In my ongoing perusal of The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Literature, published in 1939, from time to time I come upon fascinating (to me) word origin stories and thought you would enjoy the following items.
Gerrymander, so to arrange election districts that a particular political party shall obtain representation out of proportion to its numerical strength. The word is derived from Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, who in 1812 so arranged the boundaries of the constituencies in that state that the map presented the appearance, someone said, of a salamander. “Gerrymander,” exclaimed Gerry, and the word became a proverb.
Gipsy (or Gypsy) a corruption of Egyptian, a member of a wandering race, by themselves called ROMANY, of Hindu origin, which first appeared in England about the beginning of the 16th century and was then believed to have come from Egypt.
Gnome, from modern Latin gnomus used by Paracelsus, though perhaps not invented by him, to signify beings that have earth for their element. The word as generally used means one of a race of diminutive spirits fabled to inhabit the earth and to be guardians of its treasures.
Peeping Tom (see Godiva)
Godiva, the wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia, one of Edward the Confessor’s great earls. According to legend, her husband, having imposed a tax on the inhabitants of Coventry, promised to remit it if she would ride naked through the streets at noonday. She agreed, directed the people to keep within doors and shut their windows, and complied with his condition. Peeping Tom, who looked out, was struck blind. The story is told by Drayton in his Polyolbion, by Leigh Hunt, and by Tennyson in his Godiva.
Great Go, university slang for the final examination for the degree of B.A. at Oxford. The term is now obsolete.
Nobel Prizes, THE, were established under the will of Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-96), a Swedish chemist distinguished in the development of explosives, by which annual prizes are given for the most important discoveries in the sciences, to the author of the most important literary work of an idealist tendency, and to the person who shall have most promoted the fraternity of nations.
Vignette, an ornamental design on a blank space in a book, especially at the beginning or end of a chapter, of small size, and unenclosed in a border. The word is a diminutive of the French vigne, a vine; originally meaning an ornament of leaves and tendrils.
Tawdry (see Audrey)
Audrey, Saint, St. Etheldreda, patron saint of Ely.
Appears in the earliest quotation as St. Audrey’s Lace. It was probably offered for sale at her fair, and this doubtless led to the production of cheap and showy qualities of the article, which at length gave to tawdry its later meaning.
Mocha Dick, a whale legendary among whalers, the model of Melville’s white whale, Moby Dick.
Pidgin, a Chinese corruption of the English word business. Hence PIDGIN ENGLISH, the jargon used for inter-communication between Chinese and Europeans in China.
Zany, from the Italian zani, the name of servants who act as clowns in Commedia dell’ Arte, a comic performer attending on a clown. Hence an attendant, follower (almost always in a contemptuous sense); or a buffoon; or a fool, simpleton.
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