THE ETYMOLOGY

Note: Entry originally published Thursday, January 3, 2008

It is a popular misconception that Moby-Dick begins with the words “Call me Ishmael.” While these words announce the beginning of the narrative of the novel, but the actual book begins with a look at the word Whale (the “Etymology”) and a survey of references to whales in literature (the “Extracts”).

Melville tells us the Etymology was supplied to him by “a Late Consumptive Usher to a Grammar School.” Did the usher Melville credits for drawing together a selection of words from several different languages from cultures that place some significance on the whale; gastronomic, economic or spiritual.

What is provided, though, is not a true etymological study. The references from Webster's and Richardson's dictionaries seem calculated to confuse the reader, offering two diverse possibilities regarding the origin of the English word whale. The remainder of the entry lists linguistic signifiers of whales beginning with the Greek and Latin. This could be a subtle jibe on Melville's part: knowledge without understanding amounts to the recitation of learned facts, without theme or context.

There's a clue in the opening paragraph, a description of the grammar school usher. Melville paints him as being "threadbare in coat, heart, body and brain", endlessly engaging in the dusting of his lexicographical collection with a queer handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world." It's not learning in and of itself that Melville sees fit to criticise, but rather those for whom learning becomes a subsitiute for experiencing the world. A fair assessment, perhaps, but ironic given the author owed the entirety of his early success to two travel narratives, the readers of which, on the main, were unlikely to travel outside of their home state in their lifetimes.