I have always been interested in words and where they came from and how we started using them. I rather amazed myself today when I was reading along and came upon the history of a word that I had never thought of before.
The book is A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England by Sue Wilkes. She is writing about travel in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
"Foreign visitors have some troublesome formalities to undergo at the customs house when they disembark because of England's war with France. You must show your passport to the customs officer, or give a written statement of your name, rank, former residence, and servants' names. The officer will issue you with a certificate of arrival. You must not leave the port without first getting a passport from the local magistrate or mayor." (pages 26, 27)
And there it was, the origin of the name of that little booklet we need to pass the port of a foreign country and enter the country itself.
Not sure why I never thought if it before. You may be thinking, "Come on, Susan. You know that." Well, no, my friends, I had never put it together before or thought about where the name might have originated. Now I know ~ and I'm just a little excited about it. Hope you can find pleasure in little things as well.
