"I am pleased as Punch to call you what you are, sir, a poltroon!"
Latin pullus, a hen or small animal, became Spanish pollo. Several interesting English words also appear. A Poltroon, for example, is a "thorough coward." Punch, from the English Punch & Judy puppet show, is no coward. Not he. Would that he were. His story is particularly interesting, starting with the Italian word pulcina.
Italian pulcina yielded Neapolitan Pulcinella, a slow-witted, large-nosed, hen-like male servant who was a stock character in the Commedia dell'arte. He later became popular in Italian and French puppet shows. The English took him in and changed his name to Punchinello, then shortened that to Punch in naming the quarrelsome husband in the Punch and Judy puppet shows. Punch was not a nice man. He beat his wife, the dirty dog (he being the dirty dog, not his wife; she would have been the dirty bitch). His unholy glee while doing such things gave us the expression, 'Pleased as Punch.'
"The stereotypical view of Punch casts him as a deformed, child-murdering, wife-beating psychopath who commits appalling acts of violence and cruelty upon all those around him and escapes scot-free, - and is thus greatly enjoyed by small children." (Unknown)
Copyright © 2007 - Jerry Schnell - All rights reserved
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