66 who have ever paid any attention to the subject, concerning the origin of this word. It is believed to have been derived from the manner in which the Indians endeavoured te pronounce the word English, which they rendered Yenghees, whence the word Yankee. The term Yankee was a cant or favourite word with one Jonathan Hastings, a settler at Cambridge, North America, about the year 1713. The inventor used it to express excellency. For instance, a "Yankee good horse," or Yankee cider," meant an excellent horse, and excellent cider. The students of a neighbouring college were accustomed to hire horses of Jonathan; their intercourse with him, and his use of the word upon all occasions, led them to adopt it, and they gave him the name of "Yankee Jonathan." It was dispersed by the collegians throughout New England, until it became a settled term of reproach to all New Englanders, and eventually to all North Americans. BROTHER JONATHAN. The origin of this term, as applied to the United States, is as follows:-"When General Washington, after being appointed commander of the army of the revolutionary war, came to Massachusetts to organize it, and make preparations for the defence of the country, he found a great want of ammunition and other means necessary to meet the powerful foe he had to contend with, and great difficulty to obtain them. If attacked in such condition, the cause at once might be hopeless. On one occasion, at that anxious period, a consultation of the officers and others was held, when it seemed no way could be devised to make such preparations as were necessary. His excellency Jonathan Trumbull the elder was then governor of the State of Connecticut, on whose judgment and aid the general placed the greatest reliance, and remarked, 'We must consult Brother Jonathan on the subject.' The general did so, and the governor was successful in supplying many of the wants of the army. When difficulties afterwards arose, and the army was spread over the country, it became a byword, 'We must consult Brother Jonathan.' The term Yankee is still applied to a portion, but Brother Jonathan' has now become a designation of the whole country, as John Bull has for England."-Dictionary of Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett. BROKER. The origin of this word is contested; some derive it from the French broyer, to grind; others from brocader, to cavil or wriggle; others deduce broker from a trader broken, and that from the Saxon broc, misfortune, which is often the true reason of a man's breaking. In which view, a broker is a broken trader by misfortune; and it is said, that none but such were formerly admitted to that employment. BANKRUPT. The term Bankrupt (formerly spelt Bankrout, and Banquerout) is derived from the Italian Banka or Banch, bench, and rupta, broken. The Italian money-lenders in the various cities of Italy, had a place of assembly of their own, and everyone had a bench or table, at which they stood and transacted their business. When any of them failed in their covenants, it was the custom to break up the bench of the individual, and hence came the term banca-rupta, or the bench is broken, and from whence also came our term bankrupt, as applied to a man whose name is published in the Gazette. In former times, if not even now, it was the custom in our corn-market, in Mark Lane, to break up the table or bench of any salesman who could not meet his payments. CAT'S PAW! The term Cat's Paw, or the phrase, “he is the Cat's Paw of the party," took its origin from the following anecdote: "A monkey and a turnspit, a kind of dog between the lurcher and the terrier, were at one period considered indispensable requisites in the culinary department, yclept the kitchen. Our readers will recollect the story of the roasted chestnuts in Don Saltero's kitchen, where the monkey, taking a fancy to them as they were crackling within the bars of the fireplace, catched hold of the cat as she lay sleeping before the fire, and made use of her paw to withdraw some of the chestnuts from the scorching situation in which they were placed. From this circumstance, when one person pushes forward another to do that which he himself is either afraid to do, or ashamed to appear in, originated the saying," he is the Cat's Paw of such a one," or "he is the Cat's Paw of the party." JACK KETCH. It is now about one hundred and ninety years ago, since one Dun, the then finisher of the law, departed this life, when one Jack Ketch was advanced to the office, and who has left his name to his successors ever since. This appears from Butler's Ghost, published in 1682. When the author wrote the first part of it, it is plain that Dun was the executioner's name, or nick name: "For you yourself to act 'Squire Dun— But before he had printed off his poem, Jack Ketch was in office; "Till Ketch observing he was chous'd, And in his profits much abus'd, In open hall the tribunes dunn'd To do his office, or refund." MY LORD! This title has a Grecian origin. "My Lord" was a nickname for deformed men, and is from the Greek word lordus, i. e., crooked. During the feudal times the lower class, by way of humour, called a man that was half an idiot, or deformed, "My Lord," in ridicule of their superiors. This, we suspect, says a writer in the New Monthly Magazine, is a popular fallacy; for after a careful perusal of the most approved works that treat of Nobility, and of its origin, in these realms in particular, we are left very much in the dark as to the original patent in which this branch of it is recognised. Neither Camden, in his Etymologie and Original of Barons, nor Dugdale, in his Baronetage of England, nor Selden (a more exact and laborious inquirer than either), in his Titles of Honour, afford a glimpse of satisfaction upon the subject. There is an heraldic term, indeed, which seems to imply gentility, and the right to coat armour (but nothing further), in persons thus qualified. But the sinister bend is more properly interpreted, by the best writers on this science, of some irregularity of birth than of bodily conformation. Nobility is, either hereditary or by creation, commonly called patent. Of the former kind the title in question cannot be, seeing that the notion of it is limited to a personal distinction, which does not necessarily follow in the blood. Honours of this nature, as Mr. Anstis very well observes, descend moreover in a right line. It must be by patent then, if any thing. But who can show it? How comes it to be dormant? Under what king's reign is it pretended? Among the grounds of nobility cited by the learned Mr. Ashmole, after " Services in the Field or in the Council Chamber," he judiciously sets down, "Honours conferred by the sovereign out of mere benevolence, or as favouring one subject rather than another, for some likeness or conformity observed (or but supposed) in him to the royal nature;" and instances the graces showered upon Charles Brandon, who "in his goodly person being thought not a little to favour the port and bearing of the king's own majesty, was by that sovereign, Henry VIII., for some or one of these respects highly promoted and preferred." Here, if any where, we thought we had discovered a clue to our researches. But after a painful investigation of the rolls and records under the reign of Richard III., or Richard Crouchback, as he is more usually designated in the chronicles, from a traditionary stoop or gibbosity in that part, we do not find that that monarch conferred any such lordships, as are here pretended, upon any subject or subjects, on a simple plea of "conformity" in that respect to the "royal nature." The posture of affairs in those tumultuous times, preceding the battle of Bosworth, possibly left him at no leisure to attend to such niceties.-Further than his reign we have not 66 extended our inquiries; the kings of England who preceded, or followed him, being generally described by historians to have been of straight and clean limbs, the "natural derivative (says Daniel) of high blood, if not its primitive recommendation to such ennoblement, as denoting strength and martial prowessthe qualities set most by in that fighting age." Another motive, which inclines us to scruple the validity of this claim, is the remarkable fact, that none of the persons in whom the right is supposed to be vested, do ever insist upon it themselves. There is no instance of any of them "sueing his patent," as the lawbooks call it; much less of his having actually stepped up into his proper seat, as, so qualified, we might expect that some of them would have had the spirit to do, in the House of Lords. On the contrary, it seems to be a distinction thrust upon them. "Their title of Lord (says one of their own body, speaking of the common people) I never much valued, and now I entirely despise and yet they will force it upon me as an honour which they have a right to bestow, and which I have none to refuse." Upon a dispassionate review of the subject, we are disposed to believe that there is no right to the peerage incident to mere bodily configuration; that the title in dispute is merely honorary, and depending upon the breath of the common people; which in these realms is so far from the power of conferring nobility, that the ablest constitutionalists have agreed in nothing more unanimously, than in the maxim that the King is the sole fountain of honour. GOWK AND CUCKOO. This is called "hunting the Gowk;" and the bearer of the fool's errand is called an "April Gowk." Brand says, that Gowk is properly a Cuckoo, and is used here metaphorically for a fool; this appears correct, for from the Saxon geac, a cuckoo, is derived geck, which means, one easily imposed on. Malvolio, who had been made a fool by a letter purporting to have been written by Olivia, inquires of her * "Why have you suffer'd me to be Made the most notorious geck and gull Olivia affirms that the letter was not written by her, and exclaims to Malvolio "Alas, poor fool! how they have baffled thee!" Geck is likewise derivable from the Teutonic geck, jocus.† STALKING HORSE. This general term for some insignificant person or thing, thrust intentionally forward to conceal a more important object, had † Jamieson, in Nares' Glossary. * Ash. originally a more definite meaning. The Albanian sportsmen, Dr. Clark says, still use it, practising the old method of shooting with one, i. e., by carrying the picture of a horse or a cow, behind which they concealed themselves, and take their aim through a hole in the picture. Among us, the "Stalking-horse" was either a real horse (an old jade trained for the purpose), and walking up and down in the water, which way the sportsman pleased, or a piece of old canvass shaped like a horse grazing, stuffed, painted brown, and fixed to a staff, with a sharp iron at one end to stick in the ground; when the fowl became familiar with the horse, the sportsmen varied the device by using a stalking ox or cow, and stalking stags or deer, especially for fenny grounds, and even trees, shrubs, and bushes, all of painted canvass. BEARS AND BULLS. The word Bear, applied to a certain class on the Stock Exchange, signifies one who insures a real value upon an imaginary thing, and who is said to sell a Bear, which is the same thing as a promise among courtiers, or a vow between lovers. The party called a Bull is the opposite. contracting party. It takes its origin merely from the circumstance, that the Bear, being a voracious animal, generally sacrifices the Bull when an opportunity presents itself. YORKSHIRE BITE. The misapplication of the original meaning of this term is very general. We always use it to convey a feeling of mistrust; or, a fear of coming in contact with one more adept in cunning than ourselves. It is true, Yorkshiremen are keen dealers; this, however, is no detraction; on the contrary, it is an evidence of industrious habits. The hospitality for which they are so famous, gave rise to the term Yorkshire bite. It is said that the fatted calf and flowing bowl greet the stranger at every step, and after the common salutation, the question "Will you bite?" or "Will you sup?" is sure to follow; and from this originated a term, used as a sarcasm, but which, in point of fact, derived as it is, ought to be used as a compliment. JOURNEYMAN. There is a general law or custom in Germany, that apprentices, after the expiration of their service, shall travel two years before prosecuting their trade as master-workmen. Hence the etymology of journeyman. VILLAIN. The epithet Villain, now a term of great reproach, is derived from will, or lordship; and which signified one who was a ser |