with the relations existing between
individuals. We find both Master and Mann, united in Masterman,
meaning the man in the service of one locally known as the master.
With this we may compare Ladyman, Priestman, etc. But Mann is often of
local origin, from the Isle of Man. In some cases such names are
usually found with the patronymic -s, e.g. Masters, Fellows, while in
others this is regularly absent, e.g. Guest, Friend. The latter name
is sometimes a corruption of Mid. Eng. fremed, stranger, cognate with
Ger. fremd, so that opposite terms, which we find regularly contrasted
in Mid. Eng. "frend and fremed," have become absorbed in one surname.

The frequent occurrence of Fellows is due to its being sometimes for
the local Fallows. From Mid. Eng. fere, a companion, connected with
faren, to travel, we get Littlefair and Playfair. In Wyclif's Bible
we read that Jephthah's daughter--

"Whanne sche hadde go with hir felowis and pleiferis, sche biwept hir
maydynhed in the hillis" (Judges xi. 38).

Springett is for springald, and Arlett is Mid. Eng. harlot, fellow,
rascal, a word which has changed its gender and meaning--

"He was a gentil harlot and a kynde,
A betre felawe sholde men noght fynde."

(A, 647.)

KINSHIP

In surnames taken from words indicating family relationship we come
across some survivals of terms no longer used, or occurring only in
rustic dialect. The Mid. Eng. eme, uncle, cognate with Ger. Oheim,
has given Eames. In Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, the heroine
addresses Pandarus as "uncle dere" and "uncle mine," but also uses the
older word--

"'In good feith, em,' quod she, 'that liketh me'" (ii. 162);

a