Chapter Genevieve to George of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Genevieve to George

Genevieve (St.). The sainted patroness of the city of Paris. (422-512.)

Genii King King Solomon is supposed to preside over the whole race of genii. (D'Herbelot: Notes to the Koran, c. 2.)

Genitive Case means the genus case, the case which shows the genus; thus, a bird of the air, of the sea, of the marshes, etc. The part in italics shows to what genus the bird belongs. Our 's is the adjective sign, the same as the Sanskrit syâ, as udaka (water), udakasya (of water, or aquatic). So in Greek, demos (people), demo-sios (belonging to the people), or genitive demosio, softened into demo-'io. In Chaucer, etc., the genitive is written in full, as The Clerkes Tale, The Cokes Tale, The Knightes Tale, The Milleres Tale, etc.

Genius Genii (Roman mythology) were attendant spirits. Everyone had two of these tutelaries from his cradle to his grave. But the Roman genii differ in many respects from the Eastern. The Persian and Indian genii had a corporeal form, which they could change at pleasure. They were not guardian or attendant spirits, but fallen angels, dwelling in Ginnistan, under the dominion of Eblis. They were naturally hostile to man, though compelled sometimes to serve them as slaves. The Roman genii were tutelary spirits, very similar to the guardian angels spoken of in Scripture (St. Matt. xviii. 10). (The word is the old Latin geno, to be born, from the notion that birth and life were due to these dii genitales.)
   Genius (birth-wit) is innate talent; hence propensity, nature, inner man. "Cras genium mero curabis" (to-morrow you shall indulge your inner man with wine), Horace, 3 Odes, xvii. 14. "Indulgere genio" (to give loose to one's propensity), Persius, v. 151. "Defraudare genium suum" (to stint one's appetite, to deny one's self), Terence: Phormio, i. 1. (See above.)
   Genius. Tom Moore says that Common Sense went out one moonlight night with Genius on his rambles; Common Sense went on many wise things saying, but Genius went gazing at the stars, and fell into a river. This is told of Thales by Plato, and Chaucer has introduced it into his Milleres Tale.

"So ferde another clerk with astronomye:
He walkëd in the feeldës for to prye
Upon the sterrës, what ther shuld befall,
Till he was in a marlë pit i-fall."
Canterbury Tales, 3,457.

   My evil genius (my ill-luck). The Romans maintained that two genii attended every man from birth to death - one good and the other evil. Good luck was brought about by the agency of "his good genius," and ill luck by that of his "evil genius."

Genius Loci (Latin). The tutelary deity of a place.

"In the midst of this wreck of ancient books and utensils, with a gravity equal to [that of] Marius among the ruins of Carthage, sat a large black cat, which, to a superstitious eye, might have presented the genius loci, the tutelar demon of the apartment." - Sir W. Scott: The Antiquary, chap. iii.

Genoa from the Latin, genu (the knee); so called from the bend made there by the Adriatic. The whole of Italy is called a man's leg, and this is his knee.

Genovefa (g soft). Wife of Count Palatine Siegfried, of Brabant, in the time of Charles Martel. Being suspected of infidelity, she was driven into the forest of Ardennes, where she gave birth to a son, who was nourished by a white doe. In time, Siegfried discovered his error, and restored his wife and child to their proper home.

Genre Painter (genre 1 syl.). A painter of domestic, rural, or village scenes, such as A Village Wedding, The Young Recruit, Blind Man's Buff, The Village Politician, etc. It is a French term, and means, "Man: his customs, habits, and ways of life." Wilkie, Ostade, Gerard Dow, etc., belonged to this class. In the drama, Victor Hugo introduced the genre system in lieu of the stilted, unnatural style of Louis XIV.'s era.

"We call those `genre' canvases, whereon are painted idyls of the fireside, the roadside, and the farm; pictures of real life." - E. C. Stedman: Poets of America, chap. iv. p. 98.

Gens Braccata Trousered people. The Romans wore no trousers like the Gauls, Scythians, and Persians. The Gauls wore "braccæ" and were called Gens braccata.