It is curious to remark how many names applied to persons, in allusion either to their characters or occupations, can be traced to some custom of other days. The very word _person_ is an example of this class of derivatives. It was first applied to the masks which it was customary for actors to wear. These covered the whole head, with an opening for the mouth, that the voice might _sound through_ (Latin _personare_). The transition was easy from the disguise of the actor to the character which he represented, and the word was ultimately extended beyond the scenic language to denote the human being who has a part to play in the world. _Sycophant_ is compounded of two Greek words (_sycon_, _phantēs_), signifying literally a “fig-shewer,” that is, one who brings figs to light by shaking the tree. It has been conjectured, also, that “fig-shewer” perhaps referred to one who informed against persons exporting figs from Attica, or plundering sacred fig-trees. Sycophant meant originally a common informer, and hence a slanderer; but it was never used in the modern sense of a flatterer. Another word of somewhat similar meaning, _parasite_, sprung from no such contemptible trade. The original bearers of the name were a class of priests who probably had their meals in common (Latin _parasiteo_, to sit beside). But very early with the Greeks the term came to be applied to one who lives at the expense of the great, gaining this position by adulation and servility. Also of Greek origin is _pedagogue_ (_paidagōgos_), signifying, first, rather the slave who conducted the child’s _steps_ to the place of instruction, than, as now, the master who guides his mind in the way of knowledge. In later times, a _chancellor_ gained his name from the place which it was customary for him to occupy near the lattice-work screen (_cancellus_) which fenced off the judgment-seat from the body of the court. The same Latin derivation gives us the _chancel_ of a church, from the fact of its being screened off, and what is more remarkable, the verb to _cancel_, that is, to strike out anything which is written by making cross-lines over it. Several of the names of different trades will at once occur to our readers. Thus, a _stationer_ is one who had a “station” or stand in the market-place for the sale of books, in order to attract the passers-by as customers. An _upholsterer_, originally _upholdster_, was, it would seem, an auctioneer, who “held up” his wares in order to show them off. The double _-er_ in this word is superfluous, as in _poulter-er_. A _haberdasher_ was so called from his selling a stuff called _hapertas_ in old French, which is supposed to be from a Scandinavian word meaning pedlars’ wares, from the _haversack_ in which they were carried.