statue in Rome on whom all
libels, railings, detractions, and satirical invectives are fathered."
_Pamphlet_ is an extended use of Old Fr. _Pamphilet_, the name of a
Latin poem by one _Pamphilus_ which was popular in the Middle Ages. The
suffix _-et_ was often used in this way, _e.g._, the translation of
AEsop's fables by Marie de France was called _Ysopet_, and Cato's moral
maxims had the title _Catonet_, or Parvus Cato. Modern Fr. _pamphlet_,
borrowed back from English, has always the sense of polemical writing.
In Eng. _libel_, lit. "little book," we see a similar restriction of
meaning. A three-quarter portrait of fixed dimensions is called a
_kitcat_--

"It is not easy to see why he should have chosen to produce a
replica, or rather a _kitcat_."
(_Journal of Education_, Oct. 1911.)

The name comes from the portraits of members of the _Kitcat_ Club,
painted by Kneller. _Kit Kat_, Christopher Kat, was a pastrycook at
whose shop the club used to dine.

Implements and domestic objects sometimes bear christian names. We may
mention spinning-_jenny_, and the innumerable meanings of _jack_.
_Davit_, earlier _daviot_, is a diminutive of David. Fr. _davier_,
formerly _daviet_, is used of several mechanical contrivances, including
a pick-lock. A kind of davit is called in German _Juette_, a diminutive
of Judith. The implement by which the burglar earns his daily bread is
now called a _jemmy_, but in the 17th century we also find _bess_ and
_betty_. The French name is _rossignol_, nightingale. The German burglar
calls it _Dietrich_, _Peterchen_, or _Klaus_, and the contracted forms
of the first name, _dyrk_ and _dirk_, have passed into Swedish and
Danish with the same meaning. In Italian a pick-lock is called
_grimaldello_, a diminutive of the name Grimaldo.

[Page Heading: GRIMALKIN--JUG]

A kitchen wench was once called a _malkin_--

"The kitchen _malkin_ pins
Her richest lockram[33] 'bout her reechy neck,
Clamb'ring the walls to eye him."
(_Coriolanus_, ii. 1.)

This is a diminutive of Matilda or Mary, possibly of both. _Grimalkin_,
applied to a fiend in the shape of a cat, is perhaps for _gray malkin_--

"I come, _Graymalkin_."
(_Macbeth_, i. 1.)

The name _malkin_ was transferred from the maid to the mop. Cotgrave has
_escouillon_ (_ecouvil