History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 129

Gelt (a. 1529), money, often, in early use, with reference to the pay of a (German)
army; now only dialectal (Whitby, Mid-Yks.); in the phrase ‘Bare gelt’, ready money,
there is translation of the Du. baar geld, or the G. bares geld, and in ‘Passage gelt’ of
the G. fahrgeld.
Cashier (1580), in the obsolete military sense, to disband troops; (1599), to dismiss
from a position of command; ad. Flem. or Du. casseren, in the same sense; Kilian has
kasseren de kriegslieden, ‘exauctorare milites’, to disband troops, and kasseren een
testament, ‘rescindere testamentum’, to rescind a will; French verbs adopted in Du.
and G. frequently retain the infinitive endings -er and -ir as part of the stem, and when
adopted from Du. into Eng. this takes the form of -ier, -eer; cashier probably dates to
the campaign in the Netherlands in 1578-80.
Furlough (1625), leave of absence, esp. for a soldier; in the 17th century also
vorloffe, fore loofe, ad. Du. verlof, apparently formed in imitation of G. verlaub, from
ver-, for-, and root laub-; the Eng. word having from the beginning been stressed on
the first syllable seems to show the influence of the synonymous Du. oorlof.
Rot (1635, Barriffe, Mil. Discipl.), a file of soldiers; ad. Du. rot or G. rotte, ad. OF. rotte,
route, rout. The Sc. substitution of a for o is found in Rat (1646).
Tattoo (1644), a signal made by drum or bugle in the evening for soldiers to repair to
quarters; a military entertainment; in the 17th century, tap-too, ad. Du. tap-toe, in the
same sense, from tap, the tap (of a cask), and toe, for doe toe, ‘shut’. The tattoo was
thus the signal for closing the taps of the public-houses. Sw. tapto and Sp. tatu are
apparently also from Du.; compare G. zapfenstreich, LG. tappenslag, Da. tappenstreg,
with the first element the same, and the second element meaning stroke, blow, beat;
although Du. taptoe was in military use in our sense in the 17th century, this was
probably not its original use, as tap toe, for doe den tap toe, ‘turn off the tap’, was
apparently in colloquial use for ‘shut up’, cease.
Roster (1727, H. Bland, Mil. Discipl.) in the military sense of a list or plan exhibiting
the order of rotation of turns of duty of officers, men, or bodies of troops; ad. Du.
rooster, table, list, a transferred sense of rooster, gridiron, from roosten, to roast, in
allusion to the parallel lines drawn on the paper.
Overslaugh (1768, Simes, Mil. Dict.), to pass over, omit, skip; in military use, to pass
over an ordinary turn of duty for a duty that takes precedence; ad. Du. overslaan, to
pass over, omit, from over, and slaan, to strike. The sb. Overslaugh (1772) is later;
ad. Du. overslag, from overslaan, or from the Eng. vb.

129