Swain

In an earlier Wordsmith edition, we investigated a pair monikers reserved for types of male suitors: the Romeo, or an ardent, persistant lover, and the Lothario who’s a rake, libertine and notorious seducer. Romeo comes of course from the teen-age lover in Shakespeare’s 1595 play Romeo and Juliet. Lothario is the name of a sexual predator who seduces, then abandons the innocent ingenue in a 1703 English play called The Fair Penitent.

Fortunately, not all male suitors are relentless Romeos or dangerous Lotharios. Some are sweetly devoted and kindly disposed; we might call them swains. A bit old-fashioned, the term swain comes from Old Norse, a language spoken in Norway prior to the 9th century or so. In Old Norse, swain meant simply boy, or servant or attendant.

When the term was later adopted by English speakers, it referred to a young man who attended a knight. In his 14th century Canterbury Tales, Geoffry Chaucer wrote, “him serves himself that has no swain.”

By the 15 and 1600s, swain took on the meaning of “farm boy” or “rustic laborer” and the pure, simple life of such rural denizens became a fascination of pastoral poets, who began to use swain in the sense of “gallant, earnest, romantic woodland lover.”

Romeo and Lothario

Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of desire and beauty inspired the word aphrodisiac. This love goddess’ son, Eros, gave us erotic, and the word venereal derives from Venus, the Roman goddess of love.

Today, we look at a duo of literary characters whose biographies inspired monikers for ardent male suitors.

The nickname Romeo is usually reserved for a man obsessed by desire and romance, perhaps one who considers himself an passionate paramour, the lady’s opinion notwithstanding. Yet the original Romeo, the teen-aged lover in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, was so virtuously devoted to his sweetheart that he was willing to die for her. His noble reputation has decayed over the centuries; the modern Romeo is now a skirt-chaser and serial seducer.

Another famous lover is Lothario, the name of a notorious rake, libertine, and scurrilous cad. Lothario is a character in a popular 1703 tragedy called The Fair Penitent by English dramatist Nicholas Rowe. Described by the playwright as “haughty, gallant, and gay,” this Lothario flatters, seduces, then abandons the innocent Calista, who then takes her life in shame. Nicholas Rowe’s Lothario lives on as an eponym for a notorious ravisher of pure-hearted women.

Aphrodisiac

In ancient Greek tradition, Aphrodite is the goddess of love. Daughter of the sky father Uranus and the earth-mother Gaia, Aphrodite had many paramours. She married the fire god Hephaestus but dallied with such Olympian luminaries as Adonis, Ares, Hermes and even Zeus himself. One of these affairs produced Eros, the love-god.

Aphrodite was a powerful and chaotic personality who smote the gods with insatiable lust for one another. Considered the epicenter of sensuality, Aphrodite is the inspiration for the word aphrodisiac, which means “pertaining to carnal desire,” or “a drug or preparation inducing lust.” Aphrodite’s son, Eros, mentioned a moment ago, grew up to be the god of love; he left his linguistic footprint in the term erotic, meaning “concerning sensual pleasure.”

The Romans, borrowing the traditions of the Greek Aphrodite, fashioned Venus, their own goddess of sexual love and beauty. This is the same diety who inspired the name for the second planet from the sun, and the adjective venereal, meaning, technically, “associated with carnal desire,” but is best known in the phrase venereal disease. Not a very noble lexical heritage for the love goddess Venus!

Next time on this series, more names associated with love and desire: Romeo and Lothario.

Invention Eponyms

The English language contains hundreds of terms called eponyms, or people’s names that have become common nouns. For example, Josef Pulitzer is the eponym and founder of the Pulitzer prize, a cash sum given to those who promote peace and excel in physics, medicine, chemistry and literature. The eponym of the Caesar salad is 20th century Italian-American chef Caesar Cardini, who invented this culinary delight in 1921.

Some of history’s most important inventions are eponymously named. The Diesel engine was titled after German engineer Rudolph Diesel, who described his invention in a patent dated 1892. French educator Louis Braille loaned his name eponymously to the system of writing for the blind, which he introduced in the 1820s.

Pasteurization, the process by which food and beverages are heated to destroy harmful microorganisms, was named eponymously for another Frenchman, chemist Louie Pasteur. German bacteriologist Julius R. Petri invented a circular glass dish for growing bacteria cultures in a laboratory setting. This invention was designed by and eponymously named for Julius Petri in 1887.

Electrical power output is measured in watts, a term derived from the surname of 18th century Scottish inventor, and designer of gears and engines, James Watt. Interested in these types of terms? Visit my website for links to eponyms at wordsmithradio.org.

With Bells On

A friend calls to invite you to a party. She promises good food, fine wine, live music and jolly company. You tell her that you’ll be there with bells on.

You’ve responded with a classic American idiom telegraphing your enthusiasm for the event. You’re telling your host that not only will you attend, you also aim to enjoy the offerings and want to contribute to the festivities.

Every American English speaker is familiar with the expression to be there with bells on, but here is a phrase in search of itself. Lexicographers cannot concur on its origin. Phrase dictionaries offer diverse theories.

Christine Ammer, editor of The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms writes, “This metaphoric expression alludes to decorating oneself or one’s clothing with little bells for some special performance or occasion. A well-known nursery rhyme [from the 18th century] has, ‘See a fine lady upon a white horse, Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes. And she shall have music wherever she goes.’”

Robert Hendrickson, in his Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, asserts “Early 18th Century conestoga wagons usually arrived at their destination with bronze bells ringing, giving rise to this Americanism.”
Other sources riff on these same themes for the origin of the phrase be there with bells on. So, pick your favorite theory, and use the phrase with glee.