The Queer Principles of Kit Webb

by Cat Sebastian

“If I may make a suggestion, perhaps my lord would be cheered by dressing in something other than dirty riding clothes? Those breeches would be enough to put anyone in a melancholic frame of mind.” Percy glanced down at himself and saw that he was, indeed, still wearing his riding clothes from that morning. “Good thinking, Collins,” he agreed, and let himself be dressed in one of his more stylish ensembles—plum with lilac embroidery, purchased in Paris at significant expense. Admiring himself in the cheval glass, he had an alarming thought. “I suppose I’ll have to sell some of my clothes.” “Some of it, my lord. But whatever fate awaits you, you’ll need to meet it wearing something other than rags and sackcloth.” This advice was both sound and soothing. When Collins left, Percy considered what to do with himself for the rest of the day. It had been some time since he visited Kit’s wearing anything respectable. He could stop by now and give Kit a small thrill by allowing the man to surreptitiously ogle his ankles. But Kit had behaved abominably yesterday, and Percy was not in a frame of mind to reward the man. If Percy allowed himself to see through the cloud of anger and humiliation that blanketed the memory, he could perhaps understand that Kit had been startled. Startled might even be too mild a word for whatever one felt when confronted with someone returning from the dead. It was, arguably, ungenerous of Percy to put too much stock into what Kit had said at that moment....

sangfroid /säNGˈfrwä/ I. noun composure or coolness, sometimes excessive, as shown in danger or under trying circumstances. – origin mid 18th cent.: from French sang-froid, literally ‘cold blood.’ The pervasiveness of words of French origin that have been borrowed into English is comparable to that of borrowings from Latin. Estimates vary, but the general belief is that 35%, 40%, or possibly as many as 45% of the English dictionary have words of French origin.[1] This suggests that up to 80,000 words should appear in this list. The list, however, only includes words directly borrowed from French, so it includes both joy and joyous but does not include derivatives with English suffixes such as joyful, joyfulness, partisanship, and parenthood. The percentage of modern English words derived from each language group: Anglo-Norman French, then French: ~29% Latin, including words used only in scientific, medical or legal contexts: ~29% Germanic: ~26% Others: ~16% At least a third of English vocabulary is of French origin, or even two-thirds according to some specialists.[2] It was William the Conqueror who originally brought his Old French vocabulary to England, which was then inserted into a British English already shaped by the Germanic language.[2] Of the 15,000 words in William Shakespeare's works, 40% are of French origin.[3] Furthermore, the list excludes compound words in which only one of the elements is from French, e.g. ice cream, sunray, jellyfish, killjoy, lifeguard, and passageway, and English-made combinations of words of French origin, e.g. grapefruit (grape + fruit), layperson (lay + person), magpie, marketplace, petticoat, and straitjacket. Also excluded are words that come from French but were introduced into English via another language, e.g. commodore, domineer, filibuster, ketone, loggia, lotto, mariachi, monsignor, oboe, paella, panzer, picayune, ranch, vendue, and veneer. English words of French origin should be distinguished from French words and expressions in English. Although French is mostly derived from Latin, important other word sources are Gaulish and some Germanic languages, especially Old Frankish. Latin accounts for about 60% of English vocabulary either directly or via a Romance language. As both English and French have borrowed many words from Latin, determining whether a given Latin word entered English via French or not is often difficult. Historical context edit Most of the French vocabulary now appearing in English was borrowed in the centuries following the Norman Conquest of 1066, when England came under the rule of Norman-speaking peoples. After William the Conqueror had invaded England, subsequent rulers invaded other parts of the British Isles, distributing lands and property to Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French soldiers. As a result, Old French became the language of high culture and government, while Anglo-Norman French was widely used by the nobility. The use of French and Norman in the kingdom was "extremely important" from William the Conqueror's coronation in 1066 until 1260.[1] Old English, which the vast majority of English people continued to speak, started to change due to the increasing number of borrowings from French and Latin, the languages of the ruling elite. Over time this led to pairs of words, many of which belong in different language registers: commence/start, commerce/trade, continue/carry on, depart/leave, disengage/withdraw, encounter/meet, exchange/swap, fatigue/tire, fume/smoke, maintain/uphold, marry/wed, menace/threat, plume/feather, purchase/buy, revenue/income, vend/sell. Walter Scott popularized the idea of the Anglo-Norman nobility eating the meats of the animals that Anglo-Saxon peasants had raised: beef/cow, mutton/sheep, veal/calf and pork/pig. In each case the word of French origin was only used in the kitchen. In fact this occurred centuries after the Norman conquest and might owe more to the enduring prestige of French cuisine than to a hypothetical specialization of tasks.[4] Words of French origin often refer to more abstract or generalized concepts than their Old English equivalents (e.g. liberty/freedom, justice/fairness, source/spring, vision/sight, sentiment/feeling); they are therefore less frequently used in everyday language. However, this is not true for all English words of French origin. Consider, for example, some of the most common words in English: able, car, chair, city, country, different, fact, fine, fruit, group, journey, juice, just, large, move, part, people, person, place, point, problem, public, push, real, remain, stay, table, travel, use, very, and wait. After Henry Plantagenet ascended the throne of England, other French dialects gained influence at the expense of Anglo-Norman, notably the Angevin dialect from whence the House of Plantagenet came, and possibly Poitevin, the tongue of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The motto of the British monarchy was proclaimed in French as "Dieu et mon droit".[1] The aristocracy ruled England using French, which was considered "the language of an elite", until 1260.[1] After 1260, English merchants and jurists began to speak French.[1] Between 1260 and 1400, everyday and popular language adopted words borrowed from French.[1] With the English claim to the throne of France, the influence of courtly French of Paris increased. French cultural influence remained strong in the following centuries. From the Renaissance onwards, most borrowings were from Parisian French, which had become the de facto standard language of France. Le Devoir's Jean-François Nadeau wrote, "Many English words were borrowed from Old French, but also from Norman".[1] Nadeau noted, "More than a third of English vocabulary is indeed of French origin."[1] Modern-day older Norman-speaking people in Normandy recognise English words as Norman.[1] Linguist Bernard Cerquiglini said, "All of the sustained vocabulary of English or almost, belongs to the French language", adding, "International English comes from French."[1] Reflecting on the globalised dimension of English, he said that "English was able to dethrone French by first plundering French".[1]