University of North Carolina Press

Some Significant Names in Gulliver's Travels Author(s): H. D. Kelling Source: Studies in Philology, Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct.
, 1951), pp. 761-778 Published by: University of North Carolina Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4172994 . Accessed: 10/09/2013 00:44
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SOME SIGNIFICANT NAMES IN GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
By H:. D.
KELLING
Swift's linguistic tricks have been studied and his deceptions uncovered in his letters to Sheridan or in the Journal to Stella.1 Comparatively little has been done, however, with the strange language and names found in Gulliver's Travels; :mile Pons has skillfully and quite convincingly solved the Lilliputian language 2 and various suggestions have been made as to the origin and meaning of Lilliput, Laputa, Brobdingnag, and Struldbrug,3 but there remain the Trildrogdribian and Houyhuhnm languages and a large number of names about which there has been no speculation. The usual assumption seems to be that investigation can go no further since for the most part Swift merely invented nonsense words, only occasionally interspersing words with a discoverable origin and significance. While I cannot entirely disprove the validity of this assumption, by giving conclusive evidence for the origin and
1 See I. Ehrenpreis, " Swift's 'Little Language' in the Journal to Stella," SP, XLV (1948), 80-88, for an excellent summary of Swift's methods and a correction of previous conclusions about the "little language." The tricks in the letters are solved in Elrington Ball's edition of The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift (London, Bell, 1910-14, 6 v.): see III, 177; and V, 188-190, 192, 193, 231, 241, 346-8, 435-7. S " Rabelais et Swift: i propos du Lilliputien," in MWlanges offert & M. Abel Lefranc (Paris, Librairie E. Droz, 1936), pp. 219-228. 8 See Henry Morley's edition of Gulliver's Travels (London, George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1890), Introduction, pp. 17-20. He says of Lilliput and Laputa: " The small representative of lordly man has a name of contempt familiar in Swift's time; he was a 'put'. But he was of the little lilli-people, as Swift's 'little language' phrased it, of the land of Lilliput. 'Put' may have been from the Latin 'putus,' a little boy, allied to puer. But it was used in Romance languages-the put and pute of French, the Spanish and Portuguese puto and puta, the Italian putta-in the sense of boy or girl stained by the vices of men. This made it once current in English as a word of scorn; and it has been suggested that the root of the word so used was in the Latin putidus, stinking, disgusting.. This use of the word was probably repeated in Laputa." Brobdingnag, he says, may have been formed as an anagram of " grand, big, noble," with the final -le dropped out. Struldbrug, he points out, contains the words "dust" and "grub," with an I and r added to the anagram.
761 3
762
Some Significant Names in "Gulliver's Travels `
significance of each name and of each phrase or sentence in Houyhnhnm and Trildrogdribian, I should like to offer some suggestions as to the origin and significance of some of the exotic nouns. My suggestions are tentative and I do not expect them to meet with complete acceptance; indeed, it is dubious that evidence can be so conclusive that complete agreement can ever be reached as to the origin and meaning of many of the names in Gulliver's Travels. And even if Swift concealed a meaning in all of the names in Gulliver's Travels, it is hardly possible that the meaning of each name can be ferreted out. But there seems to me to be a sufficient of Swift's practice to indicate that number of convincing exanmples further investigation will be rewarding. External considerations make it extremelv probable that Swift would consistently use siginificant names for the fictitious places, people, and things of Gulliver's Travels. Writing in the tradition of the imaginary voyage, fond of playing with words, possessed of curiosity about and knowledge of foreign languages, he might be expected to follow his predecessorswho had consistently coined significant words (rather than using nonsense words) to give an exotic flavor to the language of imaginary lands, using not only words from the languages in which they wrote but also words or roots from foreign languages. Miore,for example, drew on Greek to label Phylarcus "chief of the tribe " (Gr. ivAog,"tribe" and ipyt, "chief ") or to characterize the Anemolii as braggarts (Gr. Rabelais, whose influence on aVE/JUALo1;, "windy," "braggart "). Gulliver's Travels has been shown by Brown and Pons,5 composed such significant names for his characters as Eusthenes (Gr. Q6WOvIS the sage ") using " the robust ") anidEpistemon (Gr. Erw7r4Uj.o-" Greek and Hebrew as well as French.8 Joseph Hall in Mundus Alter et Idem constructed a large number of words, using Latin,
? For More's coinages, see his Utopia, ed. by A. Guthkelch and G. Sampson (London, G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1910). Pons has some remarks on the names, in addition to his solution for the Utopian language, in his article, "Les langues imaginaires dans le voyage utopique. Un prncurseur: Thomas Morus," Revue de Litt6rature Compar,e, X (1930), 589-607. 5 In addition to Pons' article on Lilliputian, see H. Brown, Rabelais in English Literature (Harvard University Press, 1933), pp. 152-171. 6 On Rabelaisian onomastics, see L. Sain4an, La langue de Rabelais (Paris, 1922), Vol. II, Book V.
H. D. Kelling
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Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, and German.7 And Defoe, in his account of a lunar voyage, in The Consolidator (London, 1705), invented words, many of which are anagrams of English words but some of which contain Latin and perhaps Greek roots.8 In Gulliver's Travels itself there are passages which could be construed as hints that foreign words are sometimes involved in the names and languages. Gulliver gratuitously mentions his broad linguistic knowledge: he possesses a smattering of " High and Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua Franca." '1 And he expertly characterizes the Laputian language (p. 141) as a " clear, polite, smooth Dialect, not unlike in Sound to the Italian," or says (p. 218) that the Houyhnhnm language " approaches nearest to the High Dutch or German, of any I know in Europe." It is possible, of course, that Gulliver's enumeration of his languages merely makes probable his rapid acquisition of the languages of the lands he visits; and Swift may merely be indicating in the other
7 See the " Glossary of Fictitious Names " in Huntington Brown's edition of The Discovery of a New World, John Healey's translation of Hall (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1937). Hall's Buccones (Healey's for example, is derived from Lat. 'biuca,' 'cheek'; 'Bacon-Choppes'), Artopolis (Healey's 'Fleshton') is formed from Greek &pTOS, 'flesh' and W6XLS, 'city'; Frivianda (Healey's 'Dressembourg') is a portmanteau word composed of Fr. 'viandes friandes,' ' delicate dishes'; Scioccia (Healey's 'Cocks-Combya') comes from Italian 'sciocco,' ' foolish'; Lirona (Healey's ' Sleepe-on ') comes from Spanish ' Liron,' ' dormouse '; Gutiges, ' kindly birds,' comes from German 'giutig,' ' kindly.' W. A. Eddy in Gulliver8s Travels, A Critical Study (Princeton University Press, 1923), p. 68, suggests that Swift may have known Hall's work but concludes that there is no proof that he did. "Many of Defoe's inventions are simple anagrams and he indicates the solution in context: T8opablesdetoo, 'Men of Zeal, or Booted Apostles' (p. 43), is an anagram for 'booted apostles'; Phantosteinaschap (p. 40) is an anagram for 'chap. de Saint Stephano' (the de Is omitted) ; Lebusyraneim (p. 336) is an anagram for 'Ailesbury-men'; Bloutegondegours (p. 257) is an anagram for 'double-tonguers' (a g and an o have been added). But he also uses some foreign words: Gallunaria (France) seems clearly to be derived from Latin Gallia and English lunar. I suspect that Latin and Greek and perhaps other languages are involved in many of Defoe's coinages, none of which have been studied. See J. F. Ross, Swift and Defoe (University of California Press, 1941), pp. 71-78, for a discussion of the influence of the Consolidator on Gulliver8 Travels. I Gulliver's Travels, ed. Herbert Davis (Oxford, Blackwell, 1941), p. 15.
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Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels"
statements that in inventing nonsense words in the Laputian and allied languages he used many l's, m's, n's and used voiced consonants rather than unvoiced; and that in the nonsense words of the llouyhnhnm tongue he used only letters representing sounds which could conceivably issue from the nose and throat of a horse. But if my suggestions have any validity, Swift is also letting drop a subtle hint to the learned reader. If so, most learned readers for more than two centuries have seemingly failed to take the hint. The reason, I would suggest, is that Swift played his games unfairly, demanding from his reader not only extensive linguistic knowledge but also an acrostic imagination. Rather than sticking to one or two languages, he drew at random from the vocabulary of French, Italian, Greek, Latin, and even Irish. And in addition he often obscured his borrowings by mixing the letters in anagrams, by reversing the normal spelling of words, by usinig phonetic spelling of words, or by using even more complex and ingenious devices. Since the compositions involving some device which obscures the origin of a word are, I think, more numerous and more interesting than those in which foreign words are used in a fairly straightforward fashion, I shall discuss these first, testing each suggestion by literary as well as linguistic criteria. To be probable, any suggested solution must be appropriate to the context; the foreign word to which the invented word is allied must have a meaning which aptly describes the characteristics of the person or thing to which it is applied; and when Gulliver translates a word, the suggested source of the invented word must either have the literal significance of Gulliver's translation or there must be a humorous discrepancy between the word from which the name is derived and Gulliver's translation. To put first an example which is given support by Pons' evidence that Swift was following Rabelais in inventing languages, the name of a Gentleman-Usher in Brobdingnag, Slardral, is, I think, clearly related to Rabelais' cuisinier, Raslard.10 It seems very probablethat Swift simply reversed each syllable of the name of Rabelais' character, giving him Sardral, then added an I (as Rabelais often did),"'
Book IV, Chapter XL.
'1L:mile Pons, in "ILes jargons de Panurge " (Comptes-Rendus de l'Aca-
d6mie des Inscriptions
et Belles-Lettres,
Jan.-March, 1931, p. 91) points
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either for the sake of the sound or to reproduce the word "lard" whether the word is read forwards or backwards. In Rabelais the name, meaning " smooth-shaven, fat bacon," is appropriately applied to a prosperous cook. Swift, with perhaps even greater appropriateness, signifies by the name the unctuousness and prosperity of the gentleman-usher in Brobdingnag. Disappointingly, Rabelais' names seem to yield no further such close parallels.12 The pattern of Slardral may possibly, however, appear in the name Limtoc, the name of a Lilliputian general. Swift may be using the phrase milles cottes 18 - thousandcoats- then neatly removing the phonetically valueless [les] and [tes], reversing the two words and obtaining Limtoc. Conforming to Rabelais' practice of emphasizing the greed of some of his generals,14 Swift may be calling the general " thousand coats "-a name whose appropriateness is obvious if we remember a modern general, the late Hermann Goering. Though no other names appear to conform to the particular patout that one of Rabelais' favorite methods of disguising words consisted in introducing 1 or r. 1 Another possible influence of Rabelais on Swift's linguistic tricks may appear in the illustrations (Laputa, Chapter VI) of the methods of " finding out the Mysterious Meanings of Words, Syllables, and Letters" (IH. Brown, in Rabelais in English Literature, pp. 164-5, points out the general similarity to Rabelais' satire on heraldry, 13k. I, Ch. IX). " For Instance," says Gulliver, " they can decypher a Close-stool to signify a Privy-Council." Here it is obvious that Swift is playing on the word " privy" which can mean " toilet," " water closet," and is therefore closely associated with a close stool or chamber pot. Rabelais uses a similar play on the word official (Book I, Chapter IX): "et un pot A pisser, c'est un official." As Sain4an points out (II, 409), 'official' was a synonym of 'urinal, as well as the name of an officer. "ICotgrave's dictionary (London, edition of 1673), which I have used as a source for definitions of French words, defines cotte as 'coat or frock' and cites cotte d'armes, " A coat-armour; a long coat worn over armour." In view of Swift's competence in French and his extensive reading in French literature it seems unnecessary to show that he could have encountered these French words in his reading or in the dictionaries he had in his library. 1' Cf. for example Rabelais' Engoulevent, " nom . . . qui d6note . . . un naturel vorace " (Saindan, II, 465); Grippeminauld, "type de la rapacit " Sainkan, II, 465); Racquedenare, "r6pondant au synonyme Pincemaille . , l'un et l'autre signifiant avare i l'extrgme " (Sain4an, II, 466).
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Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels "
tern of Slardral, the principle of reversal may be one of the most important devices used by Swift in composing the names of Gulliver's Tratels. Reversal is of course a common form of slangCakab Genals-and one which was used by Swift in writing to Sheridan; 15 Swift may be simply applying this device to foreign languages. It seems to me probable that by such a procedure is to be explained the origin of the two words Tramecksan and Slamecksan, the names of the Lilliputian parties, which, says Gulliver, differ by one-fourteenth of an inch in the heels of their shoes. In the names themselves, Swift may, by reversing foreign words, be indicating to the reader the original difference between the two parties, a difference not in heels but in noses. If we reverse the names Tramecksan and Slamecksan we find that the former are nas camard (nas keemart) or snub-noses while the latter are nas camels (nas keemals) or camels'-noses. Nas is of course still a French variant for nez "'-or may be the root of nasus-while keemart is a fairly accurate phonetic spelling of camard.17 Kcenmalsis a phonetic spelling of camels with e and a transposed (or if we wish to derive both parts of the compound from the same language. nas is from nasus and kcemals from
.18 camelus)
The appropriateness of the two names is apparent enough. Further research might reveal that the names " snub-noses" and " camels'-noses" were applied to Tories and Whigs respectively; but the names have obviously the universal symbolism of the difference of one-fouirteenthof an inch in the heels. A difference in the size of noses is equally irrelevant to differences in party doctrines
"5 On Back-Slang, see John S. Farmer and W. E. Henley, Slang and its Analogues (London, Thos. Poulter and Sons, Ltd., 1890-1904), III, 8-9; Eric Partridge, Slang Today and Yesterday (New York, Macmillan, 1934), pp. 276-7. 16 M. Bescherelle Ain6, Dictionnaire National ou Dictionnaire Universel de la langue francaise (Paris, 1874), says; " na8, s. m. (pr. na-ze; du lat. nasus). S'est dit et se dit encore quelquefois parmi le peuple pour nez." 17 Swift's love of phonetic spelling is shown most clearly in his letters to Sheridan in which, for example, he represents, " I esteem you a deity " by " I s t m u a D t " (Correspondence, V, 436). In the Journal to Stella (7 March, 1710-11) he says, " When I am writing in our language, I make up my mouth juist as if I was speaking it." "I I do not, of course, insist that Swift is using English camel or Latin camelus; cemals may have come from Italian or many other sources.
H. D. Kelling
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and actions. And unlike the heels, the size of a nose is inevitably inherited, as political affiliations often are. The word Splacknuck, the name of a small (6-foot) animal, very finely shaped, to which Gulliver is compared in Brobdinguag, may be another subtle joke turned by the reversal of a foreign word. Splacknluck seems clearly to be related to the Greek KWmoKC4xaAo";,'9 perhaps influenced by the Latin form caniceps 20-meaning a dogheaded baboon. Swift's procedure in composing the name may be reconstructed as follows: substituting the Latin p for Greek 4), he reversed the result, giving Solapekonuk, an unwieldy word from which he dropped the two o's, giving him Slapeknuk; then, using the process of metathesis which he employed frequently in the Journal to Stella (pocket > pottick),21 he derived Spaleknuk, a form phonetically similar to his final result, Splacknuck. The probability that this is the origin of the name is increased by the humorous appropriatenessof KVVoKcOaAOg in the context of Gulliver's Travels; Gulliver is identified as an animal throughout the second voyage and the monkey who steals him from his box "took me," says Gulliver (p. 106), " for a young one of his own Species." Reversal may also be an important pattern in the Houyhnhnm language but there the pattern is complicated by the phonetic structure of the language. Gulliver says of the language: " they pronounce through the Nose and Throat, and their Language approaches nearest to the High Dutch or German, of any I know in Europe." We would expect the language to contain the German ch[x] and perhaps g[y]; but we find only h as a possible symbol for those sounds.22 Now it seems logical that Swift is hinting that
"'The word is used in the sense of "dog-faced baboon" by Aristotle, Historia Animalium, 502a, 19, and by Plato, Theaetetus, 161c, 166c. Swift had a complete copy of Aristotle's works (No. 96 in the sale catalogue reprinted in Harold Williams, Dean Swsft's Library) and of Plato's works (No. 78 in the sale catalogue). 20 Cited in A. Littleton, A Latine Dictionary (London, 1684), which Swift had in his library (No. 540 in the sale catalogue). "I Feb. 23, 1711-12. ""The letter g appears once in the Houyhnhnm language, in the word Gnnayh (" a Bird of Prey ": Davis ed., p. 232), which perhaps makes it impossible that an h can represent a g. Corroboration for the theory that h can represent a g is, however, offered by Pons' suggestion in his article on Lilliputian, p. 226, that h represents g in the phrase "Langro dehul san " (Davis ed., p. 7), dehul representing degul. And it is significant that
768
in translating foreign words into Houyhnhnm he has substituted for a [k] sound and perhaps for a [g] sound the German [x] and [y]-and has represented those sounds by an h. This seems clearly to be the case in the word luhimuhs, the Houyhnhnm name for a wild rat. Luh must represent the Irish luc, " mouse " or " rat "n;23 Irish c in this position is pronounced like German ch; Swift has represented a c in a foreign word (though in Irish it would have the aspirate dot above it) by an h. Significantly the muhs of luhimuhs, which undoubtedly represents Lat. mus, " mouse " or " rat," contains a phonetically valueless h. It seems then that an h in louyhnhnm can represent a [k] (or a [g] ?) or can be thrown in
if Onnayh is formed by reversal, the g would follow an n and ng might represent the sound [s]. Formation of the name by reversal seems extremely probable in view of the fact that cyan, which results from reversing the last four letters of Gnnyah, nay (h = c) is found in names for birdscyanocitta, cyanocephalos, etc. (from Greek Kutavor, "blue"). I am fairly certain, in fact, that in the name Gnnayh Swift is referring to the Greek dbos, a bird of which Aristotle says (Iistoria Animalium 609b14, D. W. Thompson translation): "The horse and the anthus are enemies, and the horse will drive the bird out of the field where he is grazing: the bird feeds on grass, and sees too dimly to foresee an attack; it mimics the whinnying of the horse, flies at him, and tries to frighten him away; but the horse drives the bird away, and whenever he catches it he kills it: this bird lives beside rivers or on marsh ground; it has pretty plumage, and finds its food without trouble." (Cf. also Aelianus, De Natura Ansimalium 5.48 and Pliny, Hiwtoria Naturalis X, 57 and X, 95 for similar accounts.) I am not sure why Swift would refer to the dvfos as a blue bird (the dvOosis traditionally designated as the yellow wagtail) but it seems to me possible that he misinterpreted an earlier passage (Historia Animatium 592b25) in which Aristotle says: " Then the anthus, a bird about the size of a finch; and the mountain-finch, which resembles a finch and is of much the same size, but its neck is blue, and it is named for its habitat." Swift may have thought that Aristotle described the &vdosas blue-necked and have coined Gnnayh from Trbia6Xixa Kvaivovv; Gnnayh may simply be formed from KuaVo1v or the g may reflect the x in aXivxa. There may be a much simpler ex)lanation for the origin of the word (Swift may have confused the dv6os and Aristotle's K,capot, Hi8toria Animalium 617a23) but it seems evident (1) that in Gnnayh Swift is referring to a bird, probably the dvGor or another name for the same bird, which is a "bird of prey" only from a horse's point of view; (2) that the occurrence of g in Gnnayh does not make it impossible that, in other combinations than n and g, h can represent g. 23I have used P. S. Dineen, An Irish-English Dictionary (Dublin, 1927) as my authority on Irish vocabulary and pronunciation.
H. D. Kelling
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as a means of disguising the origin of words, much as Rabelais inserted 1 or r. If this principle is accepted, the Houyhnhnm word Nnuhnoh, the name of a Houyhinhnmanimal, can easily be a reversed form of the French connin. If the last h is replaced with a c ancdthe other h dropped the result is conunn. Connin fits perfectly in context; Gulliver says (p. 260), "When my Cloathes were worn to Rags, I made myself others with the Skins of Rabbits, and of a certain beautiful Animal about the same Size, called Nnuhnhoh,the skin of which is covered with fine Down." A more problematical example of reversal is the name Houyhnhnm, which according to Gulliver (p. 219) means " horse " and in its etymology " the Perfection of Nature." The fact that the word is close to "whinny" does not make it impossible that the meaning "horse" is concealed in the word. The Latin mannus can mean a superior horse-equus nobilior according to Spelmannus (Glossarium Archaiologicum, London, 1664) .25 If Houyhnhnm is reversed the result is mnhnhyuoh; omitting the two h's we have mnny, the pronunciation of which would result in a sound like manni, the plural of mannus. The remaining three letters, uoh, can represent voc, the root of vox.2' The word Houyhnhnm may then be derived from manni voc and would mean approximately " speaking horses."
"' Connin is found in Rabelais and Cotgrave and Swift would of course have known English cony. Although connin had disappeared from general use in the 16th century because of the obscene sense it had acquired (0. Bloch, Dictionnaire Otymologique de la langue francaise, Paris, 1932), Swift would have been familiar with the word, in Rabelais, for example. 2"The word is included in Littleton's Dictionary but there it is defined as " A Nag, a Gennet, an ambling Nag." Swift would have known the word in contexts where it has connotations which are more appropriate to the Houyhnhnms. Thomas Holyoke's A Large Dictionary in Three Parts (London, 1677) cites, in addition to Spelmannus, a passage from Erasmus: " Manni (inquit Erasmus) nobilium equi vocabantur, quibus per urbem equitabant." The word is used similarly by Horace, Odes 3, 27, 6, Epistles 1, 7, 77. l Latin u was of course originally written as v. If uoh does represent voc, the precise syntactical relationship between the two parts of the compound is not indicated, but grammatical endings do not seem to have been important in the tradition. See some of Pons' examples from Rabelais in his article, " Les Jargons de Panurge."
770
This derivation seems to be corroborated by the Houyhnhnm word Ylnhniamshy, " Aborigines of the Land" (p. 255). If this is reversed, the result is yhsmainhrnly;giving the first h the value of c we get ycs, which can easily represent Latin ex; main can be a slightly rearranged form of man(n)i(s); and nly can represent nulli(s). The word would then be derived from ex manni(s) nulli(s)-" born of no horses "-an appropriate Houyhnhnm expression for aborigine, corresponding, as Swift might have said, to the English " iinhuman." The reversed forms of enough other words in the Houyhnhnm language contain at least the consonants in correct order of Latin words with an appropriate meaning to make it possible that Swift composed the Houyhnhnm language largely by systematically reversing Latin words. But since my suggestions are neither conclusive nor very interesting I shall mention this only as a possibility. Whether or not most Houyhnhnm words are formed by such a process it is clear that not all of them are. One exception, luhimuhs, has already been mentioned. Lyhannh, the name of a bird from which the Houyhnhnms learn to build-a word which Gulliver translates as swallow (p. 257), " although it be really a much larger Fowl "-seems quite clearly to be an approximate anagram (one h represents a c and an o is missing) for halcyon. Or it may be taken simply as a shortened and metathesized form of the word: Halcyon > lcyon > lycon > Lyhannh. It hardly needs to be said that the halcyon, a larger bird than the swallow, is famous for the construction of nests.27 Once the principle of reversal is understood, it is a fairly simple device. Another simple device, the anagram, which is perhaps responsible for the formation of Lyhannh, is almost certainly used in forming the word Munodi, the name of Gulliver's friend itn the
27 It seems possible that the passage in which Gulliver mentions the Lyhannh and the swallow together may be a conscious or unconscious allusioni to Pliny, Historia Naturalis (a copy of which Swift naturally had in In X, 47 Pliny says of the his library, no. 160 in the sale catalogue). halcyon, which is described as a little larger than a sparrow (Loeb Classics " Their nests are admired for their shape." In X, 49, he translation) says: " The conformation of the kingfisher's nest reminds one of the skill of all the other birds as well; and the ingenuity of birds is in no other department more remarkable. Swallows build with clay and strengthen the nest with straw."
H. D. Kelling
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3rd voyage, from Latin dominu(s). Munodi was of course a lord and had been mayor of Lagado. And a similarly obvious anagram (more obvious because very few rearrangements of letters are necessary), appears in the name Lorbrulgrud, which Gulliver translates as " pride of the universe." Swift is clearly employing some form of French orgeuil (OHG urguol, Spanish orgullo) and Latin orbis (Italian orbe)-world or sphere.28 If one r is omitted the name is easily converted into l'urgul d'orb, " pride of the world "-Or perhaps better " l'orb d'urgul," "the world of pride," ,an appropriate allegorical name for the Brobdingnagian metropolis, the inhabitants of which are, by comparison to Gulliver, characterized by physical pride. In inventing other names Swift may have used the more complicated device which he used in the little language, the substitution The of, for example, I for r (conversations > tonvelsasens).29 name Glumdalclitch, which Gulliver translates as "little nurse," may possibly be formed from French grand and Latin altrix, altricis, " nurse." 30 A sound like glumdresults if I is substituted for the r and m for n in French grand.31 And if we assume that Swift started with some such phonetic spelling for the root altric as altricch,2 substituted 1for r*, then exchanged the t and c (using a device which he also employed in the Journal to Stella), he would get the letters alclitch (altricch > altlicch > alelitch). The Brobdingnagian word would indicate humorously that although Gulliver naively calls Glumdalelitch his little nurse, she was really his enormous nurse.
Cf. Hall's Orgitia, Book III, Chapter IV, Section 1. 24, 1711-12. 80 It is hardly necessary to show that Swift would have been familiar with this word; it is found in Littleton's dictionary and in Seneca and Aulus Gellius, both of whom are represented in Swift's library. The Italian form, " altrice, a nurce, a foster-mother" is found in Florio's World of Words (No. 205 in the sale catalogue). 81 Ehrenpreis, p. 82, shows that I is substituted for r 45 times. N is substituted for m only once in the Journal and the reverse process does not occur; but Swift's method of interchanging consonants which are phonetically close makes it probable that if he used n for m he might also use m for n. 82 Since the Brobdingnagian language does not have an x, Swift may possibly have represented the letter by a double c. And since he sometimes used ch to represent c (Ehrenpreis, p. 82) my conjecture is not entirely impossible; but Swift may of course have started simply with the root artric and arbitrarily added the final ch.
38
}9Feb.
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A similar device may be responsible for the name of Blefuscu. Morley's suggestion, which has been accepted,33 that the name "put" (having the Lilliput is derived from lill(e)-little-and connotations of Latin putidus-stinking or disgusting) corroborates my suggestion. Blef may be the result of substituting an 1 for the r in French bref-little or short. And uscu may well be derived from Latin oscus, meaning filthy, unclean, barbarous.34 There would then be a fairly exact parallel between the meaning of Lilliput and that of Blefuscu, a fitting parallel since Blefuscu is inhabited by exiled Lilliputians. There is a strong probability that the use of oscuS in the name was suggested to Swift by the fact that the Greeks called the Romans Osci or OpiCi.35 Just as the Greeks referred contemptuously to the Romans as " clodhoppers," "bumpkins," the Lilliputians refer to the Blefuscudians as "little clodhoppers " or " little filthy people." But in the case of the Lilliputians there is the irony that their own name carries almost exactly the same meaning: little " puts " or " stinking, disgusting people." A more obvious example that Swift is following the practices employed in the Journal to Stella is provided by the word climenole, the Laputian name for a " flapper," whose duty it is to rouse the Laputians from their profound speculations. In the Journal, Swift obscures the meaning of words by regularly interspersing meaningless letters (hoenlbp ihainm itaoi dsroanws ubpl tohne sroeqporaensiepnotlastoiqdbn= help him to draw up the representation).8 He seems clearly to have done the same thing in forming climenole from the Latin cieo, to rouse, torment, awaken. Laputian is a
Pons accepts this solution in his article on the 88 Morley, ed. cit., p. 18. Lilliputian language, p. 224. A use similar to Swift's occurs in Hall's Putanium, which is glossed, " Italian, city of whores." " In Littleton's dictionary (and in Holyoke's), OSCU8 is said to have sometimes the meaning of opicum, which is defined as " unclean, filthy, nasty, unchaste, barbarous, clownish." 86 Pliny, Historia Naturalis, XXIX, VII says (translation of John Bostock and H. T. Riley, London, H. C. Bohn, 1856): "They are in the habit, too, of calling us barbarians, and stigmatize us beyond all other nations, by giving us the abominable appellation of Opici." In a note on this passage the translators say: " From their uncivilized habits, the name [Opici or Osci] was long used as a reproachful epithet, equivalent to our words 'bumpkin,' 'clodhopper,' or 'chawbacon'." 'I Feb. 21, 1711-12.
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" smooth" language and Swift has interspersed an 1, an m, an n, and an le: Cieo > c(l)i(m)e(n)o(le). To turn now to the names in which, I think, Swift may have used foreign words in a fairly straightforward fashion, one obvious example of such a practice has already been discussed, the Houyhnhnm word luhimuhs. The names Trildrogdrib and the variant Tralldragdubb (" for," says Gulliver, "it is pronounced both ways as near as I can remember"), the seat of the court of Luggnagg, contain phonetic approximations of Irish words: traill, " slave "; "droc," "evil "; and drib, " dirt " or " snare." 7 The people of Luggnagg are obviously slaves; when the nobles approach the king they literally " lick the dust before his footstool." And the dirt can often be a cause of death (p. 189):
When the King bath a Mind to put any of his Nobles to Death in a gentle indulgent Manner; he commands to have the Floor strowed with a certain brown Powder, of a deadly Composition, which being licked up infallibly kills him in twenty-four Hours.
The full name could perhaps be translated " slaves of the evil dirt" or " slaves of the evil snare." The last name of Skyresh Bolgolam, the Lilliputian admiral, seems quite clearly to contain the Italian or Spanish gola-" throat" or " gluttony "38 and the French bol or Italian bolo (or the root of
87 Drib (the i is pronounced like ee in seen) means, according to Dineen, "dirt, filth, mud, refuse"; there is also the word drip (i pronounced like i in din) meaning " snare," which can be spelled drib. Swift may have used the associations of both words in the name Trildrogdrib. While both Trildrogdrib and the variant may have approximately the same meaning, the variant being given merely to confuse the reader, it is possible that Swift is referring to other Irish words in Tralldragdubb. Dragun can mean a "cruel man, a tyrant," and dub (b, however, is pronounced like v) can mean "black," " malevolent." Tralldragdubb may mean " slaves of the malevolent tyrant." Tril in Trildrogdrib may refer to triall, " act of journeying," and the whole name may be intended to mean " the journey over the evil dirt." It does not seem to me that we can determine exactly what Swift intended the names to mean, but it seems quite evident that he coined them from appropriate Irish words, 88 Swift could have found gola in Florio, where it is defined as "the throat, the gorge or gullet of any creature. Also gluttonie." The Spanish word he could have found in the Spanish-French-Italian dictionary he had in his library (no. 220 in the sale catalogue). He would of course have known Latin gula. If Pons is right in his article on Lilliputian, p. 226, Swift used a form of the word in " Hekinah degul."
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Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels"
Latin bolus) -bolus, pill, or mouthfull. Bolgolam's gustatory prowess is not mentioned, to be sure, but his name can imply more general connotations of greed; and such a name is in the Rabelaisian tradition of emphasizing the prosperity of men in high office. The root gol, I would suggest, also occurs in the title of the Lilliputian emperor, in the word Golbasto, along with Italian bastone or Spanish baston.39 In Glumdalelitch's pet name for Gulliver, Grild'rig, which imports "what the Latins call Nanunculus, the Italians Homunceletino, and the English mannikin (p. 79)," Swift seems to me obviously to be using the root of Latin gryllus 40 (or French grillon, German Grille, or Italian gruilo) cricket-and obscuring the origin of the word by the addition of what I take to be an invented diminutive, -drig. The appellation " little cricket " is perfectly appropriate to Gulliver in Brobdingnag; he is considered an animal and particularly an insect the king (p. 91) refers to men as " such diminutive Insects " as Gulliver. By comparison with the voices of the Brobdingnagians (the farmer's voice pierces Gulliver's ears like the sound of a water-mill), his voice would resemble the shrill chirping of a cricket (and Gulliver is always talking). According to the Brobdingnagian scale Gulliver would of course be larger than a cricket; the term little cricket is similar to a term of endearment
39 Italian bastone is defined in Florio as "a cudgell, a batton, a truncheon," and Spanish baston means approximately " staff of command." If either of these two words is taken as the source of basto, the name Golbasto would mean something like " greedy ruler." The Italian basto, defined in Fiorio as "a panell, a pad or packesaddle, a dosser. Also a doublet in rogues language " does not seem appropriate. 40 The spelling grillus also occurs. The word is of course cited in Littletoni's dictionary. It is possible that Swift is also alluding to the meaning " comic figure, caricature in painting," the sense in which the word is used by Pliny, Historia Naturalis XXIV, 37. Gulliver is a comic figure in B-robdingnag, a caricature of a normal human being. This transferred " pig " and it is barely sense of gryllus seems to come from Greek ypv5XXos, possible that there is an allusion in Grildrig to the Gryllus (from ypviXXos) of the dialogue " That Brute Beasts Make Use of Reason," in Plutarch's Morals (see W. A. Eddy, Gulliver's Travels, A Critical Study, pp. 175-176, for the suggestion that this dialogue influenced Gulliver's Travels). " Little pig " is not an appropriate name for Gulliver in Brobdingnag but Gulliver is like Gryllus (who was changed into a pig by Circe) in that he is seen as an animal by the Brobdingnagians.
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such as English " little rabbit," not meaning that the person is the same size as a small rabbit but is little and has some of the characteristics of a rabbit. Although at first the farmer's wife screams at the sight of Gulliver (p. 73) " as Women in England do at the Sight of a Toad or a Spider," his harmlessness soon becomes apparent and he is given the name of the musical insect with attractive connotations. He is, then, described as a splacknuck because of his physical shape and called Grildrig because of his pleasing, if not very forceful, personality. In the name Flandona Gagnole, the "Astronomer's Cave" of Laputa, Swift seems clearly to be using Italian words, appropriately enough, since Gulliver characterises Laputian as not unlike the Italian. But Swift has not used the simple Italian words; he has gilded the lily, making the words seem " smoother " by adding I's and n's. Gagnole is almost certainly derived from gagno (or some related word) and flandona from fondo or a related word; Swift has obscured the origins of the words by adding an le to gagnroand an I and an na to fondo, with a smoother result than Fondo Gagno. I am not certain as to the exact meaning of the name; fondo may be used in the sense of Florio's definition, "a bottome of any thing. Also a depth, a deepe, a dungeon." Gagno may then be used in Florio's sense, " the middle of any bottome." The name would then mean approximately "the middle of the deep or abyss," a fairly accurate description of the astronomer's cave, which is a large dome 100 yards beneath the surface, reached through a chasm about fifty yards in diameter. But Swift may have used gagno in the sense of " a place full of hurtful animals, a snare, a labyrinth 41 and fondo as an adjective meaning " deep." The name would then mean approximately " deep place full of dangerous creatures " (the astronomers, who control the flying island and can therefore harm the inhabitants of the lands below). I could go on with conjectures about the origin and significance of many of the other exotic words in Gulliver's Travels 42 but shall
'1 This definition is taken from G. Baretti, Dizionario Italiano ed Inglese, Bologna, 1830. 42 For what they are worth I offer a few other suggestions: Flestrin, in Gulliver's Lilliputian name, Quinbus Flestrin, which Gulliver interprets as " Great Man-Mountain," may come from French flestrir, a variant of flaistrir, which Cotgrave defines as: "To burn in the hand, or eare, to brand on the forehead, to mark for a rogue, with a hot Iron; also, to
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content myself with the relatively small number I have discussed, since those seem to me most convincing. Some of my solutions may be invalid or oversimplified and my interpretations may not be exactly those which Swift intended, but it seems to me that there is enough evidence to make it possible and even probable that most of the names in Gulliver's Travels are, rather than nonsense words, the result of Swift's use of the processes I have described above or of similar processes. I would, however, caution anyone who takes my suggestions seriously and tries to work out the origin and meaning of other names that Swift's ingenuity is not likely to be bound by any system or systems. As an example of the lengths to which he may have gone in contriving his names I offer a solution which seems to me very probable for the origin of the name Lindalino. In context it is clear that the city represents Dublin; and when we realize that there are two lin's in Lindalino and that da is an Irish word for two, it seems quite clear that Swift *is punningly referring to " double lin " or Dublin. I would suggest also that some of the names may be extremely difficult to solve because they are allusions, conscious or unconscious, in the manner of T. S. Eliot or James Joyce, to literature that was familiar only to some learned members of Swift's audience. The name Ranfu-Lo, the Lilliputian word for breeches or as Gulliver translates it, "middle cover," may possibly be an example of such an allusion, though I offer my solution even more tentatively than the other solutions I have suggested. We would expect that the name Ranfu-Lo would conceal a blunter meaning than "middle cover "; and when we find that the Greek word pxavt5 (root pav), which ordinarily means " seed " or " drop " was used in the sense of semen virile, it seems possible than we have the origin of the first
defame publickly, disgrace openly; blemish the reputation of, lay a foul imputation on." Gulliver is not branded but the rest of the definition is quite applicable to Gulliver in Lilliput; the name characterizes Gulliver unflatteringly, as does Gulliver, with its associations of "gull" and The title with which he is honored in Lilliput, Nardac, may "gullible." carry on this unflattering characterization, being perhaps derived from German Narr, "a fool" and doch, "still" or "then" (he is given a title by the Lilliputian emperor but he is still a fool). Balnibardi may be related to Latin Barbaria, " any barbarous country " (cf. Rabelais' Barbarianii.) Drunlo, the name of an informer in Lilliput, may represent French un dr6le, "a rascal."
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syllable of Ranfu-Lo. fu-Lo can easily represent Greek cpv'XXov, " leaf." The combination of " leaf " (which would in such a context be associated with " fig leaf ") and " male seed " makes it possible that Ranfu-Lo means " leaf over the male seed." Gulliver, whose breeches fail lamentably in their function during the parade of the army between his legs, may self-consciously be translating the Lilliputian word by the euphemistic " middle cover." The spelling of the Lilliputian word is close to that of the Greek words, and the meaning is appropriate and one we would expect from Swift; but there is the difficultythat, according to Liddell and Scott, pSavz is used in the sense of semen virile only once in Greek literature, in a poem by Palladas in the Greek Anthology. Of course Swift could have used the word meaning "seed" in the metaphorical sense without knowing Palladas' poem, but it would seem more probable that we have the origin of Ranfu-Lo if it could be shown that he knew the poem. Now while there is no direct evidence that he knew it, there is every reason to think that he did and would be very taken with it. He had in his library a copy of the Greek Anthology which contained the poem43 and the book is marked with an asterisk in the sale catalogue, indicating that it contained Swift's notes and therefore that he was well acquainted with it. If we look at the poem we can see that it is one which Swift might very well have admired (I quote the Loeb Classics translation by W. R. Paton, Vol. 4, p. 25).
If thou rememberest, 0 man, how thy father sowed thee, thou shalt cease from thy proud thoughts. But dreaming Plato hath engendered pride in thee, calling thee immortal and a "heavenly plant." "Of dust thou art made. Why dost thou think proudly? " So one might speak, clothing the fact in more grandiloquent fiction; but if thou seekest the truth, thou art sprung from incontinent lust and a filthy drop.
The subject is pride, a subject certainly uppermost in Swift's mind while he was writing Gulliver's Travels (and a favorite subject for him and his contemporaries). The theme is a familiar one in Swift, an expression of his "mythe animale." And compare his statement of the Lilliputian belief that " Men and Women are joined together with other Animals, by the Motive of Concupi'8I have not seen a copy of Swift's edition (edited by Henri Estienne, Geneva, 1566) but Mr. George Mayhew of Harvard University has kindly checked the copy in the Harvard Library.
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scence." It seems probableenough, then, that Swift would remember the poem and perhaps allude to it in the name Ranfulo, expecting perhaps that some of his learned contemporaries would recognize the allusion and find more depth and richness in Gulliver's Travels. Or it may simply have been a private joke. It is possible of course that Swift might scorn the pedantry of such an investigation as this and that he might repeat contemptuously his statement in A Tale of a Tub about those critics who force interpretations "which never once entered into the writer's head, nor will . . . into that of any reader of taste and candour." But I suspect that if the onomastics of Gulliver's Travels were thoroughly investigated we should conclude that Swift would laugh with pleasure at having kept his secrets and jokes so well and so long. Further investigation of the names and languages of Gulliver's Travels seems to me, then, to be desirable. Such a close study of Gulliver's Travels, though not of extreme importance, can give us some further indications of the care and ingenuity which Swift exerted in his writing; and it may in a minor way be a contribution to the study of an important and insufficiently emphasized aspect of the book-the subtlety, the erudition, the allusiveness which underlie the deceptively simple style of the book. And the study might also, of course, reveal more of Swift's humor.
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Some Significant Names in Gulliver's Travels Author(s): H. D. Kelling Source: Studies in Philology, Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct.

SOME SIGNIFICANT NAMES IN GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

Some Significant Names in "Gulliver's Travels `

Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels"

d6mie des Inscriptions

Jan.-March, 1931, p. 91) points

Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels "

Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels "

Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels "

Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels "

Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels"

Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels "

Some Significant Names in " Gulliver's Travels "

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