(_Merry Wives_, iii. 3.)

But the hawk was so nicknamed from its small size. Fr. _mousquet_, now
replaced in the hawk sense by _emouchet_, is from Ital. _moschetto_, a
diminutive from Lat. _musca_, fly. Thus _mosquito_ (Spanish) and
_musket_ are doublets.

_Porcelain_ comes, through French, from Ital. _porcellana_, "a kinde of
fine earth called _porcelane_, whereof they make fine china dishes,
called _porcellan_ dishes" (Florio). This is, however, a transferred
meaning, _porcellana_ being the name of a particularly glossy shell
called the "Venus shell." It is a derivative of Lat. _porcus_, pig.
_Easel_ comes, with many other painters' terms, from Holland. It is Du.
_ezel_, ass, which, like Ger. _Esel_, comes from Lat. _asinus_. For its
metaphorical application we may compare Fr. _chevalet_, easel, lit.
"little horse," and Eng. "clothes-_horse_."

[Page Heading: THINGS NAMED FROM PERSONS]

Objects often bear the names of individuals. Such are _albert_ chain,
_brougham_, _victoria_, _wellington_ boot. Some elderly people can
remember ladies wearing a red blouse called a _garibaldi_.[32] Sometimes
an inventor is immortalised, e.g., _mackintosh_ and _shrapnel_, both due
to 19th-century inventors. The more recent _maxim_ is named from one
who, according to the late Lord Salisbury, has saved many of his
fellow-men from dying of old age. Other benefactors are commemorated in
_derringer_, first recorded in Bret Harte, and _bowie_, which occurs in
Dickens' _American Notes_. _Sandwich_ and _spencer_ are coupled in an
old rime--

"Two noble earls, whom, if I quote,
Some folks might call me sinner;
The one invented half a coat,
The other half a dinner."

An Earl Spencer (1782-1845) made a short overcoat fashionable for some
time. An Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792) invented a form of light
refreshment which enabled him to take a meal without leaving the gaming
table. It does not appear that _Billy Cock_ is to be classed with the
above, or with _Chesterfield, Chippendale & Co._ The _New English
Dictionary_ quotes (from 1721) a description of the Oxford "blood" in
his "_bully-cocked_ hat," worn aggressively on one side. _Pinchbeck_ was
a London watchmaker (_fl. c._ 1700), and _doily_ is from _Doyley_, a
linen-draper of the same period. Etienne de _Silhouette_ was French
finance minister in 1759, but the application of his name to a black
profile portrait is variously explained. _Negus_ was first brewed