Herbert Junior: The Spitting Image of His Father

Herbert Junior, for some reason, disliked his senior's first name, Herbert. He would conceal it, although the (c) for WoW indeed disclosets it:

Herbert Paul Grice.

He was, to put it briefly, the spitting image of his handsome father. And "Paul" was Mabel Fenton-Grice's invention.

Or should we say, "spitten image"?

Horn claims that 'spitten' is an archaic participial, which he compares to 'shitten'.

However, some folk-etymologists (or, perhaps, more strictly, 'etymythologists') have proposed that 'spitten image' is a 'corruption' of the more genteel 'spirit and image'. Horn quotes from Mcintyre:

"In years ago, the southern matron often remarked
a new born babe was 'the spirit and image' of
his father or mother, as the evidence offered.
The best the old southern mammy could do with the
phrase was 'the spittin' image'."
E. Mcintyre, cited by Horn.

Another of Horn's examples is 'Welsh rarebit', an "etymythological"
development out of the correct 'Welsh rabbit'. The original pun was, quite
literally, that only the Welsh, at least as seen by the English who coined
the phrase, would eat cheese and call it 'rabbit'. This joke was
'corrected' to the "pedantic" 'rarebit' spelling. Horn here quotes from Hendrickson who has the facts right:

"'Welsh rabbit' is country humour that
conveys the idea that only people as poor
and stupid as the Welsh would eat cheese and
call it rabbit.' Hendrickson 1997:313

This was already noted by Matthews way back in 1892:

"The fact is that a little learning is
quite as dangerous a thing now as it
was in Pope's day. As a well-known writer
on spelling reform once neatly remarked,
"The men who get their etymology by inspiration
are like the poor in that we have them always
with us." Although few of them are as
ignorant and dense as the unknown unfortunate
who first tortured the OBVIOUSLY JOCULAR
"Welsh rabbit" into a pedantic and impossible
"Welsh rarebit", still the most of their
writing serves no good purpose."
Matthews 1892:279.

Horn relies on Wakeman as an authority here:

"The common people are all amateur
etymologists, and the like to put into every
word some familiar glimmer of sense. The make
sad work at it sometimes, however. Thus the
"Welsh rarebit" becomes a rabbit; "gorse-berries",
"gooseberries"; "asparagus", "sparrow-grass";
the "redingote", a "riding-coat". Wakeman 1869:850.

Wakeman may have had it wrong on some fronts, Horn grants. And Horn's comment may serve to illustrate what Horn strictly means by 'etymythology' as involving a _second-order_ 'etymological' affair:


It's a Gricean Thing, after all


"But which came first, the "rabbit" or
the "rarebit"? Our suspicions
[on reading Wakeman above] are aroused by
the fact that, while "goose-summer" and
"sparrow-grass" _are_, indeed, *first-order*,
simple, folk- etymologies, the "goose-berry"
has nothing to do with "gorse" (deriving
instead from Fr. "groseille"), while the
"redingote" is not the source of the
"riding-coat" but the 18th century French
adaptation of it. And indeed, it is the
"rarebit" and not the "rabbit" that represents
folk-etymology, or, more precisely,
"etymythology"".

Horn compares the 'Welsh rabbit' thus with other ethnic-based descriptions
like the "Irish apricot", used by the English to mean 'potato', or "Dutch
milk" to mean 'beer',

Horn mentions other collocations of 'Irish' and 'Dutch':

"Irish apple
(lemon)", a potato; "Irishman's dinner", a fast; "Irish evidence", false
witness; "Irish kiss", a slap in the face; "Irish promotion", a pay-cut;
"Irish tan", sunburn; "Irish twins", two siblings who are not twins but are
born less than a year apart; "Irish wedding", the emptying of a cesspool.
"Dutch act", suicide; "Dutch auction", a sale at minimum prices; "Dutch
bargain", a bargain all on one side; "Dutch-clock", a bedpan, a wife;
"Dutch concert/medley", a hubbub, whereat everyone sings and plays at the
same time "Dutch consolation", Job's comfort ("Thank heaven it is no
worse"); "Dutch courage", pot-valiancy, courage due to intoxication; "Dutch
fuck", the practice of lighting one cigarette from another; "Dutch
milk", beer; "Dutch treat", an outing at which one pays one's own way;
"Dutch widow", a prostitute; "Dutch wife": a bolster (on a bed)).

Horn places the Welsh rabbit, the Irish apricot and the Dutch milk amongst
a few other "delocative delights":

"Alongside the "Welsh rabbit", the
"Irish apricot", and the "Dutch milk",
a tour of outlying areas within the
English-speaking world turns up other
tourist attractions, including

"Alabama wool": cotton
"Alaska turkey": salmon
"Irish turkey": corned beef
(cfr. "Jewish turkey", salami)
"Albany beef": sturgeon
"Block Island turkey": salted codfish
"Yarmouth capon": herring

and of course the "prairie oyster", which
comes in two tasty varieties (raw egg
yolk dipped in whiskey and sprinkled with
Worcestershire and hot sauce or cooked calves'
testicles swallowed whole)."

This helps Horn illustrate that etymythology is always, as it should be,
'post-hoc':

"As a member of this family of delocative
delights, "Welsh rabbit" is thus not a
corruption of "Welsh rarebit"; rather, the
latter is a post-hoc rationalisation of
the former. In the same way, the "spi't (<- spirit)
and image" of O. Mcintyre is a valuable contribution
to the annals of etymythology."

Etc.

References

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Spitten Image.
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