Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: Q

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

Q is for quarry, which is either a place where something is dug out or the target on a hunt. Considering these two activities would have been among the earliest for mankind, the words describing them are remarkably late. The quarrying of stone would have happened later, but certainly earlier than the first record of the word in the late 14th century. It came from Latin quareia 'place where stones are squared', and is itself from Proto-Indo-European kwetwer 'four' - thus describing the place where stone was cut prior to dressing.

The earlier sense is the hunt, and an Anglo-French word quirreie which referred very specifically to 'the entrails of a deer placed on the hide and offered to the dogs as a reward for their role in the hunt'. Old French coree 'entrails'; Latin corium 'hide'; and Proto-Indo-European kerd 'heart' are all root words.

Dogs

As last time, when researching I do sometimes come across a piece which is possibly not intended to be amusing, but I found it so and for that reason I shall share it. This comes from the Birmingham Daily Post dated 7th November 1894.

The Essex coroner held an inquest on Monday night on the body of Mr James Cornwell, of Castle Hedingham, who was found with a gunshot wound in his head, lying in a ditch in the neighbourhood, on Saturday. Mr Cornwell left his home on Friday night to go to a neighbouring village. He had with him his gun, and was accompanied by a collie dog. As he did not return in the evening a search was made for him, and on the following day his lifeless body was found in a ditch near Long Crofts. The left barrel of the gun had been discharged, and there was a bramble between the triggers. The face was shattered by a gunshot. The collie was found watching by the side of its master, and refused to allow the body to be touched until Mrs Cornwell arrived. The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death",

I have to say the actions of the dog after the body was found did make me wonder whether it had planted the evidence of the bramble, and refused to let anyone approach until it was sure the man was dead. But then if dogs were really that smart, owners would simply tell them to 'shit in this bag'.

Some may realise this is the same date as that of the killer cat story last time. It did make me wonder of if the editor of the Birmingham Daily Post had collected such tales (not tails) for a slow news week.