05/04/2016 – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

Isidore etymologises beggars and prostitutes

BL: “The Latin word for ‘beggar’ (mendicus) is now believed to derive from an earlier word meaning ‘deformity’ or ‘lack’. Isidore, however, speculates a much more charming story, of a ‘custom among the ancients’ to ‘close the hungry mouth and extend a hand, as if speaking with the hand’ (manu dicere).” His etymologies for “the…