Page 1665 - les-miserables

rascal, rascalion; pilche, a case, which comes from pilcher, a
sheath. Do you want German? Here is the caleur, the waiter,
kellner; the hers, the master, herzog (duke). Do you want
Latin? Here is frangir, to break, frangere; affurer, to steal,
fur; cadene, chain, catena. There is one word which crops up
in every language of the continent, with a sort of mysterious
power and authority. It is the word magnus; the Scotch-
man makes of it his mac, which designates the chief of the
clan; Mac-Farlane, Mac-Callumore, the great Farlane, the
great Callumore[41]; slang turns it into meck and later le
meg, that is to say, God. Would you like Basque? Here is
gahisto, the devil, which comes from gaiztoa, evil; sorga-
bon, good night, which comes from gabon, good evening.
Do you want Celtic? Here is blavin, a handkerchief, which
comes from blavet, gushing water; menesse, a woman (in
a bad sense), which comes from meinec, full of stones; ba-
rant, brook, from baranton, fountain; goffeur, locksmith,
from goff, blacksmith; guedouze, death, which comes from
guenn-du, black-white. Finally, would you like history?
Slang calls crowns les malteses, a souvenir of the coin in
circulation on the galleys of Malta.
[41] It must be observed, however, that mac in Celtic
means son.
In addition to the philological origins just indicated,
slang possesses other and still more natural roots, which
spring, so to speak, from the mind of man itself.
In the first place, the direct creation of words. Therein
lies the mystery of tongues. To paint with words, which
contains figures one knows not how or why, is the primi-

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