Stories That Words Tell UsO'Neill, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman)
History
Stories That Words Tell Us
O'Neill, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman)
English language -- Etymology
The French Revolution gave us several other words. We all now know the
word _terrorize_, but it only came into English from the French at the
time of the Revolution, when the French people became used to "Reigns
of Terror." But if the French Revolution gave us many of the words
which relate to democracy or government by the people, England has
always been the country of parliamentary government, and many terms
now used by the other countries of Europe have been invented in
England--words like _parliament_ itself, _bill_, _budget_, and
_speech_.
Nearly all the words connected with science, and especially the
"ologies," as they are called, like _physiology_ and _zoology_, are
fairly new words in English. In the Middle Ages there was no real
study of science, and so naturally there were not many words connected
with it; but in the last two centuries the study of science has been
one of the most important things in history. We shall see more of
these scientific words in another chapter.
Perhaps we have said enough in this chapter to show how each big
movement in history has given us a new group of words and how these
words are in a way historians of these movements.
CHAPTER II.
HOW WE GOT OUR CHRISTIAN NAMES AND SURNAMES.
We can learn some interesting stories from the history of our own
names. Most people nowadays have one or more Christian names and a
surname, but this was not always the case. Every Christian from the
earliest days of Christianity must have had a Christian name given to
him at baptism. And before the days of Christianity every man, woman,
or child must have had some name. But the practice of giving surnames
grew up only very gradually in the countries of Europe. At first only
a few royal or noble families had sur-names, or "super" names; but
gradually, as the populations of the different countries became
larger, it became necessary for people to have surnames, so as to
distinguish those with the same Christian names from each other.
In these days children are generally given for their Christian names
family names, or names which their parents think beautiful or
suitable. (Often the children afterwards do not like their own names
at all.) The Christian names of the children of European countries
come to us from many different languages. Perhaps the greatest number
come to us from the Hebrew, because these Jewish names are, of course,
found in great numbers in the Bible.
The conversion of the countries of Europe to Christianity united them
in their ways of thinking and believing, and they all honoured the
saints. The names of the early saints, whether they were from the
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, or Slavonic, were soon spread
throughout all the countries of Europe, so that now French, German,
English, Italian, Spanish names, and those of the other European
countries, are for the most part the same, only spelt and pronounced a
little differently in the different countries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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