OUR LITTLE IGNORANCE

It is often believed that this declaration that rings out on the telephone - Hello! Hello! - is a form of our word Allez! This is not the case. It was the Americans who, having been the first to practically use the telephone, used their interjection halloo! as a form of appeal, which corresponds to our holà!

Boulingrin de gazon.
This word was formed from the English bouling-green (grass for playing boules), not according to the pronunciation, but according to the spelling. Such was the old French tradition with regard to foreign words. This is how one wrote: milord Bouguingamp for Buckingham, and would have written métingue
Boilingrin is a parterre for meeting.

Apache.
This word, in its current meaning, has only been in use for about forty years. It was known that the Apaches were an Indian tribe of Arizona and New Mexico, famous for their boldness, cunning and ferocity. In 1780, hunted by the Whites, with too much rigor, they had revolted under the command of a chief named Victoria.
This revolt had ended in reciprocal massacres, and General Terrasa having got the better of the rebels, those who had not been exterminated submitted. Now, following this distant event, a Parisian reporter, recounting a Savage crime, wrote that the assassins had the morals of Apaches. The word made a fortune, and all the more quickly because Mr. Lépine, it is said, by taste for the picturesque, welcomed it.
Let us add that the Academy, last July, also welcomed this word, which will appear in the new edition of its Dictionary.

Paganism. - This word and its derivative pagan come from pagus, village; paganus, villager. At the birth of the Christian religion, it happened that it made great progress especially in the cities, while the people of the countryside kept their idolatry. Hence the name paganus attributed to the one who persisted in the worship of false gods.

Antimony. The origin of this name would be the following: Basil Valentine, Benedictine monk, having first isolated the metal thus designated, and wanting to know its medical virtues, administered it to the monastery's livestock. The animals developed a great appetite for it and grew fat. A similar experiment was attempted on the monks, which made them all sick. Hence this note, about the new metal: "Good for the cattle, bad for the monks, that is to say antimony.

Scale. A scale is a book or a pamphlet containing ready-made calculations. This name comes from the arithmetician Barrême (1640-1703) who published a set of small books of common calculations and useful concepts for merchants: the Book of Accounts Made, Treatise on Interests, etc.

Era. The era is the starting point of each particular chronology. It is generally believed that this word (in Latin aera) was formed by the union of the initials of the formula AB Exordio Regni Augusti (from the beginning of the reign of Augustus), used to date the acts of this emperor.

Assassin. This word comes from the Arabic haschischin. The Haschischins were a Muslim sect from Western Asia, founded around the 11th century, and who, at the time of the Crusades, engaged in all sorts of violence, under the influence of hashish, a composition derived from hemp and having intoxicating properties.

Tobacco pouch-blague à tabac. Pelicans have a large, soft pouch in their throats, into which they swallow the products of their catch. These pouches, which sailors called "blague", a corruption of the English word bag, were used, once prepared, to put their smoking tobacco. The word has become common today in this sense. In popular language, it also means "lie, boasting", and it is quite difficult to explain how it acquired this meaning.

Pingre. This word means long pin. In the Middle Ages, Jews were falsely accused of crucifying children during the night of Good Friday and of sticking stingy pins into their flesh. From there, the name stingy was given to the Israelites. Then it was extended to usurers.

Fox. The animal thus designated was called vulpes in Latin, and goupil in old French. The word fox has its origin in an old German satirical novel where one of these animals, named Reinarth (subtle spirit) by the author, plays all sorts of tricks on the other beasts. This Roman du Renard was then very fashionable, and the name passed into French to designate its hero.

Punch. We know that this name is given to the mixture of a strong liquor with various ingredients (lemon juice, tea infusion, sugar, etc.). The word and the drink come to us from the English, who themselves borrowed them from the Hindus, towards the end of the 17th century. They prepared this liquor with arrack, tea, sugar, water and lemon, that is to say by means of five ingredients. The Hindu word puntsche (of which punch is the corruption) means five.

Solecism. This is the name given to any mistake against the rules of grammar. The word comes from Solės, a city in Cilicia, founded by the Athenians, where Greek was spoken very poorly.