th
The secret'st man of blood."
(_Macbeth_, iii. 4.)

Cotgrave has _pie_, "a pye, pyannat, _meggatapie_." In Old French it was
also called _jaquette_, "a proper name for a woman; also, a piannat, or
_megatapie_" (Cotgrave).

The connection of this word, Fr. _pie_, Lat. _pica_, with the comestible
_pie_ is uncertain, but it seems likely that the magpie's habit of
collecting miscellaneous trifles caused its name to be given to a dish
of uncertain constituents. It is a curious coincidence that the obsolete
_chuet_ or _chewet_ meant both a round pie and a jackdaw.[30] It is
uncertain in which of the two senses Prince Hal applies the name to
Falstaff (1 _Henry IV._, v. 1). It comes from Fr. _chouette_,
screech-owl, which formerly meant also "a chough, daw, jack-daw"
(Cotgrave).

A _piebald_ horse is one _balled_ like a magpie. _Ball_ is a Celtic word
for a white mark, especially on the forehead; hence the tavern sign of
the _Baldfaced Stag_. Our adjective _bald_ is thus a past participle.

Things are often named from animals. _Crane_, _kite_, _donkey-engine_,
_monkey-wrench_, _pig-iron_, etc., are simple cases. The _crane_ picture
is so striking that we are not surprised to find it literally reproduced
in many other languages. The toy called a _kite_ is in French _cerf
volant_, flying stag, a name also applied to the stag-beetle, and in
Ger. _Drachen_, dragon. It is natural that terrifying names should have
been given to early fire-arms. Many of these, e.g., _basilisk_,
_serpent_, _falconet_, _saker_ (from Fr. _sacre_, a kind of hawk), are
obsolete--

"The cannon, blunderbuss, and _saker_,
He was th' inventor of and maker."
(_Hudibras_, i. 2.)

More familiar is _culverin_, Fr. _couleuvrine_, a derivative of
_couleuvre_, adder, Lat. _coluber_--

"And thou hast talk'd
Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,
Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,
Of basilisks, of cannon, _culverin_."
(1 _Henry IV._, ii. 3.)

One name for a hand-gun was _dragon_, whence our _dragoon_, originally
applied to a kind of mounted infantry or carbineers. _Musket_, like
_saker_ (v.s.), was the name of a hawk. Mistress Ford uses it playfully
to her page--

"How now, my eyas[31]-_musket_, what news with you?"