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This column presents some English words that came to us, often through French, from medieval Latin, words like agency, ambush, annex, appoint, abstract, subject, communicate, matter and probable. So we must take a moment to define in quick outline the stages of the Latin language, its progression and procession through history.
Stages of Latin
753 BC — On this traditional date of the founding of Rome, Latin is the language spoken by several thousand people in and near Rome.
Archaic Latin or Old Latin or Early Latin — 1000 BCE (?) to 75 BCE
Classical Latin — 75 BCE to 400 CE
Late Latin — 400 to 700 CE (written)
Vulgar Latin — 400 to 1000 CE (spoken source of the Romance languages like French, Spanish and Italian)
Medieval Latin — 700 to 1500 CE
New Latin — 1500 to present day Chiefly scientific coinages, a few dribbles of Latin poetry, for example, by John Milton, and various documents of ecclesiastical Latin.
Medieval Latin was written in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law and administration.
Let’s look at two examples of the language. The first is also important in the history of pre-printing. It’s a medieval Latin inscription at a monastery, Prüfening Abbey in Germany. Shown below, it was made by pressing wooden letter-stamps into wet clay, done in 1119 CE, more than 300 years before Gutenberg!
The first sentence of the Latin inscription above, with epigraphically abbreviated words expanded to their full spelling, reads:
+ Anno domini MCXVIIII, IIII idus mai, consecratum est hoc monasterium in honore sancti Georgii a venerabilibus episcopis Ratisponensi Hartwico Bambergensi Ottone.
Translation into English:
“In the year of our Lord 1119, on the fourth day before the Ides of May [12 May], this monastery was consecrated in honour of St. George by the venerable bishops Hartwig of Regensburg and Otto of Bamberg.
Now let’s look briefly at a few words from medieval Latin, all of which begin with the letter a, and which entered English, often through the intermediary mode of French.
Affidavit
This is an unaltered verb form in medieval Latin that means ‘he has stated on oath’ or sworn this on faith. Affidare ‘to swear an oath’ has its ultimate etymon in the classical Latin word fides ‘faith.’ Then as now, an affidavit is a statement one swears on oath so that it may stand as judicial proof of some fact.
Affiliation
This term from French arose from medieval Latin affiliation whose first meaning was ‘adoption of a son,’ shown by its embedded root word filius Latin ‘son.’ But then affiliation broadened its meaning to encompass organizations adopting new groups into its control, like a father taking a new son.
Agency
This word evolved from medieval Latin agentia ‘state of acting upon some order or summons, probably as a short form of the medieval Latin legal phrase facultas agendi ‘the working-out or operation of some defined activity.’ In Victorian English, agency came to signify intermediation or to express instrumentality, as in this quotation from Darwin’s Origin of Species: “Requiring the agency of certain insects to bring pollen from one flower to the other.”
Alcohol
The word, of course, is Arabic, although this form of it is medieval Latin. But it began as a Semitic word for eye-shadow! Arabic الكحل al-kuhl referred to a collyrium, a fine-ground powder, often containing antimony or lead ore (!), used to stain the eyelids. Its Hebrew cognate appears in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel (xxiii.40) as kahala. The eye shadow was prepared by distillation and eventually the meaning passed from reference to the eye-shadow to the means of distilling it, and thence one of the distilling liquids used came to be called alcohol.
Ambushment
The Old French form was embuschement from medieval Latin imboscāmentum, a wonderful verbal contraption that suggests one hid in a bush and leapt out at the enemy to surprise and capture him.
English ambush has cognates in Spanish embuscar and Italian imboscare. The sheltering woods appear in the very word, for Late Latin boscus means ‘bushes’ or ‘woods’ and gives English words like boscage ‘shrubs’ and an obsolete English verb imbosk, whose enclosing sound I love. Imbosk is well worth revival. To imbosk is to hide oneself in a wood. What an apt command to yell at a human pest: “Get thee to a low shrub and imbosk thyself, base varlet!” Perhaps not too loud a yell, lest you be apprehended by a master of lunacy and his thuggish minions.
And so, on that apopemptic brush-off, let us effect a swift exitus.
The Frankish army of Charlemagne, one of the most dominant forces the world has ever seen, was caught so unprepared that this famous ambush during the Battle of Roncevalles in 778 CE became a total slaughter of Charlemagne’s rearguard. Pictured is the moment of Roland’s death, Le Mort de Rolland, by Jean Fouquet (1420-1480 CE). Roland was Charlemagne's nephew, leader of the rear guard. The Song of Roland or La Chanson de Roland is a heroic poem based on the battle. It is the oldest surviving major work of French literature.
copyright © 2012 William Gordon Casselman
Read My Recent Columns
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2. A Potpourri of Popery: Papal Regalia Words
3. Glissando & Other Musical Terms
4. Byblos/Bible & Papyrus/Paper
5. Breath of Life: In Latin & Hawaiian
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Reviews of my Book
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Jenni French of San Francisco, California writes on her blog "My Corner of the Universe" for March 19, 2011:
Casselman, Bill. Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A World Lover's Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2010.
"I admit it: I'm a word nerd. I love words: weird words, long words, obscure words, funny words. This book is right up my alley. With chapters like "Nautical Words," "Creepy Words," and "Edible Words," I have enjoyed every page of this book. And the author has quite a way with words, so I have found myself rereading many sentences in this book and slowing my progress through it. My current favorite sentence is found in a discussion of dog hybrid breed names: "What a revolting concatenation of cutesiness and smarmy nomenclatorial treacle parading under the name of canine hybrid breed names" (19). I'm sure I'll have another favorite sentence in a day or two. This book is just that good and just that entertaining."
Author Bill Casselman replies: "Thanks, Jenni!"
Just a reminder that this book contains my ALL-NEW word essays, none of which are available anywhere else in print or online.
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A Great New Review of My Latest Book!
October 26, 2011 Welcome to the Enchanted ForestBy WB Johnston
This review is about Bill Casselman’s latest e-book about words: Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A Word Lover’s Guide to the Weirdest,Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems (Kindle Edition)
“Wade Davis, lately of National Geographic, once described each living language as “an old-growth forest of the human spirit.” Once you decide to enter the kleptomaniacal woods of our mother tongue, what you need is more than a tour guide. This is no Disney-fied ‘keep-your-hands-inside-the-car-at all-times’, point A to point B, clear-cutting mining of language. You, here, are in the hands of Sir William of Cassel, a genuine shaman modestly posing as a simple lover of words.
In the best of the spiritual tradition, Bill is the shape-shifter who constantly leads you to all the places you need to find in your soul. Every page is a new country, an invitation to an excursion into the wonderland of rich connections with the myriad of sources of what so often we unthinkingly wield as a prosaic tool.
Pay absolutely no attention to anyone who tells you that this book is anything but pure gold. It’s simply not true, sadly, that all the world loves a lover. Particularly someone whose love is so boundless.
But Sir William is fearless. You don’t earn your keep as a medicine man if you have a thin skin. While I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone could walk away from this book unmoved by its wit, its wisdom and the beautiful transparency by which the author celebrates the glorious romp of our almost unlimited linguistic exuberance, I have to sadly conclude that once in a while, you do meet someone who can’t see the forest for the trees, eh?
Read this book. Leave it on the sofa instead of the $%#!*$% TV remote. Maybe someone you care about will pick it up, even just for a moment, and fall in love with their heritage? Leave it on your desk at work and trust that someone will riffle through it when you are out at lunch. Shamans are magicians of the highest order. The work of their hands and hearts is game-changing. Or, hey, put it on your Kindle and just feel comforted that you can wander back out into the forest with Bill even in the middle of a boring lecture.
Enjoy.”
Casselman replies: Thank you so much, Dr. J., for the kudos.
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Cindy Lapeña on her blog "Creativity Unlimited" of July 19 ,2011, writes:
Posted by mimrlith in 365 Things to Look Forward to.
Tags: 365 things to look forward to, books, reading
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19. Starting a book
To a certified bibliophile like me, a.k.a. bookworm, one of the most exciting things to look forward to is to start reading a new book. In fact, sometimes the prospect of starting to read a new book is so exciting that I have to hurry to finish the book I am currently reading, just so I can start a new one. If there’s one thing I can’t resist, it’s a book, especially if it promises to be a good one. Of course there are certain books I just won’t touch or be seen with, but at the risk of being hung by my thumbs by fans of such literature, I will not mention any genres in particular. . . Seeing a book with a title that totally captivates me, like Where a Dobdob meets a Dikdik (yes, that is a book title!) has me so worked up, I just can’t wait to dive in. I imagine all sorts of deliciously fancifully outrageous words with a title like that. Is it obvious? I just love books on words. You won’t believe how many dictionaries I own. Or books on lexical oddities and other lexical explorations. Yes, I am a logophile of sorts. I love the new words I pick up from new books. I relish finding out the meanings of all manner of words and phrases and expressions. What could be more fun?"
(Replies author Bill Casselman: Please scroll to bottom of page or click here to link to a free seven-page preview of my new book, Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik.
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Testimonial Email
Thursday, February 3, 2011 Dear Mr. Casselman,
A search for the origins of an improbable-looking word, paraprosdokian, led me to the first piece of your prose I have had the pleasure of reading, "The Bogus Word Paraprosdokian & Lazy Con Artists of Academe." I have just placed an order for Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik, Canadian Words & Sayings, and As The Canoe Tips, and will add more of your titles as I finish these.
I have just retired from a 40-plus year career in book publishing, the last thirty years spent as director/editor of a number of university presses, attempting to sort the genuine writers from the "Lazy Con Artists of Academe." Sad to say, the latter have so over-bred the former that I could no longer see the rare gem in the avalanches of offal that daily swamped my office and desk. I visited your website and spent far too long there; it was a pleasure to meet a real writer through his work.. . . I revisited the paraprosdokian page, and have finally quit laughing again at “Casselman's Conclusion.” You were not unkind to the "profligate prof-lets." During my years as an acquisitions editor, in rejection letters I often quoted Prof. Moses Hadas, classicist at Columbia University, who wrote a young scholar in response to having been sent the prof-let's first book, "Thank you for sending me your book. I will waste no time reading it."
I know I will enjoy your books. Keep up the good work.
Thank you,
Luther Wilson
Director (Retired)
University of New Mexico Press, among others
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Description of Site Contents Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day™ & Words of the World features thousands of entries about Canadian phrases, words, expressions, and folk sayings. Canadian French expressions, idioms and folk sayings are featured and explained in English. The latest, newest French Canadian slang is deciphered. Québécois joual phrases and jokes are explained in English. My newest, latest, unpublished word stories and studies appear here on this website. Canadian English is the focus but English spoken and written all over the world and throughout the history of the language interests me as well. Words of the World spotlights non-Canadian English words and their origins from languages all over the world and permits me to venture on etymological journeys well beyond the pleasant confines of my native Canada.
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