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AN
AMERICAN DICTIONARY
01 THE
ENOUSH LANG
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AN
AMERICAN DICTIONARY '
OF THE * ^ *
ENGLISH LANGUAGES
INTENDED TO EXHIBIT,
I. The origin, affinities and primary signification of English words, as far as they have been ascertained. 11. The genuine orthography and pronunciation of words, according to general usage, or to just principles of ANAL80V. III. Accurate and discriminating definitions, with numerous authorities and illustrations.
TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED,
AN INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
ON THE
ORIGIN, HISTORY AND CONNECTION OF THE
LANGUAGES OF WESTERN ASIA AND OF EUROPE,
AND A CONCISE ^JtAMMAR
ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
BY NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D.
IN TWO VOIiUMES. VOL. 1.
He that wishes to be counted among the benefactors of posterity, must add, by his own toil, to the acquisitioDs of his ancestors Rambler.
NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY S. CONVERSE.
printed by HEZEKIAH HOWE — NEW HAVEN.
1838.
DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT, ss. I" ^ Beit remembered, That on the fourteenth day of April, in the fifty-second year of tlie Independence of the United States of America, Mu» (S» Noah Webster, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the words
following, to wit : ** An American Dictionary of the English Language ; intended to exhibit, I. The origin, affinities, and primary signification of English words, as far as they have been ascertained. II. The genuine orthography and pronunciation of words, according to general usage, or to just principles of analogy. III. Accurate and discriminating definitions, with numerous authorities and illustrations. To which are prefixed, an inti'oductory dissertation on the ori- gin, history and connection of the languages of Western Asia and of Europe, and a concise grammar of the English language. By Noah Webster, LL. D. In two volumes."
In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." — And also to the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled ' An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."
CHAS. A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut. A true copy of Record, examined and sealed by me,
CHAS. A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut. April 14th, 1828.
^60^
PREFACE.
In the year 1783, just at the close of the revolution, I published an elementary book for facilitating the acquisition of our vernacular tongue, and for correcting a vicious pronunciation, which prevailed extensively among the common people of this country. Soon after the publication of that work, I believe in the following year, that learned and respectable scholar, the Rev. Dr. Goodrich of Durham, one of the trustees of Yale College, suggested to me, the propriety and expediency of my compiling a dictionary, which should complete a system for the instruction of the citizens of this country in the language. At that time, I could not indulge the thought, much less the hope, of undertaking such a work ; as I was neither qualified by research, nor had I the means of support, during the execution of the work, had I been disposed to undertake it. For many years therefore, though I considered such a work as very desirable, yet it appeared to me impracticable ; as I was under the necessity of devoting my time to other occupations for obtaining subsistence.
About twenty seven years ago, I began to think of attempting the compilation of a Dictionary. I was induced to this undertaking, not more by the suggestion of friends, than by my own experience of the want of such a work, while reading modern books of science. In this pursuit, I found almost insuperable difficulties, from the want of a dictionary, for explaining many new words, which recent discoveries in the physical sciences had introduced into use. To remedy this defect in part, I published my Compendious Dictionary in 1806; and soon after made preparations for undertaking a larger work.
My original design did not extend to an investigation of the origin and progress of our language ; much less of other languages. I limited my views to the correcting of certain errors in the best English Dictionaries, and to the supplying of words in which they are deficient. But after writing through two letters of the alphabet, I determined to change my plan. I found myself embarrassed, at every step, for want of a knowledge of the origin of words, which Johnson, Bailey, .Tnnius, Skinner and some other authors do not afford the means of obtaining. Then laying aside my manuscripts, and all books treating of language, except lexicons and dictionaries, I endeavored, by a diligent comparison of words, having the same or cognate radical letters, in about twenty languages, to obtain a more correct knowledge of the primary sense of original words, of the affinities between the English and many other languages, and thus to enable myself to trace words to their source.
I had not pursued this course more than three or four years, before I discovered that I had to unlearn a great deal that I had spent years in learning, and that it was necessary for me to go back to the first rudiments of a branch of erudition, which I had before cultivated, as I had supposed, with success.
I spent ten years in this comparison of radical words, and in forming a synopsis of the principal words in twenty languages, arranged in classes, under their primary elements or letters. The result has been to open what are to me new views of language, and to unfold what appear to be the genuine principles on which these languages are constructed.
After completing this synopsis, I proceeded to correct what 1 had written of the Dictionary, and to complete the remaining part of the work. But before I had finished it, I determined on a voyage to Europe, with the view of obtaining some books and some assistance which I wanted ; of learning the real state of the pronunciation of our language in England, as well as the general state of philology in that country ; and of attempting to bring about some agreement or coincidence of opinions, in regard to unsettled points in pronunciation and grammatical construction. In some of these objects I failed ; in others, my designs were answered.
It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English Language ; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is the expression of ideas ; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language. Now an
PREFACE.
identity of ideas depends materially updn a sameness of things or objects witii which the people of the two count) ies are conversant. But in no two portions of the earth, remote from each other, can such identity be found. Even physical objects must be different. But the principal differences between the people of this country and of all others, arise from different forms of government, different laws, institutions and customs. Thus the practice of hawking and hunting, the institution of heraldry, and the feudal system of England originated terms which formed, and some of which now form, a necessary part of the language of that country ; but, in the United States, many of these terms are no part of our present language, — and they cannot be, for the things which they express do not exist in this country. They can be known to us only as obsolete or as foreign words. On the other hand, the institutions in this country which are new and peculiar, give rise to new terms or to new applications of old terms, unknown to the people of England ; which cannot be explained by them and which will not be inserted in their dictionaries, unless copied from ours. Thus the terms, laiid-office; land-warrant; locution of land; consociation of churches ; regent of a university; intendant of a city ; plantation, selectmen, senate, congress, court, assembly, escheat, &c. are either words not belonging to the language of England, or they are applied to things in this country which do not exist in that. No person in this country will be satisfied with the English definitions of the words congress, senate and assembly, court, &c. for although these are words used in England, yet they are applied in this country to express ideas which they do not express in that country. With our present constitutions of government, escheat can never have its feudal sense in the United States.
But this is not all. In many cases, the nature of our governments, and of our civil institutions, requires an appropriate language in the definition of words, even when the words express the same thing, as in England. Thus the English Dictionaries inform us that a Justice is one deputed by the King to do right by way of judgment — he is a Lord by his office — Justices of the peace are appointed by the King's commission — language which is inaccurate in respect to this officer in the United States. So constitutionally is defined by Todd or Chalmers, legally, but in this country the distinction between constitution and law requires a different definition. In the United States, a plantation is a very different thing from what it is in England. The word marshal, in this country, has one important application unknown in England or in Europe.
A great number of words in our language require to be defined in a phraseology accommodated to the condition and institutions of the people in these states, and the people of England must look to an American Dictionary for a correct understanding of such terms.
The necessity therefore of a Dictionary suited to the people of the United States is obvious ; and I should suppose that this fact being admitted, there could be no difference of opinion as to the time, when such a work ought to be substituted for English Dictionaries.
There are many other considerations of a public nature, which serve to justify this attempt to furnish an Americani Work which shall be a guide to the youth of the United States. Most of these are too obvious to require illustration.
One consideration however which is dictated by my own feelings, but which I tiust will meet with approbation in correspondent feelings in my fellow citizens, ought not to be passed in silence. It is this. " The chief glory of a nation," says Dr. Johnson, " arises from its authors." With this opmion deeply impressed on my mind, I have the same ambition which actuated that great man when he expressed a wish to give celebrity to Bacon, to Hooker, to Milton and to Boyle.
I do not indeed expect to add celebrity to the names of Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jay, Madison, Marshall, Ramsay, Dwight, Smith, Trumbull, Hamilton, Belknap, Ames, Mason, Kent, Hare, SilUman, Cleaveland, Walsh, Irving, and many other Americans distinguished by their writings or by their science ; but it is with pride and satisfaction, that I can place them, as authorities, on the same page with those of Boyle, Hooker, Milton, Dryden, iddison, Ray, Milner, Cowpcr, Davy, Thomson and Jameson.
A life devoted to reading and to an investigation of the origin and principles of our vernacular language, and especially a particular examination of the best English writers, with a view to a comparison of their style and phraseology, with those of the best American writers, and with our colloquial usage, enables me to affirm with confidence, that the genuine English idiom is as well preserved by the unmixed English of this country, as it is by the best English writers. Examples to prove this fact will be found in the Introduction to this work. It is true, that many of our writers have neglected to cultivate taste, and the embellishments of style ; but even these have written the language in its genuine idiom. In this respect, Franklin and Washington, whose language is their hereditary mother tongue, unsophisticated by modern grammar, present as pure models of genuine English, as Addison or
PREFACE.
Swift. But I may go farther, and affirm, with truth, that our country lias produced some of the best models of composition. The style of President Smith ; of the authors of the Federalist ; of Mr. Ames; of Dr. Mason ; of Mr. Harper; of Chancellor Kent; [ihe prose] of Mr. Barlow; of the legal decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States ; of the reports of legal decisions in some of the particular states ; and many other writings ; in purity, in elegance and in technical precision, is equaled only by that of the best British authors, and surpassed by that of no English compositions of a similar kind.
The United States commenced their existence under circumstances wholly novel and unexampled in the history of nations. They commenced with civilization, with learning, with science, with constitutions of free government, and with that best gift of God to man, the christian religion. Their population is now equal to that of England; in arts and sciences, our citizens are very little behind the most enlightened people on earth ; in some respects, they have no superiors ; and our language, within two centuries, will be spoken by more people in this country, than any other language on eartii, except the Chinese, in Asia, and even that may not be an exception.
It has been my aim in this work, now offered to my fellow citizens, to ascertain the true principles of the language, in its orthography and structure ; to piuify it from some palpable errors, and reduce the number of its anomalies, thus giving it more regularity and consistency in its forms, both of words and sentences ; and in this manner, to fuftiish a standard of our vernacular tongue, which we shall not be ashamed to bequeath to three hiindrccl miUions of people, who are destined to occupy, and I hope, to adorn the vast territory within our jurisdiction.
If the language can be improved in regularity, so as to be more easily acquired by our own citizens, and by foreigners, and thus be rendered a more useful instrument for the propagation of science, arts, civilization and Christianity ; if it can be rescued from the mischievous influence of sciolists and that dabbling spirit of innovation which is perpetually disturbing its settled usages and filling it with anomalies ; if, in short, our vernacular language can be redeemed from corruptions, and our philology and literature from degradation ; it would be a source of great satisfaction to me to be one among the instruments of promoting these valuable objects. If this object cannot be effected, and my wishes and hopes are to be frustrated, my labor will be lost, and this work must sink into oblivion.
This Dictionary, like all others of the kind, must be left, in some degree, imperfect ; for what individual is competent to trace to their source, and define in all their various applications, popular, scientific and technical, sixty or seventy thousand words ! It satisfies my mind that I have done all that my health, my talents and my pecuniary means would enable me to accomplish. I present it to my fellow citizens, not with frigid indifference, but with my ardent wishes for their improvement and their happiness ; and for the continued increase of the wealth, the learning, the moral and religious elevation of character, and the glory of my country.
To that great and benevolent Being, who, during the preparation of this work, has sustained a feeble constitution, amidst obstacles and toils, disappointments, infirmities and depression; who has twice borne me and my manuscripts in safety across the Atlantic, and given me strength and resolution to bring the work to a close, I would present the tribute of my most grateful acknowledgments. And if the talent which he entrusted to my care, has not been put to the most profitable use in his service, I hope it has not been " kept laid up in a napkin," and that any misapplication of it may be graciously forgiven.
New Haven, n2Z. - N.WEBSTER.
INTRODUCTION.
DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE.
Language or Speech is the utterance of jrticulate sounds or
(leied signitic thoughts. According I
by
for tlie expression and communication of
this definition, language belongs exchisively to intellectual and intelligent beings, and among terrestrial beings, to man only ; for no animal on earth, except man, can pronounce words. Thci word /angua^e is sometimes usic I in ,i luon icmjiihi hiii-i\c ^in-,-, .m.l .i|.|)li. il in ili.- sounds by which irr.ilioii.il ;Miiin.)N rvpir^- iL. n i. clin^. u, ,iii,riini,^, ,1^ (o the
neighing of tin- Ihm ^r. Ihr !..» iri^; III til,- .i\ , llir I. ,11 klliu C.I llir ih.u, .Hid to
the cackling and rlriiiMui; lil i.iw I . , Im ih.- s,,un.l- nil. i. .1 \'\ iln -. ;iiiinials are perfectly understood by the respective species, So also language is figuratively applied to the signs by which deaf and dumb persons manifest their ideas ; for these are instruments of communicating thoughts.
But language, in its proper sense, as the medium of intercourse between men, or rational beings, endowed with the faculty of uttering articulate sounds, is the subject now to be considered.
Written language is the representation of signiticant sounds by letters, or characters, single or combined in words, arranged in due order, accord- ing to usage.
ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.
We read, in the Scriptures, that God, when he had created man, "Bles- sed them and said to them. Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it ; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, &c." God after- wards planted a garden, and placed in it the man he had made, with a com- mand to keep it, and to dress it ; and he gave him a rule of moral conduct, in permitting him to eat the fruit of every tree in the garden, except one, the eating of which was prohibited. We further read, that God brought Adam the fowls and beasts he had made, and that Adam gave them names; and that when his female companion was made, he gave her a name. Af- ter the eating of the forbidden fruit, it is stated that God addressed Adam and Eve, reproving them for their disobedience, and pronouncing the penal ties, which they had incurred. In the account of these transactions, it i further related that Adam and Eve both replied to their Maker, and excused their disobedience.
If we admit what is the literal and obvious interpretation of this narrative, that vocal sounds or words were used in these communications betiveen God and the progenitors of the human race, it results that Adam was not only dowed with intellect for understanding his Maker, or the signification of words, but was furnished both with the faculty of speech, and with speech itself, or the knowledge and use of words, as signs of ideas, and this hefor< the formation of the woman. Hence we may infer that language was be stowed on Adam, in the same manner as all his other faculties and knowl edge, by supernatural power; or in other words, was of divine origin ; for supposing Adam to have had all the intellectual powers of any adult individ ual of the species, who has since lived, wc cannot admit as probable, or evei possible, that he should have invented and constructed even a barren Ian guage, as soon as he was created, without supernatural aid. It may even be doubted, whether without such aid, men would ever have learnt the of the organs of speech, so far as to form a language. At any rate, the vention of words, and the- construction of a language must have been by a slow process, and niu^t have required a much longer time, than that which passed betK'een the creation of Adam and of Eve. It is therefore probable that language as well as the faculty of speech, was the immediate gift of God. We are not however to suppose tl>e language of our first parents paradise to have been copious, like most modern languages; or the identical language they used, to be now in existence. Many of the primitive radical words may and probably do exist in various languages ; but observation teaches that languages must improve and undergo great changes as knowl-
and be subject to continual alterations, from other causes^- aeni lo men m society.
A brief account of the origin and progress of the principal languages, ancient and modern, that have been spoken by nations between the Ganges and the Atlantic ocean.
We learn from the Scriptures that Noah, who, with his family, was pre- served from destruction by the deluge, for the purpose of re-peopling the earth, had three .sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. This fact, a little ob- scured by tradition, was retained by our rude German ancestors, to the age of Tacitus.*
Japheth was the eldestson ; but Shem, the ancestor of the Israehtcs, and
the writers of the Scriptures, is named first in order.
The descendants of Shem and Hani peopled all the great plain, situated
north and west of the Persian Gull, between that Gulf and the Indian ocean
1 the east and the Arabic Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea on the west,
ith the northern coast of Africa ; comprehending Assyria, Babylonia or Chaldea, Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Egypt, and Lybia. The principal lan- guages or dialects used by these descendants, are known to us under the names of Chaldee, or Chaldaic, which is called also Aramean, Syriac, He- brew, Arabic, Ethiopic, Samaritan and Coptic. Of these, the Chaldee, and Hebrew are no longer living languages, but they have come down to us in books ; the Samaritan is probably extinct or lost in the modern languages of the country, but the language survives in a copy of the Pentateuch ; the Coptic is nearly or quite extinct, and little of it remains ; the Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic are yet living languages, but they have suffered and are con- tinually suffering alterations, from which no living language is exempt.
These languages, except the Coptic, being used by the descendants of Shem, I call Shemitie, or Assyrian, in distinction from the Japhetic. As the descendants of Japheth peopled Asia Minor, the northern parts of Asia, about the Euxine and Caspian, and all Europe, their languages, have, in the long period that has elapsed since their dispersion, become very numerous.
All languages having sprung from one source, the original words from which they have been formed, must have been of equal antiquity. That the Celtic and Teutonic languages in Europe are, in this sense, as old as the Chaldee and Hebrew, is a fact not only warranted by history and the com- mon origin of Japheth and Shem, but susceptible of proof from the identity of many words yet existing, in both stocks. But there is a marked differ- ence between the Shemitie and Japhetic languages ; for even when the ra- dical words are unquestionably the same, the modifications, or inilections nd combinations which form the compounds are, for the most part, different.
As it has been made a question which of the Shemitie languages is the most ancient, and much has been written to prove it to be the Hebrew, I will state briefly my opinion on what appears to me to be one of the plainest questions in the history of nations. We have for our certain guides, in de- termining this question — 1st. The historical narrative of facts in the book of Genesis, and 2d. The known and uniform progress of languages, within the iod of authentic profane history.
.. The Scripture informs us that, before the dispersion, the whole earth s of one language and of one oi- the same speech ; and that the descend- ants of Noah journeyed from the east, and settled on the plain of Shinar, Chahlea. The language used at that time, by the inhabitants of that
* Celebrant, carminibus antiquis, Tuistonem deum terr4 editum, et filium Mannum,originem gentis conditoresque. Manno tres filios assignant. — De Mor. Germ. 2.
In ancient songs they celebrate Tuisto, a god sprung from the earth, and his son Mannus [Man], the origin and founders of their nation. To Man- nus they assign three sons.
Noah is here called Man.
INTRODUCTION.
iisf-qucnce of tlie impious attempts \\ liose top might reach to heaven, .ind prevent their dispersion, God - 1 that they could not understand icy were dispersed '■ from thence
plain, must then have been the oldsst or tl This must have been tlie original CI
2. The Scriptxire inform- ns ilm of the people to build ;i i ^ with a view to make tin i, . > interposed and confoundc 'I i!.. r (■■lu each other; in conseq-ie.ice .,1 \v li over the vace of a'l tin; an.tli."
3. If the confusion of languages at Babel originated the differences which gave rise to the various languages of the families which separated at the dispersion, then those several languages are all of equal antiquity. Of these the Hebrew, as a distinct language, was not one; for the Hebrew nation was of posterior origin.
4. All the words of the several great races of men, both in Asia and Eu- rope, which are vernacular in their several languages, and unequivocally the same, are of equal antiquity, as they must have been derived from the common Chaldee stock which existed before the dispersion. The words common to the Syrians and Hebrews, could not have been borrowed from the Hebrew, for the Hebrews originated from Heber and Abram, several centuries after Syria and Egypt were populous countries. This fact is at- tested by the Scripture history, which declares that when Abram migrated from Chaldea, and came into Canaan or Palestine, "The Canaanite then in the land ;" and when he returned from Egypt, " the Perizzite dwelt in the land." These declarations, and the history of Abimelceh, and of thi war of four kings or chieftains with five ; as also of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, prove Syria to have been, at that time, well-peopled. The Ian guage of the inhabitants then must have been coeval with the nation, and long anterior to the Hebrew as a distinct dialect. It may be added that in the early periods of the woi-ld, when no books existed, nations, living mote or distinct, never borrowed words from each other. One nation, living in the midst of another, as the Hebrews did among the Egyptians, may adopt a single word, or a few words; but a family of words thus adopted is occurrence rarely or never known. The borrowing of words, in modern times, is almost wholly from the use of books.
5. It is probable that some dift'erenccs of language were produced by the confusion; but neither that event nor any supernatural event is necessary to account for the differences of dialect or of languages, now existing. The different modern languages of the Gothic or Teutonic stock, all originated in the natural course of events; and the differences are as great between them as they are between the languages of the Shemitic stock
6. Soon after two races of men of a common stock have separated and placed themselves in distant countries, the language of each begins to di Terge from that of the other, by various means. — 1. One tribe or nation will suffer one word to become obsolete and be forgotten ; another, will suffe the loss of another ; sometimes a whole family of words will be lost ; at other times, a part only ; at other times, a single word only of a numerous family will be retained by one nation, while another nation will retain the whole 2. The same word will be differently applied by two distant races of men and the difterence will be so great as to obscure the original afiBnity. 3 Words will be compounded by two nations in a different manner, the same radical words taking a different prefix or suffix, in different languages. Th wisdom in English is in German weisheit, [wisehead, wisehood] from wit wets. In EngMsh misi ead is in Banish fbrleder, (mm lead, leder. 4. The pronunciation and orthography of words will often be so much changed, that the same word in two languages, cannot without difficulty, be recogniz ed as identical. No person, without a considerable attention to the changes which letters have suffered, would at once suspect or believe the English let and the French laisser to be the same word.
7. As Abram migrated from Chaldea, he must have spoken the Chaldee language, and probably, at that time, the Syriac, Arabic and Egyptian, had not become so different, as to render it impracticable for him to converse with the inhabitants of Palestine and Egypt. But the language of Abram's scendants, and that of the land of Stiinar or the Chaldee must, in the natural course of things, have begun to diverge, soon after the separation ; and th changes in each language being different, would, in the course of a few centuries, form somewhat different languages. So in the days of Hezekiah the Syriac and Hebrew had become, in a degree, distinct languagei Kings xviii. In which of these languages, the greatest number of alterations were produced, we do not know ; but from the general observations I have made, in my researches, it appears that the Chaldee dialect, in the use of dental letters instead of sibilants, is much the most general in the Celtic and Teutonic languages of Europe. Thus the German only has a sibilant in wasser, when the other Teutonic languages have a dental, water. I think also that there are far more words in the European languages which accord with the Chaldee or Arabic, than there are words which accord with the He- brew. If this observation is well-founded, the Hebrew must have suffered the loss of more primitive words than the other languages of the Shemitic family. This however is tiue, that all of them have lost some words, and in some cases, the Hebrew retains what the others have lost,
8. The Hebrew Scriptures are, by many centuries, the most ancient writings extant. Hence probably the strange inference, that the Hebrew is the oldest language; as if the inhabitants of Chaldea and Syria had had no language, for ages before the progenitor of the Hebrews was bor
9. The vernacular words in the Celtic and Teutonic languages of modern Europe, which are evidently the same words as still exist in the Shemitic languages, are of the same antiquity ; being a part of the common language which was used on the plain of Shinar, before the dispersion. The descendants of Japheth peopled the northern part of Asia, and all Eu- pe ; or if some colonies from Egypt planted themselves in Greece, at an ear- ly period, they or their descendants must have been merged in the mass of Japhetic population. Certain it is that the Greek language is chieHy form- ed on the same radical words, as the Celtic and Teutonic languages.
The Japhetic tribes of men, whose descendants peopled the south and west of Europe, were first established in the country now called Persia, or by the natives themselves, Iran. Of this fact, the evidence now existing is decisive. The numerous words found in the Greek, Latin, Gaelic, English and the kindred tongues, which are still used in Persia, prove, beyond all question, that Persia must have been the residence of the people whose de- scendants introduced into Europe the languages from which the modern languages are derived. The fact proves further that a great body of the original Persians remained in their own country, and their descendants con- stitute the mass of the population at this day.
In the early stages of society, men dwelt or migrated in families, tribes or clans. The family of Abraham and Jacob in Asia, and the clans of the Gaels Scotland, exhibit to us the manner in which societies and nations were originally formed. The descendants of a man settled around him, and form- ed a elan, or tribe, of which the government was patriarchal. Such families often migrated in a body, and often the personal characteristics of the pro- genitor might be distinctly traced in his descendants for- many generations. In process of time, some of these families became nations ; more generally, by means of wars and migrations, different tribes became blended, and the distinction of families was lost.
In rude ages, the families or tribes of men are named from some character- tic of the people ; or more generally, from the place of their residence. The Greeks gave the name of Seythia to the north of Europe and Asia, but the primitive inhabitants of the west of Europe, they called KtXroi, Kelts, Celts, a word signifying woods men* These were descendants from the same ancestors as the Greeks and Romans themselves, but they had pushed their migrations into Gaul, Spain .ind Britain. The first settlers or occupi- ers of these countries were driven forward by successive hords, until they were checked by the ocean ; there they made their stand, and there we find their descendants at this day. These may be considered as the de- scendants of the earliest settlers, or first inhabitants of the countries where they are found. Among these are the inhabitants of France, south of the Garonne, and those of me north of Spain, called by the Romans Aquitani and Cantabri, in more modern times Gascoigns, Basques, and Cantabrians, who still retain their native language ; and in Great Britain, the Gaels in Scotland, and the natives of the north and west of Ireland, who also retain their primitive language.!
The first inhabitants of the north and west of Europe, known to the Greeks and Romans, to whom we are indebted for our earliest accounts of that re- gion, were the Cimbri, who inhabited the peninsula of Denmark, now called Jutland, and the tribes which belonged to the Teutonic and Gothic races, which were established in Germany and on both sides of the Baltic. Wheth- er tribes of Celtic origin had overspread the latter countries, before the arri- val of the Gothic and" Teutonic races, and all Europe had been inhabited by
* Welsh celt, a cover, or shelter, a Celt; celtiad, an inhabitant of the co- ert or wood ; celu, to conceal, Lat. eelo. In Gaelic the word is coilt or eeilt. The Celts were originally a tribe or nation inhabiting the north of Italy, or the still more northern territory.
t I purposely omit all consideration of the different families, tribes or na- tions which first peopled Greece and Italy. In Greece, we read of the rpawc. or rpoi*o(, the Hellenes, the Acha;ans, the Dorians, the ./Eolians, the lonians, the Pelasgi, &c. In Italy, of the Illyrians, the Liburni, the SicuU, the Veneti or Heneti, the Iberi, Ligures, Sicani, Etrusci, Insubres, Sabini, Latini, Samnites, and many others. "But as these nations or their de- scendants gave the name of Celts to the Umbri, or nations that dwelt in the north, in the less cutivated parts of Europe, and to the inhabitants of Gaul ; and as all the tiibes, under whatever denomination they were known, branches of the great Japhetic stock, I shall call them by that gene- ral name, Celts ; and under the general name of Goths or Teutons, shall comprehend the various tribes that inhabited the north of Germany, and the country north of the Baltic or Scandinavia.
A late writer seems to consider the Teutonic races, as the only ancestors of the Greeks and Romans. But from Celtic words, still found in the Greek and Latin ; words not belonging to any of the Gothic or Teutonic languages ; demonstrably certain that the primitive settlers in Greece and Italy, belonged to the Celtic races. Thus the Greek iifxixtav, Lat. Irachium, the arm, is formed on the Gaelic braigh, raigh, W. brau;, a word not found among the Teutonic nations. So the Welsh mociaw, to mock, is found in the Greek fiaxiM, and French moquer, to mock, and Ir. mogadh, a mocking ; but not in any of the Gothic or Teutonic languages. Many similar facts prove that the Celtic races were among the earliest inhabitants of Greece.
INTRODUCTION.
the Celts, even to the horders of Savmalia, has been a question much disputed by historians and antiquaries. The German and French writers generally contend that the Celts inhabited all the north of Europe, as far at least as Sarmalia; but some respectable English writers are ot a different opinion. Now it is agreed that the Welsh are descendants of the Cimbri, inhabitants of Jutland, and their language bears a strong affinity to the Celtic languages, which still exist; a fact that countenances the opinion of the German and Trench writers. But the dispute is of little moment ; the Celtic, Teutonic and Gothic races being all of the Japhetic stock, migrating from Asia through Asia Minor at different times, and pursuing different courses west- ward. The first tribes probably .sought the warm climates along the north coast of the Mediterranean, and established themselves in Greece and Italy. Others followed the course of the Danube and its subsidiary streams, till they fell upon the rivers that conducted them to the Baltic. The first in- habitants of Greece and Italy were probably of the Celtic race ; but if they were, it is very evident that tribes of the teutonic or Gothic races invaded those countries before they were civilized, and intermingled witli the ori- ginal inhabitants. The Pelasgi may have been among the number. This is an inference which I draw from the affinities of the Greek and Latin Ian guages, with those of Teutonic origin. The Teutonic and Gothic races im- pressed their language upon all the continent of Europe west of the Vistula and from that river to the Rhine, or rather to the Seine, anterior to the con- quest of Gaul by Julius Cesar. The same races invading and conquering the south of Europe, in the fourth and fifth century, on the downfall of the Uoman eriipiri-, iiilu-iml a portion of their language into the Italian and Span ish, ul.i.li ,s ,,11,1, -„,.4-„ishal)le.
Tin- Mir . ,,, ■- I . .1 ,. including Poland and Russiia, was probably peo- pled m in "I nicn who passed into Europe by the country north of till- i:,,\ ,1 I J 1, (iiiginal residence was along the rivers Kur and Araxes. oi- on llie mountains between the Euxine and Caspian. The name of the Rtiss or Russians is clearly recognized in the Roxolani of Pliny and Ptolemy, and possibly the ancestors of this race may have entered Europe by Asia Minor. That the Teutonic races, originally from Persia, inhabited Asia Minor, and migrated westward by that course, is evident from the names which they impressed on mountains, rivers and places — Such are the Cra- friis of Pliny, the Welsh and English crag ;* Perga in Pamphylia, now hurg or bergen ; Thymbreck, the name of a small stream, near the site of Troy ; a word in which we recognize the English brook. It was contract ed by the Greeks into ThymbriusA
It is admitted by all gentlemen, acquainted with oriental literature, that the Sanscrit, or ancient language of India, the parent of all the dialects of that great peninsula, is radically the same language or from the same stock as the Greek and Latin ; the affinities between them being remarkably clear and decisive. If so, the inhabitants of India and the descendants of the Celtic and Teutonic nations are all of one family, and must have all migrated from one country, after the separation of the nations of the Shemitic stock from those of the Japhetic race.t
Whether that country was Persia, or Cashmir, or a country farther east, is a point not easily determined. One important inference results from this fact, that the white men of Europe and the black or tawny men of India, are direct descendants from a common ancestor.
Of the languages of Europe, the Greek was first improved and refined and next to that the Latin. The affinity between these languages, and those of the west and north of Europe is very striking, and demonstrates thei common origin. It is probable however that there are some words in th( Greek derived from Africa, if Egyptian colonies were established in Greece, as historians inform us.
The modern Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese, are composed chief- ly of Latin words, much altered however both in orthography and inflec- tions. Perhaps nine tenths of all the words now found in those languages are of Latin origin ; being introduced by the Romans, who held Gau" subjection, five or six centuries, and Spain much longer ; or being born cd from Latin authors, since the revival of letters. All these iaiigu;i however retain many words of Celtic origin ; the primitive language not 1, ing been entirely extirpated. In some instances, the same word has b transmitted through both channels, the Celtic and the Latin, and is yet tajncd. Thus in French cider, and in Italian Cfdere, is directly from the Latin cedo ,- while the French, congedier, and Italian, congedare, are com- posed of the same word, with a prefix, derived from the Celtic, and retained in the Welsh gadaw, to quit, to leave. [L. concedo.] And this same verb probably appeal's also in quit, a word common to the Teutonic and to the Cel- tic languages. See Conge, in the Dictionary.
It must be observed further, that the Spanish language contains some words of African origin, introduced by the Carthaginians, before the Roman conquest of Spain, or afterwards by the Moors, who, for several centuries,
were masters of thatcounlry. It contains also some words of Gothic oiigiii. introduced by the Goths who conquered that country, at the downfall of the Roman Empire. The French also contains some words of Teutonic origin, either from the Belgic tribes wlio occupied the country to the Seine, at the time of Cesar's invasion, or from the Franks who estabUshed the dynasty of the Merovingian Kings in the fifth century, or from the Normans who ob- tained possession of the northern part of that kingdom in the tenth century, or from all these sources.
The German, Dutch or Belgic, Anglo-Saxon, Danish and Swedish lan- guages are of Teutonic or Gothic origin.* They are all closely allied ; a great part of the words in them all being the same or from the same roots, with different prefixes or affixes. There is however a greater difference between the Danish and Swedish, which are of the Gothic stock, and the German and Dutch, which are of Teutonic origin, than between two lan- guages of the same stock, as between the Danish and Swedish. The Nor- wegian, Icelandic, and some of the languages or dialects of Switzerland, be- long to the same stock ; but of these I have no particular knowledge.
The Basque or Cantabrian in Spain ; the Gaelic in the north of Scotland, and the Hiberno-Celtic, or native language of Ireland, arc the purest re- mains of the ancient Celtic. From a comparison of a vocabulary of the Gae- lic and Hiberno-Celtic, I find little or no difterence between them ; and from a long and attentive examination of this language, and of the languages *f Teutonic origin, I find less difference between them, than most autliors Iiave supposed to exist.
The Armoric or language of Brittany in the northwest angle of France, and the Cornish, in the southwest of England, are also of Celtic origin. The Cornish is now extinct ; but the Armoric is a living language.
The English as now spoken, is a language composed of words from several others. The basis of the language is Anglo-Saxon, or, as I shall, for the sake of brevity, call it, Saxon, by which it is closely allied to the languages of Teutonic and Gothic origin on the continent. But it re- tains a great number of words from the ancient languages of Britain, the Belgic, or Lloegrian, and the Cymraeg, or Welsh ; particularly from tlie lat- ter, and some from the Cornish. Cesar informs us, that before he invaded Britain, Belgic colonics had occupied the southern coast of England ; and the inhabitants of the interior, northern and western parts, were the ances- tors of the present Welsh, who call themselves Cymry, and their country Cymru, a name which indicates their origin from the <?imbri, inhabitants of the modern Denmark, or Cimbric Chersonese, now Jutland.
The modern Welsh contains many Latin words introduced by the Romans, who had possession of Britain for five hundred years. But the body of the language is probably their vemaculai- tongue. It is more nearly allied to the languages of Celtic origin, than to those of the Teutonic and Gothic stock ; and of this British language, the Cornish and Armoric are dialects.
It has been commonly supposed that the Britons were nearly extermina- ted by the Saxons, and that the few that survived, escaped into the west of England, now Wales. It is true that many took refuge in Wales, which their descendants still retain ; but it cannot be true that the other parts of England were entirely depopulated. On the other hand, great numbers must have escaped slaughter, and been intermixed with their Saxon con- querors. The Welsh words, which now form no unimportant part of the English language, aflbrd decisive evidence of this fact. It is probable how- ever that these words were for a long time used only by the common peo- ple, for few of them appear in the early Saxon writers.
The English contains also many words, introduced by the Danes, who were, for some time, masters of England ; which words are not found in the Saxon. These words prevail most in the northern counties of England ; but many of them are incorporated into the body of the language, and are used in the United States.
After the conquest, the Norman Kings endeavored to extirpate the Eng- lish language, and substitute the Norman. For this purpose, it was ordain- (ed that all law proceedings and records should be in the Norman language ; and hence the early records and reports of law cases came to be written in j Norman. But neither royal authority, nor the influence of courts, could change the vernacular language. After an experiment of three hundred years, the law was repealed; and .since that period, the English has been, ;for the most part, the official, as well as the common language of the nation. A few Norman words however remain in the English ; most of them in law language.
Since the conquest, the English has not suffered any shock from the in- termixture of conquerors with the natives of England ; but the language has undergone great alterations, by the disuse of a large portion of Saxon words, and tlie introduction of words from the Latin and Greek languages, with some French, Italian, and Spanish words. These words have, in some in- stances, been borrowed by authors, directly from the Latin and Greek ; but most of the Latin words have been received through the medium of the — ^ jiFrench and Italian. For terms in the sciences, authors have generally re- am- ivT II I -1- B o.., c^ , I .t - ^ • i- .u 1 .1. r> 1 sorted to the Greek ; and from this source, as discoveries in science demand ^,I^^X-I^^;^:L^r:;^.1^^^^ ^^ vocabulary of the English language is receiving continual
eighth year. Hence perhaps the name from deal, and»ia</( or madh, coun-
try.
t Clarke's Travels. I * In strictness, the Swedish and Danish are of Gothic origin, and the Gei-
J See the word chuk in the Dictionary. liman and Saxon, of Teutonic origin.
Vol. I. B.
INTRODUCTION.
auglnentation. We have also a few words from the German and Swedish, mostly terms in mineralogy, and commerce has introduced new commodi- ties of foreign growth or manufacture, with their foreign names, which now make a part of our language. — Such are camphor, amber, arsenic, and many others.
The English then is composed of,
1st, Sason and Danish words of Teutonic and Gothic origin.
2d, British or Welsh, Cornish and Armoric, which may be considered as of Celtic origin.
3d, Norman, a mixture of French and Gothic.
4th, Latin, a language formed on the Celtic and Teutonic.
5th, French, chiefly Latin corrupted, but with a mixture of Celtic.
6th, Greek, formed on the Celtic and Teutonic, with some Coptic.
7th, A few words directly from the Italian, Spanish, German, and other languages of the continent.
8th, A few foreign words, introduced by commerce, or by political an
Of these, the Saxon words constitute our mother tongue ; being wordi which our ancestors brought with them from Asia. The Danish and Welsh also are primitive words, and may be considered as a part of our vernacular language. They are of equal antiquity with the Chaldee and Syriac
AFFINITY OF LANGUAGES.
On comparing the structure of the different languages of the Shemitic and Japhetic stocks, we cannot but be struck with the fact, that although a great number of words, consisting of the same or of cognate letters, and convey- ing the same ideas, are found in them all ; yet in the inflections, and in the manner of forming compounds and derivatives, there are remarkable differ- ences between the two great families. In the modifications of the verb, for expressing person, time, and mode, very little resemblance is observable be tween the'm. If we could prove that the personal terminations of the verb, in the Japhetic languages, were originally pronouns, expressive of the pe sons, we should prove an affinity between the words of the two races, in most important particular. Some attempts of this kind have been made ; but not with very satisfactory results.*
In the formation of nouns, we recognize a resemblance between the English termination th, in birth, truth, drouth, [Saxon drugothe] warmth, &c., and the Shemitic terminations n' and ni; and the plural termination en, retained in oxen, and the Welsh plural ending coincide nearly with the Arabic termination of the dual number /, )
and the regular masculine plural termination ^^ ^ as well as with the Chaldee, Hebrew, and Syriac p . And it is justly remarked by Mitford, that in the variety of plural terminations of nouns, there is a striking resemblance between the Arabic and the Welsh. There is one instance, in the modem languages of Teutonic origin, in which we find the Arabic nunnation : — this is the German and Dutch binnen, the Saxon binnan or binnon, signifying
within, Hebrew and Chaldee pa, Ar. ,,-aj without the mark of nunna- tion, when it signifies within ; but when it signifies separation, space, inter- val, the original sense, it is written ... a j > and pronounced, with the nun- nation, like the Teutonic word.
One mode of forming nouns from verbs in the Shemitic languages is by prefixing m. I know of no instance of this manner of formation, in the Ja- phetic languages, except in some names which are of oriental origin. Mars
is said to be fro
I afrii,
but if ;
the word
1 undoubtedly formed in the
cast. So we find Morpheus, the god of sleep, to be probably formed with the prefix m, from the Ethiopic ^04<J^ '" ''®''' '" '^" asleep; whence we infer that Morpheus is sleep deified. t
But as many words in all the languages of Europe and Asia, are formed with prepositions, perhaps it may be found on examination, that some of these prefixes may be common to the families of both stocks, the Japhetic and the Shemitic. We find in German, gemnth, in Dutch, gemoed, from muth,moed, mind, mood. We find mad in Saxon is gemaad; polish, the h^tin polio, is in Welsh caboli; mail in Italian is both maglia and camag- lia; belief in Saxon is geleaf, and in German, glaube. We find that in the Shemitic languages nbo signifies to fill or be full, and we find in the Arabic y^T has the same signification. In Syriac Jl vN, signifies to remove ;
• According to Dr. Edwards, there is a remarkable resemblance between the bhemitjc languages, and the Muhhekaneew, or Mohegan, one of the na- tive languages of New England, in the use of the pronouns as prefixes and affixes to verbs.— Observations, Sfc.p. 13.
f Ludolf, Col. 446, 447.
and ^^o signifies to wander in mind, to be delirious. In Chaldee and Syriac, im is to wonder, precisely the Latin demiror, which is a compound of de and miror.
We find also that nations differ in the orthography of some initial sounds, where the words are the same. Thus the Spanish has llnmar, llorar, for the Latin clamo, ploro, and the Welsh has llawr, for the English floor, llabi, a tall, lank person, coinciding with /aftft?/, llac for slack, and the like. As the prepositions and prefixes, in all languages, constitute an important class of words, being used in composition to vary the sense of other parts of speech, to an almost unUmited extent, it may be useful to give them a par- ticular consideration.
The simple prepositions are, for the most part, verbs or participles, or de- rived from them ; when verbs, they are the radical or primary word, some- times varied in orthography by the addition or alteration of a single vowel, or perhaps, in some cases, by the loss of the initial consonant, or aspirate. Such are the Greek ?tapa, ?t£pt, xata ; the Latin con and per ; the English for, which retain their original consonants. The following, of, by, in, on, un; the Latin ab, ad, pro, pr<B, re; the Greek ano, trtt, rtpo, may have lost the initial or final consonants; of [or hof; in (or hin; ab for hab ; pro for prod. In some words, this loss can only be conjectured ; in others, it s known or obvious. Thus the English by and be was originally big, as it is n the Saxon ; and the Latin re, is written also red, evidently a derivative of an Arabic verb still existing ; the Latin sub and super are foi med probably from the Greek ii?fo, vrttp, by the change of an aspirate into s, or the Greek words have lost that letter. The English but in the phrase " They are all here but one," is a participle ; the Sax. butah, or buton ,- Dutch buiten, from buiten, to rove. Among is the Saxon gemang, the verb, or the participle of gemengan, to mingle.
In general, the primary sense of the preposition is moving, or moved. Thus to in English and ad in Latin, primarily denote advancmg towards a place or object; as in the sentence, " We are going to town." From, of, ' It. ab, Gr. a?ro, denote motion from a place or object. The French prts, from the Italian ^resso, and tiiis is the Latin participle pressus, pressed; hence it denotes near, close.
In some instances prepositions are compounds, as the English before ; that be or by fore, by the front, and the Fr. aupres, at or at near. Prepositions, from their frequent use, and from the ease with which their primary signification is modified to express differences of position, motion or lation, as occasions demand, have, in many instances, a great variety of applications ; not indeed as many as lexicogi apheis sometimes assign to them, butseveral different, and sometimes opposite significations ; as for ex- amples, the Enghsh /or, with ; tiie Latin con, and the Greek rtopa. For, which is from the root of Saxon faran, Gr. 7topfuO|Uat, to pass, denotes to- wards, as in the phrase " A ship bound /or Jamaica ;" or it denotes in /a»or of, as " This measure is/or the public benefit ;" or " The present is /or a But it denotes also opposition or negation, as \n forbear, forgive, forbid.
With is a verb, but has rather the sense of a participle. It is found in the Gothic with a prefix, ga-withan, to join or unite. Its primary sense then is joined, close ; hence, in company ; as in the sentences — " go with him," " come with me." It has the sense also of from, against, contrariety, op- position, as in withdraw, withstand, without. In Saxon it had also the sense of towards, as "with eorthan," towards the earth; also of for, de- noting substitution or equivalent in exchange, as " sylan with dieges weorce," to give for a day's work ; also of opposite, over against, as '* with tha s£e," opposite the sea.
Con in Latin generally signifies with, towards or to, denoting closeness or union, approach, joint operation and the like, as in concurro, conjungo, congredior ; but it has also the sense of against or opposition, as in con- tendo.
The Greek rrapa, is doubtless from the root of the English fare, Saxon faran, to go, to pass. It signifies from, that is, departure — also at, to, Lat. ad ; near, with, beyond, and against.
To understand the cause of the different and apparentiy contrary signifi- cations, we are to attend to the primary sense. The effect of passing to a place is nearness, at, presso, pres, and this may be expressed by the parti- ciple, or in a contracted form, by the verb. The act of passing or moving towards a place readily gives the sense of such prepositions as to, and the Latin ad, and this advance may be in favor or for tiie benefit of a person or thing, the primary sense of which may perhaps be best expressed by to- wards ; " a presentor a measure is towards him," — But when the advance of one thing towards another, is in enmity or opposition, we express the sense by against, and this sense is especially expressed when the motion or approach is in front of a person, or intended to meet or counteract another motion. Hence the same word is often used to express both senses ; the context de- termining which signification is intended. Thus/or in English, in the sen- tence, " He that is not /or us is against us," denotes in favor of. But in the phrase "for all that," it denotes opposition. " It rains, but/or all that, we will take a ride,"that is, in opposition to that, or notwithstanding the rain, we will ride.
The Greek irapa, among other senses, signifies beyond, that is, past, and otier, Hebrew 13j\
INTRODUCTION.
The prepositions wliicli are used, as distinct words, are called separable prepositions, or more generally prepositiom : — those which are used only in composition are called inseparable prepositions. Kor the sake of brevity, I give to all words or single letters, prefixed to other words in composition, the general name of prf^xfs.
One of the best mo<lcs of ascertaining the true sense of a preposiUon, is, to examine its various uses in composition, and discover what effect it has in modifying the signitication of the word to which it is prefixed.
Prepositions, useil in compounds, often suffer the loss or change of a let- ter, for the sake of euphony, or the ease of pronunciation. Thus ad in Latin becomes/ in affero ; con becomes col in colligo ; the Gr. jtapo loses a letter in Ttapniit,, as does am, in many words.
The following sketch of the principal prepositions and prefixes in several limguages of Europe will exhibit some of the affinities of these languages, and in a degree, illustrate the uses of this class of words.
SAXON AND GOTHIC.
^nd. Sax. and Goth, signifies agaitist, opposite. This is the Gr. a»Ti. and Latin ante, not borrowed from the Greek or Latin, but a native word Examples, andstandan, to stand against, to resist. Andswarian, answari- an, to answer ; that is, to speak again, against or in return.
Amb, emb, ym*, usually emb, Saxon, signifying about, around; coincid ing with the Latin ainb, and Gr. a/i^i.. Example, emb-faran, to go around, to walk about; emiutan, about; em6, about, and 6utnn, without. See But Jlmbeht, cmbeht, ymbeht, office, duty, whence we have embassador. Thii in Gothic is andbahtei, and a bailiif, minister or servant is andbahts. The Germans have the word contracted in amt, charge, office, Dutch ampt Dan. ambt. The Gothic ortliography gives rise to the question whether amb, emb, aniavti, Sax. and Goth, ojid, are not radically the same word; and it is very certain that the Gothic and Saxon and, is radically the same word as the Latin in, Dan. ind. So in Gothic, " and wigans," in the ways, into the highways. Luke, xiv. 23. " and haimos" per vicos, through the towns. Luke, ix. 6.
This preposition, amb, is in Dutch om ; in German urn ; in Swedish and Danish om.
At, is a Gothic preposition and prefix, comciding with Eng. at, Lat. ad
Be, in Saxon, as a preposition and prefix, is always written be, or big, an- swering to the English by, a preposition, and be in beset. In Gothic, it is written 6i, by and be, being contractions of big. The primary and principal signification is near, close ; as " stand or sit 6^ me." So in the word by- stander. It is a prefix of extensive use in the Saxon, German, Dutch Danish and Swedish. Its use in denoting instrumentality, may be from the sense of nearness, but more probably it is from passing, like per, through or it denotes proceedin^from, like of, as salvation is of the Lord.
For, in Saxon, as in English, is a preposition and prefix of extensive use In Saxon /or signifies a going, from /aran, to go, to fare. It is radically thi same word as /ore, in the sense of in front, before. Its primary sense i: advancing ; hence moving towards ; hence the sense of in favor of, and that of oppo.sition, or negation. See the preceding remarks.
This word in German is/«r, but, with this orthography, the word is little used in composition. Yet the German has/urfti'He, intercession or praying for; fllrwort, intercession, recommendation, and a pronoun [for-word;] andfur-wahr, forsooth.
In the sense of fore, the German has vor, a word of extensive prefix. Thus in Saxon /oreseoi, to foresee, is in German vorsehen. The identity of tliese words will not be questioned. But in German as in Dutch the preposition ver, which is the English far, and Saxon fyr, is used in composition, in words in which the Saxon and English have/or. Thus for- gifan,toforgive, is in German, vergeben, and in Dutch, vergeeven — Saxon, forgitan, to forget; German vergessen; Dutch vergectejt. Hence we see that the Saxon for, fore, fyr, the English for, fore, far, and tlie German fur, vor and ver, are from Uie same radix.
In Dutch, /or and fore are represented by voor, and ver represents /or
The Danish also unites/or and fore, as does the Swedish.
The French has this word in pour, and the Spanish and Portuguese in por. The latter signifies not only /or, but through, as in Portuguese, " Eu passarei por Fran(;a." " I will pass through France. Here we see the sense of moving. In Spanish and Portuguese this word is written also para, as if from the Greek. It is evidently the same word, probably received through a different channel from that of poi: Now through is the exact sense of the Latin per ; and per is the Italian preposition answering to for and pm: But what is more to the purpose, the Spanish, Italian and Portu-
fuese word, equivalent to the English /or^ire, is in Spanish perdonar ; in talian, perdon<ire, and in Portuguese, periioar ; and the French is ^ardon- Jier. Here tlien we have strong, if not conclusive evidence, that /or, pour, por, per, par, and para, in different languages, are all from one stock, the word being varied in dialect, or by the different families ; just as we have far, farther, as well as the Saxon^r, and the English /or(A, further, from the same primitive word. We have the same word in. pursue and pur- chase, from the French ^o«r.
The Greek has rtcpai; and jtopo, probably from the same root, as well a- rtOfifvofiai, ;fopo^
Ga, in Gothic, and ge in Saxon, is a prefix of very extensive use. In Saxon, it is prefixe<l to a large portion of all tlie verbs in the language. According to Lye, it has sometimes tlie sense of the Latin cum ; but ui most words I cannot discern any effect of tliis prefix on the signification of the pie verb. It is retained in the Danish and in some German and Dutch words, especially in the participles of verbs, and in nouns formed from them. But it is remarkable that although the Saxon isourmottier tongue, we have not remaining in the language a single instance of this prefix, with the ori- ginal orthography. The only remains of it are in the contraction, a, as in looAre, adrift, ashamed, iic. from gewacan, aweecan ; gedrifan, adrif- an; gesceamian, ascamian. The letter y prefixed to verbs and participles used by Chaucer, as yberied, yblent, ybore, ydight, and a few others, is the remnant of the ge. The words yclad, and ycleped, are the last English words used, in wliich this letter appears.
It is possible that the first syllable oi govern, from Lat. gubemo, Gr. xvSi(iva.a, may be the same prefix ; or it may be the Welsh prefix go, which occurs in goberu, to work, which the Romans wrote operor. But I know not whether the first syllable of govern is a prefix or not.
There is another word which retains this prefix corrupted, or its equiva-' lent ; this is common, which we have received from the Latin communis. This word in the Teutonic dialects is. Sax. getnane; Ger. gemein ; Dutch, gemeen ; Dan. gemeen ; Sw. gemen. Now if this is the Latin communis, and of the identity of the last component part of the word, there can, I think, be no doubt ; then the first part of the word is the Teutonic ge altered to com, or what is more probable, com is tlie equivalent oi ge, or ge may be a contracted and corrupted form oi cum, com. In either case, we arrive at the conclusion that the Teutonic ge, and the Latin cum, are equivalent in signification.
In, is used in the Saxon and Gothic, as in modern English. It is in Ger- man ein, Dutch and Swedish in, Danish ind, Greek iv, Lat. in, Fr. en. This is radically the same word as on and un, the German an, Dutch aan, and Welsh an. In its original sense, it implies moving, advancing towards, and hence its use as a particle of negation or contrariety. " Eunt in urbem," they are going to the city. " Hebc audio in te dici," I hear these thing.'! said against you. In mcilern military usage, on is used in the same sense of advancing. " The army is marching on Liege."
Mid, in Saxon, signifies with. It is the Gothic mith, German mil, Dutch mede or met, and tlie Gr. jutro; but not retained in English. It seems to have the same origin as mid, middle, amidst. In the Gothic it is used as a prefix.
Mis, a prefix, is the verb miss, to deviate. It is used in Saxon, German, Dutch, Swedish and Danish, in nearly the same sense, as in EngUsh. Its radical sense is to depart or wander.
Of, is a preposition and prefix of extensive use in the Saxon, as in English. It denotes primarily issuing, or proceeding from; hence separation, departure, and distance ; in the latter sense, it is written off. It is the Latin ab, writ- ten by the early Romans af; the Greek orto, the German ab, the Dutch af; Dan. and Sw. of. The Saxons often prefixed this word, in cases where we use it after the verb as a modifier ; as of-drifan, to drive off; as it is still used by the Germans, Dutch, Swedes and Danes. We retain it as a prefix, in ffset and offspring. Sax. of-spring. As it denotes proceeding from, it is the proper sign of the genitive case ; the case expressing production.
qfer, Eng. over, Goth, ufar, G. ttber, D. ot-er, Dan. over, Sw. ofver, is a preposition and prefix, in all the Teutonic and Gothic languages, which I have examined ; and in the same or similar senses. This seems to be the Greek urttp, from which the Latins formed super, by converting the aspirate of the Greek vowel into s. This is probably the Heb. Ch. Syr. Ar. 13;r, to ss, a passing, beyond.
On, is a Saxon preposition and prefix of very extensive use. It is obvi- ously a different orthography of in, and it is used for in, in the Saxon, as " on onginn," in the beginning. It has also the sense we now give to on and upon, with other modifications of signification.
In composition, it signifies into, or towards, as on-blawan, to blow in ; onclifian, to adhere, to cleave to; and it is also a particle of negation, like un, as onbindan, to unbind. This on is only a different spelling of un, in Dutch 071, German un, used as a word of negation. The Gothic has un and «»d, in the like sense, as the Danish has un ; the D. ont. In this sense, un answers precisely to the Greek avti, and as this is sometimes written und in Gothic, as in is written ind, in Danish, there can be little doubt, that in, on, un, avti, are all from one stock. The original word may have been han, bin, or hon ; such loss of the first letter is very common ; and inn, from the Ch. and Heb. rUD, presents us with an example. See in and inn.
The German has an, and the Dutch aan, in the sense of in and on. 0th, is a Saxon preposition and prefix, sometimes written ath and erf, and answering nearly to the Latin ad and re; as in oth-witan, to twit, to throw in the teeth. It has also the sense of from, or away, or against, as in oth- swerian, to abjure. This preposition is obsolete, but we have the remains of it in tunt, and perhaps in a few other words. Sam, samod, a prefix. See the Danish and Swedish infra.
INTRODUCTION.
To, is a preposition and prefix of extensive use in our mother tongue. It occurs as a prefix, in such words as, to-brtBCan, to break ; to-beran, to bring or bear, [ad-ferre.^ We retain it in together. Sax. togcedere; and in to- wards. Sax. toward, towardes ; and in to-morrow, to-day, to-night. The Dutch write it toe, and the Germans zu, and both nations use it extensively as a prefix. In Gothic it is written du, as in du-gimtan, to gin, that is, begin. It would be gratifying to learn whether the Ethiopic 'f' , which is prefixed to many verbs, is not the remains of the same preposition.
f/ra, isa Saxon prefix of extensive use, as a privative or particle of nega- tion. See on and m.
Under, is a Saxon preposition and prefix of considerable use, in the pres- ent English sense. The Germans write it unter, and the Dutch onder, and use it in like manner. The Danes and Swedes write it under, and use i in the same sense.
Up, ujipe, is a Saxon preposition and prefix of considerable use, in the pre sent English sense. The Gothic has uf, in the sense of the Latin sub. The Germans write it ajtfand the Dutch op, the Danes op and tlie Swedes up and all use it as a prefix.
Us, in Gothic, is a preposition and prefix. This is the German aus, anc equivalent to the Latin ex. It is the Saxon ut, the English out, Dutch tiit Swedish ut, and Danish ud, dialectically varied. To this answers the Welsh ys, used in composition, but ys seems rather to be a change of the Latin ex tor the Latin expello is written in Welsh yspeliaw, and extendo is estyn.
Wither, in Saxon, from the root of with, denotes against, or opposition. It is a prefix in Saxon, written in German wider, in Dutch, weder ; Dan. and Swedish veder. It is obsolete, but retained in the old law term withernam, a counter-taking or distress.
In the German language, there are some prepositions and prefixes not found in the Saxon ; as,
Ent, denoting from, out, away.
Er, without, out or to. Dan. er.
JVach, properly nigh, as in nachbar, neighbor ; but its n .signification in composition is after; as ia nachgehen, to go after. Thi sense is easily deducible from its primary sense, which is close, near, from urging, pressing, or following. In Dutch, this word is contracted to »a, in nabuur, neighbor ; nagaan, to follow. The Russ has no also, a prefix of extensive use, and probably the same word. This fact suggests the question, whether the ancestors of these great families of men had not their residence in the same or an adjoining territory. It deserves also to be considered wheth- er this no, is not the Shemitic i, occurring as a prefix to verbs.
Weg, is a prefix used in the German and Dutch. It is the Saxon, Ger- man, and Dutch weg, way ; in tlie sense of away, or passing from, from the
verb, in Saxon, wtegan, wegan, to carry, to weigh, Eng. to wag, the sense f which is to move or pass ; as Ger. t ' " " ■• -
Zer, in German, denotes separation
5 Ger. wegf alien, to fall offer away.
In the Gothic dialects, Danish and Swedish, /»a is used as a prefix. This is the Scottish/ra, Eng. frorti, of which it may be a contraction.
Fram in Swedish, and frem in Danish, is also a prefix. The primary sense is to go, or proceed, and hence it denotes moving to or towards, forth, &c., as in Danish /rem/aj-er, to bring forth ; fremkalder, to call for. But in Danish, /rcmjned is strange, foreign, and it is probable that the English /j-om is from the same root, with a dilferent application. It may be from the same stock as the Gothic frum, origin, beginning, Latin primus, signifying to shoot forth, to extend, to pass along.
Oien, igien, in Danish, and igen, in Swedish, is the English gain in again, against. This is a prefix in both these Gothic languages. It has the sense of the Latin re, as inigienkommer, to come back, to return; o{ against, as migienkalder, to countermand, or recall ; of again, as gienbinder, to bind again. This may be the Latin con.
Mod, in Danish, and mot, emot, in Swedish, is a preposition, signifying to, towards, against, contrary, for, by, upon, out, &c. ; as " mod staden," to- wards the city ; modstrider, to resist ; modgift, an antidote ; modbor, a con- trary wind ; modmnd, the same. This is the Enghsh meet, in the Gothic orthography, moiyan, to meet, whence to moot.
O, in Swedish, is a negative or privative prefix, as in o/idig, immature, in English, not tidy. It is probably a contracted word.
Paa, in Danish, p& in Swedish, is a preposition and prefix, signifying on, in, upon. Whether this is allied to be, by, and the Russ. po, I shall not un- dertake to determine, with confidence ; but it probably is the same, or from the same source.
Samman, signifying together, and from the root of assemble, is a prefix of considerable use in both languages. It answers to the Saxon sam, samod, equivalent to the Latin con or cum. It seems to be allied to same and the La-
Ti/, both in Danish and Swedish, is a prefix, and in Danish, of very ex- tensive use. It is equivalent to the EngUsh to or towards, and signifies also at, in, on, by, and about, and in composition often has the sense of back or re, as in tilbage, backwards, that is, to back ; but generally it retains the sense of to or onward ; as in tilbyder, to offer, that is, to speak or order to ; tildriver, to drive on ; tilgiver, ito allow, to pardon, that is, to give to, and hence to give back, to remit. This is the English till, which we use in the same sense as the Danes, but in English it always refers to time, whereas in Danish and Swedish, it refers to place. Thus we cannot say, " We are going
till town :" but we say, " wait till I come, fill ray arrival ;" literally, " wait to I come," to my arrival ; that is, to the time of arrival. The difference is not in the sense of the preposition, but in its application.
The Scotch retain the Danish and Swedish use of this word ; no slight evi- dence of their origin.
U, in Danish, the Swedish O, is a prefix, equivalent to in, and is used as a privative or negative ; as in uaar, an unseasonable year ; uartig, uncivil.
RUSSIAN.
by.
may possibly be from the :
: root i
account of, by reason of, after, as in za- viju, to see, Lat. video ; zadirayu, from
fo or ve, signifies ir the Eng. be, by. But t
Za, is a prefix signifying/oj viduyu, to envy, from md, visaj^
deru, to tear ; zamirayu, to be astonished or stupified, from the root of Lat. miror, and Russ. mir, peace ; miryu, to pacify, to reconcile ; mirnie, pacif- ic; zamirenie, peace, pacification; zaniirioi/M, to make peace; Arm. mi- ret, to hold, to stop ; the radical sense of wonder, astonishment, and of peace.
Ko, a preposition signifying to, towards, for.
J\ra, a preposition and prefix, signifying on, upon, at, for, to, seems to be the Germ, nach, Dutch na, as in nagrada, reconjpense ; na, and the root of Lat. gratia ; nasidayu, to sit down, &c.
JVad, a preposition, signifying above or upon.
O, a preposition, signifying of or from, and /or.
Ob, a preposition and prefix, signifying to, on, against, about, as obne- mayu, to surround, to embrace ; ob and Sax. neman, to take.
Ot, is a preposition, signifying /rom, and it may be the Eng. out.
Po, is a preposition and prefix of extensive use, signifying in, by, after, from, &c. as podayu, to give to ; polagayu, to lay, to expend, employ, lay out ; to tax or assess ; to establish or fix ; to believe or suppose ; po and lay. This corresponds with Eng. by, and the Latin has it in possideo, and a few other words. [Sax. besittan.] Pomen, remembrzince, po And mens, mind.
Rad, a preposition signifying/or, or for the love of.
So, a preposition and prefixof extensive use, signifying tcirt, o/,/ro?»; and as a mark of comparison, it answers nearly to the Eng. so or as.
V, with the sound of m, is a preposition and prefix of extensive use. It sig- nifies near, by, at, with, as uberayu, to put in order, to adjust, to cut, to reap, to mow, to dress, Fr. parer, Lat. paro ; ugoda, satisfaction ; vgodnd, good, useful, Eng. good; udol, a dale, from dol.
WELSH.
The prefixes in the Welsh Language are numerous. The following are the principal.
Am, about, encompassing, Sax. amb, Gr. a/ift.
An. See Sax. in.
Cy, cyd, cyv, cym, implying union, and answering to cum, con and co in Latin. Indeed cym, written also cyv, seems to be the Latin cum, and cy may be a contraction of it, like co in Latin. Ca seems also to be a prefix, as in caboli, to polish, Lat. polio.
Cyn, cynt, former, first, as if allied to begin.
Di, negative and privative.
Di^, negative and precise.
Dy, iterarive.
E and ec, adversative.
Ed and eit, denoting repetition, Uke re. Sax, ed, oth.
Es, separating, like Lat. ex. See ys.
Go, extenuating, inchoative, approaching, going, denotes diminution or a less degree, like the Latin sub ; as in gobrid, somewhat dear. This seems to be from the root of English go.
Han, expressive of origination.
Lied, partly, half.
Oil, all.
Rhag, before.
Rhy, over, excessive.
Tra, over, beyond. Lat. trans.
Try, through.
Vm, mutual, reflective.
Ys, denoting from, out of, separation, proceeding from, answering to the Latin ex; as yspeliaw, to expel. So es, Welsh estyn, to extend.
Most of these prepositions, when used as prefixes, are so distinct as to be known to be prefixes.
But in some instances, the original preposition is so obscured by a loss or change of letters, as not to be obvious, nor indeed discoverable, without re- sorting to an ancient orthography. Thus without the aid of the Saxon or- thography, we should probably not be able to detect the component parts of the English twit. But in Saxon it is written edwitan and otkwitan ; the prep- osition or prefix oth, with witan, to disallow, reproach or cast in the teeth.
It has been above suggested to be possible, that in the Shemitic langua- ges, the J in triliteral roots, may be the same prefix as the Russian na, the Dutch na, and German nach. Let the reader attend to the following words.
INTRODUCTION.
video ;
Heb. B3J To look, to behold, to reganl. The primary sense of look, is, (i) reach, extend or throw. Ch. To look ; also to bud or sprout.
Ar. tix J To spring, or issue as water ; to flow out ; to devise or strike
°"lf the first letter is a prefix, the Hebrew word would accord with Lat. ideo ■ the Chaldee, willi video and with butl, Sp. botar, Fr. bouton, boiiter, >ptU, and Eng. iopout, and Fr. bout, end, from shooting, extending.
Ar. Ckxi To J»rf ,• to germinate. See Ch. supra.
Heb. S3J To fall; to sink down; to wither; to fall off, as leaves and flowers; to act foolishly; to disgrace. Derivative, foolish; a fool ; SiJJ Heb. Ch. Syr. Sam. to Jail.
Ch. h2i To make foul; to defile ; that is, to throw or put on.
Ar. V A J '^° shoot, as an arrow ; to drive as camels ; to excel ; also to
die, that is prot)^'''y ">/""• . , „ ^ . , , .
Can there be any question, that fall, foul and fool are this very word without the first consonant ? The Arabic without the first consonant agrees with Gr. eaTOM, and the sense of falling then, is to throw one's self down.
Heb. IQJ To keep, guard, preserve, retain, observe.
Ch. To observe ; to keep ; to lay up.
Syr. and Sam. id.
Eth. h(r\i To shine.
Ar. lai To keep ; to see ; to look ; to attend.
Remove the first letter, and this coincides with the Greek f jjpjw.
No person will doubt whether hoi to circumcise, is formed on*?!?;.
Ch. ^D3 to cut; tos
Syr. id.
Lat. scrra, serrc
Ar. j^ij To fade, to vanish, to perish, to be empty, to fail.
Heb. nSJ to blow, to breathe. Ch. Syr. Eth. Ar. id. from HB , to blow ,
If the Shemitic J in these and similar words is a prefix or the remains of a preposition, it coincides very closely with the Russ. and Dutch na, and the latter we know to be a contraction of the German nach. Now the German nach is the English nigh ; for no person can doubt the identity of the Ger- man nachbar and the English neighbor.
In the course of my investigations, I very early began to suspect that b,J, J), c, g and k before I and r, are either casual letters, introduced by peculiar modes ofpronunciation, or the remains of prepositions ; mostprobably the lat- ter. I had advanced far in my dictionary, with increasing evidence of the truth of this conjecture, before I had received Owen's Dictionary of the Welsh language. An examination of this work has confirmed my suspi- cions, or rather changed them into certainty.
If we attend to the manner of articulating the letters, and the ease with which bl, br,fl,fr, pl,pr, cl, cr, gl, gr are pronounced, without an interven- ing vowel, even without a slieva, we .shall not be surprised that a preposi lion or prefix, like fie, i>e, pa, po, or ge should, in a rapid pronunciation, lose its vowel, and the consonant coalesce closely with the first letter of the prin- cipal word. Thus blank, prank, might naturally be formed from belank, perank. That these words are thus formed, I do not know ; but there is nothing in the composition of the words to render it improbable. Certain it is, that a vast number of words are formed with these prefixes, on othe- words, or the first consonant is a mere adventitious addition ; for they an used with or without the first consonant. Take the following examples.
Hiberno-Celtic, or Irish, brae or brach, the arm, is written also raigh, Welsh fiiaif, whence ^pa;^iur, brachium. Braigh, the neck, Sax. hraca, Eng. rack, Gr. po;t'5- Praoch, heath, ling, brake, L. erica.
Welsh, llawr, Basque, lurra, Eng. floor.
haUfloccus, Eng. flock or lock.
Sax. hraccan, Eng. to reach, in vomiting.*
Sax. hracod, Eng. ragged.
Ger. rock, Eng. frock.
Dutch, geluk, Ger. ghtck, Eng. luck.
Greek, Folic Dialect, (Spoioi/, for poSor, a rose.
Latin, clunis, Eng. loin, G. lende, W. dun, from Hun.
Eng. cream, Ger. rahm, Dutch, room.
Sax. hlaf, Polish chlieb, G. leib, Eng. loaf.
Sax. hladan, Eng. to lade or load, Russ. kladu, to lay.
Greek. xAtru, Lat. clino. Sax. hlinian, hleonan, Russ. klonyu, Eng to lean.
Greek, Xoyjji/of, Lat. Za,^ena, Eng. ^ngon.
Sax. hrysan, Eng. to rush.
Trench, frapper, Eng. to rop.
Sax. gercBdian, to make ready ; in Chaucer, grcilh, to make ready. Sas. hr(Bd, quick ; hradian, to hasten ; hradties, Eng. leadiiuss.
Spanish, frisar, to curl or frizzle ; rizar, the same.
Sax. gerefa, Eng. reeve, G. graf D. graaf.
Lat. glycyrrhiza, from the Greek ; Eng. liquorice.
But in no language, have we such decisive evidence of the formation of words, by prefixes, as in the Welsh.
Take the following instances, from a much greater number that might be produced, from Owen's Welsh Dictionary.
Blanc, a colt, from llanc.
Blith, milk, from lith.
Bliant, fine linen, from lliant.
Plad, a flat piece or plate, from Uad.
Pled, a principle of extension, from lied.
Pledren, a bladder, from pledyr, that distends, from lied.
Pleth, a braid, from lleth, Eng. plait.
Plicciaw, to pluck, from llig.
Ploc, a block, from Hoc ; plociaw, to block, to plug.
Plwng, a plunge, from llwng, our vulgar lunge.
Glwth, a glutton, from llwth. '
Glas, a blue color, verdancy, a green plat, whence Eng. glass, from lla$.
Glyd, gluten, glue, from llyd.
Claer, clear, from llaer.
Clav, sick, from llav.
Clwpa, a club, a knob, from llwb.
Clwt, apiece, a clout, {romllwd, llwt.
Clamp, a mass, a lump.
Clawd, a thin board, from llawd.
Cledyr, a board or shingle, whence cledrwy, lattice, from Ued.
Bran, Eng. bran, from rhan ; rhanu, to rend.
Brid, a breaking out, from rhid.
Bro^, noise, tumult, a brock; from rhoi;.
Bror, froth, foam, anger, brofi, to chafe or fret, from brwc, a boiling or ferment, from rhwc, something rough, a grunt, Gr. (Jpvj;u.
Bryd, what moves, impulse, mind, thought, from rhyd.
Brys, quickness, brisiaw, to hasten, to shoot along, from rhys, Eng. to rush, and crysiaw, to hasten, from rhys, to rush. [Here is the same word rhys, with tlifferent prefixes, forming brysiaw and crysiaw. Hence W. brysg, Eng. brisk.]
Giaz, [pronounced grath^ a step, a degree, from rhnz, Lat. gradus, gradior.
Greg, a cackling, from rheg.
Grem, a crashing, gnash, a murmur, gremiaw, to crash or gnash, from rhem. Hence Lat. fremo, Gr. /3pf^u.*
We have some instances of similar words in our own language ; such flag and lag ; flap and lap ; clump and lump.
There is another class of words which are probably formed with a prefix of a different kind. I refer to words in which s precedes another consonant, calp, skull, slip, slide, sluggish, smoke, smooth, speed, spire, spin, stage, steep, stem, swell, spout. We find that tego, to cover, in Latin, is in Greek ftyu ; the Latin fallo, is in Greek c^aM.a. We find ftopa^Joj
* I do not follow Owen to the last step of his analysis, as I am of opinion that, in making monosyllabic words to he compound, he often errs. For example, he supposes 6109 a tumult, to be from rlioi;, a broken or rough ut- terance ; a grunt or groan ; and this, to be a compound of rhy, excess, what is over or beyond, and of, a forcible utterance, a groan. I believe rAof to be primitive uncompounded word, coinciding with the English rough.
Owen supposes plad, a flat thing, a plate, to be from Had, with py. Llad he explains, what is given, a gift, good tilings, and py, what is inward or involved. I have no doubt that the first letter is a prefix in plad, but beyond all question, llad is from the same root as lied, breadth, coinciding with Lat. lotus ; both from a common root signifying to extend. But I do not believe llad or lied to be compound words.
Dug, a duke, Owen supposes to be formed on ug, over ; which cannot be true, unless the Latin dux, duco, are compounds. Dur, steel, he derives from ur, extreme, over, but doubtless it is from the root of the Latin durus.
So par, signifying what is contiguous, a state of readiness or preparation, Apair, fellow, or match, Owen makes a compound oi py, and ar ; py, as above explained, and ar, a word of various significations, 911, upon, surface, &c. But there can be no doubt that^ja)- is from the root of the Latin paro, to prepare, being the Latin par, equal ; the root of a numerous family of words not only in the Japhetic languages of Europe, but in the Shemitic lan- guages of Asia. It certainly is not a Welsh compound, nor is there the least evidence to induce a belief that it is not an uncompounded word. Had the learned author of the Welsh Dictionary extended his researches to a va- riety of other languages, and compared the monosyllabic roots in them with each otlier, I think he would have formed a very different opinion as to their origin. I am very well convinced that many of the n ords which he sup- poses to be primitive or radical, are contractions, such as rhy, lie, lly, the last consonant being lost.
INTRODUCTION.
is written also ff/iopaySof ; ami it may be inquireJ whether the English s^j>in, is not from the same root as «>;>'>?, web or woof, rtrtviov, a spindle rtijufu, to spin. Sprout in English is in Spanish brota.
We find the Welsh ysbrig, the EngUsh sprig, is a compound of ys, i prefix denoting issuing or proceeding from, like the Lat. ex, and ir/g, top, summit.
Ysgar, a separate part, a share ; ysgar, ysgarii, to divide ; ysganaw, to separate, is composed of ys and car, according to Owen ; but the real root appears distinctly in the Gr. x£tpo. This is the English shear, shire.
Vsgegiaw, to shake by laying hold of the throat, to shake roughly, is compound o(ys and cegiaw, to choke, from ceg, the mouth, an entrance, choking. This may be the English shake ; Sax. sceacan.
Ysgin, a robe made of skin; ys and cin, a spread or covering.
Vsgodi, to shade; ysgawd, a'shade ; ys and caied.
Ysgrab, what is drawn up or puckered, a scrip ; ys and crab, what shrinks. See Eng. crab, crabbed.
Vygravu, to scrape ; ys and crav, claws, from rhav.
Ysgreg, a scream, a shriek, ysgre^iaw, to shriek, from crei;, a shriek ere(;ian, to shriek, from creg, cryg, hoarse, rough, from rhyg, vye, that ii rough ; the grain so named from its roughness. This is the English rough Lat. raucus. Here we have the whole process of formation, from the root of rough. We retain the Welsh cre(;ia.n, to shriek, in our common word, to creak, and with a formative prefix, we have shriek, and our vulgar screak The Latin ruga, a wrinkle, Eng. rug, shrug, are probably from the same
Ysgrivenu, to write, Lat. scriho, from ysgriv, a writing, from criv, a mark cut, a row of notches ; criviaw, to cut, to grave ; from rhiv, something that divides. Hence scrivener.
Ysgub, a sheaf or besom, ysgubaw, to sweep, Lat. scojxe, from cub. collection, a heap, a cube.
Ysgud, something that whirls ; ysgudaw, to whisk or scud Xerity, Right; ysguth,ysguthaw, the same.
Ysgwth, a push ; ysgwthiaw, to push or thrust ; from gwth, gwthiaw, the same ; probably allied to Eng. shoot. The Welsh has ysgythu, to jet or spout, from the same root. , , „ •
Yslac, slack, loose ; yslaciatv, to slacken ; from llac, loose, slack, Uaciaw, to slacken, from Uag, slack, sluggish ; allied to Eng. lag and slow
Yslapiaw, to slap, to flap, from yslab, what is lengthened or distended, from «o6,a flag, a strip, a stroke. Llabi, a tall, lank person, a striphng - looby, a lubber, is from the same root ; llabiaw, to slap.
Ysled, a sled, from (fed, says Owen, which denotes breadth, but it is pro- bably from the root of slide, a word probably from the same root as lied, thai is, to extend, to stretch along.
Ysmot, a patch, a spot; ysmotiaw, to spot, to dapple, from mod, Eng
Ysmwciaw, ysmygtt, to dim with smoke, from mwg, smoke. So smooth from Welsh mwyth
denial ; gwadu, to deny, or disown. If this deduction is correct, the seHse of denial is a throwing or thrusting back, a repelling. It is so in other words.
Yswitiaw, to chirp, twitter, from yswid, that makes a quick turn. Qu, twitter.
In some of the foregoing words, it appears evident that the Welsh prefix, I alteration of the Latin ex, and the words, in which this is the case.
vere probably borrowed from the Latin, while the Roman ;
i had pos-
fiom cud, ce
Yspail, spoil, from pail, farina, says Owen. I should say from the root of alea, straw, refuse, that is, from the root of peel, to strip. Yspeilwta, to be
I ball, says Owen : but this is the Latin ex
=f, foremost. The
pah pilfering.
Yspeliaw, to expel, from pel. pello, from pello. Ball may be from the same root.
Yspig, a spike, a spine ; yspigaw, to spike ; frompig, a sharp point, zpike. Hence Eng. spigot.
Yspin, a spine, from pin, pen.
Ysgynu, to ascend, Lat. ascendo, fiom cyn, first, chi( radical sense is to shoot up.
Yslw?, a slough, from llwc, a collection of water, a lake Yspar, a spear, from pdr, a cause or principle of producing, the germ or seed of a thing, a spear. This consists of the same elements as ber, a spit, and Eng.-*a»-, and in Italian bar is sbarra. The primary sense is to shoot thrust, drive. . ^ i
Yspinc, a finch, frompinc, gay, fine brisk ; a sprig, A finch. Ysplan, clear, bright ; ysplana, to explain ; ftomplan, that is parted off, ray, a shoot, a planting, a plane; -whence plant , a child; Eng planu, to shoot, as a plant. Hence splendor, W. ysplander.
Ysporthi, to support, from porth, a bearing, a port, passage, j^orta, porta.
Ystac, a stack, a heap ; ysl stuffed or clogged. . .^ rru
Ystad, a state ; ystadu, to stay ; from tad, that spreads, a continuity. J he primary sense is to set.
Fston, that is spread; a stain; tin, 'Lat. stannum; ystaeniaw, to spread over, to stain ; ystaenu, to tin, or cover with tin ; from taen, a spread, a laye Qu. is tin from spreading ?
Ystawl, a stool, from tawl, a cast or throw. The sense is to set, to throw down. TaiBl is the root of deal.
Ystor, a store, that forms a bulk, from tor, a swell, a prominence. Ystorm, a storm, from torm, that is stretched, but the sense is a rushing. Ystrym, a stream, from trym, compact, trim, that is, stretched, straight, from extending.
Ystwmp, a stump, from twmp, a round mass, a tump.
ysmafiOM', to s?uat, from jswarf, a throw, or falling down, from gtvad, a
session of England. But there is a vast number of words, with this prefix, which are not of Latin origin ; and whether ys is a native prefix in the Welsh, may be a question. One thing is certain, that s before another con- sonant, and coalescing with it, is, in a great number of words, a prefix.
The modern Italian affords abundant proof of the extensive use of s, as the remains or representative of ex ; as sballare, to unpack, itnbale ; sbar- 6ato, beardless ; sfta^iere, to abate ; sftrancare, to pluck off branches; scar- icare, to discharge ; scommodare, to inconmiode ; sconcordia, discord ; scor- breakthe horns; scrostare, to pull off the crust; and a great num- ber of others.
Now if the same manner of forming words with this prefix has actually prevailed among the northern nations of Europe, we may rationally suppose that many English words, and perhaps all of this class, are thus formed. Thus scatter may be formed from a root in Cd; shape, from C'b, Cf or Cp; skill, from the root of Lat. calleo ; slip, from the root of Lat. labor ; smart, from the root of Lat. amarus, bitter, Heb. ">n ; smite, from the root of Latin mitto ; span, from the root of pan, to stretch ; spar, from the root of bar ; speak, from the root of Lat. voco : speed, from a root in Pd, perhaps Lat. peto ; steal, from the root of Lat. tollo ; steep, from the root of deep ; stretch, from the root of reach ; sweep, from the root of wipe ; swan, from wan, white ; swell, from the root of to well. Sax. wellan, to boil, &c. That many English and other Teutonic and Gothic words are thus formed, appears to be certain.
These facts being admitted, let us examine a little further. In Russ. svadiba is a wedding. Is not this formed on the root of wed, with s for a prefix ? Svara is a quarrel. Is not this formed on the root of vary, variance, oTofspar? Sverlo is a horer; qu. bore anti veru ; svertivayu, toroU; qu. Lat. verto ; skora, furs, peltry ; qu. Fr. cuir ; skot, a beast ; qu. cattle; skupayu, to purchase in gross ; qu. cheap, Dan. kioben, and its root ; slabei, weak; qu. Lat. labor, lapsus ; slagaytt, to foW; qu. lay, and plico; slivayu, to pour out liquors ; qu. Lat. libo ; slvpayu, to peel off bark or skin ; qu. Lat. liber ; snimayu, to take away ; qu. Sax. neman, to take ; snova, new ; qu. Lat. novus ; snig, sneig, snow, Fr. neige. The Lat. nivis is from this root, with g opened to v. Russ. spletayu, to plait, &c.
The Russ. prefix so occurs in a great number of words ; sobirayu, to col- lector assemble, precisely the Heb. and Ch. 13X.
It now becomes an interesting question, to determine how far any analogy exists, between the languages of the Japhetic and Shemitic families, in regard to prefixes. For example, in the Shemitic languages, 3 is a prefix of exten- sive use, corresponding almost exactly with the English and Dlitch by, the Saxon be, and German bei. This preposition and prefix has several senses in the Saxon which are now obsolete ; but its present prevaiUng sense oc- curs in all the Shemitic languages. r\iy Dnj5 nn3, by a strong east wind. Ex. xiv. 21. Compare the following definitions of this preposition ; the Sax. from Lye. and the Shemitic from Castle.
Sax. de, e, ex, in, secus, ad, juxta, secundum, pro, per, super, propter, circa. , , ,
Heb. Ch. Syr. in, e, ex, cum, propter, usque ad, adeo ut, ad, super, per, contra, ante.
1. in, per, pro, propter, cum, secundum, apud. in, cum, propter, per, ad, erga. ... Numbers, xiv. 34, it signifies according to, or after ; D'DTI 13003, ac- cording to the number of days. This signification is now perhaps obsolete in English, but was common in the Saxon ; as, " be his majgnum," -"""--ii"" '"
plant , Lat,
standard ; from tag, a state of being
' be tham mEstan ;"
ccording to y the most, is now
his strength ; pro viribis suis,
expressed by, at the most. ,„...,
Now it is remarkable that this word in Hebrew, Arabic and Persic, is the preposition used in oaths, precisely as it is in English. Gen. xxii. 16, '3, By
myself have I sworn. Arabic, ballah or by Allah; Persic, <Jv-ij be- choda, or begoda, by God, the very words now used in English. The evi- dence then Is decisive that the Shemitic prefix a is the Teutonic be, by, bei contracted, and this Teutonic word is certainly a contraction of big, which is used in the Saxon, especially in compound words, as in bigspell, [by-spell] a fable ; bigstandan, to stand by. This prefix then was in universal use by the original stock of mankind, before the dispersion; and this word alone is demonstrative proof of the common origin of the Sheraiuc and Teutonic lan- guages. Now it is equally certain that this is the prefix b, and probably p, before I and r, in block, braigh, and a multitude of words m all the modern languages; and probably, the same letter is a prefix in many Shemitic
"" We'know that be in the Saxon bedalan, and Dutch bedeelen, is a prefix, as the simple verb is found in all the Teutonic and Gothic languages. The Hebrew and Chaldee '713 corresponds exactly in elements and m sigmtica-
INTRODUCTION.
lion, with the Saxon ;inil Dutch. Whether the fust letter is a prefix in the latter languages, let the reader judge. See the word deal, which when ced, terminates in t)ie Welsh tawl, a cast off, a throw ; separation; tawlu, to cast or throw off, to separate.
In Chaldee, y}2 signifies to scatter, to disperse. The word has the s signification in the Syriac and Samaritan.
In Ethiopic, the word with ^ prefixed, signifies to wish, love, desire, and with "t" prefixed, to strive, to endeavor, and without a prefix, strife, course, race. Both these significations are from stretching, straining.
In Arabic j^j signifies generally to hasten, to run to; but , J^j signifies to disperse, to sow or scatter seed.
This verb is written in Hebrew IfJ with precisely the .same signification. The Arabic also hajs the verb with this orthography, signifying to sow, and also to beat or strike with a stick.
Now in Syriac ; , dar, signifies to strive, or struggle. Here we have the simple verb, withotit the prefix, with the sense of the Ethiopic, with a prefix. Supra.
We find also the Arabic , i tharra, the simple verb, signifies to sprinkle We find in Chaldee Nm, mT and n\the simple verb, signifies todis
perse ; in Syriac, the same. In Arabic ) , ^ signifies to sow, like the foregoing verb, and hence to procreate. Both this and the former verb sig- nify also to whiten, a^ the hair of the head, as we say, to sprinkle wjth gray
hairs. The Arabic ^ ^ signifies to drive, to impel, to repel, to contend, to strive ; to shine, to sparkle. And here we have the literal signification of this whole class of verbs; to drive, urge, throw, send; hence to scat ter, to strive, to shoot as rays of Ught, procreate, &.c.
The Hebrew corresponding verb is mt or J?ll to scatter, to sow ; and the word witli tlie like orthography occurs in Ch. Syr. and Ar. This is the Latin sero. And who can doubt that 3 is a prefix in tlie verb ir\2 above mentioned .'
In Welsh, goberu signifies to work, to operate; gober, work, operation ; formed by the prefix go and per ; go denoting progress towards, approach, and per rendered by Owen, that pervades, a fruit, a pear ; but tlie real eense is to strain, to bring forth, to drive, thrust, urge, &c.
This word, in the Arnioric dialect, is written either gofter or ober Latin operor, whence Eng. operate. The same word is in the Ethiopic, I'Oi gaber, to make, to do. l\1(\i agabar, to cause to be made ; •^J^ "] Q 4 tagabar, to work, operate, negotiate ; 1 Q ^ gabar, a make
This is the Heb. and Ch. laj to be strong, to prevail, to establish, and as
a noun, a man; Ar. »*.:? jabara, to make strong, to heal, as a broken bone ; to strengthen.
That this Shemitic word and the Welsh and Ethiopic are all radically one, there cannot be a question ; and the Welsh proves indisputably that go is a prefix. This then is a word formed on 13 or N-13. The Heb. T3N, strong, that is, strained, and T3N, a wing, that is, a shoot, are from the same
root, and in Arabic j. j ? abara, signifies to prick, to sting, and its deriv
pike, a pear, and per, a
lance, a spit, a spear, Lat. verii ; in Welsh also spit, ai-e all doubtless of the same origin.
In Syriac, ^o. ,tsabar, signifies to make, to work or operate. Is tliis the same root with a different prefix ?
The same word in Arabic »aa» signifies to be patient, to bear, to sus- tain.
W e observe, that in the Teutonic and Gothic languages, the same word is used with different prefixes. Thus in our mother tongue, begin is writ- ten gynnan, tlie simple radical word, and aginnan, beginnan, and ongyn- nan ; and in the Gothic, duginnan, which, in English, would be, login.
Should it appear upon investigation, that verbs in the Assyrian languages have the same prefixes which occur in the European languages, the fact will evidence more affinity between the languages of these two stocks than has yet been known to exist.
Let us now attend to the natural causes which may be supposed to have obscured or desUoyed the identity or resemblance of languages which had a common origin.
The afhnity of words, in two or more different languages, is known by identity of letters and identity of significaUon ; or by letters of the same organ, and a signification obviously deducible from the same sense. Letters of the same organ, as for example, b, /,;) and j) are so easily converted, the
one into the other, and the change is so frequent, tliat this circumstance seldom occasions much obscurity. The changes of signification occasion more difficulty, not so much by necessity, as because this branch of philolo- gy is less understood.
1. CHANGE OF ARTICULATIONS, OR CONSONANTS.
The articulations, letters which represent the junctions or joinings of the organs, usually called consonants, are the stamina of words. All these are convertible and frequently converted into their cognates. The English word bear represents the Latin fero and pario, and fero is the Greek fifu. The Latin vcntus is wind in English ; and habeo is hare. The Latin dens, in Dutch, Danish and Swedish is land; and darue in English is in German tanz.
These changes are too familiar to require a multiplication of examples. But there are others less common and obvious, which are yet equally cer- tain. Thus in the Gaelic or Hiberno-Celtic,™ and mb are convertible with V ; and in Welsh m and v are changed, even in different cases of the same word. Thus in Irish the name of the hand in written either ZaniA or lav, and in Welsh maen, a stone, is written also vaen. The Greek 0 is always^ pronounced as the English v, as PouXonai, Lat. volo, EngUsh will, German* wollen ; and the sound of b tlic Greeks express by m(3.
In the Chaldee and Hebrew, one remarkable distinction is the use of a dental letter in tlie former, where the latter has a sibilant. As ni3 cuth in Chaldee is tyij cush in Hebrew ; 3rn, gold, in Chaldaic, is 3ni in He- brew. The like change appears in the modern languages ; for water which, in most of the northern languages, is written with a dental, is, in German, written wasser, and the Latin dens, W. dant, Dutch tand, Swedish and Danish tand, is, in German, zahn. The like change is frequent in the Greek and Latin. "PpaTiu, in one dialect, is (ppaircrw, in another; and the Latins often changed t of the indicative present, or infinitive, into a in the preterit and participle, as initio, mittcre, i/tisi, missus.
L and R, though not considered as letters of the same organ, are really such and changed the one into the other. Thus the Spaniards write blandir for brandish, and escolta for escort. The Portuguese write brando for bland, and branquear, to whiten, for blanch. The Greek has tffayiWm for the Latin flagellum. In Europe however this change seems to be limited chiefly to two or three nations on the coast of the Mediterranean. L is sometimes commutable with D.
We have a few instances of the change of g- or gh into/. Thus rough is pronounced j«/,and trough, traiif.
The Russians often change the d of a noun into the sound of j, or the compound g, in the verb formed from that noun ; as lad, accord, harmony, laju, to accord, or agree ; bred, damage, loss ; breju, to injure.
The Italians and French have also changed a dental into a palatal letter.
ragxone.
any words ; as Italian raggio, a ray, from Lat. radius ; reason, from ratio ; Fr. manger, to eat, from Lat. mando, or manduco.
In the south of Europe, the Greek % has been changed, in some instan- ces, into the Italian or Spanish z, and then by the French into s. It seems that the Spanish z has, at some former period, been pronounced as a guttu- ral. Thus the Gr. pf axcMi, Lat. brachium, the arm, is in Spanish brazo, and the Spaniards have the word from the Latin, or from the same source as the Latin and Greek, the Celtic braic. This word, brazo, the French changed into bras, and from that we have brace and embrace. A similar change occurs in Dnrazzo, from Dyrrachium, and in the Spanish luz, light.
The Teutonic nations often used ft to express the power of the Greek «, and the Latin c, as heart for xapSia, horn for comu. Hence we find that the Saxon hlinian, hleonian or hlynian, to lean, is the Greek kAho), Latin clino. The letter h is now dropped and we wiite the word lean.
In like manner, the Saxon hlid, which we no root as tlie Latin claudo, cludo, Ihp liirfk .'■■ hAhm. And in this word we may ■ ■!
not only to shut, but to praise oi Latin plaudo, are the same, with that the primary sense is to strai.
write lid, is from the same •. wliich is contracted into ' t, that the word signifies 1^ that this word and tlio , the same as laudo, and .uii appears in hlud, loud.
Latin, /and h have been converted, as hordeum for fordeum ; and the Spaniards now write A for/, as Aacer for the Latin facere ; hilo for Jilum ; herir {orferire, Uc.
3. CHANGE OF VOWELS.
The change of vowels is so common, as to occasion no difficulty in deter- mining the sameness of words ; indeed little or no regard is to be had to them, in ascertaining the origin and affinity of languages. In this opinion I accord with almost a^l writers on this subject ; but! have to combat the opin- ion of that elegant scholar, Sir William Jones, who protests against the licen- tiousness of etymologists, not only in transposing letters, but in totally disre- garding the voicels, and seems to admit the common origin of words only "'hen written with the same letters, and used in a sense precisely the same.*
* Asiatic Researches, vol. 3, p. 4S9.
INTRODUCTION.
I am not at all surprised at the common prejuJice existing against etymol- ogy. As the subject has been treated, it is justly liable to all the olyeclions urged against it. But it is obvious that Sir W. Jones had given very little attention to the subject, and that some of its most common and obvious prin- ciples had escaped his obseiTation. His opinion with regard to both articu- lations and vowels is unequivocally erroneous, as will appear from the fol- lowing list of words, taken from modern languages, and respecting the identity of which, that gentleman himself, if living, could not have the slightest doubt.
English. Saxon. Dutch. German. Swedish. Latin. draw, I Jiagau, trekken, tragen, draga, tralio.
give, gifan, geeven, geben, gifva,
feet, j
fot, fet, voet, hook, hoc, haak,
day, dag, dajg, daag,
have, habban, hebben,
[Fr. avoir, ai, as leap, hleapan, loopen.
fuss, haken,
fot.
pes.
hake, tag, dag,
haben, hafva,
, avons, avez, ont.] laufen, lopa.
hranden, brennen, willcn, woUen,
, vclle.
sten, bred, jord, Dan. iord.
burn, byr
will, willan,
stone, Stan,
broad, bred,
earth, eorth,
who, hwa, wie, ho, Dan. hvo.
seek, secan, zoeken, suchen, s5kia, sequor.
bean, bean, boon, bohne, bona, Dan. bonne.
Here are scarcely two words written with the same letters in two lan- guages; and yet no man ever called in question their identity, on account of the difference of orthography. The diversity is equally great in almost all other words of the same original. So in the same words we often find the vowel changed, as in the Lat. facio, feci ; ago, egi ; sto, steti ; vello, vulsi. Nothing is more certain than that the Welsh gwyz, and the English wood, are the same word, although there is one letter only common to them both. It is pronounced gooyth, that is, g, and wyth ; as guard for ward.
3. CHANGE OR LOSS OF RADICAL LETTERS.
There are some words, which, in certain languages, have suffered a change of a radical letter ; while in others it is wholly lost. For example, word, in Danish and Swedish is ord; wort, a plant, is urt ; the Saxon gear, orger, English year, in Danish is aar, in Swedish is &r, in Dutch jaar, and in German jaAr.
In the word, yoke, and its affinities, we have a clear and decisive example of changes in orthography. Yoke, the Latin jugvm, is from the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic JU. zug, 'o join, to couple ; a word not found in the He- brew. The Greeks retained the original letters in {u7o!, ?u7ou ; the Latins changed the first letter to J m jugum, and inserted a casual n in j'ungo. From the Latin, the Italians formed giogo, a yoke, and giugnere, to join ; the Spaniards, yugo, a yoke, and junior, to join ; the French, ^'oMg, a yoke, and ^omdre, to join. In Saxon, yoke is geoc or ioc ; in Dutch, juk; G. joch; Sw. ok.
One of the most general chaqges that words have undergone is the entire loss of the palatal letter g, when it is radical and final in verbs; or the open- ing of that articulation to a vowel or diphthong. We have examples in the English bow, from Saxon bugan, to bend ; buy, from bycgan; brow, from Ircg ; lay, I'rom IcBgan, or lecgan ; say, from siegan ;fair, from fceger ; flail, from the' German /eg-c/, Lat. flagellum; French nier, from Lat. nego, ne- gare.
The same or similar changes have taken place in all the modern langua- ges of which I have any knowledge.
The loss and changes of radical letters in many Greek verbs deserve par- ticular notice. We find in the Lexicons, irpayiia, 7rpa7o!, Trpaxuxoi, are refer- red to Trpao-cru, wpatTO, as the theme or root ; Toyua, to laaau ; purup, to pra ; and cpfaytia, to (ppcio-o-o). This reference, so far as it operates as a direction to the student where to find the verb to which the word belongs, and its explana- tion, is useful and necessary. But if the student supposes that these words are formed from the theme, so called, or the first person of the indicative mode, present tense, he is deceived. I am confident no example can be found, in any language, of the palatals 7 and «, formed from the dentals and sibilants, 1 and a, nor is piittop,or any similar word formed by the addition of the dental to a verb ending in a vowel. The truth is, the last radical in pro is lost, in the indicative mode, and inirpaaaiji, nptmu, it is changed. The ra- dical lost in pro is 5 or 9 ; the original word was ptSu or piSoi, and the deriva- tives pnTup, pniopiKn, were formed before the radical letter was dropped in the verb. No sooner is the verb restored to its primitive form, than we recog- nize its connection with the Irish raidham, to speak ; Saxon rad, speech ; 7tedan, to read ; German rath, Dutch raad. Sac.
The original root of irpao-trm, was irpa7M, irpaxu, or irpctKU, and from this were formed irpa7iia, irpaHTixot, before the last radical was changed. No sooner is the original orthography restored, than we see this to be the Teutonic verb.
German brauclien, Dutch gebruiken, Danish hruger, Sw. briilia. Sax. bru- can, to use, io practice, and hence the English broka:
The same remarks are api)licable to ia7na and rao-o-oj ; (ppa7Mo and (ppao-o-to ; alkay-n and aUac-uu ; xapcuTnp and xafaccra, and many other words of like for- mation. In all these cases, the last radical letter is to be sought in the deri- vatives of the verb, and in one of the past tenses, particularly in an aorist. This fact affords no feeble evidence that in Greek, as in the Shemitic langua- ges, the preterit tense or an aorist, was the radix of the verb.*
But it is not in the Greek language only that we are to seek for the primi- tive radical letters, not in what is now called the root of the verb, but in the derivatives. The fact is the same in the Latin, and in the English. The Latin fluctus and fluxi, cannot be deduced (rom fluo ; but the orthography of these words proves demonstrably that the original root wasflugo, or fluco. So in English sight cannot be deduced from see, for no example can be found of the letter g introduced to form the participles of verbs. Sight, in Saxon gesicht, D. zigt, G. sicht, Dan. sigt, Sw. sickt, is a participle ; but the verb in the infinitive, in Saxon is seon, geseon, Ger. sehen, D. zicn, Dan. seer, Sw. se ; in which no palatal letter is found, from which g or ch can be deduced. The truth then is that the original verb was segan, or in Dutch zegen ; the g being lost as it is in the French nier, from the Lat. nego.
In the change ol letters in the Greek verbs before mentioned, the process seems to have been from 7 or » to J, and then to o- and t ; Trfaym, jrpnju, nfac- aa, FpciTTW. This is certainly a process which is natural and common. The Latin brachiuni thus became in Spanish brazo, and then in French bras : and thus in the ItaUan, Alexandria has become Alessandria.
When the last radical of a Greek verb is a dental, it may not be certain whether the original letter was d, or th or t. ' We find the Greek verb oTraK, to draw, forms its derivatives with <r, airaaiia, araais ■ and this is probably the Armoric spaza, from which we have spay. So <ppa{u, tpfaun, and (ppaln, are evidently of the same family. It is not improbable that the original letter might have a compound sound, or it might correspond neaily to the Arabic I3 or (^ J or the English dh or th, or ds, so as easily to pass into d oi
It is equally clear that many Greek words have lost an initial consonant. The letter most generally lost is probably the oriental n, but obviously the palatals, 7 and «, have, in many instances, been dropped. There seems to be no question that the Greek o\oi is the English whole and perhaps all. This in Welsh is oil or holl, in Saxon al or geall ; and this is undoubtedly the Shemitic '73. So the Gr. o>,Auni is the Welsh colli, to lose ; and £iAro may be the EngUsh coi7, Fr. cueillir.
In like manner, the Greek has, in many words, lost a labial initial, answer- ing to the English 6,/or v. The Greek ii5w is undoubtedly the Latin video ; ifyot is from the same root as work ; lim is from the root olvid, in the Latin
divide, and individuus, that is, separate, and from the Arabic, Jv j badda, to separate.
In many instances, the Latin retained or restored the lost letter ; thus ha- maxa, for ojiaja ; harpago for a^ira.-y-n ; harmonia for opuona ; video for £i5w.
If the marks of breathing, called spiritus asper and spiritus lenis, now pre- fixed to Greek words, were intended to represent the letters lost, or to stand in the place of them, they answer this purpose very imperfectly. The spir- itus asper may stand for a palatal or guttural letter, but it does not designate which letter, the n, or the 3 ; much less does this or the other spiritus just- ly represent the labials, 6,/, d or «). Whenever the Latins wrote A in the place of the Greek spiritus, we may conclude that the original letter was n or a cognate letter ; and we may conclude also that the » in video, and in diiyido, viduus, individuus, stands for the original labial lost in iidu, and iJus. But there are many words, I apprehend, in which the lost letter is unknown, and in which the loss cannot be recovered, by any marks prefixed to the words. We may well suppose that hymnus exhibits the correct written form of uuio! ; but what is there in the Greek uipi, to lead us to consider this word as the English woof, and ucpau, to be the same as weave ? Both the Greek words have the spiritus asper.
What proportion of Greek words have been contracted by the loss of an in- itial or final consonant, cannot, I apprehend, be determined with any pre- cision ; at least, not in the present state of philological knowledge. It is pro- bable the number of contracted words amounts to one fourth of all the verbs, and it may be more.
Similar contractions have taken place in all other languages ; a circum- stance that embarrasses the philologist and lexicographer at every step of his researches; and which has led to innumerable mistakes in Etymology. We know that the Swedish &r, and Danish aar, a year, have lost the articulation
g, and that the English y in year, is the representative of g, asj
" * ' ' " jahr : for the g is found in our mother lougue
and in a multitude of words, one language will supply the means of deter
Dutch jaar, and German
* KptUfu, in Greek, is to cry like a crow or rook ; but the last radical is changed fiom 7, as in the second aorist, it forms «pa7iii. Now in Danish, crow is krage, in Ger. krahe, in D. kraai, in Sw. kr&ka; a fact that demonstrates the last radical letter to be a palatal, which in English is opened too, in crow.
INTRODUCTION.
mining the real origin or true orthography which cnnn.i I ■ i. 1 1 iruHl by anotlier. But doubtless many changes have taken pi i i I ' i. ■ evi-
dence is uncertain ; the chain which might conduct \ I ^ ' ii . I.iithog- raphy being broken, andno meansnow remaining ol II I n 11 _ ■'■.
In no language, has the rejection or change of consonants s n ft
ually to obscure the original words as in the French. So t-M ■ I
been the changes of orthography in that language, that hii<l n lexicographers indicated the loss of letters by a mark, it would I ir i : , 1 1 » i I now to discover the original orthography, or to trace tlic connection oi w .1 with other languages, in a large portion of them. And it is with r.'in we observe the influence of the French practice of suppressing consoii n; extending itself to other countries. It is owing to the most servile obsicin, ousness of nations, that Basil or Basilea, the elegant name of a town m Switzerland, has been corrupted to Basle, and pronounced most barbarously bale. The Germans are pursuing a like course in suppressing the palatal letters; a most unfortunate circumstance for the strength of the language.
The Italians also have a disposition to reject letters when they interfere with their habits ofpronunciation, and hence we see, in their language, ^ia- no, written (or piano ; fiore (or flore ; fiocco (or flocco; a change that has removed a radical consonant, and thus obscured or ratlier destroyed the affin- ity between the Italian and the Latin words.
Another dilTerence of writing and pronouncing, has been produced by the change of a sibilant letter into an aspirate : or e converso, by the change of an a.spirate into a sibilant. No person doubts whether the Latin super is the Greek uirip ; or o|ia\M is similh ; or a\! is sal, salt. The latter in Welsh is halen, hal. So helyg, a willow, in Welsh, is in Latin salix. Thq (Jreek ma is the Latin septem, English seven. This in Persic is C>.x& heft or haft, which approaches the Greek itna. It has been commonly sup- posed, that in this case, the aspirate in Greek has been converted into an s. There are however strong reasons for believing that the change has been the reverse, and that s has been dropped, and its place supplied by an
aspirate. The word seven is, beyond a question, the Sheniitic ^ j^^ i,'2e>, whence nat?, Eng. sabbath ; and the Gaelic sean, old, whence Latin
senex, in Welsh hen, seems clearly to be the Ar. ^ sanna, to be old.
It is then clear that in these words .s is radical. It is probable however that the aspirate, in some cases, has been changed into s.
It deserves to be noticed that the radix of a word is sometimes obscured, in Greek and Latin, by the loss or change of a radical letter in the nomina- tive case. We find in Latin nepos, in the nominative, is nepotis in the gen- itive ; honos, honoris, &.c. In these changes, I suppose the letter restored in the oblique cases to be the true radical letter. Thus adamant has been deduced by our etymologists from the Greek a negative and ianau, to sub- due, on the supposition that the stone was named from its hardness. This is a good example of a great part of all etymological deductions ; they arc mere conjectures. It did not occur to the inquirer that adamas, in the nommative, becomes in the gentive adamantis ; that n is radical, and that this word cannot be regularly deduced from the Greek verb. Any person^ by looking into a Welsh dictionary, may see the original word.
In some words it is not easy to determine whether n before d is casual or radical. In such words as the Latin fundo, to pour, and tundo, to beat there is rea.son to think the n is casual, for the preterit is formed without it, fudt, tutuJt. But ni other words n before d seems to be radical, and the d casual ; as in fundo, fundare, to found. For this word coincides with the Irish bun, foundation, and with the Shemitic nj3, banah, to build. So the English yt«(Z is in Swedish ^inna, and in is in Danish ind.
Another fact of considerable consequence, is, the casual sound of n .-ivcn tog, which produced the elTect of doubling the 7 in Gi-cek, an. I ..I .1, , 7 , u
mg the insertion of n before g in the Latin, as also in the '
Gothic languages. Thus we see the 7 is doubled in the Greik we know, m this case, how the change originated; for the oii.Mi> ,1 v. \,' 1 m the Gaelic and Irish, agalla. So 7 is prefixed to another palatal or -ut- tural letter in wyx'-', 07x01, £771^10.
A similar nasal sound of g probably introduced the n before s in lin-'o. to hck ,• hnquo, to leave.
We may be confident, in all cases, that n is not radical, when it is dropped in the supine and participle, as in Kctvm, Hctus, from linguo. When n is retained in t.ie supine and participle, there may be more reason for doubt; but m this case, the question may often be determined by the coriespondin<r word m aiKither language, or by some other word evidently of the sami lick are the
family.
word.
little doubt that lingo and the English "* the Lat. lingua and ligula arc of
This casua insertion of n in words of this class must be carefully noticed by the etymologist, or he will overlook the affinity of words, which are evi- dent y the same. We have many words in English which are written with n belore a g or a k, when the ancient words in the Gothic and Teutonic lan- guages and some of them in the modern Danish and Swedish, are written without n. Thus sink, in Gothic is sigcwan; to think, is thagkyan. It is not improbable that the (Jothic word was pronounced with the sound of n
Vol. I. C
■ ng- as in English. So i
- ^stances, we find the Sw .
jways, as tlinka, ttenker and tycka, tykker, to thinks But in general the Ger-
ans, Danes, Swedes and Dutch write words of this sort with ng.
To show how important it is to know the true original orthography, I will iition one instance. In our mother tongue, the word to dye, or color, is
nw-ndeagan; the elements or radical letters are dg. To determine il'.cr Ibis and the Latin tingo arc the same words, we must first know il]r ■ 11 in tingo is radical or casual. This we cannot know with cer- . ! ■ t'li- form of the word itself, for the n is carried through all the ' I iiMiiis of the verb. But by looking into the Greek, we find the
-, i vM,,Hii with 7, Tiv'/y; and this clearly proves the alliance of the
tiiil «iiii deagan. .'^rr- /(i,r in tin Hirtionary. j We have many Enjili ' lib a rf ha? been inserted before ;?,
3.% ia badge, budge, Iml'. , -,. In all words, I believe, of this
class, the dis casual, tn,.i . .; , > ,„ ,„^ is the radical letter, as pledge from the French pleige ; UK^t 1 1 um tin- .s^xon wecg. The practice of inserUng d in words of this sort seems to have originated in the necessity of some mode of preserving the English sound of g, which might otherwise be sounded as the French g before e. And it is for this reason we still retain, and ought to retain d in alledge, abridge. In like manner the Teutonic c has been changed into the sound of ch, as Sax. wacian, wacian, to wake, to watch; Sax. thac, thatch.
There are some nations which, in many words, pronounce and write g before u or w ; as in the French guerre, for war; guede, for woad ; guet- ter. for wait : in Welsh, gwal, for wall; gwain, for wain ; gwared, for guard, which in EngHsh is ward, Sp. guarda. In some instances, the u or u) is dropped in modern writing, as in the French garcniu, a warren : garde, for guard. ThisditTerence of orthography makes it difficult, in some cases, to ascertain the true radical letters.
CHANGE OF SIGNIFICATION.
Another cause of obscurity in the affinity of languages, and one thai seems to have been mostly overlooked, is, the change of the primary sense of the radical verb. In most cases, this change consists in a slight deflec- tion, or difference of application, which has obtained among diflerent fam- ilies of the same stock. In some cases, the literal sense is lost or obscured and the figurative only is retained. The first object, in such cases, is to find the primary or literal sense, from which the various particular applica- tions may be easily deduced. Thus, we find in Latin, libeo, libet, or lubeo, lubet, IS rendered, to please, to like ; lubens, willing, glad, cheerful, pleas- ed; hbenter, lubenter, willingly, gladly, readily. What is the primary sense, the visible or physical action, from which the iie&ot willing is taken? I find, either by knowing the radical sense of willing, ready, in other cases, or by the predominant sense of the elements lb, as in Lat. labor, to slide, liber, free, &c. that the primary sense is to move, incline or advance towards an object, and hence the sense of willing, ready, prompt. Now this Latin word is the English love, German lieben, Hebe. " Lubet me ire." I love to go ; I am inclined to go ; I go with cheerfulness ; but the affinity between love and lubeo has been obscured by a slight ditTerence of applica- tion, among the Romans and the Teutonic nations.
Perhaps no person has suspected that the English words heat, hate and hest, in behest, are all radically the same word. But this is the fact. Sax. hattan, to heat, or be hot, and to hate ; haitan, to heat and to call ; hatan, to call, to order, to command ; ge-haitan or gehatan, to grow warm, to promise, to vow ; Gothic, gahaitan, to call, to promise ; Dutch, heeten, to heat, to name, to call, bid or command ; German, heitzen. to heat ; heissen, to call; hitzen, to heat, to hoist; Swedish, hetsa, to inflame, to provoke : Dt.viivl, hnlrr. Inlie;ii, to be culled. Behest, we have from the German or ~>''''| >| I'i'I'i Hull loiiuides with the Latin astus torhtnstus, which ' ' I'l' ". ' '" III' <.irnian. //a<e coincides with the Latin otZi,
■' • • > :>'• I' '"1 h.'di. luimti, and as the Teutonic h often represents the Ljiiti J, ,u m Ian a, cuuui, tlic Danish orthography heder, coincides with the Latin cito, to call. Now what is the radical sense .' Most obviously to stir, agitate, rouse, raise, implying a driving or impulse ; and hence in Latin iBstuo, to be hot, and to rage or storm ; hence to excite, and hence the sense of the Latin cito, quickly, from stirring, rousing to action. In this case hatred, as well as heat, is violent excitement. We find also in the Saxon and Gothic the sense of vowing, that is, of driving out the voice, uttering, de- claring, a sense allied to calling and commanding, and to this is allied the sense of the Latin recito, to recite.
In English befall signifies to fall on, to happen to ; in German the same word, befallen, has the like signification. But in Saxon gefeallan signifies to fall, to rush on, while in German gefallen signifies to please, that is, to suit, to come to one's mind, to be agreeable. The Danish gefalder has the same signification as the German.
We find by the Saxon, that tlie English reck, to care, and reckon, and the Latin rego, to rule, are all the same word, varied in orthography and appU- cation. To hnd the primary sense of reck, to care, we are then to examine the various derivative senses. And we need go no farther than to the Latin rec- tus and English right, the sense of which is straight, for tliis sense is de- rived from straining, stretching. Care then is a straining of the mind.
INTRODUCTION.
a sUetcliing towards an object, coinciding with the primary sense of atten- tion. The primary sense of reckon is to strain out sounds, to speak, tell, relate ; a sense now disused.
The Saxon care, care, ctcrcian, to care, to cark, is connected in origin with the Latin career, a prison ; Ijoth from the sense of straining, whence holding or restraint.
To prove how the jirimary general sense of a word may ramify into differ- ent senses, by special appropriation of the word among separate families of men proceeding from the same stock, let us observe the different senses in wliich leap is used by the English, and by the nations on the continent. In English, to leap is simply to spring; as, to leap a yard ; to leap over a fence. But on the continent it signifies to run. Now it will be seen that this word as used by the Germans cannot always be translated by itself, that is, by the same word, into English. Take for illustration the following pas- .sage from Luther's Version of the Scriptures. 1. Sam. xvii. 17. " Nimm fUr deine bruder diese epha sangen, und diese zehen brod, und lai^'ms heer zu deinen brudern." " Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and leap to the camp to thy brethren." Leap, instead of run, is good German, but bad English.* There are two other words in this passage, of which a like remark may be made. The German brod, loaves, is our bread, which admits of no plural ; and sangan is our singed, which we cannot apply to parched corn.
So in some of the Teutonic languages, to warp kittens or puppies, to ivarp eggs, is correct language, though to our cars very odd ; but this is only a particular application of the primary sense, to throw. We say to lay eggs, but to lay is to throtv down.
By this comparison of the different uses and applications of a word, we are able, in most cases, to detect its original signification. And it is by this means, I apprehend, that we may arrive at a satisfactory explanation of the manner in which the same word came to have different and even opposite significations.
It is well known, for example, that the Hebrew word p3, is rendered, in our version of the Scriptures, both to bless and to curse. The propriety of the latter rendering is controverted by Parkhurst, who labors to prove, that in Kings and in Job, where it is rendered, to curse, it ought to be rendered, to bless; and he cites, as authorities, the ancient versions. It is true that in 1 Kings xxi. 10. 13 ; and in Job i. 11, and ii. 5, the seventy have rendered the word by euAo^iu), to bless ; and other ancient versions agree with the Septuagint. But let the word be rendered by bless in the following passa- ges. " Put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone, and his flesh, and he will Wess thee to thy face." " J5tos God and die." How very absurd does such a translation appear. It shows the immense importance of understand- ing the true theory of language, and the primary sense of radical words. Let us then endeavor to discover, if possible, the source of the difficulty in the case here mentioned. To be enabled to arrive at the primary sense, let us examine the word in the several languages, first, of the Shemitic, and then of the Japhetic stock.
Heb. "jia To bless ; to salute, or wish a blessing to.
2. To curse ; to blaspheme.
3. To couch or bend the knee, to kneel. Deriv. A blessing, and the knee. Chaldee, ■]"13 To bless ; to salute at meeting, and to bid farewell at
partin^^
2. To bend the knee.
3. To dig ; to plow ; to set si
The
'.e ; a blei To fall
Deriv. Syriac, V. 27.
2. To issue or proceed from. Math.
3. To bless.
plant for propagation.
Talm. and Rabbin. a cion ; the young of fowls. 0 fall or bow down. Judg,
Samaritan, ii'\Si To bless.
Ethiopic, fl/!tl To bless. Deriv. the knee.
Arabic, ,^j.j To bend the knee ; to fall on the breast, as a camel.
2. To be firm,' or fixed.
3. To rain violently ; to pour forth r;iin, as the clouds. Gr. Ppix".
4. To detract from ; to traduce ; to reproach or pursue with reproaches to revile.
5. To bless; to pray for a blessing on ; to prosper; to be blessed.
6. To hasten ; to rush, as on an enemy ; to assail.
Deriv. The breast ; the bason of a fountain ; a fish pond, or receptacle of water, as in Heb. and Ch, : also increase ; abundance ; constancy ; splendor; a flash of light.
In the latter sense, usually from Oj. j Heb. and Ch. pi3. The Arabic word supplies us with thecertain means of determining th^ radical sense ; for among other significations, it has the sense of pouring
forth rain ; and this is precisely the Greek ppix". The primary sense then send, throw, or drive, in a transitive sense ; or in an intransitive sense, to rush, to break forth.
To bless and to curse have the same radical sense, which is, to send or pour out words, to drive or to strain out the voice, precisely a< in the Latin ippello, from pello, whence peal, as of thunder or of a bell. The two penses pring from the appropriation of loud words to express pa: iiciilar acts. This depends on usage, like all other particular applications of one general .^iini- fication. The sense in Scripture is to utter words cithir in a good or bad sense ; to bless, to salute, or to rail, to scold, to rrproaeh ; and this very 1 is probably the root of repj-oacA, as it certainly iinftlie LM'mprecor, used, like the Shemitic word, in both senses, pnnjinfr ;iTni cursing, or de-
ecating." It is also the same word as the Enj;li-,li ;))<n/, II. pregare, L. precor, the same aspreach, D.preeken, W. pregethv. To the same family be- long the Gr. Ppax^^, PpiTCM, Ppuxaojiai, to bray, to roaj-, to low, Lat. rugio. Here we see that bray is the same word, applied to the voice of the ass and to breaking in a mortar, and both are radically the same word as break.
The sen.se of kneeling, if radical, is to throw, and if from the noun, the sense of the noun is a throwing, a bending.
The Chaldee sense of digging, if radical, is from thrusting in an instrument,
breaking the ground ; but perhaps it is a sense derived from the name of
ihoot or cion, and in reality, to set a shoot, to plant.
The Syriac use of this word in Matthew xv. 19, is intransitive, to issue,
shoot or break forth. So in Arabic, to rush on, to assault. The sense of firmness in Arabic is from setting, throwing down, as in kneeling ; and hence the sense of breast, the fixed, firm part.
That this word has the sense both of blessing and of cursing or reproach- ing, we have demonstrative evidence in the Welsh language. Hheg, in Welsh, is "[13, without the prefix. It signifies a sending out; utterance; a gift or present ; a consigning ; a ban, a curse or imprecation. Rhegu, to give ; to consign ; to curse. From rhtg is formed preg, a greeting, or salu- tation, [the very Hebrew and Chaldee word,] pregeth, a sermon, and pre- gethu, to preach. Here we have not only the origin oi preach, but another important fact, that preg, and of course y^l, is a compound word, composed of a prefix, p or b, and rheg. But this is not all ; the Welsh greg, a cack- ling, gregar, to cackle, is formed with the prefix g on this same rheg. [Dan. krage, a crow.]
In Welsh, bregu signifies to break ; breg, a breach, a rupture. This Owen deduces from bar, but no doubt erroneously. It is from rhegu, and there is some reason to think that break is from p3, rather than from pnS, but probably both are from one radix, with different prefixes.
We observe one prominent sense of the Arabic i»J\j baraka, is to rain violently ; to pour forth water, as clouds. This is precisely the Greek (3pixM ; word found in all the Teutonic and Gothic languages, but written cither with or without its prefix.
Saxon, riBgn or regn, rain ; regnan, to rain.
Dutch, regen, rain ; regenen, beregenen, to rain upon.
German, regen, rain ; regnen, to rain ; beregnen, to rain on.
Swedish, regna, to rain.
Danish, regn, rain ; regner, to rain.
Saxon, racu, rain ; Cimbric, riekia, id.
Here we find that the English rain, is from the same root as the Welsh rhig, rhegu, and the Shemitic "jlj.
Pursuing the inquiry further, we find that the Saxon recan, or reccan, [W. rhegu,'] signifies to speak, to tell, to relate, to reckon, the primary sense of which last is to speak or tell ; also, to rule, which shows this to be the La- tin rego ; also to care, which is the English reck. That this is the same word as rain, we know fiom the Danish, in which language, regner signi- fies both to rain and to reckon, to tell, to count or compute. In the German, the words are written a little differently ; rechnen, to reckon, and regnen, to rain. So in Dutch, reekenen and regenen; but this is a fact by no means uncommon.
Here we find that the English reckon and reck, and the Latin rego, arc the same word. The pi imary sense is to strain, to reach, to stretch. Care is a stretching of the mind, like attention, from the Latin tendo, and re- straint is the radical sense of governing. Hence rectus, right, that is, straight, stretched.
Hence we find that rain and the Latin regnum, reign, are radically the same word.
Now in Saxon racan, or racan, is the English reach, to stretch or extend, from the same root, and probably reek, Saxon recan, reocan, to fume or smoke ; for this is, to send off.
I might have mentioned before, that the Chaldee n0">3, a cion or branch, is precisely the Celtic word for arm; Irish icoic, or raio:/) ; AVelsh Araif ; whence the Greek (3?axi"i, the Latin brachium, whence the Spanish braio, whence the French bras, whence the English brace. The arm is a shoot, a branch, and branch is from this root oi- one of the family, n being casual ; branch for brach.
He walks, he leaps, he i
In^robusurget iratis precibus." — Horace.
INTRODUCTION.
On this word, let it be further obser\-cd, or on p-a or p-i3, if radically different, are formed, with the prefix s, the German sprechen, to speak, spracAe, speech ; Dutch spreeken, spraak ; Swedish spr&ka, syroA; Da- nish sprog, speech ; and Swedish spricka, to break; Danish sprekker. The same word with n casual is seen in spring, the breaking or opening of the winter; and here we see the origin of the marine phrase, to spring a mast, Danish springer, to burst, crack or spring. This in Swedish is written without n, spricka, to break, burst, split ; but a noun of this family has n, fpringa, a crack, and spring, a spring, a running.
Now let us attend to other Shemitic words consisting of cognate elements.
Chaldee, -tlil To rub or scrape ; to rub out or tread out, as grain from the car or sheaf; Latin/rico,/rio.
2. To collect and bind, as sheaves; perhaps English, lo rake.
3. To break or break down.
4. To question; to doubt. In Saxon and Gothic fragnan, fragan, signi- fies to ask.
Deriv. Froward ; perverse. Prov. ii. 12. So in English refractory.
This verb is not in the Hebrew; but there are two derivatives, one signi- fying tlie inner vail of the temple ;'so called probably from its use in break- i'ng^Wvit is, interrupting access, or separation, like diaphragm in Engli.sh. The other derivative is rendered rigor, or cruelty ; that which strains, op- presses, breaks down, or rakes, harasses.
With this verb coincides the Irish bracaim, to break, to harrow, that is, to rake.
Syr. 3;.3 To rub, so rendered, Lukevi. 1. Lat. /;ico. A d( sijnities to comminute. 'Deriv. Distortion ; winding ; twisting. Let this be noted.
Ar. ^j.3 To rub, Lat. /ric«.
2. To hate, as a husband or wife ; to be languid, or relaxed.
Deriv. Laxity ; franeibility ; friability.
Heb. p-13 To 6reafr,burst, or rend; to break off; to separate.
Deri\! A breaking or parting of a road.
Ch. p13 To break.
2. Tb redeem, that is, to free, separate or deliver.
3. To explain, a-s a doubtful question. Deriv. One who ransoms or delivers ; a rupture ; the neck or
breaking connected in tliis
joint of a reed ; a chapter, pni)> a rupture, coinciding
ture ; a joint of the fingers, &c. ; the ankle or section of a book ; explanation ; expositic with the English broke.
Syr. ,0\.S> To redeem.
2. To depart ; to remove ; to separate.
Deriv. A recess, or withdrawing ; separaUon ; liberation ; redemption ; safely ; vertebra.
Sam. The same as tlie Syriac verb.
Ar. o.i to separate ; to divide; to withdraw; to disperse, [qu. Lat spargo\] to lay open; to disclose ; to cast out ; to immerse.
Deriv. Separation ; distinction ; distance ; inter\'al ; dispersion ; aurora, as we say, the break of day; also, a garment reaching to the middle of the thigh, qu. frock; also bre'ech.
I have placed these two words together, because I am convinced they are both of one family, or formed on the same radical word. The latter coincides exactly with the Latin frango,fregi,fractum, for n in frango, is undoubt- edly casual. Now in Welsh bregu, to break, would seem to be directly con- nected with "113, yet doubtless bregii is the English break, the German brechen, the Dutch breeken, &c. In truth, the three words -p^, pg and pi3 are probably all from one primitive root, formed with different prefixes, or rather with the same prefix differently written ; the different words bearing appropriate senses, among different tribes of men.
We observe in the Chaldee word the sense of questioning. Perhaps this may be the Gothic /roo^an, to ask, and if so, it coincides with the Latin rogo. the latter without the prefix. In tlie sense of break, we find, in the Greek, pT\7vuM, without a prefix. j
Most of the significations of these verbs are too obvious to need illustra tion. But we find in the Syriac the sense of distortion, a sense which a first appears to be remote from that of breaking or bursting asunder. Bu this is probably the primary sense, to strain, to stretch, a sense we retain in the phrase, to break upon the wheel, and by dropping the prefix, we have the precise word in the verb, to racfr.
Now if this is the genuine sense, we find it gives the English wreck and wrack, the Danish vrag, Sw. vrak, a wreck. In Saxon, wracan, wrecan is the English wreak, that is, to drive, or throw on ; wrace, is an exile, a uretch. In D.in. vrnger signifies to reject; Sw.vraka, to throw away; all implying a driving force, and that wreck is connected with breakis prob- able for another reason, that the Latin fractus, frango, forms a constituent part of naufiagium, the English shipwreck, which in Danish is simply wag-.
Now if straining, distortion, is one of the senses of this root, the English wring, tcTong, Danish crang, Sw. vr&ng, may be deduced from it, for un- doubtedly n is not radical in these words. The Dutch have wringen, but the German drops the first letter and has ringen, both to twist or wind and
to ring or sound ; the l.itlcr sense from stiainiiig or throwing, as in other cases. Without n, wring would be wrig, and wrong, wrog ; wrung, vorag, Dan. vrag.
In Greek, p<i7oi is a blanket or coverlet, and connected with pnyiuiii; that is, a spread, from stretching, or throwing over.
We find also among the Chaldee derivatives the sense of a neck, and a joint. Now we find this word in Irish, braigh, the neck ; in Greek, with- out the prefix, faxn, the spine of the back, Saxon, hraeca, English, the rack, and from the Greek, the rickets, from distortion.
Coinciding with the Greek priyiuw, to break, we find in Welsh rhwgaw, to rend, and coinciding with paxm, a rock, a crag, Welsh, eraig, and connect- ed with these, the Saxon hracod, English ragged, that is, broken ; evidently the participle of a verb of this family.
Hence we find the senses of distortion and root, in a great variety of instances.
The Shemitic p^3, to lighten, to shine or flash, is one of this family. The
sense is to shoot' or dart, to throw, as in all like cases. And under this
;, the Arabic has the sense, to adorn, as a female ; to make bright or
shining ; which gives the English prank and prink, D. pragt, 0. pracht.
Prance is of the same family, from leaping, starting, darting up.
In Greek Ppayu:, short, stands in the Lexicons as a primary word or root. But this is from the root of break, which is lost in Greek, unless in fnym, without the prefix. From ppax"!, or the root of this word, the French lan- guage has abreger, to abridge, and what is less obvious, but equally certain, that from the same root the Latin has brevis, by sinking the palatal let- ter, as we do in bow, from bugan, and in lay, from lecgan ; so thai abridge and abbremate, brief, are from one root.
It should have been before mentioned that the Latin refragor, signifies to resist, to strive against, to deny, whence refractory ; a sense that demon- strates the primary sense to be to strain, urge, press ; and refraction, in optics, is a breaking of the direct course of rays of light by turning them ;
sense coinciding witli that of distortion.
We see then that one predominant sense of break, is, to strain, to distort. Let us now examine some of the bilitcrai roots in rg and rk, wliich, if b
a prefix, must be the primary elements of all the words above mentioned.
Ch. in To desire, to long for. This is the Greek op<7w, and English to reach; for desire is expressed by reaching forward, stretcliing the mind to-
ards the object. So in Latin appeto, and expeto, from peto, to move to-
ards. This coincides nearly with the Latin rogo, to ask, and the Goth. fragnan. Sax. frcegnan.
Syr.^ ; To desire ; and with olaph prefixed,.,^ ] to desire, or long ; also to wet or moisten; also J^ to moisten — Latin rigo, irrigo, to irrigate.
Deriv. Tender, soft, fresh, from moisture or greenness. Qu. Lat recent,
derivative.
Here desire and irrigation are both from one root; desire is a reaching forward, and irrigation is a spreading of water.
This root, in Hebrew JIN, signifies to weave, or connect as in texture and net work ; but tlie primary sense js to stretch or strain.
In Arabic, the same verb _ , \ signifies to emit an agreeable smell; to
breathe fragrance ; radically to throw or send out ; to eject ; a mere modifica- tion of the same sense. This is the Latin fragro, whence fragrant, with a prefix; but according exactly with the English reek.
"IIN in Ch. Heb. Syr. and Sam., signifies to prolong, to extend. In .\r. as in Heb. in Hiph. to delay, or retard; that is, to draw out in time.
JH'y in Heb. has been differently interpreted; indeed, it has been rendered by words of directly contrary signification. The more modern interpre- ters, says Castle, render it, to sptit, divide, separate, or break; the ancient interpreters rendered it, to stiffen, to make rigid or rough, to wrinkle or . corrugate. Castle and Parkhurst, however, agree in rendering it, in some passages, to quiet, still, allay. Jer. xlvii. 6. 1.34. In Job vii. 6. our trans- lators have rendered it broken, my skin is broken, [rough, or rigid.] In Job. xxvi. 12. it is rendered by divide. " He divideth the sea by his power." In Vanderhooght's Bible it is in this place rendered by commovet — He agit- ates the sea. The Seventy render it by varrrauo-i, he stilled; and this is tho sense which Parkhurst gives it.
In Isaiah li. 15, and Jer. xxxi. 35, it is rendered in our version hy divide. " But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared."
In Vanderhooght's Bible it is rendered in Isaiah Ii. 15, " I am Jehovah thy God, qui commovens mare, ut perstrepant fluctus ejus." In Jer. xxxi. 35, commovens mare, ut tumultuenter fluctus — agitating or moving the sea, that the waves roar, or may roar. The passage in Isaiah is rendered by the seventy, on a 0;ci a:'Vf c tapacrtrwi rtiv 6a\acT(7aVy xai nxwv Ta yviiaia avi-ns, agita- ting the sea and causing its waves to roar and resound. In the French trans- lation, the passage in Isai:ih is " qui fend la mer, et ses flots bruient." [I] who divide the sea and the waves roar. In Jeremiah the passage is " qui agite la mer et les flots en bruient." Who agitates the sea and therefore the waves roar. In ItaUan, the passage in Isaiah is rendered " che muovo il mare, e le sue onde romoreggiano." In Jeremiah, " che commuove il mare, onde le sue onde romoreggiano." WTio moveth the sea, wherefore its waves roar, or become tumultuous.
INTRODUCTION.
These dilleient rejideiings show the importance of understanding the lit-] cral or primary sense of words ; for whatever may be the real sense m the passages above mentioned, it cannot be to divide I we are give to vau in the following word, its usual sense of and, it is diflicult to make sense of the word rJI, by translating it, he stUleth: hestilleth the sea audits waves are tumultuous, or he stiUeth the sea that the waves may roar or be agitated ! This will not answer. The more rational version would be, he roughens the sea, and its waters roar, or he drives, impels it into agitaUon. In Lthi- opic the same word signifies to coagulate, to freeze, to become rigid ; and this is undoubtedly the Latin riseo, and with a prefix, /ngeo, and this sig- nification is perhaps allied to Lat. rugo, lo wrinkle ; for as a general rule, the radical sense of wrinkle is to draw, as in contract, cmitraho, and thu seems to be the sense of rigeo. Both these words are allied to rough which is from breaking or wrinkling. This sense would perhaps well suii the context in these two passages, as it would also that in Job vu. 5 . My skin is rough.
Now in Arabic, the general signification of ;?JT is to return, to repeat, to withdraw, which may be from drawing back ; a dififerent application ol the original sense, to strain, stretch, or extend.
The root pn in Chaldee signifies to spit, and this is probably the Latin j
ructo, somewhat varied in application. The signifies to diive off, to reject, to shoot or grov rify or make clear as wine ; precisely the English to rack ; also 1 to pour out. Hebrew p^, to empty, to draw
ame verb in Arabic long as teeth, to stra
a, spittle ; Syriac, to spit, to di
attenuate or make
out, to attenuate ; Sa-
Ethiopic, to be fine, slender,
Pi. j^3, the verb differently pointed, to hew, to out down. Josh. xvii. .5. IS.
2. To cut down with the sword ; to kill. Ez. xxiii. 47.
3. To make fat. 1 Sam. ii. 29. Thus far the Hebrew.
Chal. Sia To create. Gen. i. \.
2. To cut off. Is. xl. 20.
3. To make fat ; to grow sound or strong. Talm.
Deriv. Fat ; whole ; sound ; strong. Castle.
Syr. ] "^O To create. Gen. i. 1. JVIark xiii. 19.
2. To remove to a distance, and Deriv. distance, distant Castle.
Sam. /fSa To create. Gen. i. 22. Deut. iv. 32. Castle
Ar. ^j.j To create. Job xxxviii. 7. [qu. 4 and 6.]
2. To be' free, or guiltless, not obnoxious to punishment. Num. v. 28. 31, and xxxii. 22. Rom. vii. 6.
3. To free ; to absolve, from i Ex. XX. 7. Num. xiv. 18.
4. To escape ; to forsake.
5. To recover from disease ; to be healed ; to restore to health. Lev. xii 18. Josh. v. 8. Math. iv. 23.
6. To cleanse ; to free from impurities
7. To abstain from.
Deriv. Creator ; free ; unobnoxious ; clean ; empty.
to liberate; to dismiss; to justify.
thin, and i
maritan, to pour out, to draw out, to extend ,
or thin ; Arabic, to be soft, tender, thin. The verb p has a like signifi'
tion, and is perhaps from the same original root. yTTt Hebrew, to spread
stretch, extend. But, says CasUe, all the ancient' interpreters rcnderec
the word, to ordain, establish, make firm ; to strike, to beat, as plates ot
metal. But tlie sense is to stretch, to spread, and the beating is only the
means of extending. Hence y^rrs the firmament, which agrees well with
Lat. regio, an extent ; in Hebrew, properly an expanse. And to reconcile
the ancient and modern interpretations of this word, let it be remembered
HiZi strength znA firmness are usually or always from stretching, tension.
Now let us hear Ainsworth on the word regio. " Regio a rego quod priusquam provincise fierent, regiones sub regibus erant atque ab his re •rebantur." How much more natural is it to deduce regio from the prima ry sense ofrego, which is to stretch, to strain, to extend ! Regio is an ex tent, a word of indefinite signification.
In Chaldee and Arabic this verb signifies to mend, to repair, to make whole, from extending spreading over or making strong. See the root "70 infra. .
We observe that JJT and j;rri agree in original signification, with th' English reach, on the root of which or some of its derivatives was formed stretch. That "pZ, p3 and piS were formed on any of the foregoing bilite ral roots we may not be able to affirm ; but it is certain from the Welsh that the first consonant of the triliteral root is a prefix, and it is certain from the Shemitic languages that the primary sense is the same in the biliteral and triliteral roots, or that all the applications or particular significations may readily be deduced from one general signification
, to separate, to free, to i
To illustrate this subject more full; : Other Shemitic words oi
attend to the various applic
produce into being.
2. To form, by accretion or concretion of matter. Gen. i
3. In Hiph. To make fat ; to fatte
t03.
Heb. t03 To create. This, by most lexicographers, is given as the first signification, in all the Shemitic languages. Parkhurst says, to create ; Droduce into being. Gen. i. 1.
21. batten. 1 Sam. ii To do' or perform something wonderful. Num. xvi. 30. 5. In Niph. To be renewed. In Ka!, to renew, in a spiritual sense Ps. Ii. 12. Castle says,
1. To create from nothing, or to produce something new or excellent from another thing. Gen. i. Is. xlii. 5.
2. In Niph. To be renewed or re-created. Is. xlviii. 7. Ps. cii. 19.
3. To cut off; to take away ; to bear away, or remove ; also to select ; to prepare. Josh. xvii. 15. 18. Ezek. xxiii. 47.
Gesenius says,
1. Strictly, to hew, to hew out. [Ar. to cut, to cut out, to plane.]
2. To form; to make ; to produce. Ar. lj.j The order of significa- tions is, as in the Ar. uii.^^ galaka, to be smooth, to make smooth. 2. To plane. 3. To form, make. Gen. i. 1. 21. 27.
1. Niph. passive of Kal. No. 2. Gen. ii. 4. 8. To be born. Ezek. xxi. 30. Ps cii. 18.
Ar. \j.j To create.
2. To cut off; to hew or pare.
3. To separate ; to distinguish.
4. To make thin.
5. To oppose ; to strive ; to resist.
6. To provoke; to boast, or make a parade.
7. To distribute ; to disperse. Castle. According to Gesenius, the primary sense of this verb is to hew, to cut out,
and thus to make smooth, and thus to create ; and he deduces these senses in the same order, as he does those of the Arabic verb, which gives the word like. But there is no ground for this opinion ; and doubtless the verb ori- ginated before the use of edge tools.
The predominant senses of this word, ;
we see by the Arabic and Syriac.
Now hewing is indeed separating, and we have the English word pare from this root ; but we must seek for a signification which is more general than that o{ paring, or we shall not be able to account for the sense of mak- ing fat, sound, entire, and strong, nor for that of being born.
The truth undoubtedly is, this word is of the same family with the Eng- lish bear, the Latin pario, and the radical sense is to throw, to thrust, to send, to drive, to extend ; hence to throw out, to produce, as applied to the
th of children or of the world. To throw or drive, is the primary sense of separation and division, that is, to drive off. The English word deal, when traced to its root, presents the same fact. See Deal. To create, is to pro- duce or bring forth, the same sense as that o( birth, applied lo a different object. The sense of hewing and paring is from driving off, separation. In Syriac, we observe the general application, in removal, or departure to a distance. The sense of fattening is derivative, and allied to that of healing making whole, sound, strong, in the Arabic, that is, preparing, bringing 1 good state, or from tension, the usual primary sense of strength and
To obtain a more full and satisfactory view of this subject, let us attend to the same word in the modern languages of Europe.
LATIN.
Paro, to prepare, make ready, procure, design, &c. The radical sense of paro is probably the same as in the Shemitic languages ; to produce, to bring Ibrward. So also ready implies an advancing, and so docsprompt/iess. But the various ways of preparing a thing for use naturally give to the word, in process of time, a variety of particular significations ; each of which results in bringing the thing to the state desired. The compounds oiparo, are ap- pnro, to prepare, to furnish, accouler or set out ; comparo, to prepare or procure, to make equal, to compare, to join, to dress or make ready ; prceparo, to prep-ire; reparo, to repair, to create anew, to regain, to com- pensate ; separo, to separate. Let the Latin uses of this word be compared
th the same Hebrew word in Joshua xvii. 15, where it is rendered cut
down. "Ascend to the wood country and cut down for thyself;" Septua-
gint, iHxaea? I (TiauM, clear for thyself This is one mode of preparation for
In Ezek. xxi. 19, it is rendered choose. Septuagint, iittiajiii, ap-
Parare, to prepare ; to garnish ; to adorn ; to propose an occasion ; parry, or ward off, as a blow ; to defend; to cover from or shelter ; to repo
INTRODUCTION.
(o leach a horse to stop, and in horsemanship, lo stop ; parata, a wanling off, a garnishing ; parato, prepared, ready, prompt, warded ofl or parried, shield- ed, defended.
Apparare, to learn ; apparato, learned, prepared ; apparato, preparation, garnishment.
Parecchio, a preparation; also equal, even, [L. par;] parecchiare, to prepare ; pareggiare, to make equal, to compare ; apparecchiare, to pre pare, to ornament or garnish, to set in order ; appareggiare, to put in com- petition, to match, to equal.
Comparare, to compare.
Disparate, to forget; disparare, sparare, to unfurnish, to disgarnish to make unready, to disbowel, to separate, di'-join, unpair; to discbarge, ai artillery.
/m;)arare, to learn.
Riparare, to repair, to restore to the first state ; to repair, or resort to, or have access to ; to parry, or ward otf ; riparo, reparation, a fort, a bank, fence, mound, remedy, shelter.
SPANISH.
Parar, to prepare ; to stop, detain, prevent ; to end ; to treat or use ill ; to stoke at cards ; to point out the game, as pointers.
Parada, a halt or stopping, end, pause ; a fold for cattle ; a relay, as horses ; a dam or bank ; a stake or bet ; a parade, or a place where troops are assembled to exercise ; parado, remiss, careless, unemployed.
Par, a pair; a peer ; after-birth ; the handle of a bell.
Apnrar, to stretch out the hands or skirts of a garment for receiving any thing ; to dig and heap earth round plants ; to close the upper and hind quar- ter of a shoe to the sole ; to couple male and female animals ; to dub as a ship.
AparadoT, a sideboard, a dresser in a kitchen, a workshop, a wardrobe; aparato, preparation, pomp, show.
Aparear, to match ; to suit one thing to another, [pair.]
Aparejo, preparation, harness, sizing of a piece of linen or board on which something is to be painted, tackle, rigging employed on board of a ship. [Apparel, parrel.]
Comparar, to compare.
Vesparejar, to make unequal.
Disparar, to dischaige, as tire arms.
Amparar, to shelter'; lo protect. [Aragon, to sequester, as goods.]
JEmparedar, to confine or shut up.
Reparar, to repair ; to observe carefully, to consider ; to mend or correct : to suspend or detain ; to guard, defend, protect ; to regain strength or recov- er from sickness ; to right tlie helm.
Separar, to separate.
PORTUGUESE.
Parar, v. i. to stop, to cease to go forward ; to confine upou, to meet ai the end, to touch, to be bounded ; to end, to drive at something, to aim at to come to; to imply, involve, or comprise : " Nao posso parar com feme,' I cannot bear hunger. " Ninguem pode aqui parar," nobody can live oi stay here. [Kng. bear.]
Parar, v. t. to stop, to hinder from proceeding ; to parry or ward off; to turn or change with regard to inclination or morals ; to lay or stake as a wa- ger. Parada, a stopping or place of stopping ; a bet or wager.
Amparar, to protect, shelter, defend, abet.
Comparar, to compare ; comprar, to buy, to procure.
Aparar, to pare, as an apple ; to mend or make a pen ; to parry a blow.
Aparelhar, to prepare, to tit, to cut out or rough hew ; aparelho, tackle ir a ship for hoisting things, Eng. a parrel.
Disparar, to shoot, to discharge, as fire-arms.
J?f/)arar, to repair ; to;jarry in fencing; to advert; to observe ; to mak( amends; to retrieve; to recover ; to recruit; to shelter; reparo, in fortiti cation, defense.
FRENCn.
Pnrtr, to deck, adorn, trim, set off, embellish ; to parry or ward off. " Pa rer de j cuirs," to dress lether ; "TJarerlepiodd'uncheval," to pare ahorse'i hoof.
Parer, v. i. to stop ; paresse, idleness.
Pari, a lay, bet or wager ; parier, to bet or lay a wager.
Appareil, preparation, furniture, train, retinue, [Eng. apparel.] Appa raux, tackle, sails and rigging, [Eng. parrel.]
Pair, a peer, an equal ; pdire, a pair ; apparier, to pair, to match.
S'emparer, to seize, to invade.
Repnrer, to repair.
Sqiarer, to separate.
ARMORIC.
Uberayu, to put in order, to adjust, to mow or reap, air. This word has the common prefix u.
poridan, to cut off.
: to dress as the
Para, to dress, to trim, to stop, to parry, lo prepare
WELSH.
Par, .something contiguous, or that is in continuity; a state of readiness or preparedness ; a pair or couple ; a fellow, match.
/•or, a cause ; the essence, germ or seed of a thing; n spear.
Para, to continue, to endure, to persevere.
Parad, a causing ; parai, that causes to be.
Parawd, prepared, ready ; parodi, to prepare.
That all the foregoing words in the present European languages, [and sev-« eral others might have been added,] are formed from one stock or radix, co- inciding with the l.,atin paro, is a fact that admits of no question. The only doubt respecting the correctness of the wliolc preceding statement, is, wheth- er the Latin paro is radically the same as the oriental ^Oa ; and with regard to this point, 1 should suppose the evidence to be convincing. Indeed there is good reason to believe that the oriental verbs ^n3, 113, 1311, anil 13;r, are all formed from one primitive radix. Certain it is that the English bear comprehends both the Latin/ero and /)orio, and the latter corresponds nearly with ma and Eth. <^l^ to bear.
But admitting only rhat is certain, that all the foregoing European words are from one radix, we are then to seek for a primary meaning from which may be deduced the following significations ; Lat. to prepare ; Ital. to adorn, toparry, to stop, to defend, to repair, to learn ; Span, to prepare, to stop, to lay or stake as a wager, a pair or couple ; Port, to stop, to confine upon or be contiguous, to drive or aim at, to parry, to pare ; Fr. to deck, toparry, to stop, to pare ; Arm. to dress, to prepare, to parry ; Russ. to adjust, to dress, to mow or reap ; Welsh, preparedness, contiguity, a pair, a cause, to con- tinue or endure; and several other significations.
The various significations result from throwing, sending, driving. To separate or remove is to drive or force apart ; hence to parry, and hence to defend. Separation implies extension, a drawing out in length or time ; hence the Portuguese senses of confining upon, reaching to the limit. This gives the sense of par, equal, that is, of the same extent, and hence coming to, and suiting, as in Latin convenio.
Here let it be observed that admitting the word par, equal, to belong to this family, as in the Welsh, we have strong reason to believe that the Shcm- itic T3n, to join, or fit together, to associate, whence as a noun, an associate, is formed from the same root, or }n3 ; for in the Saxon, we find not only /era, but gefera, a companion, fellow ov peer; gefera, answering precisely to the oriental word.
The sense of betting is from throwing down, as we say, to lay a wager. The sense of stopping is from setting, fixing, or from parrying. The sense of adorning is from putting on, which is from sending, or from extension, en- largement, as we say, to set off, and hence it is allied to the sense of show, display, parade. Preparation is from producing, bringing forward, or ad- justing, making right ; and often implies advancing, like ready, prompt, and the latter word, prompt, from promo, to bring forth, affords a good illustra- tion of the words derived from paro.
The senses of cutting oft', paring, and the like, require no explanation.
The Italian, disparare, and the Spanish and Portuguese, disparar, todis. charge fire arms, present the original sense of the root, to send or drive. This sense gives that of the Welsh pdr, a spear, as well as a cause, or that which impels. A spear is a shoot, from the sense of thrusting ; and our word .ipear is probably formed from the rootof Jar and Welsh *«, a spit, a pike, a lance, a spear, Lat. verti. Now in Chaldee, a bar is jn31' from 13;;, to pass, a verb which is probably of the same family with t03. It is further to be observ- ed that in Italian, bar is written both baira and sbarra.
It is observed above that N13 is the English ftearand the Latin pario ; but pario would seem to be the Hebrew mS. parah, to be fruitful, to bear fruit, applied to plants and animals. But this word seems to denote producing in general, rather than the production of children. However this may be, it is certain that bear in English, as well as in Saxon, expresses the sense of both pario and /(TO in Latin. The Latin fero, and the Greek ipipw, signify both to carry and to produce, as young or fruit. Pario, does not. So in the Go- jthic, bairan is to carry, gabairan is to carry and to produce young. In German, fiihren is to carry, and gebaren, to bring fortli, to bear a child. In Dutch, beuren is to lift ; voeren, to carry ; and baaren, to bring forth, as children, to bear, to beget, to cause. Danish, barer, to carry, to support, and to yield or produce. Sw. biira, to carry ; 6arn, a son. Irish, beirim, to bear or bring forth, and to tell or relate, like the Latin /cro, whence Fr. par- ier, to speak.
INTRODUCTION.
Ft appears llicn (hat the English bear and the Saxon from which we have leceivcd it. and the Gothic and the Danish corresponding words unite, in the same orthography, the senses of t>vo words of different ortliography in other languages. I have found other examples of a similar kind. There is there- fore solid ground to believe that all those words arc from one primitive root ; the different modes of writing the word, and the several appropriations hav- ing originated in different families of the great races of men, before langua- ges were reduced to writing ; and when they come to be written, each word was written according to its usual pronunciation, and defined according to its use in each family. And by the intermixture of tribes, two or three derivatives of the same stock might have become a part of the same na- tional language. Unquestionably the Greek cptpto, and tpopico, are branches of the same stock.
We have, in the modern languages, decisive evidence that different verbs may have, and in fact have a common radix. Thus in English list and lust.
Teutonic dialects,
found in almost every language which I have examined.
The Latin pareo, to appear, to come to light, if not a compound word, may be of this family. Paries, a wall, if primarily a partition wall, is of tlie same stock. Per, belongs to this family, as its signification is passing. The Sax. faran, to fare, Gr. Tropiuo^^', seems to be from one branch of this stock, proba- bly ^^iT. Seethe wordyiass in the Dictionary, in the derivative senses of which there are some resemblances to those of S13.
133.
This verb, says Lowth, means to cover, to cover sin, and so to expiate ; and it is never used in the sense of breaking or dissolving a covenant, though that notion occurs so often in the Scriptures ; nor can it be forced into this sense, but by a great deal of far fetched reasoning. See Isaiah xxviii 18. Lowth on Isaiah. Prelim. Diss.
133, says Castle, "texuit, operuit, Anglice, to couer; per metathesin, «pijTr- Tco, xfujm, pecuUariter bitumine, sive glulinosa aliqua materia ohduxit; pica- vit." Gen. vi. 14.
Parkhurst gives to this verb the sense of covering or overspreading, as primary ; and deduces from it the Greek «pu?rTO, and English cover and coffer. He however admits that in Isaiah xxviii. 18, it signifies, to annul, as a cov- enant. He also considers the sense of atonement or expiation to be radical- ly that of cova'ing.
Gesenius agrees with the English Lexicographers, in assigning to this verb the primary sense oi covering or overlaying, as in Gen. vi. 14. He admits that this word has the sense, in Isaiah xxviii. 18, oiblotting out, obliterating But he gives to it the sense of forgiving, in some passages, in which oui version has that of purging away. Ps. Ixv. 3, and Ixxix. 9. In these pas- sages, Castle renders the word, to be merciful or propitious.
In all these authors, there is, I conceive, a radical mistake, in supposing the primary sense to be to cover, and in the opinion that this Hebrew word is the English verb to cover. A still greater mistake is in the supposition of Castle and Parkhurst, that this, by a metathesis, gives the Greek npuirrw.
The English word cover comes to us through the French couvrir, from the Italian coprire, a contiaction of the Latin co-operio, whence co-opcrtus, ItaUan coperto, covered, Eng. covert.* The Latin aperio, is to open, and operio, is to cover, both from pario, or one of the roots in Br, which has just been explained. The root in these words is per or par, and the sense is vari- ed by prefixes ; perhaps ad-pario or ab-pario and ob-pario. Now cover can have no connection with 133, unless this latter word is a compound, with 3 for a prefix. This may be the fact, but the connection, even in that case, is very remote.
Let us see if we can gain any light upon the subject of the primary sense of 133 from the cognate languages.
CftaMee, 133 To deny, to reject. Prov. xxx.9.
2. To wipe ; " She eateth and wipeth her mouth." Prov. xxx. 20.
3. To wash or cleanse. Matt, xxvii. 24. Castle. Syriac, ^2iO To deny. Gen. xviii. 1.5. Luke xii. 9.
2." To wipe, to wipe away, to disannul, to aboHsh. Prov. xxx. 20. I.-;, xxviii. 18. Castle.
.Arabic, . i <:=-, To deny; to disbelieve ; to be an infidel ; to be impious; to blaspheme. Acts iii. 13, 14. 2Pet. ii. 1-5. Jude 1.5.
2. To cover ; to conceal.
3. To expiate ; to make expiation for one, and free him from crime.
Castle.
Now the senses of the Chaldee, Syriac and Arabic, to deny, to reject, to disannul, to wipe, wash , or to cleanse by these acts, cannot be deduced from covering.
In Hebrew, the word has the sense of covering, as the ark, with bitumen or pitch, in Gen. vi. 14; that is, to smear, or pay over, as our seamen now
* In tliis deduction of cotici- from the Latin, I am supported by Lunier, the ablest French etymologist, whose works I have seen.
express it. But it should be considered that the sense of covering is rareiy or never;)rimory ,• it is usually, from the sense of putting on, which is from the sense of throwing or pressing, or it is from overspreading, which is a spreading, stretching or throwing aver; hence the derivative senses of covering and hiding. These latter senses are sometimes derived from others ; but these are the most general. And in this passage of Genesis, the literal sense is probably to put on, or to rub or spread over, a sense which coin- cides with that of tlie Chaldee and Syriac, Prov. xxx. 20, though different- ly applied.
The real original sense of this Shemitic verb is to remove, to separate, by thrusting away or driving off. Hence its application, in the Chaldee, Syr- iac and Arabic, to denial, the rejection of God or truth. To deny or reject, is to thrust away. Hence from the Arabic, caffer, an infidel, oiie who de- nies and rejects the Mohammedan religion; hence Caffraria, the southern part of Africa, the country of infidels ; so called by the'followers of Moham- med, just as the christians gave the name of pagans, to the inhabitants of villages, [pagus,^ who rejected the christian religion.
This signification explains the Hebrew uses of this word. Its literal sense is applied to the cleansing or purification of sacred things, a^i the altar. Lev. xvi. 18. In a spiritual sense, to the purification of the soul, a typo of the pu- rification by the blood of Christ; hence it is rendered atnnennitl. oi expia- tion. Hence probably the sense of appeasing, Gen. xxxii. 21. Prov. xvi. 14, though this may be from removing, or smoothing.
The sense of forgiveness is from thrusting away or giving back, pre- cisely as in the modern languages ; Lat. remitto, to send back or away ; for- give, to give back or away: pardon, in French, Spanish, and Italian, has a like sense, which is more clearly exbitiited by the Dutch vergeeven, Ger- man vergeben; ver being the English /ar, to give fur, to give away, hence, to reject, and remember no more. The sense of give and of the French dmi- ner, is nearly the same as that of 133. To give, is to send, to cause to pass ; and so of donner.
Now it is a question of some moment whether the opinion that 133 is the same as the English cover, has not inclined lexicographers and commenta- tors to render it by this word, in several passages^ where the true sense is to forgive, or to purify by cleansing from sin.
However this may be, the interpretation given above will fully disprove Lowth's assertion, that this word is never used in the sense of breaking or disannulling a covenant. So confident is the learned Bishop on this point that he ventures to call in question the reading, Isaiah xxviii. 18 ; and to suppose the true word to be 13n from 113 to break. With respect to the reading I shall offer no opinion ; but if the present reading is correct, I am confident that no word in the Hebrew language is better fitted to express the sense. Your covenant with death shall be wiped away, abolished, or as in the version, disannulled. And so is the rendering in the Syriac.
If 133 is a compound word and the first letter a prefix, it may be from the
same root as the Arabic j-*-^ gafara, whose signification is to cover. But the primary sense is to throw or put on. It signifies also to forgive, but to forgive is to send back or away, remitto, and not to cover. And I apprehend that for want of knowing the primary sense of such verbs, the word cover has been often substituted for forgive, in the translating of this verb.
'73
No. 1. Heb ^13, S3 To hold, to contain ; Sw. ftSHa. '73S3 To hold, to sustain, to maintain, to comprehend.
Ch. So To measure, that is, to ascertain the contents, or to stretch, and comprehend the whole.
Pah. To feed, to nourish. See '53S.
Deriv. A measure ; also, custom, rite, manner, probably from holding or continued practice.
Syr. In Aph. To measure. Deriv. A measure.
Eth. In (DA To follow; to go behind; Gr. a»,^\oo8(w; that is, to hold to, or to press after.
Deriv. The hinder part; the poop of a ship ; behind. French, cui.
No. 2. Heb. 773 To finish ; to complete ; to make perfect. Gr. Haioi.
S3 all ; the whole ; Gr. o^os, Eng. all, by the loss of the first letter ; but in Welsh, holl, or oil ; and in Saxon al, eel and geall.
Ch. SS3 To crown ; to adorn
Pih. To perfect; to complete ; to comprehend ; to embrace.
Deriv. Comprehending ; universality ; a general rule, &c.
Syr. ^Xa To crown. Deriv. a crown ; all ; every one.
Sam. IZa As the Chaldee.
Eth. Tl A A The same ; also, to cover.
Ar. y. ^ To be weary or dull ; to be languid ; to tire : also, to crown ; to shine.
Deriv. All ; dullness ; heaviness.
No. 3. Heb. nS3 To hold ; to restrain ; to shut or confine ; to cheek ;
Gr. «M\i-aj ; Sw. hl^dla.
INTRODUCTION.
,'.ro ; Lat. calo \ Vi'
) deny.
Ucriv. A place of confinement ; Lat. cmda.
Ch. nSd, nSo, ''73 To hold; lo restrain ; also, to trust ; rely on ; to hope. (See No. 6.) Also, to finish ; to perfd sumc ; to cause (0 fail.
In Aph. To call ; to cry out ; to thunder gnhc; Eng.to call ; Lat. gullus, from crowing.
Syr. ^>, 3 To hold ; to restrain ; to forbid ;
Deriv. all ; a cork, bar or bolt.
Sam. /f Z ii To hold, or restrain.
Kth. tlAA To hold, restrain, or prohibit.
Deriv. Lat. alius ; a fellow, or companion.
Ar. ik.^> To keep; to preserve; to turn the face toward.s a thing and look repeatedly. So in English, to behold. Also, to come to the end, as of life; also, to feed, to devour food ; also, to abound in pasture ; also, to hinder, or detain ; also, to look attentively; also, to sprout ; also, to take up- on a pledge, or upon trust ; supra, Chaldee. (See No. 6.)
No. 4. Heb. th^ To finish; to consume ; to bring to naught; to waste ; to fail. (See No. 8.)
No. 5. Ch. Sas To eat ; to consume ; also, to take ; to hold ; to con- tain. In Aph. to fcerl; to give food ; also, to cull; lo thunder; to roar, or bellow; also, to piibli-li ; lo accuse ; to delame.
Heb. to eat; lo consume.
Sam. tHA- To eat.
Syr. ^O I To publish ; to divulge, as a crime ; to accuse.
Eth. A In A To sufTice, as we say, it is well, Lat. valeo ; also, to be or exist ; that is, to be hclil, or to be fixed or permanent
Ar. to eat ; to devour ; to corrode ; Lat. hclluu.
or distinguish; also to
othe
nfidence,
edge, wisdom, ignorance. These different significations may result from the different effects of the prefi.x on the original verb.
In Syr. ^3x0 t)>e same word, signifies to be foolish, or mad ; to cause lo know, or to give understanding ; to obsei-ve ; to search or know tho- roughly ; to ask or seek to undci-stand ; to disccr err, to sin, to be foolish, or perverse.
In Sam. the same word signifies to look, and to be accustomed. Sec Ca.stelh col. 2.523.
That 73E' is formed on the same root with a different prefix, is obvious and certain, from the correspondence of significations. This word in He- brew signifies to understand, or know ; to cause to understand ; to be wise, or to act wisely ; corresponding with the Ch. SjO above ; and being a mere dialectical orthography of the word. It signifies also to deprive, strip, be- reave ; and lo waste, scatter and destroy ; also, to cast, as fruit or offspring ; also, lo prosper.
Ch. to understand^ and Ch. 773!y to com])lcte, to finish ; also, lo found, to lay the foundation. This isS'?^ with V prefixed.
Syr. to found, to finish, to adorn.
Ar. y^^ iii shakala, to bind under the belly; to gird; to bind the* feet ; to fetter ; lo shackle ; to form, or fashion ; to be dubious, obscure, and intricate; to agree, suit or answer to ; to be like ; to have a beautiful tbiin ; to know, perceive, or comprehend ; lo hesitate ; lo be ignorant. De- rivative, a shackle. See Caslell. Col. 3750.
To this root Castle refers the English skill ; and it is certain the words correspond both in elements and in sense. Now in the Gothic and Teu- tonic languages, the verbs corresponding to these Shemitic verbs, signify in Saxon, scylan, to separate, to distinguish ; Icelandic and Swedish, skilid, lo divide, separate, sever; whence shield, that which separates, and hence defends ; D. scheelen, to differ; schillen, lo peel, or pare ; whence scale and shell. To this root our lexicographers refer skill. The prefix in this word would seem to have the force of a negative, Uke L. ex. Now is it possible to suppose that these words can be formed from a common root ? The sense of sin and folly is probably from wandering, deviating, as in delirium ; and this is only a modification of the primary sense of hj, to stieleh or extend ; that is, departure, separation. Or the t? has, in these senses, the force of a negative.
The sense of knowing, understanding, is usually or always from taking, holding, or extending to; as we say, I take your meaning. In this appli- cation these words would seem to be directly from the Eth. and Ch. 'jDJ lo be able ; the Latin calico, lo be haid, and lo know or be well skilled. That this word SfU is from the same root as h'tJ, nhz, vhs, we know by the Samaritan 2, 3 iJ wliich signifies all, and which is a mere dialectical spelling of the Heb. and Ch. hZ-
The sense of depriving and wasting, in the Hebrew, is from separation, the sense of the Gothic and Teutonic words ; but it is to be noticed that this sense seems to imply throwing, as one mode of parting, and this is also the direct act of founding, lajing the foundation.
When we turn our attention to the Arabic, new affinities are disclosed. The first definition is to bind, to gird, to shackle, and hence the English word. The radical sense of bind is to sUain, the sense of hold. And here we arrive at the origin and primary sense of shall, should ; Saxon scealan, to be obliged ; that is, to be bound or constrained. Hence we see why the words scale, shell and shall are all written alike in Saxon, sceal ; for scale and shell are from peeling, or covering, binding.
From this verb the Saxon has scyld, a crime, or guilt, Lat scelus, and scyld, a sliield. The German has the same word in scliuld, guilt, culpabili- ty, debt ; Dutch, schuld ; Danish skulde, should, and scyld, a debt, a ifault, a crime ; Sw. skuld, the same. This word sculd, skuld, and schuld, is tlie English should, the preterit of the verb <hall; and it is the word used in the Saxon, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, ilcelandic, and Swiss Lord's prayer, to express what is rendered in English \debts ; forgive us our debts. Here we see the primary sense of the word is lo be held, or bound ; hence, liable. The EngUsh word guilt may be from the same root, without a prefix ; but whether it is or not, we observe |the word expresses more than the English word debt, trespass or offense ; it comprehends the sense of /au/f, or sin, with that of being held, or liable Ito answer or lo punishment. Debt, in the modern use of the word, impliee |the latter, but not the former; trespass and offense imply the sin, but not Heuce'the sense of' publishing, accusing and defam-!|the Uability to answer. We have no English word that includes both sen- |ses, except guilt, and this seems to be hardly adequate to express the full - he sense of sprouting, in the Arabic, is a shooting or pushing out, as inijsense of scyld. other cases ; Lat. caidis. To account for the various significations of the same word, in different
The sense of ability, power, strength, in No. 7, is from straining, stretch- ^languages, and often in the same language, it is necessary lo find the ptima- ing, or holding, as in other words of the hke sense. Hence Lat. calleo, to 'ry action expressed by the root; and in compound words it is necessary to be skilled, and lo be hard, callus. lobserve or ascertain the different effects produced on the original word by
On this rootSj is probably formed ^30, a word differently pointed in the the prefixes. Thus the verb inculpo in Low LaUn signifies lo excuse ; but Hebrew and Chaldee. This word signifies in Hebrew to pervert, to err, some modern writers use inculpate m a directly different sense ; that is, to to be foolish or infatuated, to act foolishly. I' Stone. ....
In Chaldee, to understand, know, or consider: to look or behold; to cause'; In like manner im7)art!6ie has two different significations; that may be to understand; Rabbinic, to be ignorant ; whence its derivatives, knowI-''tm/)arterf,- and in law, not i)ar<!6/e, or divisible. Such is the fact also with
this hat is held hole that is compre-
No. 6. Ar. y^S} To trust ; (See No. 3.)
Eth. ® n A with a prefix ; to trust, as above.
No. 7. Heb. hy To be able ; to prevail ; Lat. calico ; W. gallu ; Eng. could.
No. 8. Ch.bo;' To digest ; to consume. (No. .5.)
Ar. J. Ji c To collect ; to tie ; to bind ; to unite ; also, to divide, im- pel, or compel. This is the primary sense of the word, or rather of this root; topless; to strain ; to urge, or impel ; also, to extend. These verbs are different modifications of one radix ; and hence the English hold, call, hollow, heal, hale ; the Latin calo, caulis, calleo, callus ; Greek, KKKa, KnX s or tiak>.os ; and a multitude of words in all the modern languages of Europe.
The sense of holding, restraining, forbidding, hindering, and keeping, are too obvious to need any explanation. They arc from sense is nearly allied the sense of measuring, or ascertaining or contained. That which is contained is all, thi hended, from the sense of extension.
The signification of finishing or perfecting, seems, in a good sense, to be from that of soundness ; a sense which is from stretching or strength. Or it maybe from coming lo the end, UVe finish and achieve, or from shutting, closing. And the sense of consuming, wasting, failing, may be from bring- ing to an end. In Latin, to consume is to take all ; and possibly this may be the sense of this verb. But the Arabic sense of failure would seem rath- er lo be from holding, slopping, or coming to an end.
The sense of eating may be from consuming, or taking apart, but from some of the derivatives of No. 5, I am inclined to tliink the primary sense is to feed, to crowd, lo stuff; tlie primary sense of the root applied to this particular act ; for under Ihe Chaldee root we find words which signify the nutof aspeciesof oak, the Gr. axuA.01, anda collection or crowd of people, [Gr. oxXo!,] both of wliicli aje from collecting or pressing together.
The sense ot s. , ,1- umI l.,>>l,ing is (toiu reaching or casting and stri- king, orfrom !:■''' . . .ii.- eyes on.
The sense 01/ l-o to be that of holding to or resting on.
The English ii.H^i m .,'(/,/ 1 imiu this root.
The sense of calling, >.,iiriiig, and thunder, is from impelling the voice or sound ; a pressing, driving, or straining, applied to sound ; like the Latin appello, from pelli ing.
INTRODUCTION.
impassionate. I am persuaded a vast number of instances of similar diver- sities in the application of prefixes may be found in the Shemitic languages ; and this will account for differences which otherwise seem utterly irre- concilable.
We find in our mother tongue, that the same word signifies to heal, and to conceal, Lat. celo ; Saxon IkbI, health ; htslan, helan, to heal, to con- ceal ; ge-hailan and ge-helan, to heal and to conceal ; Old English hele. Hence we see that the English heal and the Latin celo are the same word differently applied, but from a common signification, which is to make strong or fast, or to hold, from the sense of pressing. Or perhaps the Latin ceh may have this sense of holding, restraining ; and heal may rather be from making perfect. No. 2. Supra.
We may now also see the radical sense of holy ,• Saxon hal and ge-hal, whole, sound, safe ; halig, holy ; halgian, to hallow. If this word contains the sense of separation, or driving off, like Latin sacer, as it may, it is from shutting, confining, or restraining intercourse. But I am inclined to be- lieve the primary sense of holy is sound, entire, coinciding with the radical sense of heal.
Clod, Laudo, Claudo.
In Welsh clod is praise, from llod, a forcible utterance. This is the Eng- lish lottd, and Lat. laudo, which with a prefix becomes plaudo. In Welsh, llodi signifies to reach out, to crave, from the radical sense of llod, to thrust out or extend ; but according to Owen, llodi is from llawd, which signi- fies a shooting out, or a going onward, pi-oductiveness, a lad, and as an ^idjective, tending forward, craving, lewd; llodig, craving, brimming; llodineb, lewdness. Now, beyond all question, these words are tlie Chal. dee, Syriac, Hebrew, and Samaritan nV to beget; to bring forth ; to cause to be be born ; and as a noun, a child of either sex, a lad. The Arabians and Ethiopians use vau or waw, where the Hebrews use yod. The Arabic
corresponding word is »>,!• the Ethiopic ®A,? to beget, to bring forth.
But this is not all. In Greek, the verb hAmu, a conti-action of Auiaa, signifies to praise, to celebrate. Here we have precisely the Welsh llod, above, corresponding with the Latin laudo and plaudo. But the same Greek word xAhio, nKtioa, signifies to shut or make fast. This is the Latin cludo, claudo. The Saxons used h for the Greek x and the Latin c ; and with these words accords the Saxon hlid, a cover ; English a lid ; that which shuts or makes fast. That these words are all from one root, is a fact, apparent beyond any reasonable doubt ; nor is there the least diffi- culty in ascertaining the atfinity, for the radical sense, to reach forward, to thrust, to strain, solves the whole mystery. To thrust, gives the sense of begetting and producing ; to strain or throw out the voice, gives the sense of praise ; and to thrust or press together, gives tlie sense of closing and making fast. In this manner, words, which, at first view, appear to have no connection, will, when pursued through different languages, assimilate and unite, not only without forced analogies, but in defiance of all precon- ceived opinions ; and the reluctant mind is at last compelled to admit their identity.
There is another set of words whose derivation from the same root is very certain, though perhaps less obvious. These are the Danish slutter, to shut, close, conclude, finish, determine ; slutter, a key-keeper, a jailor ; Swedish, sluta, ctaudere,obserare,to shut, or shut up, or end; sZo», a castle ; D. sleutel, a key ; slot, a lock, a castle, a conclusion ; sluiten, to shut, lock, close, stop, conclude ; G. schloss, a lock ; schliessen, to close, conclude, fin- ish, fetter, shackle; schleuse, a sluice; D. sluis, id. Eug. sluice, that is, which shuts or fastens ; Low Latin, exclusa. See Spelman's Glossary. These words are unequivocally formed from the root of claudo, clausi, by the prefix s, just as the Welsh yslac, slack, loose, is formed on llac, and yspeiliaw, on yspail, spoil, and this on the root olpeel. We observe all the Teutonic dialects use the dental t, as the final radical, except the German The Latins use both the dental and a sibilant, claudo, clausi, clausus.
If the Danish lyd, sound, Sw. lyda, to sound, is the same word as Eng- lish loud, these words belong to this family. Cradle.
Another example. The English word cradle, Saxon cradel, is in Welsh cryd, a rocking, a shaking, a cradle. In Welsh, the verbs crydu, cry diaw, crydian, signify to shake, to tremble. These correspond to the Irish creatham, to shake ; Greek xpaSow, to shake, to swing. The Welsh verb: are by Owen, deduced from rhyd, which signifies a moving. Now TJ?T in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Ethiopic, signifies to shake or tremble. The same
word in Arabic ^Cj signifies to thunder ; to impress terror ; to trem- ble ; to shake. This coincides with the Latin rudo, to roar, to bray ; and we know from the voice of the ass, that roughness or shaking is an ingre- dient in the sense of this word. We know it also from rudis, one of the af- finities of rudo. There is also in Arabic i Sj which is rendered to run hither and thither ; to move one way and the other ; to tremble ; to shake. In Hebrew fyn signifies to tremble or shake, and to palpitate Syriac and Eth. to rub or scrape. This connects the word directly with
cradle, through the Hebrew ; and through the Syriac, with the Latin rado. Here again we find the sense of roughness or yvstintr. Then turning tcf
the Welsh, we find grydiau hout, hoop or scream ; grydwst.
"r hoop, and
this from »%(£, the word above mentioned ; so 1 1 : crarfZe, is from the same root as gn/'i/ni''. '<« -' i!r ;, ;iie Italian
gridare; Sp. and Port. gi-iZar ; Sa-con .;. r.-'r,, , , -riitir, I). m. grader ; Dutch kryten ; German greiten. i I - iicb is contracted, by
the omission of the last radical, into <■. ' . .. lance, probably, we
have cry, W. cri. Hence we find ih : • : < . i rry is to utter a rough sound ; and this is connected with the braying of the ass, with shaking, trembling, and with roaring, murmuring, and thunder. The connection in this example, is so marked as to preclude all hesitation as to the identity of the words.
The Shemitic roots mj, Oin, mn, and Tip, all, in some of the languages of that stock, coincide in sense and elements with the English grate, French grafter; and if the first letter is a prefix, they would seem to unite with the Latin rado. But this is a point I would not undertake to determine.
One fact more. The Welsh cri, above mentioned, signifies a cry ; and
an adjective, rough, raw. Now this coincides with the Latin criidiis, in sense ; and crudus with the WeL^h cryd, above mentioned.
The Dan. brygger, English to hrew, are probably connected with break, with freckle, and with rough. So under this root, the Welsh grediatv, sig- nifies to hciit, scorch, parch, whence grcidyll, ;i prriddle. from graid, thai shoots in lays, heat, ardency, from gra, that shoots, or lises, as the nap or frieze of cloth. The latter is probably a contracted word, of the same fam- ly, but not the root, as Owen supposes. But the radical sense implies a shaking, agitation and roughness.
Meet, mete, measure.
Saxon. — W{etan,to put, to place; Fr. meitre. It. mettere, Sp. Port, me- ter, Lat. mitto.
Mtstan, metan, to find, to meet, or meet with ; to paint ; to dream ; to measure, to mete, Lat. metior, metor, Gr. nEipiw, (nrpov, Lat. mensus, with a casual n, that is, mesas. Ft. mesure.
Ametan, gemetan, to meet, to find, to measure.
Gemeting, gemetung, a meeting.
Gemet, gemete, fit, suitable, Eng. meet ; also, painted or portrayed
Gemetegan, gemetian, to moderate; gemetlic, moderate, modest.
Mete, measure, mode, Lat. modius, modus.
Meter, measure in verse, meter. [Not metre.]
Metere, an inventor, a painter.
Mcete, middling, [mediocris,] modest, moderate.
Mot, gemot, a meeting, a council.
Witena-gemot, a council of wise men.
Motian, to meet, especially for debate. Eng. to moot.
Gothic. — Motyan, gamotyan,to meet, to find.
Mota, a place for the receipt of toll or customs.
Dutch. — Ontmoeten, to m^et, to encounler.
Meet en, and ioemeeten, to measure.
Meeter, a measurer.
Gemoeten, to meet; gemoet, a meeting.
German. — Mass, measure, meter ; masse, moderation.
Messen, vermessen, to measure ; messer, a measurer.
Gemass, measure ; also conformable, suitable ; Eng. meet, suitable ; Ger- man gemassigt, temperate, moderate.
Swedish. — M'ota, to meet, to fall on, to come to, to happen. [This is the sense oi finding.']
Mote, a meeting.
Mot, and emot, towards, against; as in motsfS, to stand against, to resist.
Mata, to measure ; mhtt, measure, meter, mode.
Matielig, moderate, middling, frugal, temperate.
Malta, to be sufficient, to satisfy, to cloy.
Vanish.— Mader,tomeet, to convene; made or mode, a meeting ; mod, contrary, opposite, against, to, towards, for, on, by, aside, abreast, as in modsetter, to set against, to oppose ; modsiger, to say against, to contradict ; mod-vind, a contrary wind.
Moed, moden, ripe, mellow, mature. [Qu. Lat. mitis.]
Mode, manner, fashion. [Probably from the Latin.]
Maade, measure, form, style of writing, way, mode, manner, fashion. [This is the native Danish word corresponding to the Lat. modu^.]
Maadelig, moderate, temperate.
MiBt, enough, sufficient ; mietter, to satisfy, or sate, to glut.
From the same root are the G. mit, D. 7net, mede, Sw. and Dan. med, Gr.
iiiTa, signifying imtti.
By the first significa word, which is the En
word, which is the English meet, is also the French mettre and Lat. mitto, tlie sense of which is to throw or send, to put, to lay. Meet is only a modi- jfication of the same sense, to come to, to fall, to reach, hence to find ; as we say, to /a;/ on.
The sense of painting or portraying is peculiar to the Saxon. I am not [confident that this sense" is from finding ; but we observe that metere is reii-
INTRODUCTION.
The sense oi paint then may I
1 find
dered an inventor anil a pa out, to devise or contrive.
The sense of dreamins; is also peculiar to the Saxon. The sense may he todevise or imagine, or it may be to roue, as in some other words of like sig- nification. If so, this sense will accord with the .Syriac j.lc infra.
The other si2;nifications present no difliculty. To meet, is to come to, to reach in proreeiling or in extending; hence to find. The primary seni-e of measure is to (-xteml, to stietch to the full length or size of a thing.
Meet, fit, suitable, Wke par, peer, pair, is from extending or reaching to. So suit is from the Latin sejuor, through the French, to follow, to press or reach toward. See par, under X13. supra.
The English meet and mete appear to be from the Saxon dialect, but moot from the Gothic.
Let it be remarked that in the Saxon, meet and mete, are united in the same orthography ; and in the Dutch the orthography is not very different ; ontmoeten,gemoeten, to meet, and mecten, to measure. Not so in the other languages.
In German, mafis is measure, and tnessen, to measure ; but the scn.se of meet, does not occur. Yet that mass is the same word as meet, fit, varied only in dialect, appears from this, that gemass, with a prefix, is suitable, an- swering to the English meet.
The Swedish and Danish words follow the Gothic orthography ; Swedish mita, to meet, to fall on, to come to, to happen. These significations give the sense of finding, and are closely allied to the senses of the Arabic verb
.\^ infra.
The Danish verb is mader, to meet, but in both tlie Swedish and Danish, the sense of measure is expressed by a different orthography. Sw. 7nhta, to measure ; matt, measure ; Dan. maadc, measure, mode. In these two languages we find also the sense of sufficiency, and to satisfy. See infra, the
Ar. J^ ^ and Heb. and Ch. XYa.
But in these Gothic dialects, there is one application o( meeting, which deserves more particular notice. In Swedish, mot and emot is a preposition of the same signification as the English against. It is rendered toward, against. So in Danish, mod is contrary, opposite, against, to, toward, by, aside, abreast. This preposition is the simple verb, without any addition of letters, prefix or suffix. We hence learn that the sense of such prepositions is a meeting or coming to, which gives the sense of to or toward ; but when one meets another in Front, it gives the sense of opposition, or contrary direc- tion. This coming to or meeting, may be for a friendly purpose, and hence in one's favor, like /or in English. Thus in Danish, " Guds godhed mod os," God's goodness or mercy towards us. In other cases, mod signifies against and implies counteraction or opposition ; as modgift, an antidote ; modgang, adversity. So for in English signifies towards, or in favor of; and also op- position and negation, as m forbid.
In the Danish we find moed, moden, ripe, mature. We shall see this sense in the Chaldee NOD. The sense is to reach, extend, or come to.
The Latin modus is from this root, and by its orthography, it seems to have been received from the Gothic race. The sense is measure, limit, from extending, or comprel)ending. This then becomes the radix of many words which express limitation or restraint, as moderate, modest , modify ; a sense directly contiary to that of the radical verb.
This leads us a step further. In Saxon, Gothic, and other northern lan- guages, mod, moed, signifies mind, courage, spirit, anger, whence English moody. The primary sense is an advancing or rushing forward, which expresses mind or intention, that is, a setting or stretching forward, and also spirit, animation, heat, and lastly, anger. So the Latin animus,
fives rise to animosity ; and the Greek iiivoi, mind, signifies also, strength, irce, vehemence, and anger. Mania is from the same radical sense.
Let us now connect this root or these roots, with the Shemitic languages.
In Hebrew and Chaldee, HID signifies to measure ; no, a measure. This coincides with the Latin metior, and Gr. (iirpii:, as well as with the Saxon, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish, which all write the word with a den- tal, but the German is mass.
In Syriac ^io signifies to escape, to get free, that is, to depart, a modifi- cation of the sense of extending in the Arabic. A derivative in Syriac sig- nifies a dutj-, toll or tribute ; and we have seen in the Gothic, that mota is a toll-house. It may be from measuring, that is, a portion, or perhaps income.
This word in Arabic A^ madda, signifies,
1. To stretch or extend, to draw out, to make or be long, to delay or give time, to forbear, to bring forth. To extend is the radical sense of measure.
2. To separate, or throw offer out; to secern, secrete or discharge. Hence to become matter or sanies, to produce pus, to maturate. Here we have the origin of the word matter, in the sense of pi;,'!. It is an excretion, from throwing out, separating, freeing, discharging. Here we have the sense of the Latin mitto, emitto.
3. To assist, to supply. This sense is probably from coming to, that is, to approach or visit. " I was sick and ye visited me. I was in prison and ye came tome." Math. xxv.
You I. D.
This application coincides witJi the English meet, but particularly with the Swedish and Danish sense of the word.
4. To make thin, to attenuate ; probably from stretching.
Among the Arabic nouns formed under this root, we hnd a measure, or modius, showing that this verb is the same as the Chaldee and Hebrew ; we find also matter or pus, and lenity. Qu. Lat. mitis.
In Chaldee, NBD or DBB; signifies to come to, to happen, to reach, [to meet,] to be ripe or mature, to cause to come, to bring or produce. The first sense gives that of finding, and tlie latter gives that of maturing, and
we observe tliat matter, or pus, is from the Arabic Jv^ madda, and the sense oi mature from the Chaldee WJD mita. Yet in the use o( maturate from the Latin maturo, we connect the words, for to maturate, is to ripen, and to generate matter.
In Syriac, this verb signifies the same as the Chaldee, to come to; and also to be strong, to prevail, that is, to strain or stretch, the rtidical sense of power.
In Hebrew, NXD has the sense of the foregoing verb in the Chaldee, to find, to come to, to happen. .
In Chaldee, this verb signifies to find, and to be strong, to prevail ; hencr both in Hebrew and Chaldee, to be sufficient. Here we see the Danish and Swedish, matter, and mhtta, to be sufficient. This is also meet, dialec- fically varied.
In Syriac also this verb signifies to be strong or powerful ; also in Pah. to bring or press out, to defecate, which sense unites this word with the Heb. nSD, to press, to squeeze. In Ethiopic, this verb signifies to come, to hap- !ause to come, to bring in, to bring fortli. Now it is evident that NSO, and the Chaldee NBD, are dialectical forms of the same word ; tiie former coinciding with the German mass, in orthography, but with the oUier languages, in signification.
In Chaldee, ySD signifies the middle, and as a verb, to set in tlie middle, to pass the middle, in Syriac, to be divided in the middle. Qu. Is not this a branch of the family of meet?
The Chaldee nox, amad, to measure, is evidently frtmi "TO, with a pre- fix or formative X. This word, in Syriac, signifies like the simple verb, to escape, to be liberated. In Pael, to liberate. - t
In Arabic, this verb y,^\ amida, signifies, to be tcriiiinated, to end.
whence the noun, an end, limit, termination, Latin niefa, which, Ainsworth informs us, signifies, in a nietaphorical sense, a limit. The fact is the re- verse ; tliis is its primary and literal sense, and that of a pillar and goal are particular appropriations of that sense.
In Hebrew, HOJ signifies a cubit, a measure of length.
The same in the Rabbinic, from no, with a prefix.
In Chaldee, this verb signifies to be contracted, to shrink.
Is not this sense from 10, measure, modus, a limit, or a drawing.
That the Shemitic wortls, nno, twn, NXD and nOK, are words of tin- same stock with meet, mete, Lat. metior, there can be no doubt, but it is not easy to understand why the different significations of meeting and meas- uring, should be uruted in one word, in the Saxon language, when they arc expressed by very different words in the Shemitic, and in most of the Teu- tonic languages. We know indeed that in German a sibilant letter is often used, in words which are written with a dental in all the other kindred langua- ges. But in this case the German mass, measure, mu.st coincide with itj, as