ead aloud in a family."

Sometimes a badly-dressed or peculiar-looking person is described as a
_guy_. This word comes from the name of Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder
Plotter, through the effigies, or "guys," which are often burned in
bonfires on November 5th.

Certain Christian names have, for reasons which it is not easy to see,
given us words which mean "fool" or "stupid person." The word _ninny_
comes from Innocent. _Noddy_ probably comes from Nicodemus or
Nicholas. Both these names are used to mean "foolish person" in
France, and so is _benet_, which comes from Benedict.

Some saints' names have given us words which do not seem at first
sight to have any connection with them. The word _maudlin_, by which
we mean "foolishly sentimental," comes from the name of St. Mary
Magdalen, a saint whose name immediately suggests to us sorrow and
weeping. The word _maudlin_ suggests the idea of being ready to weep
unnecessarily. In this way a word describing a disagreeable quality is
taken from the name of one of the most honoured saints.

The word _tawdry_, by which we mean cheap and showy things with no
real beauty, comes from St. Audrey, another name for St. Etheldreda,
who founded Ely Cathedral. In the Middle Ages St. Audrey's Fair used
to be held at Ely, and as fairs are always full of cheap and showy
things, it was from this that the word _tawdry_ came.

_St. Anthony's fire_ is a well-known name for erysipelas, and _St.
Vitus's dance_ for another distressing disease. These names came from
the fact that these saints used to be chosen out as the special
patrons of people suffering from such diseases. In the same way the
disease which used to be called the _King's Evil_ was so named
because people formerly believed that persons suffering from it would
be cured if touched by the hands of the king or the queen. On certain
occasions, even down to the time of Queen Anne, English kings and
queens "touched" crowds of sufferers from this disease.

So in these words taken from the names of people we may read many a
story of love and sorrow and wonder, of disgust and every human
passion.

CHAPTER IX.

WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF ANIMALS.

It is easy to see how names of persons have sometimes changed into
general words. But we have also a great number of general words which
are taken from animals' names. Most often these words are used to
describe people's characters. Sometimes people are merely compared
with the animals wh