Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/224

 218 Emerson This word Gowland of Jane Austen's novel has no immediate connection at least with gowlan(d), gowlon, gollan(d), Scotch gowan, one of several ranunculus plants as the crowfoot, marsh marigold, globe flower, or of others with yellow blossoms as the corn marigold, yellow daisy, and even the dandelion. See the somewhat different definitions in the dictionaries. I men- tion the latter because its etymology seems not to have been made out very clearly. In discussing it the New Eng. Diet. says, " Probably in some way related to gold sb. 2," that is to gold meaning 'marigold.' I suggest that the English word may be from the Scandinavian assimilated form gullin(gollin) , corresponding to English golden. The latter, in a plural goldins, is also used in the North of England, while the former is mainly Northern English. For the forms with o compare ME. gul(l), gol- 'yellow' in gulsoght(golsoght) 'jaundice,' gulness(golness) 'paleness,' and gull 'corn marigold' of the Cumberland dialect. See Bjorkman, Scandinavian Loan-words in Middle English, pp. 176, 212. The form gowlan(d) and Scotch gowan presum- ably represent an early lengthening of the stressed vowel. A second word of Jane Austen, this time in N or t hanger Abbey Vol. II, ch. v, is also not recorded or explained. It is found in the following passage : The fireplace, where she [the romantic heroine] had expected the ample width and ponderous carving of former tunes, was contracted to a Rumford, with slabs of plain, though handsome marble and ornaments over it of the prettiest china. The NED. has the verb Rumfordize, based on the name of our colonial physicist, who almost rivaled Franklin in European reputation. The noun used by Jane Austen shows that the thing itself, the improved fireplace, as well as the process of improvement, took the name of the American-Bavarian count, and also perpetuates the earlier designation of Concord, N.H., from which he took his title. The NED. gives little idea of the actual improvement made by Count Rumford in English fireplaces of earlier times. Jane Austen's use of the noun indi- cates one part of the change, a reduction of the size of the open- ing into the room warmed. The sides were also slanted from