Cassidese Glossary – Skip

For some time now, some of my on-line friends have advised me to provide a version of CassidySlangScam without the invective aimed at Cassidy and his supporters. In response to that advice, I am working on providing a glossary of the terms in Cassidy’s ludicrous book How The Irish Invented Slang with a short, simple and business-like explanation of why Cassidy’s version is wrong.

The late Daniel Cassidy, in his etymological hoax How The Irish Invented Slang, claimed that skip, as in ‘to skip bail’, is from the Irish word scaip. I suggest you take a look at the excellent online Dictionary of Middle English provided free of charge by the University of Michigan. Here’s what their database has to say about the Middle English verb skippen:

“(a) To run, go, travel; hasten, hurry, rush; also, flee; also, run around busily [quot.: c1425 Mirror LM&W]; of lightning: dart, shoot; ~ bihinden, move into position behind someone; ~ forth, flee, escape; ~ oute, go out, rush out; also, flee; ~ over, go (into the assembly); also, forge ahead [quot.: WBible(2) Prov.]; (b) ?to attack; (c) ~ oute, of a bird: to hop out of a cage; skippinge oute, hopping out (of a cage); (d) to bounce; (e) of the spirit of the Lord: to enter (into sb.), descend (upon sb.); of strife: break out, arise; of venial sin: change (into deadly sin); ~ up, of the soul: ascend (into heaven); (f) to pass over or omit material in reading, or in the telling of a narrative; ~ over.”

So, by the early 15th century, the word skip already had the full range of meanings that the modern word skip has. As for Cassidy’s Irish candidate, scaip, it is defined by WinGléacht (the electronic version of Ó Dónaill’s Irish-English Dictionary) as:

“1. Scatter 2. Spread, disseminate 3. Dissipate 4. Disperse 5. Scaipigí! – Dismiss!”

I need hardly point out that this is not as good a match as the word skippen found in Middle English.

Booze

I have noticed that many of the early posts on this blog get relatively little traffic, so I have decided to start republishing some of them.

This is a typically ridiculous Cassidy claim. Scholars have quite rightly identified that this word is Germanic in origin and is linked to the Dutch word busen, which meant to drink to excess. Booze is a long-established word in English, both as a verb and as a noun. For example, searching on the Michigan Middle English Dictionary website, I found this, from around 1325: Hail, ȝe holi monkes..Late and raþe ifillid of ale and wine! Depe cun ȝe bouse. (Hail, you holy monks. Late and early filled with ale and wine! Deep can you booze.)

Cassidy disagrees. On the basis of his vast knowledge of the Irish language (!) he believes that this word derives from an Irish word beathuis. Now, you will search in vain for this word in the dictionary. Beathuis is not a real word. Even if it were real, it wouldn’t sound much like booze. It would be pronounced as bahish.

Where did Cassidy get this word? Well, there is a word beathuisce (life-water) in the dictionaries. It is a variant of the vastly more common uisce beatha (water of life) which is the origin of English whisk(e)y. This variant seems to be found mostly in songs and poems and is probably used in these contexts for reasons of metre, because it has 3 syllables rather than 4. It is pronounced bahishka. So what about the inconvenient –ka at the end? After all, nobody talks about boozeka in English! According to Cassidy, beathuisce was shortened to beathuis. He gives no evidence of this or reason for it, and it seems about as likely as someone in English contracting the word water to wart.

So, to recap, there is a perfectly good derivation from Dutch which fits the facts, sounds right and has the right meaning, and was established in English by the early 14^th century. And there is a completely improbable candidate which doesn’t sound like booze and which was made up by Cassidy by mutilating a rare variant word beathuisce, the ‘word’ beathuis.

Which is correct? I’ll leave you to make up your own mind on that one!

 

Booze

I have noticed that many of the early posts on this blog get relatively little traffic, so I have decided to start republishing some of them.

This is a typically ridiculous Cassidy claim. Booze is a long-established word in English, both as a verb and as a noun. Scholars have quite rightly identified that this word is linked to the Dutch word busen, which meant to drink to excess. For example, searching on the Michigan Middle English Dictionary website, I found this, from around 1325: Hail, ȝe holi monkes..Late and raþe ifillid of ale and wine! Depe cun ȝe bouse. (Hail, you holy monks. Late and early filled with ale and wine! Deep can you booze.)

Cassidy disagrees. On the basis of his vast knowledge of the Irish language (!) he believes that this word derives from an Irish word beathuis. Now, you will search in vain for this word in the dictionary. Beathuis is not a real word. Even if it were real, it wouldn’t sound much like booze. It would be pronounced as bahish.

Where did Cassidy get this word? Well, there is a word beathuisce (life-water) in the dictionaries. It is a variant of the vastly more common uisce beatha (water of life) which is the origin of English whisk(e)y. This variant seems to be found mostly in songs and poems and is probably used in these contexts for reasons of metre, because it has 3 syllables rather than 4. It is pronounced bahishka. So what about the inconvenient –ka at the end? After all, nobody talks about boozeka in English! According to Cassidy, beathuisce was shortened to beathuis. He gives no evidence of this or reason for it, and it seems about as likely as someone in English contracting the word water to wart.

So, to recap, there is a perfectly good derivation from Dutch which fits the facts, sounds right and has the right meaning, and was established in English by the early 14^th century. And there is a completely improbable candidate which doesn’t sound like booze and which was made up by Cassidy by mutilating a rare variant word beathuisce, the ‘word’ beathuis.

Which is correct? I’ll leave you to make up your own mind on that one!