e nor the other. I
would not indeed affirm that it may not be a popular recasting of
'ingot'; but only that it is not a recent one; for 'nugget' very nearly
in its present form, occurs in our elder writers, being spelt 'niggot'
by them{92}. There can be little doubt of the identity of 'niggot' and
'nugget'; all the consonants, the _stamina_ of a word, being the same;
while this early form 'niggot' makes more plausible their suggestion
that 'nugget' is only 'ingot' disguised, seeing that there wants nothing
but the very common transposition of the first two letters to bring that
out of this{93}.

{Sidenote: _Words from Proper Names_}

New words are often formed from the names of persons, actual or
mythical. Some one has observed how interesting would be a complete
collection, or a collection approaching to completeness, in any language
of the names of _persons_ which have afterwards become names of
_things_, from 'nomina _appellativa_' have become 'nomina _realia_'{94}.
Let me without confining myself to those of more recent introduction
endeavour to enumerate as many as I can remember of the words which have
by this method been introduced into our language. To begin with mythical
antiquity--the Chimaera has given us 'chimerical', Hermes 'hermetic',
Tantalus 'to tantalize', Hercules 'herculean', Proteus 'protean', Vulcan
'volcano' and 'volcanic', and Daedalus 'dedal', if this word may on
Spenser's and Shelley's authority be allowed. Gordius, the Phrygian king
who tied that famous 'gordian' knot which Alexander cut, will supply a
natural transition from mythical to historical. Here Mausolus, a king of
Caria, has left us 'mausoleum', Academus 'academy', Epicurus 'epicure',
Philip of Macedon a 'philippic', being such a discourse as Demosthenes
once launched against the enemy of Greece, and Cicero 'cicerone'.
Mithridates, who had made himself poison-proof, gave us the now
forgotten word 'mithridate', for antidote; as from Hippocrates we
derived 'hipocras', or 'ypocras', a word often occurring in our early
poets, being a wine supposed to be mingled after his receipt. Gentius, a
king of Illyria, gave his name to the plant 'gentian', having been, it
is said, the first to discover its virtues. A grammar used to be called
a 'donnat', or 'donet' (Chaucer), from Donatus, a famous grammarian.
Lazarus, perhaps an actual person, has given us 'lazar' and 'lazaretto';
St. Veronica and the legend connected with her name, a 'vernicle';