=Gazette=, a small newspaper, originally a small coin. The newspaper was so named because a _gazetta_ was paid for it. =Gossip= (_sib_, or related, in _God_), originally a sponsor in baptism. _Gossip_ is the kind of talk that goes on between people who are connected with a family. Compare Fr. _commère_ and _commèrage_. =Heathen=, an unbeliever, originally a dweller on a heath. Compare _pagan_, a dweller in a _pagus_, or country canton. =Idiot=, from Gr. _idiōtēs_, a private person. It afterwards meant a person who kept himself aloof from public business and politics; a person despised by the Athenians. =Imp=, formerly used in a good sense, meaning scion or offspring. Now a demon of mischief. =Impertinent=, not relating or belonging to the matter in hand. =Influence=, a _flowing down_ from the stars; originally a term in astrology. =Kind=, originally _born_; hence _natural_, and so loving. =Knave=, originally a boy or servant. Sir John Mandeville speaks of Mohammed as a ‘poure knave.’ =Miser= sometimes means merely a wretched creature. Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, II. i. 8: ‘Vouchsafe to stay your steed for humble miser’s sake.’ =Officious=, sometimes used in a good sense, obliging, serviceable. Shakspeare, _Tit. And._ V. ii. 202: ‘Come, come, be every one officious To make this banquet.’ =Ostler= = hosteller, properly the keeper of a hostelry or hotel; now applied to the horse-groom. =Pagan=, from _paganus_, a dweller in a canton, a countryman or villager; hence a heathen or unbeliever. Christianity was first preached in the large cities. =Painful=, originally painstaking. ‘Rev. J. Flavel was a painful preacher.’ =Polite=, from Lat. _polītus_, polished. =Prevent= (to), originally to go before (_præ_ and _venio_). ‘Prevent us, O Lord, in all our goings.’ =Silly=, the adj. originally happy, blessed; whence it came to mean innocent, simple, foolish. =Sycophant= (Gr.), originally a _fig-shower_; a person who informed the police regarding the smuggling of figs into Athens. =Tawdry= was applied originally to goods bought at St Audrey’s fair (St Audrey = St Ethelreda). =Varlet= once meant a serving-man. Valet is a doublet of _varlet_. (From _vassaletus_, an inferior vassal.) =Villain=, a farm-servant, a peasant; from Lat. _villanus_, a servant on a _villa_ or farm. 5. =WORDS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF PERSONS.= =Amazon=, the name of a nation of warlike women, who were said to cut off their right breasts that they might use the bow. (From Gr. _a_, without, and _mazos_, the breast.) =Argosy=, from _Argo_, the name of a famous ship in which the Greek warrior Jason sailed to seek the golden fleece, which was at Colchis, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea.