uphine, the cognisance of
which was three dolphins.

The application of animals' names to diseases is a familiar phenomenon,
e.g., _cancer_ (and _canker_), crab, and _lupus_, wolf. To this class
belongs _mulligrubs_, for which we find in the 17th century also _mouldy
grubs_. Its oldest meaning is stomach-ache, still given in Hotten's
Slang Dictionary (1864). _Mully_ is still used in dialect for mouldy,
earthy, and _grub_ was once the regular word for worm. The Latin name
for the same discomfort was _verminatio_, from _vermis_, a worm. For the
later transition of meaning we may compare _megrims_, from Fr.
_migraine_, head-ache, Greco-Lat. _hemicrania_, lit. half-skull, because
supposed to affect one side only of the head.

A good many names of plants and animals have a religious origin.
_Hollyhock_ is for _holy hock_, from Anglo-Sax. _hoc_, mallow: for the
pronunciation cf. _holiday_. _Halibut_ means _holy butt_, the latter
word being an old name for flat fish; for this form of _holy_ cf.
_halidom_. _Lady_ in names of flowers such as _lady's bedstraw_, _lady's
garter_, _lady's slipper_, is for Our Lady. So also in _lady-bird_,
called in French _bete a bon Dieu_ and in German _Marienkaefer_, Mary's
beetle. Here may be mentioned _samphire_, from Old Fr. _herbe de Saint
Pierre_, "sampire, crestmarin" (Cotgrave). The _filbert_, earlier
_philibert_, is named from St Philibert, the nut being ripe by St
Philibert's day (22nd Aug.). We may compare Ger. _Lambertsnuss_,
filbert, originally "Lombard nut," but popularly associated with St
Lambert's day (17th Sept.).

[Page Heading: BAPTISMAL NAMES OF ANIMALS]

The application of baptismal names to animals is a very general
practice, though the reason for the selection of the particular name is
not always clear. The most famous of such names is _Renard_ the Fox. The
Old French for fox is _goupil_, a derivative of Lat. _vulpes_, fox. The
hero of the great beast epic of the Middle Ages is _Renard le goupil_,
and the fact that _renard_ now completely supplanted _goupil_ shows how
popular the Renard legends must have been. _Renard_ is from Old High
Ger. _regin-hart_, strong in counsel; _cf._ our names _Reginald_ and
_Reynold_, and Scot. _Ronald_, of Norse origin. From the same source
come _Chantecler_, lit. sing-clear, the cock, and _Partlet_, the hen,
while _Bruin_, the bear, lit. "brown," is from the Dutch version of the
epic. In the Low German version, _Reinke de Vos_, the ape's n