A SIMPLETON A silly person; a soft-headed man; a dupe; one easily imposed upon. Sie 'em! pelle toe hun; q. e. look at him! there's plucking for you; do but look at him, his face tells you, you may make him your dupe; his face tells you he is a fit subject for imposition. The term is extended to imply any one who bears in his face the marks of a weak mind; but originally was confined to one who proved himself proper game for the sharper. JOHNSON derives the term from simple, implying, I presume, the term to be a peggiorative augment of that word, and thus a great fool [idiot]. But I do not believe that simple can ever be brought to the meaning of any quality implying weakness [debility] of mind [faculty]. In Latin and French, whence we have it, the term means single, honest, without duplicity, sincere, plain, devoid of art, The French say, Dieu aimes les humbles et les simples; it cannot, I should think well mean fools there. Simple comme un enfant, when applied to a man, may mean unfitness, but that only by the context. OVID says merui simplicitate fugam; commonly construed, I deserved my banishment for my folly, but duly, by my candour, sincerity. The old French simplesse, means ingenuousness; and simplicité is sometimes employed in the same sense; and also in that of naïveté, bêtise, but it can only have this import from some context that directs such meaning from it. Je ne suis pas si simple que de me fier à lui ; it is the si (so) that causes it to imply over openness or confidence, and thus too much, which is always good for nothing, even when said of a good thing. O virum simplicem, qui nos nihil celat! sapientem, qui serviendum necessitati putat! here again it is the context and contrast to vir sapiens which gives the sense of an over candid or too sincere a person. But simpleton always means a silly dupe independent of all context, and is a groundedly English term, which simple is not; besides ton, tone, is an Italian and not an English form of augment. I do not believe the two words have any connection in point of source. He was cut for the simples, he was made a fool of, he proved himself a dupe, hie wo aes, Guit, voer dij; sie 'em pelle's; q. e. here where there is provision, rogue, provide yourself; look at him, here pillage is in his face [he looks like one who is easily duped]. The Dutch spell simple; simpel, and, I suppose the above term was once spelt simpelton. "There was a Nonne, a Prioresse, * That of her smiling was SIMPLE and coy; Her greatest oth was but by Seint Eloye."-CHAUcer. "Then shame came forth ful SIMPILLY †, As Nonnis done in their Abbey."-IDEM. SIMPLE of atire, and debonnaire of chere, "The swiftest of these arowes five And the best fethered for to flie The third yclepid was Fraunchise A FIRE-EATER. In the sense of a seeker of danger, one fond of adventures, one who courts [runs after] unnecessary * Open, ingenuous. + Artlessly. Plain. SA sort of plaited ruff, worn by Nuns so as to cover the neck and breast; in Dutch wimpel, in French, guimpel, guimpe. Called. Candour, innocence. perils; a sort of Quixote, a mock hero; a fool, a madman. Er vaer hiet eer; q. e. there is he who is always at the command of danger; one who no sooner hears of some new opportunity to display his mania, but he is at its service: or one who is ever ready to expose himself for the sake of either notoriety or money. The term is always used in a derogatory sense, and as opposed to a person of true courage, he who never exposes himself for personal advantage, but only when called on by principle and feeling. Vaer, gevaer, danger, peril; and sounds as we pronounce fire. Hieten, heeten, to command, to bid. Eer, ever, always. A NICKNAME. A scoffing designation of the person in question, a ludicrous distinction in regard to some one not present; for nobody is called by their nickname to their face, except by one who is pretty certain he runs no risk in so doing, one who is well acquainted with his man. Er nuck na'em ; q. e. there is a scoff at him when his back is turned; here is a mocking of him when he is gone away. Nucke, nuk, a sly wink, a secret sign of contempt, a cunning trick, a piece of sly roguery, une ruse; the word springs from the thema nu-en, to nod, and is the contraction of nu-ig, the adjective of nu-en. Hence the Latin nutus, nutare, annuo, renuo, abnuo, &c., the French nuque (the nape or bend at the back of the neck) and knuckle, in Dutch kneukel, knokel, as immediately from nokken, whence genokken now knokken, the same word with kneuken, knikken, to bend, to bow. To this stock belongs also knee, in Dutch knie, as ge-ni-e, from nijgen, to bend, to incline to bow, and is as ni-en, nigen, in the same sense. Hence also our KNIFE, in Dutch, knif [whence the French canif] as knipmes; q. e. claspknife, knife with a joint or bend; and knippen, knijpen, to nip, to compress, is ge-nippen, from nijpen in the same sense. Here also belong the Dutch nek, and our neck, also our nick [notch], as inbending or inlet at the base of the arrow, and the French niche and our nich, as the inbending or incurvation for the reception of a statue in a wall [building]. But the French niche as trick, a silent scoff, is in the sense of a bend of the head or nod, as is done when we wink or make a secret sign to another in relation to something not to be said before the person it relates to or who is intended by it, and is from the same thema, but in another direction of the sense; the word is properly nique as every one knows. We say by signs and nods, in the sense of secret understanding between the makers of them to the exclusion of the others who are not in the secret. So that nickname as nucknaem, is as a secret scoffing sign given in ridicule of the person in his absence [behind his back]. Nae, na, after, behind. 'Em, hem, him. The Dutch equivalent spotnaam is as mock name, name given in mockery. Knijf in Dutch always means a clasp-knife, and is a very ancient word; a table-knife, or one that has no bending joint, being mes, messer, mets, and of which knife is as the ellipsis, for in truth knife of itself means no more than a joint [bend]; so that JOHNSON's definition, with this understanding, sounds ludicrously; when he tells us it is an instrument edged and pointed wherewith meat is cut and animals killed! KNICK KNACK. Ornamental trifle, toy for decoration [shew]. Nick, nack, q. e. nod, nod, and is one of those imitative iterations, as when we tick, tack, click, clack, &c. meaning to express the alternating snap of the noise of a clock or any similar sound. An expression probably suggested by those Chinese images of old mandarine eunuchs formerly so frequent in the rooms of the rich mercantile classes, both here and in Holland, the heads of which where so put on as to keep nodding for a considerable while after the slightest touch. By the French they are termed magots. Knicken and nicken are used indifferently for to nod; knacken is to snap. Nack, neck, nick, are the same word with our neck and grounded in the thema ni-en, ne-en, whence nigen, nijgen, to bend, to incline. The k is the representative of the collective prefix ge, and thus knicken is from ni-en in the form of ge-ni-en whence knie, knee. Nack, as adroitness, flexibility, aptitude, pliancy, is evidently from a same source; the nack of a performance [performing] is a flexibility, a pliancy in doing [acting]. SULLEN. In a gloomy mood, a state unfit for any society but one's own, a state repulsive to others and when others are so to you; in a lonesome temper of mind. I take the term to be the same word with our old soleine, lonely, alone, and as, so, alleen [so, al-eine]; q. e. in this state, be alone; in such a state, alone; unfit to be with any one but self. So, soul, self, will be accounted for in another page. I suspect in our expression every SOUL of them perished, the term soul is a travesty of our old word sole, only, one, and every soul would then be as every one (every sole). And the Latin solus is probably as so-al or so-el, one all, one the whole, or one another, patterned by the Greek terminal os (us). "Me thought the fellowshippe as naked As a corowne withoutin stones, * Only, sole, solitary. -CHAUCER. |