-What do you call your knight's name, sirrah?"
(_Merry Wives_, iii. 2.)

_Pantaloons_ come, _via_ France, from Venice. A great many Venetians
bore the name of _Pantaleone_, one of their favourite saints. Hence the
application of the name to the characteristic Venetian hose. The "lean
and slippered pantaloon" was originally one of the stock characters of
the old Italian comedy. Torriano has _pantalone_, "a _pantalone_, a
covetous and yet amorous old dotard, properly applyed in comedies unto a
Venetian." _Knickerbockers_ take their name from Diedrich
_Knickerbocker_, the pseudonym under which Washington Irving wrote his
History of Old New York, in which the early Dutch inhabitants are
depicted in baggy knee-breeches.

[Page Heading: NINNY--JACKANAPES]

Certain christian names are curiously associated with stupidity. In
modern English we speak of a _silly Johnny_, while the Germans say _ein
dummer Peter_, or _Michel_, and French uses _Colas_ (_Nicolas_),
_Nicodeme_ and _Claude_, the reason for the selection of the name not
always being known. English has, or had, in the sense of "fool," the
words _ninny_, _nickum_, _noddy_, _zany_. _Ninny_ is for _Innocent_,
"Innocent, _Ninny_, a proper name for a man" (Cotgrave). With this we
may compare French _benet_ (_i.e._ Benedict), "a simple, plaine, doltish
fellow; a noddy peake, a ninny hammer, a peagoose, a coxe, a silly
companion" (Cotgrave). _Nickum_ and _noddy_ are probably for Nicodemus
or Nicholas, both of which are used in French for a fool--

"'But there's another chance for you,' said Mr Boffin, smiling
still. 'Do you like the name of Nicodemus? Think it over. _Nick_ or
_Noddy_.'"
(_Our Mutual Friend_, Ch. 5.)

_Noddy-peak_, _ninny-hammer_, _nickumpoop_, now _nincompoop_, seem to be
arbitrary elaborations. _Zany_, formerly a conjuror's assistant, is
_zanni_ (see p. 143), an Italian diminutive of _Giovanni_, John. With
the degeneration of _Innocent_ and _Benedict_ we may compare Fr.
_cretin_, idiot, an Alpine patois form of _chretien_, Christian, and
Eng. _silly_, which once meant blessed, a sense preserved by its German
cognate _selig_. _Dunce_ is a libel on the disciples of the great
medieval schoolman John Duns Scotus, born at Duns in Berwickshire.

_Dandy_ is Scottish for Andrew, _e.g._, Dandie Dinmont (_Guy
Mannering_). _Dago_, now usually applied to Italians, was