THE SHORT TALK BULLETIN |
... Curious Masonic Words ...
Freemasonry has many curiosities, and indeed, many mysteries as yet unsolved.
Among the former are several often misunderstood words with odd or involved
meanings.
ABIMAN REZON is the title still used by South Carolina and Pennsylvania for
their Books of Law. It was used in years gone by also by Georgia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland and Nova Scotia.
It was the title given by Dermott to the Book of Constitutions of the Grand
Lodge (Ancients) of England. Presumably the words had an Hebraic origin,
but no one has as yet settled on a translation so authoritative that all are
satisfied. "Will of Selected Brethren", "Secrets of a Prepared Brother", "Royal
Builder", "Brother Secretary", "Intimate Brother Secretary", "A Prepared
Brother", are all suggested meanings by various scholars who adduce various
Hebrew words and their compounds as possibilities for the meaning Dermott had in
mind when he first used the syllables as a title.
Scholars also dispute the pronunciation. Ah-HIGH-man REE-zon is common, but the
better scholarship seems to indicate that properly the second word should be
pronounced with the accent of the second syllable--Re-ZON
LEWIS is an iron tool inserted in a cavity in a large stone, which expanded as
it is pulled upwards, holds the weight of the stone firmly as it is swung
through the air by a derrick so its position in the wall of a building. Both the
term and the invention are very old.
Pennsylvania used it as a symbol of strength, but as such it is absent from the
symbolism of other Grand Jurisdictions. Masonically, the word is universally
used to denote the under-age son of a Freemason. Obviously the term has so
applied because the strength of a man's later years is in his sons, and the
lewis, in England as in Pennsylvania, is a symbol of strength.
In England a dispensation may be obtained, permitting the initiation of a lewis
under twenty-one years of age. In Scotland any lewis may be initiated at
eighteen. In North Dakota, a lewis may apply to a lodge before his is
twenty-one, but cannot be initiated until he has reached man's estate.
The Classic instance of a lewis being initiated in this country is George
Washington, who was only twenty years and some months of age when he became an
Entered Apprentice in "The Lodge at Fredericksburgh" (Virginia), November
4,1752
In France the term is not lewis but louveteau, but has the same meaning.
The ABIF of Hiram Abif does not appear in the Bible. The word Abi or Abiw or
Abiv is translated in the King James version both as "his father" and "my
father" - using the word "father" as a term of respect and not as denoting a
parent. Hiram, the widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, was "my father" in the
same sense that Abraham was "my father" to members of the tribes of Israel.
The thought that the two syllables are a surname is obviously in error. The
legend gains, not loses, in appeal when Abif becomes a title of honor. Just when
and how it came into the Masonic terminology is still a moot point; it does not
appear in the Regis document (oldest of our Constitutions, dated
approximately 1390) but does appear - only as one name among many - in the
Dowland manuscript of 1550. Apparently the term was not in common use until
after the King James Bible (1611) had become familiar in Masonic circles.
The story of Hiram Abif as told in the Masonic tale is not found in the Bible,
nor is there any meaning in the word which can be construed as port of the story
as Masons tell it, except that of veneration.
DUE GUARD is two words, forming one, which scholars fight over and Masons accept
as a matter of course.
Every Mason knows what it is. None apparently, really knows where it came from.
Mackey says that it is a contraction of "duly guard". According to the great
authority it is an Americanism and not used abroad now to mean what we mean,
even though two hundred years ago it was the name given to a sign.
Some who dare to raise their small voices against the thunder of the great
Mackey are convinced that the words are a ontraction or alteration of "Dieu-garde"
-- "God guard" -- of the french. Haywood gives both Mackey and the immediately
foregoing as a choice; Dr. Pease is wholly on the side of Mackey. Authorities
with less fame still cling to a derivation from the French words, probably
because of their poetic content more than any etymological foundations.
Universally in this country a ritualistic difference is perceived between the
due guards and the signs, but as a matter of actual practice a due guard is a
sign and cannot be taken from the category of signs by a mere definition; even
the ritualistic definition of a sign does not preclude the due guard from the
classification.
COMPASSES-COMPASS. From the standpoint of the dictionary, these are two words
with totally different meanings. A COMPASS is a suspended magnet so balanced
that it may turn upon its pivot and orient itself with the North magnetic pole
and thur (with the aid of tables and mathematics), point out the true North.
COMPASSES is the word used to describe that instrument which draws circles
and/or measures small distances; sometimes
COMPASSES are called dividers. Like trousers and scissors,
COMPASSES is always plural when meaning the instrument-except in six Grand
Lodges of the United States which use the word COMPASS in the same way as their
neighbors use COMPASSES.
COMPASS is form the Latin Com (with) and passus (a step) --an
instrument which is used "with a step"-- in other words, dividers. Masonically,
it appears to be more a measuring than a circle drawing instrument, although
reference to its Masonic use includes "circumscribe desires." But its position,
open sixty degrees upon a quadrant, as in the symbol of a Past Master, would
seem to indicate that it is more as dividers than as an instrument to draw arcs
of circles, that it is important Masonically.
With the square it forms two of the three Great Lights of Masonry, and has
become so universally recognized as a symbol of Freemasonry that courts have
forbidden its unauthorized use or its being copyrighted or trademarked for
commercial purposes.
Few wholly Masonic words have been so much talked about and so little understood
by the average Mason as "COWAN". Every one understands that it is a term of
contempt; that it denotes some one wholly without the Masonic circle; but just
what its real meaning may be, where the word came from, how it came into our
system, is disputed to this day by Masonic scholars.
It is generally - not wholly - agreed that it has a Scotch ancestry. certain old
Scottish books lend color to the theory. according to these tomes a COWAN is a
man who builds walls without mortar-as any farm hand in America may do, piling
into a wall the stones from nearby streams or turned up in ploughing. From this
the term cane to be used as meaning an uninstructed Mason, a self-taught
builder, one not of the trade.
Apparently its earliest appearance is in the Schaw Manuscript, dated 1598. It
appears in the second, or 1738 edition of Anderson's constitutions. Scott puts
the words into the mouth of one of his characters.
Whence came the word? A Greek work KUON means dog, and in early church days
infidels were called dogs, probably because of such passages as Matthew
7:6-"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs." old Swedish KUJON means a silly
fellow. The French word COYOU means a coward, a base person.
Mackey had a different theory; that COWAN was either a derivation of, or the
ancestry of the English word "common". Old English spelled the word both coen
and comon. If this is correct, COWAN, meaning common, is still a term meaning
the lesser, vide "common people," also the English "House of Commons" as
distinguished from the House of Lords.
However derived the word is now wholly the property of the Fraternity, not
otherwise used, and means to moderns an uninstructed and ignorant person, one
not of the Fraternity, just as eavesdropper means to us one who attempts to gain
the secrets of Masonry unlawfully.
Moderns do not go as far as bloodshed over the word "HELE" (pronounced HAIL),
but in spite of the determinations of philologists and Masonic authorities who
may well be considered final, now and then some more or less learned Freemason
wishes to change either the meaning of the word or its pronunciation, or its
spelling, or any two, or all three!
HELE is almost invariable associated with the word "conceal" (as it should be)
and "HELE and conceal" may be translated by transposition-"conceal and HELE". "HELE"
is old Angle-Saxon belan, meaning to conceal. "Conceal" is Norman, and means to
hide. Dr. Pease has well brought out that in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries language in England was part Norman-French and part Angle-Saxon and
that early ritual writers, desiring to make sure that no misunderstanding was
possible, often expressed ideas in word pairs, one word from each language.
Hence such phrases as "HELE and conceal", "parts and points", "Free will and
accord", etc.
To the objections of those who contend that "HELE" should be pronounced "heel"
because it rhymes with "conceal and reveal" the answer is that in the early days
of the language, our "conceal" was pronounced "consayle" and our "reveal" was
pronounced "revayle".
The word "HELE" (meaning to hide) has no connection with the word "heal",
meaning to make whole again, or Masonically, make legitimate, nor with the word
"heel", meaning part of the foot, or with the word "hale", meaning in good
health, or the word "hail", meaning to call to, or greet.
Few words are more wrongly used, at least in Masonic circles, that "oath".
A candidate takes upon himself a solemn obligation to do certain things and to
refrain from certain actions. the word "OBLIGATION" is from the Latin-of (to)
and ligare (to bind). It is a tie, a bond, an agreement, a profession of
intention, a responsibility, a duty agreed upon, a constraint of action, a
pledge, an acknowledgement of promises made.
In no such definitions can be found any similarity to the meaning of the word
"oath", which is the concluding phrase by which the assumer of the OBLIGATION
calls upon that which he holds sacred to witness his vow.
In a court of law the witness swears to tell the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. That is an assumed OBLIGATION. He ends "So help me, God"
which is the oath, attesting to the sincerity of his OBLIGATION. In taking both
OBLIGATION and attesting it by the oath, the witness is required to raise his
right hand, a curious throwback to ancient days in which a man offered his right
hand to be cut off if his oath was broke,. Still more an oddity is the small
boy's attestation "by golly" made without knowing that he is offering the
ancient "gol"(hand) if he tells not the truth!
The Masonic OBLIGATIONS are high-minded duties voluntarily assumed by candidates
as their part in becoming brethren of the Ancient Craft. the oath which they
take is their attestation of the validity of the covenants the thus make. To
speak of the whole as a Masonic "oath" is to name the whole for a minor part.
Words change in meaning as the centuries pass. The classic examples are the
word "hell" and "hellfire" which in the King James Version (Mark) mean a place
where refuse and garbage are burned and in more modern eschatology becomes a
place of punishment, somewhat worse than the sheol of the old testament.
Among words much used in Masonry two-PROFANE and LIBERTINE - have changed in
meaning with the passage of the years. Anciently "PROFANE" came from "pro" (without)
and "fanum" (temple) and signified one uninitiated, not within the circle
of the Craft. "LIBERTINE" was once a free thinker, one who did not subscribe to
the doctrine of the church ". "PROFANE" in common parlance is now one given to
taking the name of God in vain and the "LIBERTINE" is a licentious person.
Masonically a profane is merely one not initiated, and an "irreligious
libertine" is an agnostic or an atheist, and not a man of promiscuous habits.
Anciently the word "TOKEN" (from the Anglo-Saxon tacn, a gesture, a sign and
art) was properly used as we use it Masonically. But through the years it has
changed, in common parlance; now may be an offering of flowers to a lady or a
box of cigars to a man. In Biblical days the word was used to signify a memorial
or other reminder of a covenant or promise as the rainbow was "a TOKEN of a
covenant".
In Freemasonry the TOKEN is never a thing, always an act.