name by which any thing is known or distinguished when spoken of. See Name.
Nothing can be more foreign to the original meaning of many words and proper names, than their present appellations, frequently owing to the history of those things being forgotten, or an ignorance of the language in which they were expressed. Who, for example, when the crier of a court bawls out, "O yes," would dream that it was a proclamation commanding the talkers to become hearers, being the French word Oyes, "listen," retained in our courts ever since the law pleadings were held in French? Or would any person suppose that the headland on the French coast, near Calais, called by our seamen Blackness, would be so titled from its French name of Blanc Nez, or the White Headland.
King Henry the Eighth having taken the town of Boulogne in France, the gates of which he brought to Hardes in Kent, where they are still remaining, the flatterers of that reign highly magnified this action, which, Porto Bello like, became a popular subject for signs; and the port or harbour of Boulogne, called Boulogne Mouth, was accordingly set up at a noted inn in Holborn. The name of the inn long outliving the sign and fame of the conquest, an ignorant painter, employed by a no less ignorant landlord, to paint a new one, represented it by a bull and a large gaping human mouth (answering to the vulgar pronunciation of Bull and Mouth). The same piece of history gave being to the bull and gate, originally meant for Boulogne gate, and represented by an embattled gate or entrance into a fortified town.
The barber's pole has been the subject of many conjectures; some conceiving it to have originated from the word poll, or head, with several other conceits as far-fetched and as unmeaning; but the true intention of that party-coloured staff was to show that the matter of the shop practised surgery, and could breathe a vein as well as mow a beard; such a staff being to this day, by every village practitioner, put into the hand of a patient undergoing the operation of phlebotomy. The white band which encompasses the staff, was meant to represent the fillet, thus elegantly twined about it.
Nor were the chequers, (at this time a common sign of a public house) less expressive, being the representation of a kind of draught-board called tables, and showed that there that game might be played. From their colour, which was red, and the similarity to a lattice, Appellative it was corruptly called the red lettuce, which word is frequently used by ancient writers to signify an ale-house.
The Spectator has explained the sign of the bell-savage inn plausibly enough, in supposing it to have been originally the figure of a beautiful female found in the woods, called in French la belle sauvage. But another reason has since been assigned for that appellation, namely, that the inn was once the property of Lady Arabella Savage, and familiarly called Bell Savage's Inn, probably represented, as at present, by a bell and a savage or wild man, which was a rebus for her name; rebukes being much in fashion in the 16th century; of which the bolt and tun is an instance.
The three blue bulls prefixed to the doors and windows of pawnbrokers shops, by the vulgar humorously enough said to indicate that it is two to one that the things pledged are never redeemed, was in reality the arms of a set of merchants from Lombardy, who were the first that publicly lent money on pledges. They dwelt together in a street, from them named Lombard Street, in London, and also gave their name to another at Paris. The appellation of Lombard was formerly all over Europe considered as synonymous with that of usurer.
At the institution of yeomen of the guards, they used to wait at table on all great solemnities, and were ranged near the buffets; this procured them the name of buffeters, not very unlike in sound to the jocular appellation of beef-eaters, now given them; though probably it was rather the voluntary misnomer of some wicked wit, than an accidental corruption arising from ignorance of the French language.
The opprobrious title of bum bayliffe, so constantly bestowed on the sheriff's officers, is, according to Judge Blackstone, only the corruption of bound bayliffe, every sheriff's officer being obliged to enter into bonds and to give security for his good behaviour, previous to his appointment.
A cordonnair seems to have no relation to the occupation it is meant to express, which is that of a shoemaker. But cordonnier, originally spelt cordonnair, is the French word for that trade; the best leather used for shoes coming originally from Cordova in Spain. Spanish-leather shoes were once famous in England.