German, the Romance language in its three varieties, French, Italian, and Romance Romance, Latin, and finally Basque and Celtic. A profound and unique formation. A subterranean edifice erected in common by all the miserable. Each accursed race has deposited its layer, each suffering has dropped its stone there, each heart has contributed its pebble. A throng of evil, base, or irritated souls, who have traversed life and have vanished into eternity, linger there almost entirely visible still beneath the form of some monstrous word.
Do you want Spanish? The old Gothic slang abounded in it. Here is boffete , a box on the ear, which is derived from bofeton ; vantane , window (later on vanterne ), which comes from vantana ; gat , cat, which comes from gato ; acite , oil, which comes from aceyte . Do you want Italian? Here is spade , sword, which comes from spada ; carvel , boat, which comes from caravella . Do you want English? Here is bichot , which comes from bishop ; raille , spy, which comes from rascal, rascalion ; pilche , a case, which comes from pilcher , a sheath. Do you want German? Here is the caleur , the waiter, kellner ; the hers , the master, herzog (duke). Do you want Latin? Here is frangir , to break, frangere ; affurer , to steal, fur ; cadene , chain, catena . There is one word which crops up in every language of the continent, with a sort of mysterious power and authority. It is the word magnus ; the Scotchman makes of it his mac , which designates the chief of the clan; Mac-Farlane, Mac-Callumore, the great Farlane, the great Callumore; slang turns it into meck and later le meg , that is to say, God. Would you like Basque? Here is gahisto , the devil, which comes from gaïztoa , evil; sorgabon , good night, which comes from gabon , good evening. Do you want Celtic? Here is blavin , a handkerchief, which comes from blavet , gushing water; ménesse , a woman (in a bad sense), which comes from meinec , full of stones; barant , brook, from baranton , fountain; goffeur , locksmith, from goff , blacksmith; guedouze , death, which comes from guenn-du , black-white. Finally, would you like history? Slang calls crowns les maltèses , a souvenir of the coin in circulation on the galleys of Malta.