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of theirs , but a genuine English word , though of somewhat late birth in the language . I mean € to chouse . ' It has a singular origin . The word is , as I have mentioned already , a Turkish one , and signifies * interpreter . ' Such an interpreter or ' Chiaous' ( written ' Chaus ' in Hackluyt , Chiaus' in Massinger ) ,
being attached to the Turkish embassy in England , committed , in the year 1609 , an enormous fraud on the Turkish and Persian merchants resident in London . He succeeded in cheating them of a sum amounting to £ 4 , 000 . From the vast dimensions of the fraud and the notoriety which attended it , any one who cheated or defrauded was said Ho chiaous , ' ¦ ' chausi , ' or ' chouse ; ' to do , that is , as this 1 Chiaous' had done . "
To this there is a note—€ t It is curious that a correspondent of Skinner ( ' Etymologia , ' 1671 ) , although quite ignorant of this story , had suggested that chouse' might be thus connected with the Turkish ' chiaus . ' I believe that Gifford ; in his edition of Ben Jonson , has the honour of having first cleared up the matter . To this he was naturally led by a passage in the Alchemist , ' act i . sc . 1 , which puts him on the righb track for the discovery . " " Which with his sword he reaps and plows . "
At the commencement of this chapter we noticed the curions derivation of surnames , and old method of spelling the word " plough" ( plow ) reminds ns that " Plow" is not an uncommon surname * We played at a cricket-match once with the school of a Mr . Plow , who numbered one " Harrow , " if not more , among his scholars . Harrow's father was , if remember right , the secretary of
an Agricultural Ploughing Association . " A copper-plate , with almanacks Engrav'd upon't with other Tcnachs " Dr . Nash tells us that " knacks " are the marks or signs belonging to the astrologer ' s art , and derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ,
" cnaqan , " to know , or understand . The glossarist on Doiiglas says " "We ( the Scots ) use the word c knack' for a witty expression , or action : a knacky man—that is , g . witty , facetious man—which may come from the Teutonic schnaike , facetiae . " Johnson remarks that " knack" is derived from the knaching or snapping of the fingers ,
used by jugglers ; and to do a thing with " knack , " is a very common expression . There is a word often used by ladies , namely , " knatty ; " and things that are done with cleverness and dexterity are said to be " knattily" performed . These expressions are doubtless corruptions of " knacky " and " knackily , " which some good ladies ( finding the pronunciation difficult ) have dared to alter . c ( Our green-men do it worse . "
" Green , " " greenness , " and " greenly" are old words , often signifying immature , immaturity , and immaturely . To be thought green is the bugbear of Oxford and Cambridge freshmen , greenness generally consisting in carrying an umbrella ; sitting , it may be , when attending chapel , for the first time , among the fellows , and capping ( bowing to ) other freshmen . An amusing history of an
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
of theirs , but a genuine English word , though of somewhat late birth in the language . I mean € to chouse . ' It has a singular origin . The word is , as I have mentioned already , a Turkish one , and signifies * interpreter . ' Such an interpreter or ' Chiaous' ( written ' Chaus ' in Hackluyt , Chiaus' in Massinger ) ,
being attached to the Turkish embassy in England , committed , in the year 1609 , an enormous fraud on the Turkish and Persian merchants resident in London . He succeeded in cheating them of a sum amounting to £ 4 , 000 . From the vast dimensions of the fraud and the notoriety which attended it , any one who cheated or defrauded was said Ho chiaous , ' ¦ ' chausi , ' or ' chouse ; ' to do , that is , as this 1 Chiaous' had done . "
To this there is a note—€ t It is curious that a correspondent of Skinner ( ' Etymologia , ' 1671 ) , although quite ignorant of this story , had suggested that chouse' might be thus connected with the Turkish ' chiaus . ' I believe that Gifford ; in his edition of Ben Jonson , has the honour of having first cleared up the matter . To this he was naturally led by a passage in the Alchemist , ' act i . sc . 1 , which puts him on the righb track for the discovery . " " Which with his sword he reaps and plows . "
At the commencement of this chapter we noticed the curions derivation of surnames , and old method of spelling the word " plough" ( plow ) reminds ns that " Plow" is not an uncommon surname * We played at a cricket-match once with the school of a Mr . Plow , who numbered one " Harrow , " if not more , among his scholars . Harrow's father was , if remember right , the secretary of
an Agricultural Ploughing Association . " A copper-plate , with almanacks Engrav'd upon't with other Tcnachs " Dr . Nash tells us that " knacks " are the marks or signs belonging to the astrologer ' s art , and derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ,
" cnaqan , " to know , or understand . The glossarist on Doiiglas says " "We ( the Scots ) use the word c knack' for a witty expression , or action : a knacky man—that is , g . witty , facetious man—which may come from the Teutonic schnaike , facetiae . " Johnson remarks that " knack" is derived from the knaching or snapping of the fingers ,
used by jugglers ; and to do a thing with " knack , " is a very common expression . There is a word often used by ladies , namely , " knatty ; " and things that are done with cleverness and dexterity are said to be " knattily" performed . These expressions are doubtless corruptions of " knacky " and " knackily , " which some good ladies ( finding the pronunciation difficult ) have dared to alter . c ( Our green-men do it worse . "
" Green , " " greenness , " and " greenly" are old words , often signifying immature , immaturity , and immaturely . To be thought green is the bugbear of Oxford and Cambridge freshmen , greenness generally consisting in carrying an umbrella ; sitting , it may be , when attending chapel , for the first time , among the fellows , and capping ( bowing to ) other freshmen . An amusing history of an