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ENGLISH,
PAST AND PEESENT.
ENGLISTC ^
PAST AND PRESENT.
PIVE LECTURES.
RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D.
DEAU OP WEBIMINSTEB.
FIFTB EDITION, REVISED.
LONDON :
PARKER, SON, AND BOURN, WEST STRAND.
1862.
V
/^/c^^-^
J^O.NUON :
SAVltr, AND KDWAIiDS, FaI^T^l{S,
CHANDOS-STEEKT.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
A SERIES of four lectures which I delivered
-^ last spring to the pupils of King's College
School, London, supplied the foundation to this
present volume. These lectures, which I was obliged
to prepare in haste, on a brief invitation, and
under the pressure of other engagements, being
subsequently enlarged and recast, were delivered
in the autumn somewhat more nearly in their
present shape to the pupils of the Training School,
Winchester; with only those alterations, omis-
sions and additions, which the difference in my
hearers suggested as necessary or desirable. I
have found it convenient to keep the lectures, as
regards the persons presumed to be addressed, in
that earlier form which I had sketched out at the
first ; and, inasmuch as it helps much to keep lec-
tures vivid and real that one should have some
well defined audience, if not actually before one,
yet before the mind's eye, to suppose myself
throughout addressing my first hearers. I have
supposed myself, that is, addressing a body of
young Englishmen, all with a fair amount of clas-
sical knowledge (in my explanations I have some-
times had others with less than theirs in my eye),
947
VI PREFACE.
not wholly unacquainted with modern languages ;
' but not yet with any special designation as to their
future work ; having only as yet marked out to
them the duty in general of living lives worthy of
those who have England for their native country^
and English for their native tongue. To lead
such through a more intimate knowledge of this
into a greater love of that, has been a principal
aim which I have set before myself throughout.
In a few places I have been obliged again to
go over ground which I had before gone over in
a little book, " On the Study of Words ;" but I
believe that I have never merely repeated myself,
nor given to the readers of my former work and
now of this any right to complain that I am com-
pelling them to travel a second time by the same
paths. At least it has been my endeavour, when-
ever I have found myself at points where the two
books come necessarily into contact, that what was
treated with any fulness before, should be here
touched on more lightly; and only what there was
slightly handled, should here be entered on at
large.
Itchenstoke, Feb. 7, 1855.
CONTENTS.
LECTURE I.
PAGB
ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE 1
LECTURE II.
GAINS OP THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 41
LECTURE III. -
DIMINUTIONS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE .... 115
LECTURE IV.
CHANGES IN THE MEANING OF ENGLISH WOBDS . . 180
LECTURE V.
CHANGES IN THE SPELLING OF ENGLISH WOBDS . . 217
ENGLISH,
PAST AND PEESENT.
LECTURE I.
ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE.
'* A VERY slight acquaintance with the history
Jj^ of our own language will teach us that the
speech of Chaucer's age is not the speech of
Skelton's, that there is a great difference between
the language under Elizabeth and that under
Charles the Firsts between that under Charles
the First and Charles the Second, between that
under Charles the Second and Queen Anne ; that
considerable changes had taken place between the
beginning and the middle of the last century, and
that Johnson and Fielding did not write alto-
gether as we do now. For in the course of a
nation's progress new ideas are evermore mount-
ing above the horizon, while others are lost sight
of and sink below it : others again change their
form and aspect : others which seemed united,
split into parts. And as it is with ideas, so it is with
their symbols, words. New ones are perpetually
coined to meet the demand of an advanced under-
standing, of new feelings that have sprung out of
B
2 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lect.
the decay of old ones, of ideas that have shot forth
from the summit of the tree of our knowledge ;
old words meauwhile fall into disuse and become
obsolete ; others have their meaning narrowed and
defined ; synonyms diverge from each other and
their property is parted between them ; nay, whole
classes of words will now^ and then be thrown over-
board, as new feelings or perceptions of analogy
gain ground. A history of the language in w hich
all these vicissitudes should be pointed out, in
which the introduction of every new word should
be noted, so far as it is possible — and much may
be done in this way by laborious and diligent and
judicious research — in which such words as liave
become obsolete should be followed down to their
final extinction, in which all the most remarkable
words should be traced through their successive
phases of meaning, and in which moreover the
causes and occasions of these changes should be
explained, such a work would not only abound in
entertainment, but would throw^ more light on
the development of the human mind than all the
brainspun systems of metaphysics that ever were
written.^'
These words, which thus far are not my own,
but the words of a greatly honoured friend and
teacher, who, though we behold him now no more,
still teaches, and will teach, by the wisdom of his
writings, and the nobleness of his life (they are
words of Archdeacon Harems), I have put in the
forefront of my lectures ; seeing that they antici-
I.] LOVE or OUR OWN TONGUE. 3
pate in the way of masterly sketch all which I
shall attempt to accomplish, aod indeed draw out
the lines of much more, to which I shall not venture
so much as to put my hand. They are the more
welcome to me, because they encourage me to
believe that if, in choosing the English language,
its past and its present, as the subject of that brief
course of lectures which I am to deliver in this
place, I have chosen a subject which in many
ways transcends my powers, and lies beyond the
range of my knowledge, it is yet one in itself of
deepest interest, and of fully recognized value.
Nor can I refrain from hoping that even \vith my
imperfect handling, it is an argument which will
find an answer and an echo in the hearts of all
who hear me; which would have found this at
any time ; which will do so especially at the
present. For these are times which naturally
rouse into liveliest activity all our latent affections
for the land of our birth. It is one of the com-
pensations, indeed the greatest of all, for the
wastefulness, the woe, the cruel losses of war,* that
it causes and indeed compels a people to know
itself a people; leading each one to esteem and
prize most that which he has in common with his
fellow countrymen, and not now any longer those
things which separate and divide him from them.
And the love of our own language, what is it in
fact, but the love of our country expressing itself
in one particular direction ? If the great acts of
* These lectures were first delivered during the Eussian War.
B 2
4 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [leCT.
that nation to which we belong are precious to us,
if we feel ourselves made greater by their great-
ness, summoned to a nobler life by the nobleness of
Englishmen who have already lived and died, and
have bequeathed to us a name which must not by
us be made less, what exploits of theirs can well
be nobler, what can more clearly point out their
native land and ours as having fulfilled a glorious
past, as being destined for a glorious future, than
that they should have acquired for themselves and
for those who come after them a clear, a strong,
an harmonious, a noble language? For all this
bears witness to corresponding merits in those that
speak it, to clearness of mental vision, to strength,
to harmony, to nobleness in them that have gra-
dually formed and shaped it to be the utterance
of their inmost life and being.
To know of this language, the stages which it
has gone through, the sources from which its
riches have been derived, the gains which it is now
making, the perils which have threatened or are
threatening it, the losses which it has sustained,
the capacities which may be yet latent in it, waiting
to be evoked, the points in which it transcends
other tongues, in which it comes short of them, all
this may well be the object of worthy ambition to
every one of us. So may we hope to be ourselves
guardians of its purity, and not corrupters of it ; to
introduce, it may be, others into an intelligent
knowledge of that, with which we shall have our-
selves more than a merely superficial acquaintance ;
to bequeath it to those who come after us not worse
I.] DUTY TO OUR OWN TONGUE. 5
than we received it ourselves. " Spartara nactus
esj hanc exorna/^ — this should be our motto in
respect at once of our country, and of our country's
tongue.
Nor shall we, I trust, any of us feel this subject
to be alien or remote from the purposes which have
brought us to study within these walls. It is true
that we are mainly occupied here in studying other
tongues than our own. The time we bestow upon
it is small as compared with that bestowed on
those others. And yet one of our main purposes in
learning them is that we may better understand
this. Nor ought any other to dispute with it the
first and foremost place in our reverence, our gra-
titude, and our love. It has been well and worthily
said by an illustrious German scholar: "The care of
the national language I consider as at all times a
sacred trust and a most important privilege of the
higher orders of society. Every man of education
should make it the object of his unceasing concern,
to preserve his language pure and entire, to speak
it, so far as is in his power, in all its beauty and
perfection A nation whose language be-
comes rude and barbarous, must be on the brink of
barbarism in regard to everything else. A nation
which allows her language to go to ruin, is parting
with the last half of her intellectual independence,
and testifies her willingness to cease to exist.'^*
But this knowledge, like all other knowledge
which is worth attaining, is only to be attained at
* F. Schlegel, History of Liter ature, Lecture 10.
6 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lect.
the price of labour and pains. The language vTliich
at this day we speak is the result of processes
which have been going forward for hundreds and
for thousands of years. Nay more, it is not too
much to affirm that processes modifying the English
which at the present day we write and speak, have
been at work from the first day that man, being
gifted with discourseof reason, projected his thought
from out himself, and embodied and contemplated
it in his word. Which things being so, if we would
understand this language as it now is, we must
know something of it as it has been ; we must be
able to measure, however roughly, the forces which
have been at work upon it, moulding and shaping
it into the forms which it now wears.
At the same time various prudential considera-
tions must determine for us how far up we will
endeavour to trace the course of its history. There
are those who may seek to trace our language to
the forests of Germany and Scandinavia, to investi-
gate its relation to all the kindred tongues that
were there spoken ; again, to follow it up, till it and
they are seen descending from an elder stock ; nor
once to pause, till they have assigned to it its place
not merely in respect of that small group of lan-
guages which are immediately round it, but in
respect of all the tongues and languages of the
earth. I can imagine few studies of a more sur-
passing interest than this. Others, however,
must be content with seeking such insight into
their native language as may be within the reach
of all who, unable to make this the subject of
T.] THE PAST EXPLAINS THE PRESENT. 7
especial research, possessing neither that vast com-
pass of knowledge, nor that immense apparatus of
books, not being at liberty to dedicate to it that
devotion almost of a life which, followed out to the
full, it would require, have yet an intelligent
interest in their mother tongue, and desire to learn
as much of its growth and history and construction
as may be reasonably deemed within their reach.
To such as these I shall suppose myself to be
speaking. It would be a piece of great presumption
in me to undertake to speak to any other, or to
assume any other ground than this for myself.
I know there are some, wdio, when they are
invited to enter at all upon the past history of the
lanjyuaore, are inclined to make answer — " To wdiat
end such studies to us ? Why cannot we leave
them to a few antiquaries and grammarians?
Sufficient to us to know the laws of our present
English, to obtain an accurate acquaintance with
the language as we now find it, without concerning
ourselves with the phases through which it has
previously past.'^ This may sound plausible enough;
and I can quite understand a real lover of his native
tongue, who has not bestowed much thought upon
the subject, arguing in this manner. And yet
indeed such argument proceeds altogether on a
mistake. One sufficient reason why we should
occupy ourselves with the past of our language is,
because the present is only intelligible in the light
of the past, often of a very remote past indeed.
There are anomalies out of number now existing in
our language, which the pure logic of grammar is
8 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lect.
quite incapable of explaining ; wliicli nothing but
a knowledge of its historic evolutions, and of the
disturbing forces which have made themselves felt
therein, will ever enable us to understand. Even
as, again, unless we possess some knowledge of the
past, it is impossible that we can ourselves advance
a single step in the unfolding of the latent capa-
bilities of the language, without the danger of
committing some barbarous violation of its very
primary laws.
The plan which I have laid down for myself,
and to which I shall adhere, in this lecture and in
those which will succeed it, is as follows. In this
my first lecture I will ask you to consider the
language as now it is, to decompose with me some
specimens of it, to prove by these means, of what
elements it is compact, and what functions in it
these elements or component parts severally fulfil ;
nor shall I leave this subject without asking you to
admire the happy marriage in our tongue of the
languages of the north and south, an advantage
which it alone among all the languages of Europe
enjoys. Having thus presented to ourselves the
body which we wish to submit to scrutiny, and
having become acquainted, however sliglitly, with
its composition, I shall invite you to go back with
me, and trace some of the leading changes to which
in time past it has been submitted, and through
Avhicli it has arrived at what it now is ; and these
changes I shall contemplate under four aspects,
dedicating a lecture to each ; — changes which have
I.] ALTERATIONS UNOBSERVED. 9
resulted from the birth of new, or the reception of
foreign, words ; — changes consequent on the rejec-
tion or extinction of words or powers once pos-
sessed by the language ; — changes through the
altered meaning of words ; — and lastly, as not
unw^orthy of our attention, bat often growing out
of very deep roots, changes in the orthography of
words.
I shall everywhere seek to bring the subject
down to our present time, and not merely call your
attention to the changes which have been, but to
those also which are now being, effected. .1 shall
not account the fact that some are going on, so to
speak, before our own eyes, a sufficient ground to
excuse me from noticing them, but rather an ad-
ditional reason for doing this. For indeed changes
which are actually proceeding in our own time,
and which we are ourselves helping to bring about,
are the very ones which we are most likely to fail
in observing. There is so much to hide the nature
of them, and indeed their very existence, that,
except it may be by a very few, they will often
pass wholly unobserved. Loud and sudden revolu-
tions attract and compel notice ; but silent and
gradual, although with issues far vaster in store,
run their course, and it is only when their cycle
is completed or nearly so, that men perceive what
mighty transforming forces have been at work
unnoticed in the very midst of themselves.
Thus, to apply what I have just affirmed to this
matter of language — how few aged persons, let
them retain the fullest possession of their faculties,
10 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE, [lect.
are conscious of any difference between the spoken
language of their early youth, and that of their old
age ; that words and ways of using words are
obsolete now, which were usual then ; that many
words are current now, which had no existence at
that time. And yet it is certain that so it must be.
A man may fairly be supposed to remember clearly
and well for sixty years back ; and it needs less
than five of these sixties to bring us to the period
of Spenser, and not more than eight to set us in
the time of Chaucer and Wiclif. How great a
change, what vast modifications in oar language,
within eiglit memories. No one, contemplating
this whole term, will deny the immensity of the
change. For all this, we may be tolerably sure
that, had it been possible to interrogate a series
of eight persons, such as together had filled up
this time, intelligent men, but men whose atten-
tion had not been especially roused to this subject,
each in his turn would have denied that there had
been any change worth speaking of, perhaps any
change at all, during his lifetime. And yet,
havins: rearard to the multitude of words which
have fallen into disuse during these four or five
hundred years, we are sure that there must have
been some lives in this chain which saw those
words in use at their commencement, and out of
use before their close. And so too, of the multi-
tude of words which have sprung up in this period,
some, nay, a vast number, must liavc come into
being within the limits of each of these lives. It
cannot then be superfluous to direct attention to
I.] PROPORTIONS IN ENGLISH. 11
that which is actually going forward in our lan-
guage. It is indeed that, which of all is most
likely to be unobserved by us.
With these preliminary remarks I proceed at
once to the special subject of my lecture of to-day.
And first, starting from the recognized fact that
the English is not a simple but a composite lan-
guage, made up of several elements, as are the
people who speak it, I would suggest to you the
profit and instruction which we might derive from
seeking to resolve it into its component parts —
from taking, that is, any passage of an English
author, distributing the words of which it is made
up according to the languages from which they
are drawn; estimating the relative numbers and
proportions, which these languages have severally
lent us ; as well as the character of the words
which they have thrown into the common stock
of our tongue.
Thus, suppose the English language tobe divided
into a hundred parts ; of these, to make a rough
distribution, sixty would be Saxon ; thirty would
be Latin (including of course the Latin which has
Come to us through the French) ; five would be
Greek. We should thus have assigned ninety-five
parts, leaving the other five, perhaps too large a
residue, to be divided among all the other lan-
guages from which we have adopted isolated words.
And yet these are not few ; from our wide extended
colonial empire we come in contact with half the
world j we have picked up words in every quarter.
12 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lect.
and^ the English language possessing a singular
power of incorporating foreign elements into itself,
have not scrupled to make many of these our own.
Thus we have a certain number of Hebrew
words, mostly, if not entirely, belonging to religious
matters, as ' amen,^ ' cabala/ ' cherub/ ^ ephod,'
*^ gehenna/ 'hallelujah/ ^ hosanna/ ^jubilee/
leviathan/ ^manna,^ ^Messiah,^ ' sabbath,' 'Satan,'
' seraph,' ' shibboleth,' ' talmud.' The Arabic
words in our language are more numerous ; we
have several arithmetical and astronomical terms,
as ' algebra,' ' almanach,' ^ azimuth,' ' cypher/*
* nadir/ 'talisman/ 'zenith/ 'zero/ and chemical,
for the Arabs were the chemists, no less than
the astronomers and arithmeticians of the middle
ages ; as ' alcohol,' ' alembic,' ' alkali/ ' elixir.'
Add to these the names of animals, plants, fruits,
or articles of merchandize first introduced by them
to the notice of Western Europe ; as ' amber,'
artichoke/ 'barragan/ 'camphor,' 'coffee/ 'cotton/
crimson/ 'gazelle/ 'giraffe,' 'jar/ 'jasmin,'
lake' (lacca), 'lemon/ 'lime/ 'lute/ 'mattress,'
mummy,' ' saffron,' ' sherbet,' ' shrub,' ' sofa/
sugar,' ' syrup,' ' tamarind / and some further
terms, ' admiral/ ' amulet,' ' arsenal/ ' assassin/
barbican/ ' caliph,' ' caffre/ ' carat,' ' divan,'
dragoman/t ' emir,' ' fakir,' ' firman/ ' harem,'
hazard,' ' houri/ ' magazine,' ' mamaluke,' ' mi-
* Yet sec J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 985.
f The word hardly deserves to be called English, yet in
Pope's time it had made some progress toward naturalization.
I.] ARABIC, PERSIAN WORDS. 13
naret/ ' monsoon/ ' mosque/ ' nabob/ ^ razzia/
^ Sahara/ ' simoom/ ' sirocco/ ' sultan/ ^ tarif/
' vizier / and I believe we shall have nearly com-
pleted the list. We have moreover a few Persian
wordsj as ^ azure/ ' bazaar/ ^ bezoar/ ' caravan/
' caravanserai/ ' chess/ ' dervish/ ' lilac/ ^ orange/
^ saraband/ ' taffeta/ ' tambour/ ' turban / this
last appearing in strange forms at its first intro-
duction into the language, thus ' tolibant' (Putten-
ham), ' tulipant^ (Herbert^s Travels), ' turribant^
(Spenser), ' turbat,' ^ turbant/ and at length
^ turban.' We have also a few Turkish, such as
^chouse,' ^janisary/ 'odalisque/ 'sash,' 'tulip.'
Of ' civet' and ' scimitar' I believe it can only be
asserted that they are Eastern. The following
are Hindostanee, ' avatar/ ' bungalow,' ' calico,'
' chintz/ ' cowrie,' ' lac/ ' muslin/ ' punch/
' rupee,' ' toddy.' ' Tea/ or ' tcha/ as it was
spelt at first, of course is Chinese, so too are 'junk'
and ' satin.'
The New World has given us a certain number
of words, Indian and other — ' cacique' (' cassiqui,'
in Ralegh's Guiana), ' canoo,' ' chocolate,' ' cocoa,'
'condor,' 'hamoc' ('hamaca' in Ralegh), 'jalap/
Of a real or pretended polyglottist, who might thus have
served as an universal interpreter, he says :
" Pity you was not druggerman at Babel."
* Truckman,' or more commonly 'truchman,' familiar to all
readers of our early literature, is only another form of this,
one which probably has come to us through ' turcimanno,' the
Italian form of the word.
14 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lect.
'lama/ 'maize^ (Haytian), 'pampas/ ' pemmi-
can/ ' potato^ {' batata' in our earlier voj'agers)^
' raccoon/ ' sachem/ ' squaw/ ' tobacco/ ' toma-
hawk/ 'tomata' (Mexican), 'wigwam/ If 'hurri-
cane' is a word which Europe originally obtained
from the Caribbean islanders,* it should of course
be included in this list. A certain number of
words also we have received, one by one, from
various languages, which sometimes have not
bestowed on us more than this single one. Thus
' hussar' is Hungarian ; ' caloyer,' Komaic ;
' mammoth,' of some Siberian language ; ' tattoo,'
Polynesian ; ' steppe/ Tartarian ; ' sago,' ' bam-
boo,' ' rattan,' ' ourang-outang,' are all, I believe,
Malay words ; ' assegai/ ' zebra,' ' chimpanzee,'
' fetisch,' belong to different African dialects ; the
last, however, having reached Europe through the
channel of the Portuguese.
To come nearer home — we have a certain num-
ber of Italian words, as ' balcony/ ' baldachin/
' balustrade,' ' bandit,' ' bravo,' ' bust' (it w^as
' busto' as first used in English, and therefore
from the Italian, not from the French), 'cameo/
' canto,' ' caricature,' ' carnival,' ' cartoon/ ' char-
latan,' ' concert,' ' conversazione,' ' cupola,' ' ditto,'
' doge/ ' domino/ ' felucca/ ' fresco,' ' gazette/
'generalissimo/ 'gondola,' 'gonfalon/ 'grotto/
(' grotta' is the earliest form in which we have it
in English), ' gusto/ ' harlequin,' ' imljroglio,'
* See Washington Irving, Life and Voyages of Columbus,
b. 8, c. 9.
I.] SPANISH WORDS. 15
' inamorato/ ' influenza/ * lava/ ' malaria/ ' mani-
festo/ ' masquerade' C mascarata' in Hacket),
' motto/ ' nuncio/ ' opera/ ' oratorio/ ' pantaloon/
' parapet/ ' pedantry/ ' pianoforte/ ' piazza/
' portico/ ' proviso/ ' regatta/ ' ruffian/ ' scara-
mouch/ ' sequin/ ' seraglio/ ' sirocco/ ' sonnet/
' stanza/ ^ stiletto/ ' stucco/ ' studio/ ' terracotta/
^ umbrella/ ' virtuoso/ ' vista/ ' volcano/ ' zany/
' Becco/ and ^ cornuto/ ' fantastico/ ' magnifico/
impress' (the armorial device upon shields^ and
appearing constantly in its Italian form ' impresa'),
^ saltimbanco' (= mountebank), all once common
enough, are now obsolete. Sylvester uses often
' farfalla' for butterfly, but, as far as I know, this
use is peculiar to him. If these are at all the
whole number of our Italian words, and I cannot
call to mind any other, the Spanish in the
language are nearly as numerous ; nor indeed
would it be wonderful if they were more so ; for
our points of contact with Spain, friendly and
hostile, have been much more real than with Italy.
Thus we have from the Spanish ' albino,' ' alli-
gator' (' el lagarto'), ' alcove/* ' armada,' ' arma-
dillo,' * barricade,' ^ bastinado,' ' bravado/ ^caiman,
* cambist/ 'camisado,' ' carbonado,' ' cargo,' 'cigar,
' cochineal,' ' Creole,' ' desperado,' ' don,' ' duenna,
' eldorado,' ' embargo,' ' flotilla,' ' gala,' ' grandee,
' grenade/ ' guerilla,' 'hooker/f 'infanta,' ' jennet,
* On the question whether this ought not to have been in-
cluded among the Arabic, see Diez, Worterbuch d. Roman.
Sprachen, p. 10.
f Not in our dictionaries ; but a kind of coasting vessel
16 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lecT.
'junto/ ' merino/ ' mosquito/ ' mulatto/ ^ negro/
' olio/ *" ombre/ ' palaver/ ' parade/ ' parasol/
' parroquet/ ' peccadillo/ ' picaroon/ ' platina/
' poncho/ ' punctilio^ (for a long time spelt ' puu-
tillo/ in English books), ^quinine/ * reformado/
' savannah/ * serenade/ 'sherry/ 'stampede/ 'stoc-
cado/ ' strappado/ ' tornado/ ' vanilla/ ' verandah/
' Buffalo^ also is Spanish ; ' buff' or ' buffle' being
the proper English word ; ' caprice' too we pro-
bably obtained rather from Spain than Italy, as
we find it written ' capricho' by those who used
it first. Other Spanish words, once familiar,
are now extinct. * Punctilio' lives on, but not
' punto,' which occurs in Bacon. ' Privado/ signi-
fying a prince's favourite, one admitted to his
privacy (no uncommon word in Jeremy Taylor
and Fuller), has quite disappeared; so too has
' quirpo' (cuerpo), the name given to a jacket
fitting close to the body ; ' quellio' (cuello), a ruff
or f^^c^-collar j and ' matachin,' the title of a
sword-dance ; these are all frequent in our early
dramatists ; and ' flota' w^as the constant name
of the treasure-fleet from the Indies. ' Intermess'
is employed by Evelyn, and is the Spanish ' en-
tremes,' though not recognized as such in our
Dictionaries. ' Mandarin' and ' marmalade' are our
only Portuguese words I can call to mind. A
good many of our sea-terms are Dutch, as ' sloop,'
well known to seafaring men, the Spanish *urca;' thus in
Oklys' Life ofRaleJcjli : "Their <;alk>ons, galleasses, gallies,
ureas, and zabras were miserably shattered."
I.] ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH. 17
' schooner/ ' yacht/ ^ boom/ ' skipper/ ' tafferel/
' to smuggle / ^ to wear/ in the sense of veer, as
when we say ' to wear a ship ;' ' skates/ too, and
' stiver' are Dutch. Celtic things are for the most
part designated among us by Celtic words; such
as ' bard/ ' kilt/ ' clan/ ' pibroch/ ' plaid/ ' reel/
Nor only such as these, which are all of them
comparatively of modern introduction, but a con-
siderable number, how large a number is yet a
very unsettled question, of words which at a much
earlier date found admission into our tongue, are
derived from this quarter.
Now, of course, I have no right to presume that
any among ns are equipped with that knowledge
of other tongues, which shall enable us to detect of
ourselves and at once the nationality of all or most
of the words which we may meet — some of them
greatly disguised, and having undergone manifold
transformations in the process of their adoption
among us; but only that we have such helps at
command in the shape of dictionaries and the like,
and so much diligence in their use, as will enable
ns to discover the quarter from which the words we
may encounter have reached us ; and I will con-
fidently say that few studies of the kind will be
more fruitful, will suggest more various matter of
reflection, will more lead you into the secrets of the
English tongue, than an analysis of a certain num-
ber of passages drawn from different authors, such
as I have just now proposed. For this analysis
you will take some passage of English verse or
prose — say the first ten lines of Paradise Lost —
c
18 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lecT.
or the LorfVs Prayer — or the 23rd Psalm ; you will
distribute the whole body of words contained in
that passage, of course not omitting the smallest,
according to their nationalities — writing, it may
be, A over every Anglo-Saxon word, L over every
Latin, and so on with the others, if any other
should occur in the portion which you have sub-
mitted to this examination. When this is done,
you will count up the number of those which
each language contributes ; again, you will note the
character of the words derived from each quarter.
Yet here, before I pass further, I would observe
in respect of those which come from the Latin, that
it will be desirable further to mark whether they
are directly from it, and such might be marked L^,
or only mediately from it, and to us directly from
the French, which would be L', or L at second
hand — our English word being only in the second
generation descended from the Latin, not the child,
but the child^s child. There is a rule that holds
pretty constantly good, by which you may deter-
mine this point. It is this, — that if a word be
directly from the Latin, it will not have undergone
any alteration or modification in its form and shape,
save only in the termination — ^ innocentia,' will
have become Mnnocency,^ ^ natio,' will have be-
come ' nation,^ ' firmameutum' ' firmament,' but
nothing more. On the other hand, if it comes
through the French, it will generally be considerably
altered in its passage. It will have undergone a
process of lubrication ; its sharply defined Latin
outline will in good part have departed from it;
I.] TWO SHAPES OF WORDS. 19
thus ' crown' is from ^ corona/ but through ' cou-
ronne/ and itself a dissyllable, ' coroune/ in our
earlier English ; 'treasure' is from 'thesaurus/ but
through 'tresor/ 'emperor^ is the Latin 'im-
perator/ but it was first ' empereur.' It will
often happen that the substantive has past through
this process, having reached us through the inter-
vention of the French ; while we have only felt
at a later period our want of the adjective also,
which we have proceeded to borrow direct from
the Latin. Thus, ' people' is indeed ' populus/
but it was 'pen pie' first, while ' popular' is a direct
transfer of a Latin vocable into our English glos-
sary. So too ' enemy^ is ' inimicus/ but it was
first softened in the French, and had its Latin
physiognomy to a great degree obliterated, while
'inimical' is Latin throughout; 'parish' is ' pa-
roisse,' but 'parochial' is ' parochialis/ 'chapter'
is ' chapitre,' but ' capitular' is ' capitularis.'
Sometimes you will find in English what I may
call the double adoption of a Latin word ; w'hich
now makes part of our vocabulary in two shapes ;
' doppelgangers' the Germans would call such
words. There is first the elder word, which the
French has given us ; but which, before it gave, it
had fashioned and moulded, cutting it short, it
may be, by a syllable or more, for the French
devours letters and syllables; and there is the
later w^ord which we borrowed immediately from
the Latin. I will mention a few examples ; ' se-
cure' and ' sure,' both from ' securus,' but one
directly, the other through the French; 'fidelity'
c 2
20 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [leCT.
and ' fealty/ both from ' fidelitas/ but one directly,
the other at second-hand ; ' species^ and ' spice/
both from ' species/ spices being pi'operly only
kinds of aromatic drugs ; ' blaspheme^ and ' blame/
both from ' blasphemare/* but ' blame' immedi-
ately from ^ blamer/ Add to these \ granary'
and ^garner/ ^captain' (capitaneus) and ^chieftain/
' tradition' and ' treason / ' abyss' and ' abysm /
'regal' and 'royal/ 'legal' and 'loyal/ 'cadence'
and 'chance/ 'balsam' and 'balm/ 'hospital' and
' hotel / ' digit' and ' doit / ' pagan' and ' pay-
nim / ' captive^ and ' caitiff/ ' persecute' and
* pursue / ' superficies' and ' surface / ' faction'
and ' fashion / ' particle' and ' parcel / ' redemp-
tion' and ' ransom / ' probe' and ' prove / ' ab-
breviate' and ' abridge / ' dormitory' and ' dor-
toir' or ' dorter' (this last now obsolete, but not
uncommon in Jeremy Taylor) ; ' desiderate' and
'desire/ 'fact' and 'feat/ 'major' and 'mayor/
' radius' and ' ray / ' pauper^ and ' poor/ ' potion'
and ' poison / ' ration' and ' reason / ' oration' and
* orison.'t I have, in the instancing of these,
* This particular instance of double adoption, of ' dimor-
phism' as Latham calls it, * dittology' as Heyse, recurs in
Italian, ' bestemmiare' and 'biasimare/ and in Spanish,
* blasf'eniar' and 'lastimar.'
f Somewhat diflerent from this, 3^et itself also curious, is
the passing of an Anf^h)-Saxon word in two diflerent forms
intoEng-lish, and continuing in both; thus ' desk' and 'dish,'
both the Anglo-Saxon ' disc,' the German ' tisch ;' ' beech' and
* book,' both the Anglo-Saxon ' boc,' our first books being
heechen tablets (see Grimm, Wurterhuch, s. vv.' Buch,'
* Buche') ; * girdle' and ' kirtle,' both ortheiii corresponding to
l.J ASSIMILATION OF WORDS. 21
named always the Latin form before the French ;
but the reverse I suppose in every instance is the
order in which the words were adopted by us ;
we had ' pursue^ before ^ persecute/ ' spice' before
^ species/ ' royalty' before ' regality/ and so with
the others.*
The explanation of this greater change which the
earlier form of the word has undergone, is not far
to seek. Words which have been introduced into
a language at an early period, when as yet writing
is rare, and books are few or none, when therefore
orthography is unfixed, or being purely phonetic,
cannot properly be said to exist at all, such words
for a long while live orally on the lips of men,
before they are set down in writing ; and out of this
fact it is that we shall for the most part find them
reshaped and remoulded by the people who have
adopted them, entirely assimilated to their language
in form and termination, so as in a little while to
the German 'giirtel/ already in Anglo-Saxon a double spell-
ing, ' gyrdel,' ' cyrtel/ had prepared for the double words ; so
too 'haunch' and 'hinge;' 'lady' and 'lofty;' 'shirt,' and
* skirt ;' ' black' and ' bleak ;' ' pond' and ' pound ;' ' deck' and
* thatch ;' ' deal' and ' dole ;' ' weald' and ' wood ;' ' dew' and
' thaw ;' ' wayward' and ' awkward ;' ' dune' and ' down ;'
'hood' and 'hat;' 'ghost' and 'gust;' 'evil' and 'ill;'
* mouth' and ' moth ;' ' hedge' and ' hay.'
* We have in the same way double adoptions from the
Greek, one direct, at least as regards the forms; one modified
by its passage through some other language; thus, ' adamant'
and 'diamond;' 'monastery' and 'minster;' 'scandal' and
' slander ;' ' theriac' and ' treacle ;' ' asphodel' and ' daffodil ;'
' presbyter' and * priest.'
22 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lect.
be almost or quite indistinguishable from natives.
On the other hand a most effectual check to this
process^ a process sometimes barbarizing and de-
facing, however it may be the only one which will
make the newly brought in isntirely homogeneous
with the old and already existing, is imposed by
the existence of a much written language and a
full formed literature. The foreign word, being
once adopted into these, can no longer undergo a
thorough transformation. For the most part the
utmost which use and familiarity can do with it
now, is to cause the gradual dropping of the
foreign termination. Yet this too is not unim-
portant ; it often goes far to making a home for
a word, and hindering it from wearing the ap-
pearance of a foreigner and stranger.*
* The French itself has also a double adoption, or as
perhaps we should more accurately call it there, a double
formation, from the Latin, and such as quite bears out what
has been said above : one goin^ far back in the history of the
language, the other belonging to a later and more literary
period ; on which subject there are some admirable remarks
by Genin, Recreations PhiloJogiques, vol. i. pp. 162 — 166 ;
and see Fuchs, Die Roman. Sprachen, p. 125. Thus from
* separare' is derived ' sevrer,' to separate the child from its
mother's breast, to wean, but also 'separer,' without this
special sense; from ' pastor,* ' patre,' a shepherd in the literal,
and ' pasteur' the same in a tropical, sense ; from ' catena,'
* chaiiie' and * cadene ;' from ' fragilis,' ' frele' and ' fragile ;'
from * pensare,' ' peser' and * penser ;' from ' gehenna,' * gene'
and * gehcnne;' from ' captivus,' 'chetit" and ' captif ;' from
* nativus,' 'naif and 'natif;' from ' designare,' ' dessiner' and
'designer;' from 'decimare,' ' dimer' and 'dccimer;' from
* consumere/ 'consomracr' and 'consumer;' from 'simulure,'
I.] ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH. 23
Bat to return from this digression — I said just
now that you would learn very much from observing
and calculating the proportions in which the words
of one descent and those of another occur in any
passage which you analyse. Thus examine the
Lord^s Prayer. It consists of exactly seventy
words. You will find that only the following six
claim the rights of Latin citizenship — ' trespasses/
^trespass/ 'temptation/ ^deliver/ ^power/ 'glory.'
Nor would it be very difficult to substitute for
any one of these a Saxon word. Thus for ' tres-
passes' might be substituted ' sins / for ' deliver'
' free / for ' power' ' might / for ' glory' ' bright-
ness / which would only leave ' temptation/ about
which there could be the slightest difficulty^ and
' trials,' though we now ascribe to the word a
somewhat difi'erent sense, would in fact exactly
correspond to it. This is but a small percentage,
' sembler' and *simuler;' from the low Latin, *disjejunare,'
'diner' and 'dejeuner;' from 'acceptare,' ' acheter' and 'ac-
cepter;' from 'homo,' 'on' and 'homme;' from 'paganus,'
' payen' and ' pa3'san ;' from ' obedientia,' ' obeissance' and
' obedience ;' from ' strictus,' ' etroit' and ' strict ;' from ' .sa-
cramentum,' ' serment' and ' sacrement ;' from ' ministeriuui,'
' metier' and ' ministere ;' from ' parabola,' ' parole' and ' pa-
rabole;' from ' peregrinus,' ' pelerin' and 'peregrin;' from
' factio,' ' fa9on' and ' faction,' and it has now adopted ' factio'
in a third shape, that is, in our English ' fashion ;' from
* pietas,' ' pitie' and ' piete ;' from ' capitulum,' ' chapitre' and
' capitule,' a botanical term. So, too, in Italian, ' raanco,'
maimed, and ' monco,' maimed of a hand; 'rifutare,' to
refute, and ' rifiutare,' to refuse ; ' dama' and ' donna,' both
forms of ' domina.'
24 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [leCT.
six words in seventy, or less than ten in the hun-
dred ; and we often light upon a still smaller pro-
portion. Thus take the first three verses of the
23rd Psalm : — " The Lord is my Shepherd ;
therefore can I lack nothing; He shall feed me
in a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the
waters of comfort ; He shall convert my soul, and
bring me forth in the paths of righteousness for
his Name's sake/' Here are forty-five words,
and only the three in italics are Latin : and for
every one of these too it would be easy to sub-
stitute a word of Saxon origin ; little more, that
is, than the proportion of seven in the hundred ;
while, still stronger than this, in five verses out
of Genesis, containing one hundred and thirty
words, there are only five not Saxon, less, that is,
than four in the hundred.
Shall we therefore conclude that these are the
proportions in which the Anglo-Saxon and Latin
elements of the language stand to one another ?
If they are so, then my former proposal to express
their relations by sixty and thirty was greatly at
fault ; and seventy and twenty, or even eighty and
ten, would fall short of adequately representing the
real predominance of the Saxon over the Latin
element of the language. But it is not so ; the
Anglo-Saxon words by no means outnumber the
Latin in the degree which the analysis of those
passages would seem to imply. It is not that there
are so many more Anglo-Saxon words, but that
the words which there are, being words of more
primary necessity, do therefore so much more
I.] ANGLO-SAXON THE BASE OF ENGLISH. 25
frequently recur. The proportions which the
analysis of the dictionary, that is, of the language
at rest, would furnish, are very different from
these which I have just instanced, and which the
analysis of sentences, or of the language iyi motion,
gives. Thus if we examine the total vocabulary
of the English Bible, not more than sixty per cent,
of the words are native ; such are the results
which the Concordance gives ; but in the actual
translation the native words are from ninety in
some passages to ninety-six in others per cent.*
The notice of this fact will lead us to some very
important conclusions as to the character of the
words which the Saxon and the Latin severally
furnish ; and principally to this : — that while the
English language is thus compact in the main of
these two elements, we must not for all this regard
these two as making, one and the other, exactly
the same kind of contributions to it. On the con-
trary their contributions are of very different
character. The Anglo-Saxon is not so much, as
I have just called it, one element of the English
language, as the foundation of it, the basis. All
its joints, its whole articulation, its sinews and its
ligaments, .the great body of articles, pronouns,
conjunctions, prepositions, numerals, auxiliary
verbs, all smaller words which serve to knit to-
gether and bind the larger into sentences, these,
not to speak of the grammatical structure of the
* See Marsh, Manioal of the English Language, Engl.
Ed. p. 88 s^<i.
26 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lect.
language, are exclusively Saxon. The Latin may
contribute its tale of bricks, yea, of goodly and
polished hewn stones, to the spiritual building;
but the mortar, with all that holds and binds the
different parts of it together, and constitutes them
into a house, is Saxon througliout. I remember
Selden in his Table Talk using another compa-
rison ; but to the same effect : "■ If you look upon
the language spoken in the Saxon time, and the
language spoken now, you will find the difference
to be just as if a man had a cloak which he wore
plain in Clueen Elizabeth's days, and since, here
has put in a piece of red, and there a piece of
blue, and here a piece of green, and there a piece of
orange-tawny. We borrow words from the Frencli,
Italian, Latin, as every pedantic man pleases."
I believe this to be the law which holds good in
respect of all composite languages. However com-
posite they may be, yet they are only so in regard
of their words. There may be a medley in respect
of these, some coming from one quarter, some from
another; but there is never a mixture of gram-
matical forms and inflections. One or other lan-
guage entirely predominates here, and everything
has to conform and subordinate itself to the laws
of this ruling and ascendant language. The
Anglo-Saxon is the ruling language in our present
English. Thus while it has thought good to drop
its genders, even so the French substantives which
come among us, must also leave theirs behind
them ; as in like manner the French verbs must
renounce their own conjugations, and adapt them-
I.] QUOTATION EROM GRIMM. 27
selves to ours * I believe that a remarkable
parallel to this might be found in the language of
Persia, since the conquest of that country by the
Arabs. The ancient Persian religion fell with the
government, but the language remained totally
unaffected by the revobition, in its grammatical
structure and character. Arabic vocables, the
only exotic words found in Persian, are found in
numbers varying with the object and quality,
style and taste of the writers, but pages of pure
idiomatic Persian may be written without em-
ploying a single word from the Arabic.
At the same time the secondary or superinduced
language, even while it is quite unable to force any
of its forms on the language which receives its
words, may yet compel that to renounce a portion
of its own forms, by the impossibility which is
practically found to exist of making them fit the
new comers ; and thus it may exert, although not
a positive, yet a negative, influence on the grammar
of the other tongue. It has been so, as is generally
admitted, in the instance of our own. '' When the
English language was inundated by a vast influx
of French words, few, if any, French forms were
received into its grammar ; but the Saxon forms
soon dropped away, because they did not suit the
new roots ; and the genius of the language, from
having to deal with the newly imported words in
* W. Schlegel {IndiscJie BihliotJieh, vol. i. p. 284) : Coeuut
quidem paullatim iu novum corpus peregriua vocabula, sed
grammatica linguarum, unde petitce sunt, ratio perit.
28 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGCJAGE. [lecT.
a rude state, was induced to neglect the inflections
of the native ones. This for instance led to the
introduction of the s as the universal termination
of all plural nouns, which agreed with the usage
of the French language, and was not alien from
that of the Saxon, but was merely an extension
of the termination of the ancient masculine to
other classes of nouns."*
If you wish to convince yourselves by actual
experience, of the fact which I just now asserted,
namely, that the radical constitution of the lan-
guage is Saxon, T would say. Try to compose a
sentence, let it be only of ten or a dozen words,
and the subject entirely of your choice, employing
therein only words which are of a Latin derivation.
I venture to say you will find it impossible, or
next to impossible, to do it ; whichever way you
turn, some obstacle will meet you in the face.
And while it is thus with the Latin, whole pages
might be written, I do not say in philosophy or
theology or upon any abstruser subject, but
on familiar matters of common everyday life,
in which every word should be of Saxon ex-
traction, not one of Latin ; and these, pages in
which, with the exercise of a little patience and
ingenuity, all appearance of awkwardness and
constraint should be avoided, so that it should
never occur to the reader, unless otherwise in-
formed, that the writer had submitted himself to
* J. Griinm, quoted in The Philological Museum, vol. i.
p. 667.
I.] QUOTATION FROM SIR THOMAS BROWNE. 29
this restraint and limitation in the words which
he employed, and was only drawing them from
one section of the English language. Sir Thomas
Browne has given several long paragraphs so con-
structed. Take for instance the following, which
is only a little fragment of one of them : " The
first and foremost step to all good works is the
dread and fear of the Lord of heaven and earth,
which through the Holy Ghost enlighteneth the
blindness of our sinful hearts to tread the ways
of wisdom, and lead our feet into the land of
blessing."* This is not stiffer than the ordinary
English of his time. I would suggest to you at
your leisure to make these two experiments ; you
will find it, I think, exactly as I have here
affirmed.
While thus I bring before you the fact that it
would be quite possible to write English, foregoing
altogether the use of the Latin portion of the
language, I would not have you therefore to con-
clude that this portion of the language is of little
value, or that we could draw from the resources
of our Teutonic tongue eSicient substitutes for all
the words which it has contributed to our glossary.
I am persuaded that we could not ; and, if we
could, that it would not be desirable. I mention
this, because there is sometimes a regret expressed
that we have not kept our language more free
from the admixture of Latin, a suggestion made
that we should even now endeavour to keep under
* Works, vol. iv. p. 202.
30 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lecT.
the Latin element of it, and as little as possible
avail ourselves of it. I remember Lord Broiio^ham
urging upon the students at Glasgow as a help to
•writing good English, that they should do their
best to rid their diction of long- tailed words in
' osity^ and ' ation.' He plainly intended to in-
dicate by this phrase all learned Latin words, or
words derived from the Latin. This exhortation
is by no means superfluous ; for doubtless there
were writers of a former age, Samuel Johnson in
the last century, Henry More and Sir Thomas
Browne in the century preceding, who gave undue
preponderance to the learned, or Latin, portion in
our language ; and very much of its charm, of its
homely strength and beauty, of its most popular
and truest idioms, would have perished from it,
had they succeeded in persuading others to write
as they had written.
But for all this we could almost as ill spare
this side of the language as the other. It repre-
sents and supplies needs not less real than the
other does. Philosophy and science and the arts
of a high civilization find their utterance in the
Latin words of our language, or, if not in the
Latin, in the Greek, which for present purposes
may be grouped with them. How should they
have found utterance in the speech of rude tribes,
which, never having cultivated the things, must
needs have been without the words which should
express those things. Granting too that, aeteris
paribus, when a Latin and a Saxon word offer
themselves to our choice, we sliall generally do
I.] QUOTATION TROM DE QTJINCEY. 31
best to employ the Saxon^ to speak of ' happiness^
rather than ^ felicity/ ' almighty' rather than
' omnipotent/ a ' forerunner' rather than a ' pre-
cursor/ still these latter must be regarded as much
denizens in the language as the former, no alien
interlopers, but possessing the rights of citizen-
ship as fully as the most Saxon word of them all.
One part of the language is not to be favoured at
the expense of the other ; the Saxon at the cost
of the Latin, as little as the Latin at the cost of
the Saxon. " Both are indispensable ; and speak-
ing generally without stopping to distinguish as to
subject, both are equally indispensable. Pathos,
in situations which are homely, or at all connected
with domestic affections, naturally moves by Saxon
words. Lyrical emotion of every kind, which (to
merit the name of lyrical) must be in the state
of flux and reflux, or, generally, of agitation, also
requires the Saxon element of our language. And
why? Because the Saxon is the aboriginal ele-
ment j the basis and not the superstructure : con-
sequently it comprehends all the ideas which are
natural to the heart of man and to the elementary
situations of life. And although the Latin often
furnishes us with duplicates of these ideas, yet the
Saxon, or monosyllabic part, has the advantage of
precedency in our use and knowledge ; for it is the
language of the nursery whether for rich or poor,
in which great philological academy no toleration
is given to words in ' osity' or ' ation.' There is
therefore a great advantage, as regards the conse-
cration to our feelings, settled by usage and
32 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lect.
custom upon the Saxon strands in the mixed yarn
of our native tongue. And universally, this may
be remarked — that wherever the passion of a
poem is of that sort which uses^ jji^esumes, or
jjostulates the ideas, without seeking to extend
them, Saxon will be the ' cocoon^ (to speak by
the language applied to silk- worms), which the
poem spins for itself. But on the other hand,
where the motion of the feeling is by and through
the ideas, where (as in religious or meditative
poetry — Young's, for instance, or Cowper's), the
pathos creeps and kindles underneath the very
tissues of the thinking, there the Latin will predo-
minate ; and so much so that, whilst the flesh, the
blood, and the muscle, will be often almost ex-
clusively Latin, the articulations only, or hinges
of connection, will be Anglo-Saxon."
These words which I have just quoted are De
Quincey's — whom I must needs esteem the greatest
living master of our English tongue. And on the
same matter Sir Francis Palgrave has expressed
himself thus : " Upon the languages of Teutonic
origin the Latin has exercised great influence, but
most energetically on our own. The very early
admixture of the Langue d^Oil, the never inter-
rupted employment of the French as the language
of education, and the nomenclature created by the
scientific and literary cultivation of advancing and
civilized society, have Romanized our speech; the
warp may be Anglo-Saxon, but the woof is Roman
as well as the embroideiy, and these foreign mate-
rials have so entered into the texture, that were
I.] THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 33
they plucked out, the web would be torn to rags,
unravelled and destroyed/^*
I do not know where we could find a happier
example of the preservation of the golden mean in
this matter than in our authorized Version of the
Bible. One of the chief among the minor and
secondary blessings which that Version has con-
ferred on the nation or nations drawing spiritual
life from it, — a blessing not small in itself, but
only small by comparison with the infinitely
higher blessings whereof it is the vehicle to them,
— is the happy wisdom, the instinctive tact, with
which its authors have steered between any futile
mischievous attempt to ignore the full rights of
the Latin part of the language on the one side,
and on the other any burdening of their Version
with such a multitude of learned Latin terms as
should cause it to forfeit its homely character,
and shut up large portions of it from the under-
standing of plain and unlearned men. There is a
remarkable confession to this eflfect, to the wis-
dom, in fact, which guided them from above, to
the providence that overruled their work, an
honourable acknowledgment of the immense
superiority in this respect of our English Version
over the Romish, made by one now, unhappily,
familiar with the latter, as once he was with our
own. Among those who haverecentlyabandonedthe
communion of the English Church one has exprest
himself in deeply touching tones of lamentation
* Sistory of Normandy and England, vol. i. p. 78.
34 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lecT.
over all, which in renouncing our translation, he
feels himself to have foregone and lost. These
are his words : " Who will not say that the un-
common beauty and marvellous English of the
Protestant Bible is not one of the great strong-
holds of heresy in this country ? It lives on the
ear, like a music that can never be forgotten, like
the sound of church bells, which the convert
hardly knows how he can forego. Its felicities
often seem to be almost things rather than mere
words. It is part of the national mind, and
the anchor of national seriousness The me-
mory of the dead passes into it. The potent
traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its
verses. The power of all the griefs and trials of
a man is hidden beneath its words. It is the re-
presentative of his best moments, and all that
there has been about him of soft and gentle and
pure and penitent and good speaks to him for
ever out of his English Bible It is his
sacred thing, which doubt has never dimmed, and
controversy never soiled. In the length and
breadth of the land there is not a Protestant with
one spark of religiousness about him, whose spi-
ritual biography is not in his Saxon Bible."*
Such are his touching words ; and certainly one
has only to compare this version of ours with the
Rhemish, and the transcendent excellence of our
own reveals itself at once. I am not extolling
now its superior scholarship ; its greater freedom
* Dublin Eeview, June, 1S53.
T.] THE RHEMISH BIBLE. 35
from by-ends ; as little would I urge the fact that
one translation is from the original Greek, the
other from the Latin Vulgate, and thus the trans-
lation of a translation, often reproducing the mis-
takes of that translation ; but, putting aside all
considerations such as these, I speak only here of
the superiority of the diction in which the meaning,
be it correct or incorrect, is conveyed to English
readers. Thus I open the Rhemish version at
Galatians v. 19, where the long list of the " works
of the flesh,'' and of the '' fruit of the Spirit," is
given. But what could a mere English reader
make of words such as these — ' impudicity,' ^ ebrie-
ties,' ' coniessations,' * longanimity/ all which
occur in that passage ? while our Version for
* ebrieties' has ' drunkenness,' for ' comessations'
has ' revelllngs,' and so also for ' longanimity'
^ longsuffering.' Or set over against one another
such phrases as these, — in the Rhemish, ''the
exemplars of the celestials" (Heb. ix. 23), but in
ours, " the patterns of things in the heavens."
Or suppose if, instead of the words which we read
at Heb. xiii. 16, namely, " To do good and to
communicate forget not ; for with such sacrifices
God is well pleased," we read as follows, which
are the words of the Rhemish, '' Beneficence and
communication do not forget ; for with such hosts
God is promerited" ! — Who does not feel that if
our Version had been composed in such Latin-
English as this, had abounded in words like
' odible,' ' suasible,' ' exinanite,' ' contristate,' ' pos-
tulations,' ' coinquinations,' ' agnition,' ' zealatour,'
D 2
36 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [leCT.
all, with many more of the same mint, in the
Rhemish Version, our loss would have been great
and enduring, one which would have searched into
the whole religious life of our people, and been
felt in the very depths of the national mind ?*
There was indeed something still deeper than
love of sound and genuine English at work in our
Translators, whether they were conscious of it or
not, which hindered them from presenting the
Scriptures to their fellow-countrymen dressed out
in such a semi-Latin garb as this. The Refor-
mation, which they were in this translation so
mightily strengthening and confirming, was just a
throwing off, on the part of the Teutonic nations,
of that everlasting pupilage in which Rome would
have held them ; an assertion at length that they
were come to full age, and that not through her,
but directly through Christ, they would address
themselves unto God. The use of the Latin
language as the language of worship, as the lan-
guage in which the Scriptures might alone be
read, had been the great badge of servitude, even
as the Latin habits of thought and feeling which
it promoted had been the great helps to the con-
tinuance of this servitude, through long ages. It
lay deep then in the very nature of their cause
that the Reformers should develop the Saxon, or
essentially national, element in the language ;
while it was just as natural that the Roman
* There is more on this matter in my book On the
Authorized Version of the New Testament, pp. 33 — 35.
I.] rUTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 37
Catholic translators, if they must translate the
Scriptures into English at all, should yet trans-
late them into such English as should bear the
nearest possible resemblance to the Latin Vulgate,
which Rome with a very deep wisdom of this world
would gladly have seen as the only one in the
hands of the faithful.
Let me again, however, recur to the fact that
what our Reformers did in this matter, they did
without exaggeration ; even as they had shown the
same wise moderation in still higher matters.
They gave to the Latin side of the language its
rights, though they would not suffer it to encroach
upon and usurp those of the Teutonic part of the
language. It would be difficult not to believe,
even if many outward signs said not the same,
that great things are in store for the one language
of Europe which thus serves as connecting link
between the North and the South, between the
languages spoken by the Teutonic nations of
the North and by the Romance nations of the
South ; which holds on to and partakes of both ;
which is as a middle term between them.* There
are who venture to hope that the English Church,
being in like manner double-fronted, looking on
the one side toward Rome, being herself truly
Catholic, looking on the other toward the Pro-
testant communions, being herself also protesting
* See a paper On the Probable Future Position of the
English Language, by T. Watts, Esq., in the Proceedings
oftJie Philological Societi/, vol. iv. p. 207.
38 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lect.
and reforming, may yet in the providence of God
have an important part to play for the recon-
ciling of a divided Christendom. And if this ever
should be so, if, notwithstanding our sins and
nn worthiness, so blessed a task should be in store
for her, it will not be a small help and assistance
thereunto, that the language in which her media-
tion will be effected is one wherein both parties
may claim their own, in which neither will feel
that it is receiving the adjudication of a stranger,
of one who must be an alien from its deeper
thoughts and habits, because an alien from its
words, but a language in which both must recog-
nize very much of that which is deepest and most
precious of their own.
Nor is this prerogative which T have just claimed
for our English the mere dream and fancy of
patriotic vanity. The scholar who in our days
is most profoundly acquainted with the great group
of the Gothic languages in Europe, and a devoted
lover, if ever there was such, of his native German,
I mean Jacob Grimm, has expressed himself very
nearly to the same effect, and given the palm over
all to our English in words which you will not
grudge to hear quoted, and with which I shall
bring this lecture to a close. After ascribing to
our language "a veritable power of expression,
such as perhaps never stood at the command of
any other language of men," he goes on to say,
" Its highly spiritual genius, and w onderfully happy
development and condition, have been the result of
a surprisingly intimate union of the two noblest
I.] JACOB GRIMM ON ENGLISH. 39
languages in modern Europe, the Teutonic and the
Romance. — It is well known in what relation these
two stand to one another in the English tongue ;
the former supplying in far larger proportion the
material groundwork, the latter the spiritual con-
ceptions. In truth the English language, which
by no mere accident has produced and upborne
the greatest and most predominant poet of modern
times, as distinguished from the ancient classical
poetry (I can, of course, only mean Shakespeare),
may with all right be called a world-language ; and,
like the English people, appears destined hereafter
to prevail with a sway more extensive even than
its present over all the portions of the globe.* For
* A little more than two centuries ago a poet, himself
abundantly deserving the title of * well-languaged,' which a
cotemporary or near successor gave him, ventured in some
remarkable lines timidly to anticipate this. Speaking of his
native tongue, which he himself wrote with such vigour and
purity, though wanting in the fiery impulses which go to the
making of a first-rate poet, Daniel exclaims :
" And who, in time, knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue, to what strange shores
This gain of our best glory shall be sent,
To enrich unknowing nations with our stores ?
What worlds in the yet unformed Occident
May come refined with the accents that are ours ?
Or who can tell for what great work in hand
The greatness of our style is now ordained ?
What powers it shall bring in, what spirits command,
What thoughts let out, what humours keep restrained,
What mischief it may powerfully withstand,
And what fair ends may thereby be attained ?"
40 ENGLISH A COMPOSITE LANGUAGE. [lecT. I.
in wealth, good sense, and closeness of structure
no other of the languages at this day spoken
deserves to be compared with it — not even our
German, which is torn, even as we are torn, and
must first rid itself of many defects, before it can
enter boldly into the lists, as a competitor with the
English/'*
* Veher den Ursprung der S;prache, Berlin, 1832, p. 50.
41
LECTURE II.
GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
IT is not for nothing that we speak of some
languages as living, of others as dead. All
spoken languages may be ranged in the first class ;
for as men will never consent to use a language
without more or less modifying it in their use,
will never so far forego their own activity as to
leave it exactly where they found it, it will there-
fore, so long as it is thus the utterance of human
thought and feeling, inevitably show itself alive
by many infallible proofs, by motion, growth,
acquisition, loss, progress, and decay. A living
language therefore is one which abundantly de-
serves this name; for it is one in which, spoken
as it is by living men, a vital formative energy is
still at work. It is one which is in course of
actual evolution, which, if the life that animates it
be a healthy one, is appropriating and assimilating
to itself what it anywhere finds congenial to its
own life, multiplying its resources, increasing its
wealth ; while at the same time it is casting off
useless and cumbersome forms, dismissing from its
vocabulary words of which it finds no use, reject-
ing from itself by a re- active energy the foreign
and heterogeneous, which may for a while have
been forced upon it. I would not assert that in
42 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
the process of all this it does not make mistakes ;
in the desire to simplify it may let go distinctions
which were not useless, and which it would have
been better to retain ; the acquisitions which it
makes are very far from being all gains ; it some-
times rejects words as worthless, or suffers words
to die out, which were most worthy to have lived.
So far as it does this its life is not perfectly
healthy ; there are here signs, however remote, of
disorganization, decay, and ultimate death ; but
still it lives, and even these misgrowths and mal-
formations, the rejection of this good, the taking
up into itself of that ill, all these errors are them-
selves the utterances and evidences of life. A
dead language is the contrary of all this. It is
dead, because books, and not now any generation of
living men, are the guardians of it, and what
they guard, they guard without change. Its
course has been completely run, and it is now
equally incapable of gaining and of losing. We
may come to know it better : but in itself it is
not, and never can be, other than it was when
it ceased from the lips of men. •
Our own is, of course, a living language still.
It is therefore gaining and losing. It is a tree in
which the vital sap is circulating yet, ascending
from the roots into the branches; and as this
works, new leaves are continually being put forth
by it, old are dying and dropping away. I pro-
pose for the subject of mypresent lecture toconsider
some of the evidences of this life at work in it still.
As I took for the subject of my first lecture the
actual proportions in which the several elements of
II.] LANGUAGE OF THE CONQUERED. 43
our composite English are now found in it^ and the
service which they were severally called on to per-
form, so I shall consider in this the sources
from which the English language has enriched its
vocabulary, the periods at which it has made the
chief additions to this, the character of the addi-
tions which at different periods it has made, and
the motives which induced it to seek them.
I had occasion to mention in that lecture, and
indeed I dwelt with some emphasis on the fact,
that the core, the radical constitution of our lan-
guage, is Anglo-Saxon; so that, composite or
mingled as it must freely be allowed to be, it is
only such in respect to words, not in respect of con-
struction, inflexions, or generally its grammatical
forms. These are all of one piece ; and whatever
of new has come in has been compelled to conform
itself to these. The framework is English ; only
a part of the filling in is otherwise ; and of this
filling in, of these its comparatively more recent
accessions, I now propose to speak.
The first great augmentation by foreign words
of our Saxon vocabulary, setting aside those which
the Danes brought us, was a consequence, although
not an immediate one, of the battle of Hastings, and
of the Norman domination which Duke William's
victory established in our land. And here let me
say in respect of that victory, in contradiction to
the sentimental regrets of Thierry and others, and
with the fullest acknowledgment of the immediate
miseries which it entailed on the Saxon race, that
it was really the makmg of England ; a jud^^ment,
it is true, but a judgment and mercy in one.
44 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
God never showed more plainly that He had great
things in store for the people which should occupy
this English soil, than when He brought hither
that aspiring Norman race. At the same time
the actual interpenetration of our Anglo-Saxon
with any large amount of French words did not
find place till very considerably later than this
event, however it was a consequence of it. Some
French words we find very soon after ; but in the
main the two streams of language continued for a
long while separate and apart, even as the two
nations remained aloof, a conquering and a con-
quered, and neither forgetting the fact.
Time however softened the mutual antipathies.
The Norman, after a while shut out from France,
began more and more to feel that England was his
home and sphere. The Saxon, recovering little by
little from the extreme depression which had
ensued on his defeat, became every day a more
important element of the new English nation which
was gradually forming from the coalition of the
two races. His language partook of his elevation.
It was no longer the badge of inferiority. French
was no longer the only language in which a gentle-
man could speak, or a poet sing. At the same
time the Saxon, now passing into the English
language, required a vast addition to its vocabulary,
if it were to serve all the needs of those who were
willing to employ it now. How much was there of
high culture, how many of the arts of life, of its
refined pleasures, which had been strange to Saxon
men, and had therefore found no utterance in
II.] INFLrENCE OF CHAUCER. 45
Saxon words. All this it was sought to supply
from the French.
We shall not err, T think, if we assume the great
period of the incoming of French words into the
English language to have been when the Norman
nobility were exchanging their own language for
the English ; and I should be disposed with
Tyrwhitt to believe that there is much exaggera-
tion in attributing the large influx of these
into English to one man's influence, namely to
Chaucer's.* Doubtless he did much ; he fell in
with and furthered a tendency which already pre-
vailed. But to suppose that the majority of
French vocables which he employed in his poems
had never been employed before, had been hitherto
unfamiliar to English ears, is to suppose that his
poems must have presented to his contemporaries
an absurd patchwork of two languages, and leaves
it impossible to explain how he should at once
have become the popular poet of our nation.
That Chaucer largely developed the language in
this direction is indeed plain. We have only to
compare his English with that of another great
master of the tongue, his contemporary Wiclif, to
* Thus Alexander Gil, head-master of St. Paul's school, in
his book, LogonomiaAnglica, 1621, Preface: Hue usque pere-
grinse voces in lingua Anglica inauditse. Tandem circa annum
1400 Galfridus Chaucerus, infausto omine, vocabulis Gallicis
et Latinis poesin suam famosam reddidit. The whole pas-
sage, which is too long to quote, as indeed the whole book, is
curious. Gil was an earnest advocate of phonetic spelling,
and has adopted it in all his English quotations in this book.
46 GAINS or THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
perceive how much more his diction is saturated
with French words than is that of the Reformer.
We may note too that many which he and
others employed, and as it were proposed for ad-
mission, were not finally allowed and neceived ; so
that no doubt they went beyond the needs of the
language, and were here in excess.* At the same
time this can be regarded as no condemnation of
their attempt. It was only by actual experience
that it could be proved whether the language
wanted those words or not^ whether it could absorb
them into itself, and assimilate them with all that
it already was and had ; or did not require^, and
would therefore in due time reject and put them
away. And what happened then will happen in
every attempt to transplant on a large scale the
words of one language into another. Some will
take root ; others will not, but after a longer or
briefer period will wither and die. Thus I observe
in Chaucer such French words as these, * miseri-
corde,^ 'malure^ (malheur), 'penible/ ^ aye? (aieul),
' tas/ ' gipon,^ ' pierrie^ (precious stones) ; none of
* We may observe exactly the same in Plautus ; a mul-
titude of Greek words are used by him, which the Latin lan-
guage did not want, and therelbre refused to take up ; thus
* clepta,' 'zamia' {^rjfxLa), 'danista,' 'harpagare,' 'apolactizare,'
* nauclerus,' ' strategus,' ' niorologus,' * phylaca,' ' malacus,*
* sycophantia,' * euscheme' {evaxw^s)^ ' dulice' {8ov\iK(bs), [so
* scymnus' by Lucretius], none of which, I believe, are em-
ployed except by him; ' mastigias' and ' techna' appear also
in Terence, Yet only experience could show that they were
superfluous ; and at the epoch of Latin literature in which
Plautus lived, it was well done to put them on trial.
II.] INFLUENCE OF CHAUCER. 47
which, and Wiclif ^s ' creansur' (2 Kings iv. 1) as
little, have permanently won a place in our tongue.
For a long time ' mel/ used often by Sylvester,
struggled hard for a place in the language side by
side with honey ; ^ roy' side by side with king ;
this last quite obtained one in Scotch. It is
curious to mark some of these French adoptions
keeping their ground to a comparatively late day,
and yet finally extruded : seeming to have taken
firm root, they have yet withered away in the end.
Thus has it been, for example, with * egaP (Put-
tenham) ; with ^ ouvert,^ ' mot/ ' ecurie,' ^ baston/
' gite^ (Holland); with ^rivage,^ ^ jouissance,^
'^ noblesse,^ ^ tort' (= wrong), ' accoir (accueillir),
^ seir (= saddle), all occurring in Spenser; with
*■ to serr' (serrer), ^ vive,' ' reglement,' used all by
Bacon ; and so with ' esperance,' ' orgillous'
(orgueilleux), ' rondeur,' ' scrimer' (= fencer), all
in Shakespeare ; with ' amort' (this also in Shake-
speare), and * avie' (Holland). ' Maugre/ 'congie,'
' devoir,' ^dimes,' ^sans,' and ' bruit' used often in our
Bible, were English once; when we employ them
now, it is with the sense that we are using foreign
words. The same is true of ^ dulce,' ' aigredoulce'
= soursweet), of ' mur' for wall, of ^ baine' for
bath, of the verb 'to cass' (all in Holland), of
volupty' (Sir Thomas Elyot), ' volunty' (Evelyn),
medisance' (Montagu), ' petit' (South), ' aveugle,'
colliue' (both in State Papers), and ' eloign'
(Hacket).*
* Let me here observe once for all that in adding the
name of an author, which I shall often do, to a word, I do
48 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
We have seeu when the great influx of French
words took place — that is, from the time of the
Conquest, although scantily and feebly at the first,
to that of Chaucer. But with him our literature
and language had made a burst, which they were
not able to maintain. He has by Warton been
well compared to some warm bright day in the
very early spring, which seems to say that the
winter is over and gone ; but its promise is deceit-
ful ; the full bursting and blossoming of the spring-
time are yet far off. That struggle with France
which began so gloriously, but ended so disas-
trously, even with the loss of our whole ill-won
dominion there, the savagery of our wars of the
Roses, wars which were a legacy bequeathed to us
by that unrighteous conquest, leave a huge gap in
our literary history, nearly a century during which
very little was done for the cultivation of our
native tongue, during which it could have made
few important accessions to its wealth.
The period however is notable as being that
during which for the first time we received a large
accession of Latin words. There was indeed
already a small settlement of these, for the most
part ecclesiastical, which had long since found their
home in the bosom of the Anglo-Saxon itself, and
had been entirely incorporated into it. The fact
that we had received our Christianity from Rome,
not mean to affirm the word in any way peculiar to him ;
althouf^h in some cases it may be so ; but only to give one
authority for its use.
II.] LATIN IMPORTATION. 49
and that Latin was the constant language of the
Church, sufficieutly explains the incoming of these.
Such were ' monk/ ' bishop/ (I put tliera in their
present shapes, and do not concern myself whether
they were originally Greek or no ; they reached us
as Latin); ^ provost/ ' minster/ ' cloister/ ' candle/
' psalter/ ' mass/ and the names of certain foreign
animals, as ' camel/ or plants or other productions,
as ' pepper/ ^ fig / which are all, with slightly dif-
ferent orthography, Anglo-Saxon words. Tliese,
however, were entirely exceptional, and stood to
the main body of the language not as the Romance
element of it does now -to the Gothic, one power
over against another, but as the Spanish or Italian
or Arabic words in it now stand to the whole pre-
sent body of the language — and could not be
affirmed to affect it more.
So soon however as French words were imported
largely, as I have just observed, into the language,
and were found to coalesce kindly with the native
growths, this very speedily suggested, as indeed it
alone rendered possible, the going straight to the
Latin, and drawing directly from it; and thus in
the hundred years which followed Chaucer a lai'ge
amount of Latin found its way, if not into our
speech, yet at all events into our books — words
which were not brought through the French, for
they are not, and have not at any time been,
French, but yet words which would never have
been introduced into English, if their way had not
been prepared, if the French already domesticated
among us, had not bridged over, as it were, the
E
50 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
gulf, that would have otherwise been too wide
between them and the Saxon vocables of our
tongue.
In this period, a period of great depression of
the national spirit, we may trace the attempt at a
pedantic latinization of English quite as clearly at
work as at later periods, subsequent to the revival
of learning. It was now that a crop of such words
as ' facundious,' ' tenebrous,' ' solacious,' ' pulcri-
tude,' ' consuetude' (all these occur in Hawes),
with many more, long since rejected by the lan-
guage, sprung up ; while other words, good in
themselves, and which have been since allowed,
were yet employed in numbers quite out of pro-
portion with the Saxon vocables with which they
were mingled, and which they altogether over-
toi)ped and overshadowed. Chaucer's hearty Eng-
lish feeling, his thorough sympathy with the people,
the fact that, scholar as he was, he was yet the
poet not of books but of life, and drew his best
inspiration from life, all this had kept him, in the
main, clear of this fault. But in others it is very
manifest. Thus I must esteem the diction of
Lydgate, Hawes, and the other versifiers who
filled up the period between Chaucer and Surrey,
imnicnsely inferior to Chaucer's ; being all stuck
over with long and often ill selected Latin words.
The worst offenders in this line, as Campbell
himself admits, were the Scotch poets of the
fifteenth century. " The prevailing fault," he
says, " of English diction, in the fifteenth century,
is redundant ornament, and an aff'ectation of
TI.] DRYDEN ON NEW WORDS. 51
anglicising Latin words. In this pedantry and
use of " aureate terms" the Scottish versifiers went
even beyond their brethren of the south. . . .
When they meant to be eloquent, they tore up
words from the Latin, which never took root in
the language, like children making a mock garden
with flowers and branches stuck in the ground,
which speedily wither.'^*
To few indeed is the wisdom and discretion
given, certainly it was given to none of those, to
bear themselves in this hazardous enterprise ac-
cording to the rules laid down by Dryden ; who
in the following admirable passage declares the
motives that induced him to seek for foreign
words, and the considerations that guided him in
their selection : " If sounding words are not of
our growth and manufacture, who shall hinder me
to import them from a foreign country ? I carry
not out the treasure of the nation which is never
to return, but what I bring from Italy I spend in
England. Here it remains and here it circulates,
for, if the coin be good, it will pass from one
hand to another. I trade both with the living
and the dead, for the enrichment of our native
language. We have enough in England to supply
our necessity, but if we will have things of mag-
nificence and splendour, we must get them by
commerce. Poetry requires adornment, and that
is not to be had from our old Teuton monosyl-
lables ; therefore if I find any elegant word in a
Essay on English Poetry, p. 93.
52 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
classic author, I propose it to be naturalized by
using it myself; and if the public approves of it,
the bill passes. But every man cannot distinguish
betwixt pedantry and poetry : every man therefore
is not fit to innovate. U|)on the whole matter a
poet must first be certain that the word he would
introduce is beautiful in the Latin ; and is to con-
sider in the next place whether it will agree with
the English idiom : after this, he ought to take the
opinion of judicious friends, such as are learned in
both languages ; and lastly, since no man is in-
fallible, let him use this licence very sparingly ;
for if too many foreign words are poured in upon
us, it looks as if they were designed not to assist
the natives, but to conquer them.^'*
But this tendency to latinize our speech was
likely to receive, and actually did receive, a new
impulse from the revival of learning, and the
familiar re-acquaintance with the great master-
pieces of antient literature which went along with
this revival. Happily another movement accom-
panied, or at least followed hard on this ; a move-
ment in England essentially national ; and which
stirred our people at far deeper depths of their
moral and spiritual life than any mere revival of
learning could have ever done ; I refer, of course,
to the lleformation. It was only among the
Germanic nations of Europe, as has often been
remarked, that the Reformation struck lasting
roots; it found its strength therefore in the Teutonic
Dedication of the Translation of the ^neid.
II.] TIMES OF RAPID CHANGE. 53
element of the national character, wliich also it in
its turn further strengthened, purified, and called
out. And thus, though Latin came in upon us
now faster than ever, and in a certain measure
also Greek, yet this was not without its redress
and counterpoise, in the cotemporaneous unfolding
of the more fundamentally popular side of the
language. Popular preaching and discussion, the
necessity of dealing with truths the most trans-
cendant in a way to be understood not by scholars
only, but by ' idiots^ as well, all this served to
evoke the native resources of our tongue ; and
thus the relative proportion between the one part
of the language and the other was not dangerously
disturbed, the balance was not destroyed ; as it
might well have been, if only the Humanists had
been at work, and not the Reformers as well.
The revival of learning, which made itself first
feltin Italy, extended toEngland, and was operative
here, during the reigns of Henry the Eighth and
his immediate successors. Having thus slightly
anticipated in time, it afterwards ran exactly
parallel with, the period during which our Refor-
mation was working itself out. The epoch was
in all respects one of immense mental and moral
activity, and such never leave the language of a
nation where they found it. Much is changed in
it ; much probably added ; for the old garment of
speech, which once served all needs, has grown too
narrow, and serves them now no more. '^Change
in language is not, as in many natural products,
continuous j it is not equable, but eminently by
54 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
fits and starts f and when the foundations of the
national mind are heaving under the power of
some new truth, greater and more important
changes will find place in fifty years than in two
centuries of calmer or more stagnant existence.
Thus the activities and energies which the Refor-
mation awakened among us here, and I need not
tell you that these reached far beyond the domain
of our directly religious life, caused mighty alter-
ations in the English tongue.*
* We have notable evidence in some lines of Waller of the
sense which in his time scholars had of the rapidity with
which tlie language was changing under their hands. Look-
\VL% back at what the last hundred 3' ears had wrought of
alteration in it, and very naturally assuming that the next
hundred would effect as much, he checked with misgivings
such as these his own hope of immortality :
" Who can hope his lines should long
Last in a daily changing tongue .P
While they are new, envy prevails,
And as that dies, our language fails.
" Poets that lasting marble seek,
Must carve in Latin or in Greek :
We write in sand ; our language grows,
And like the tide our work o'erilows."
Such were his misgivings as to the future, assuming that
the rate of change would continue what it had been. How
little they have been fulfilled, every one knows. In actual
fact two centuries which have elapsed since he wrote, have
hard!}'' antiquated a word or a phrase in his poems. If we
care very little for them now, this is to be explained by quite
other causes — by the absence of all moral earnestness from
them.
II.] TIMES OF EAPID CHANGE. 55
For example, the Reformation had its scholarly,
we might say, its scholastic, as well as its popular,
aspect. Add this fact to the fact of the revived
interest in classical learning, and you will not
wonder that a stream of Latin, now larger than
ever, began to flow into our language. Thus Put-
tenham, writing in Queen Elizabeth's reign,* gives
a long list of words which, as he declares, had been
quite recently introduced into the language. Some
of thera are Greek, a few French and Italian, but
very far the most are Latin. I will not give you
his whole catalogue, but some specimens from it ;
it is difficult to understand concerning some of
these, how the language should have managed to
do without them so long ; ^ method,^ ^ methodical,'
' function,' ' numerous,' ^ penetrate,' ' penetrable,'
* indignity,' ' savage,' ' scientific,' ' delineation,'
' dimension' — all which he notes to have recently
come up ; so too ' idiom,' ' significative,' ^ com-
pendious,' ' prolix,' ' figurative,' ' impression,'
' inveigle,' ^ metrical.' All these he adduces with
praise ; others upon which he bestows equal com-
mendation have not held their ground, as ^ placa-
tion,' * numerosity,' ' harmonical.' Of those
neologies which he disallowed, he only anticipated
in some cases, as in ' facundity,' ' implete,' ' at-
temptat' [' attentat'), the decision of a later day ;
other words which he condemned no less, as
* In his Art of English Poesy, London, 1589, republished
in Haslewood's Ancient Critical Essays upon English Poets
and Poesy, London, 1811, vol. i. pp. 122, 123.
56 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
' andaciou?/ ' compatible/ ' egregious/ have main-
tained their ground. These too have done the
same ; ' despicable/ ' destruction/ ' homicide/
' obsequious/ ' ponderous/ ' portentous/ ^ pro-
digious/ all of them by another writer a little
earlier condemned as " inkhorn terms, smellins: too
much of the Latin. ^^
It is curious to observe the " words of art/* as
he calls them, which Philemon Holland, a volu-
minous translator at the end of the sixteenth and
beginning of the seventeenth century, counts it
needful to explain in a sort of glossary which he
appends to his translation of Pliny's Natural
History.^ One can hardly at the present day
understand how any person who would care to
consult the book at all would find any difficulty
with words like the following, 'acrimony,' 'austere,'
' bulb,' ' consolidate,' ' debility/ ' dose/ ' ingre-
dient/ 'opiate,' ^propitious/ 'symptom,' all which,
however, as novelties he carefully explains. Some
* London, 1601. Besides this work Holland translated
the whole of Plutarch's Moralia,t\\Q Cyropoedia ofXenophon,
Livy, Suetonius, Ammianus Marcellinus, and Camden's Bri-
tannia. His works make a part of the " librarj'- of dullness"
ill Pope's Dunciad:
" De Lyra there a dreadful front extends,
And here the groaning shelves Philemon hends" —
very unjustly; the authors whom he has translated are all
more or less important, and his versions of them a mine of
genuine idiomatic English, neglected by most of our lexico-
graphers, wrought to a considerable extent and with eminent
advantage by Richardson ; yet capable, as it seems to me, of
yielding much more than thoy hitherto have yielded.
II.J TRENCH NEOLOGIES. 57
of the words in his glossary, it is true, are harder
and more technical than these ; but a vast propor-
tion of them present no greater difficulty than those
which I have adduced.*
* And so too in French it is surprising to find of bow late
introduction are many words, which it seems as if the lan-
guage could never have done without. * D6sinteressement,'
* exactitude,' * sagacite,' * bravonre,' were not introduced till
late in the seventeenth century. ' Renaissance,' ' emporte-
ment,' ' s9avoir-faire,' ' ind61ebile,' ' desagrement' were all
recent in 1675 (Bouhours) ; ' indevot,' ' intolerance,' ' impar-
dounable,' ' irr6ligieux,' were struggling into allowance at
the end of the seventeenth century, and were not established
till the beginning of the eighteenth. * Insidieux' was invented
by Malherbe ; ' frivolite' does not appear in the earlier edi-
tions of the Dictionary of the Academy ; the Abbe de St.
Pierre was the first to employ ' bienfaisance,' the elder Balzac
' feliciter,' Sarrasin ' burlesque.' Mad. de Sevigne exclaims
against her daughter for employing ' effervescence' in a letter
(comment dites-vous cela, ma fille? Voila un mot dont je
n'avais jamais ou'i parler). ' Demagogue' was first hazarded
by Bossuet, and was counted so bold a novelty that it was
long before any ventured to follow him in its use. Somewhat
earlier Montaigne had introduced 'diversion' and 'enfantil-
lage,' though not without being rebuked by cotemporaries
on the score of the last. Desfontaines was the first who em-
ployed ' suicide;' Caron gave to the language ' avant-propos,'
Ronsard ' avidit6,' Joachim Dubellay ' patrie,' Denis Sau-
vage 'jurisconsulte,' Menage ' gracieux' (at least so Voltaire
afiirms) and ' prosateur,' Desportes * pudeur,' Chapelain ' ur-
banite,' and Etienne first brought in, apologizing at the same
time for the boldness of it, ' analogie,' (si les oreilles fran-
Qoises peuvent porter ce mot.) Preliber' (praelibare) is a word
of our own day ; and it was Charles Nodier who, if he did not
coin, yet revived the obsolete ' simplesse.' — See Genin, Varia-
tiojis du Langage Fran^ais, pp. 308 — 319.
.^8 GAINS or THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
The period during which this naturalization of
Latin words in the English Language was going
actively forward, may be said to have continued
till about the Restoration of Charles the Second.
It first received a check from the coming up of
French tastes, fashions, and habits of thought
consequent on that event. The writers already
formed before that period, such as Cudworth and
Barrow, still continued to write their stately sen-
tences, Latin in structure, and Latin in diction,
but not so those of a younger generation. We
may say of this influx of Latin that it left the
language vastly more copious, with greatly en-
larged capabilities, but perhaps somewhat burdened,
and not always able to move gracefully under the
weight of its new acquisitions ; for as Dryden has
somewhere truly saifl, it is easy enough to acquire
foreign words, but to know what to do with them
after you have acquired, is the difficulty.
It might have received indeed most serious
injury, if" all the words which the great writers of
this second Latin period of our language employed,
and so proposed as candidates for admission into
it, had received the stamp of popular allowance.
But happily it was not so ; it was here, as it had
been before with the French importations, and
with the earlier Latin of Lydgate and Occleve.
The re-active powers of the language, enabling it
to throw off that which was foreign to it, did not
fail to display themselves now, as they had done
on former occasions. The number of unsuccessful
candidates for admission into, and permanent natu-
II.] PEDANTIC WORDS. 59
ralizatioa in, the language during this period, is
enormous ; and one may say tliat in almost all
instances where the Alien Act has been enforced,
the sentence of exclusion was a just one ; it was
such as the circumstances of the case abundantly
bore out. Either the word was not idiomatic, or
was not intelligible, or was not needed, or looked
ill, or sounded ill, or some other valid reason
existed against it. A lover of his native tongue
will tremble to think what that tongue would have
become, if all the vocables from the Latin and the
Greek which were then introduced or endorsed
by illustrious names, had been admitted on the
strength of their recommendation ; if ' torve^ and
' tetric' (Fuller), ' cecity' (Hooker), ' fastide' and
' trutinate' [State Papers), 'immanity' (Shake-
speare), 'insulse' and ' insulsity' (Milton, prose),
' scelestick' (Feltham), ' splendidious' (Drayton),
' pervicacy' (Baxter), * stramineous,' ^ ardelion'
(Burton), ' lepid' and ' sufflaminate' (Barrow),
' facinorous' (Donne), ^ immorigerous,' ^ clancular,'
' ferity,' ' ustulation,' ' stultiloquy,' ' lipothymy'
{XenroQii/jLia), ' hyperaspist' (all in Jeremy Taylor),
if ' mulierosity,' ^subsannation,' ^coaxation,' 'ludi-
bundness/ ' delinition,' ' septemfluous,' ' medi-
oxumous,' ' mirificent,' ' palmiferous' (all in Henry
More), ^pauciloquy' and ' multiloquy' (Beaumont,
Psyche) ; if ' dyscolous' (Foxe), ' ataraxy' (AUes-
tree), ' moliminously' (Cud worth), ' luciferously'
(Sir Thomas Browne), ' immarcescible' (Bishop
Hall), ' exility,' ' spinosity,' ' incolumity,' ' soler-
tiousness,' ' lucripetous,' ' inopious/ ' eluctate/
60 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
' eximious' (all in Racket), ' ari-ide^ (ridiculed by-
Ben Jonson), uith the linndreds of other M'ords
like these, and even more monstrous than are
some of these, not to speak of such Italian as
' leggiadrous^ (a favourite word in Beaumont's
Psyche), ^ amorevolous' (Hacket), had not been
rejected and disallowed by the true instinct of the
national mind.
A great many too icere allowed and adopted,
but not exactly in the shape in which they first
were introduced among us ; they were made to
drop their foreign termination, or otherwise their
foreign appearance, to conform themselves to
English ways, and only so were finally incorporated
into the great family of English words.* Thus of
Greek words we have the following : * pyramis'
and ' pyramides,' forms often employed by Shake-
speare, became ^pyramid' and ^pyramids/ ^ dosis'
(Bacon) ' dose ;' ' distichon' (Holland) ' distich ;''
' hemistichion' (North) ^ hemistich -/ ' apoga^on'
(Fairfax) and '^ apogeum' (Browne) ^apogee/
' sumphonia' (Lodge) 'symphony;' 'prototypon'
(Jackson) 'prototype/ * synonymon' (Jeremy-
Taylor) or ' synonymum' (Hacket), and ' syno-
nyma' (Milton, prose), became severally ' syno-
nym' and ' synonyms ;' ' syntaxis' (Fuller) became
'syntax;' ' extasis' (Burton) 'ecstasy;' 'parallelo-
grammon' (Holland) 'parallelogram;' 'programma'
* J. Grimm {Worterbuch, p. xxvi.) : Fallt von unj^efahr
ein freirides wort in den brunnen einer sprache, so wird es so
lan<;e darin umgetrieben, l»is es ihre I'arbe annimmt, und
seiner frcuidcn art zuni trotze wie ein heiniisches aussielit.
II.] NATURALIZATION OF WORDS. 61
(Warton)' program i' 'epitheton'(Cowell) 'epithet;'
' epocha' (South) ' epoch / ' biographia' (Dryden)
' biography ;' ' apostata' (Massiiiger) ' apostate ;'
' despota' (Fox) * despot / ' misanthropos' (Shake-
speare) if ' misanthropi^ (Bacon) ' misanthrope /
' psalterion' (North) ' psaltery -' ' chasma' (Henry
More) ' chasm / ' idioma' and ' prosodia' (both in
Daniel, prose) ' idiom^ and ' prusody f ' energia/
' energy/ and ' Sibylla/ ' Sibyl' (both in Sidney) ;
' zoophyton' (Henry More) ' zoophyte / ' enthousi-
asmos' (Sylvester) ' enthusiasm / ' phantasma'
(Donne) ' phantasm / ' magnes' (Gabriel Harvey)
* magnet / ' cynosura' (Donne) ' cynosure / ' gal-
axias' (Fox) ' galaxy / ' heros' (Henry More)
' hero / ' epitaphy' (Hawes) ' epitaph.'
The same process has gone on in a multitude of
Latin words, which testify by their terminations
that they were, and were felt to be, Latin at their
first employment; though now they are such no
longer. Thus Bacon uses generally, I know not
whether always, ' insecta' for ' insects / and ' chy-
lus' for 'chyle/ Bisliop Andrews ' nardus' for
' nard / Spenser ' zephyrus,' and not ' zephyr / so
' interstitium' (Fuller) preceded ' interstice /
' philtrum' (Culver well) ' philtre / ' expansum'
(Jeremy Taylor) 'expanse/ 'preludium' (Beaumont,
Psyche), ' prelude -,' ' precipitium' (Coryat) ' pre-
cipice ;' 'aconitum' (Shakespeare) 'aconite;'
' balsamum' (Webster) ' balsam / ' heliotropium'
(Holland) ' heliotrope ;' ' helleborum ' (North)
' hellebore / ' vehiculum' (Howe) ' vehicle / ' tro-
chseus' and ' spondseus' (Holland) ' trochee' and
62 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
' spondee ;* and ' macliina' (Henry More)
' machine.' We have ' intervalla/ not ' intervals/
in Chillingworth ; ' postulata/ not ' postulates/
in Swift; 'archiva/ not 'archives/ in Baxter;
' demagogi/ not ' demagogues/ in Hacket ; ' ves-
. tigium/ not ' vestige/ in Culverwell ; ' panto-
mimus^ in Lord Bacon for 'pantomime/ ' mysta-
gogus' for ' mystagogue/ in Jackson ; * atomi' in
Lord Brooke for 'atoms / ' aedilis' (North) went
before 'aedile;' 'effigies' and 'statua' (bothin Shake-
speare) before ' effigy ' and ' statue ;' ' abyssus'
(Jackson) before ' abyss ;' ' vestibulum' (Howe)
before ' vestibule;' ' symbolum' (Hammond) before
' symbol ;' ' spectrum' (Burton) before ' spectre /
while only after a while ' qusere' gave place to
' query ;' ' audite' (Hacket) to ' audit ;' ' plaudite'
(Henry More) to ' plaudit ;' and the low Latin
' mummia' (Webster) became ' mummy.' The
widely extended change of such words as ' inuo-
cency/ ' indolency/ ' temperancy/ and the large
family of words with the same termination^ into
' innocence/ ' indolence/ ' temperance/ and the
like, can only be regarded as part of the same
process of entire naturalization.
The plural very often tells the secret of a word,
and of the light in which it is regarded by those
who employ it, when the singular, being less
capable of modification, would have failed to
do so ; thus when Holland writes ' phalanges,'
' bisontes/ ' idese,' it is clear that ' phalanx/
'bison/ 'idea,' were still Greek words for him;
as ' dogma' was for Hammond, when he made its
II.] NATURALIZATION OF WORDS. 63
plural not ' dogmas/ but ' dogmata /* and when
Spenser uses ' heroes^ as a trisyllable, it plainly is
not yet thoroughly English for him.f ^ Cento'
is not English, but a Latin word used in English,
so long as it makes its plural not ' centos/ but
^ centones/ as in the old anonymous translation of
Augustin's City of God ; and * specimen/ while it
makes its plural 'specimina' (Howe). Pope making,
as he does, ' satellites' a quadrisyllable in the line
*' Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove,"
must have felt that he was still dealing with it
as Latin; just as 'terminus/ a word which the
necessities of railways have introduced among us,
will not be truly naturalized till we use ' termi-
nuses/ and not ' termini' for its plural ; nor ' phe-
nomenon/ till we have renounced ' phenomena.'
Sometimes it has been found convenient to retain
both plurals, that formed according to the laws of
the classical language, and that formed according
to the laws of our own, only employing them in
different senses ; thus is it with ' indices' and ^ in-
dexes/ ' genii' and ' geniuses.'
The same process has gone on with words from
other languages, as from the Italian and the
* Have we here an explanation of the ' battalia' of Jeremy
Taylor and others? Did they, without reflecting on the
matter, regard ' battalion' as a word with a G-reek neuter
termination P It is difficult to think they should have done
so; yet more difficult to suggest any other explanation.
f " And old heroes, which their world did daunt."
Sonnet on Scanderheg.
6-1 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUxVGE. [lect.
Spanish ; thus ^ baiidetto' (Shakespeare), ' bandito'
(Jeremy Taylor), becomes ^bandit/ ^ ruffiano'
(Coryat) ' ruffian / ' concerto/ ' concert ; ' busto'
(Lord Chesterfield) ' bust / ' caricatura ^ (Sir
Thomas Browne) ' caricature;^ ' princessa^ (Racket)
^ princess ;' ' scaramucha^ (Dryden) ' scaramouch •'
'pedanteria' (Sidney) 'pedantry/ ' impresa^ 'im-
press / ' caprichio^ (Shakespeare) becomes first
' caprich' (Butier), then ' caprice / ' duello' (Shake-
speare) ' duel/ ' alligarta' (Ben Jonson)' alligator /
* parroquito' (Webster) ' parroquet / ' scalada'
(Heylin) or ' escalado' (Holland) ' escalade/ 'gra-
nada' (Hacket) ' grenade / ' parada' (J. Taylor)
' parade / ' emboscado' (Holland) ' stoccado/ ' bar-
ricado/ ' renegado/ 'hurricano' (all in Shake-
speare)/ brocado' (Hackluyt), 'palissado' (Howell),
drop their foreign terminations, and severally
become ' ambuscade,' ' stockade/ ' barricade,'
' renegade,' ' hurricane,' ' brocade,' ' palisade /
' croisado' in like manner (Bacon) becomes first
' croisade' (Jortin), and then ' crusade / ' quina-
quina' or ' quinquina,' ' quinine.' Other slight
modifications of spelling, not in the termination,
but in the body of a word, will indicate in hke
manner its more entire incorporation into the
English language. Thus ' shash/ a Turkish word,
becomes ' sash / ' colone' (Burton) ' clown / re-
storation' was at first spelt ' rest«//ration / and
so long as ' vicinage' was spelt ' voisinage'* (Sau-
* Skinner [Etymologicon, 1G71) protests auainst the word
alto<,rether, as purely French, and having uo right to be con-
bidored Enirli.sh at all.
II.] NATURALIZATION OF WORDS. 65
derson), ' mirror^ ^ miroir^ (Fuller), ' recoiP ' re-
cule/ or ' career^ ' carriere^ (both by Holland),
they could scarcely be considered those purely
English words which now they are.*
Here and there even at this comparatively late
period of the language awkward foreign words will
be recast in a more thoroughly English mould ;
' chirurgeon^ will become ' surgeon / ' hemor-
rhoid' ' emerod / ^ squinancy' will become first
' squinzey' (Jeremy Taylor), and then ^ quinsey /
^porkpisce' (Spenser), that is sea-hog, or more
accurately hogfish, will be ' porpesse/ and then
'porpoise/ as it is now. In other words the
attempt will be made, but it will be now too late
to be attended with success. ' Physiognomy' w ill
not give place to ^ visnomy,' however Spenser and
Shakespeare employ this briefer form ; nor ' hip-
popotamus' to ^ hippodame,' even at Spenser^s
bidding. In like manner the attempt to natu-
ralize ' avant-courier' in the shape of ' vancurrier'
lias failed. Other words also we meet which have
finally refused to take a more popular form,
although such was once more or less current ; or,
if this is too much to say of all, yet hazarded by
good authors. Thus Holland wrote ' cirque/ but
we ^ circus / ' cense,' but we ^ census / ' inter-
reign/ but we ' interregnum / Sylvester ' cest/
* It is curious how effectually the nationahty of a word
may by these slight alterations in spelUng be disguised. I
have met an excellent French and English scholar, to whom
it was quite a surprise to learn that ' redingote' was ' riding-
coat.'
F
66 gai:ns of the English language, [lect.
but we *cestus;' ^ quirry/ but we ^equerry/
' colosse/ but we still ' colossus •/ Golding ' ure/
but we ^ urus ;' ' metropole/ but we ' metropolis f
Dampier ' volcan/ but this has not superseded
* volcano -/ nor * pagod^ (Pope) ' pagoda ;' nor
' skelet' (Holland) ' skeleton -/ nor * stimule'
(Stubbs) ^ stimulus/ Bolingbroke wrote ' exode/
but we hold fast to ^ exodus f Burton ' funge/
but we ' fungus -/ Henry More ' enigm/ but we
' enigma ;' ' analyse/ but we ' analysis/ ' Super-
fice' (Dryden) has not put ' superficies/ nor ' sa-
crary' (Hacket) ' sacrarium/ nor ' limbeck^ ^ alem-
bic/ out of use. Chaucer's ^ potecary' has given
way to a more Greek formation ' apothecary/
Yet these and the like must be regarded quite as
exceptions ; the tendency of things is altogether
the other way.
Looking at this process of the reception of
foreign words, with their after assimilation in
feature to our own, we may trace, as was to be
expected, a certain conformity between the genius
of our institutions and that of our language. It
is the very character of our institutions to repel
none, but rather to afford a shelter and a refuge
to all, from whatever quarter they come ; and after
a longer or shorter while all the strangers and
incomers have been incorporated into the English
nation, within one or two generations have for-
gotten that they were ever ought else than mem-
bers of it, have retained no other reminiscence of
their foreign extraction than some slight difference
of name, and that often disappearing or having
II.] FRENCH AT THE RESTORATION. 67
disappeared. Exactly so has it been with the
English language. No language has shown itself
less exclusive ; none has stood less upon niceties ;
none has thrown open its arms wider, with a fuller
confidence, a confidence justified by experience,
that it could make truly its own, assimilate and
subdue to itself, whatever it received into its
bosom ; and in none has this experiment in a
larger number of instances been successfully carried
out.
Such are the two great enlargements from
without of our vocabulary. All other are minor
and subordinate. Thus the introduction of French
tastes by Charles the Second and his courtiers
returning from exile, to which I have just adverted,
though it rather modified the structure of our
sentences than the materials of our vocabulary, gave
us some new words. In one of Dryden's plays,
Marriage a la Mode, a lady full of affectation is
introduced, who is always employing French idioms
in preference to English, French words rather
than native. It is not a little curious that of
these, thus put into her mouth to render her
ridiculous, not a few are excellent English now,
and have nothing far- sought or affected about
them : for so it frequently proves that what is
laughed at in the beginning, is by all admitted
and allowed at the last. For example, to speak
of a person being in the ' good graces^ of another
has nothing in it ridiculous now ; the words
' repartee,^ ^ embarrass,^ ^ chagrin,^ ' grimace,' do
f2
68 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
not sound novel and affected now as they all must
plainly have done at the time when Drvden wrote.
' Fougue^ and ' fraischeur/ which he himself em-
ployed — being it is true, no frequent offender in
this way — have not been justified by the same
success.
Nor indeed can it be said that this adoption
and naturalization of foreign words ever ceases in
a language. There are periods, as we have seen,
■when this goes forward much more largely than
at others; when a language throws open, as it
were, its doors, and welcomes strangers with an
especial freedom ; but there is never a time, when
one by one these foreigners and strangers are not
slipping into it. We do not for the most part
observe the fact, at least not while it is actually
doing. Time, the greatest of all innovators,
manages bis innovations so dexterously, spreads
them over such vast periods, and therefore brings
them about so gradually, that often, while effecting
the mightiest changes, we have no suspicion that
he is effecting any at all. Thus how imper-
ceptible are the steps by which a foreign word is
admitted into the full rights of an English one;
the process of its incoming often eluding our notice
altogether. There are numerous Greek words,
for example, which, quite unchanged in form.
Lave in one way or another ended in finding a
home and acceptance among us. We may in
almost every instance trace step by step the natu-
ralization of one of these; and the manner of
this singularly confirms what has just been said.
II.] NATURALIZATION OF WORDS. 69
We can note it spelt for a while in Greek letters,
and avowedly employed as a Greek and not an
English vocable ; then after it had thus obtained
a certain allowance among us, and become not
altogether unfamiliar, we note it exchanging its
Greek for English letters, and finally obtaining
recognition as a word which, however drawn from
a foreign source, is yet itself English. Thus
' acme,' ' apotheosis,' ' criterion,' ' chrysalis,' ' en-
cyclopedia,' ' metropolis,' ' opthalmia,' ' pathos,'
' phenomena,' are all now English words, while
yet South with many others always wrote aKfxy],
Jeremy Taylor airoQitiiGiq and KpiTiipiov, Henry
More ^pvaaXig, Ben Jonson speaks of ' the know-
ledge of the liberal arts, which the Greeks call
ey/cvicXoTra^f/aV,* Culverwell wrote fxriTpoiroXiq
and o(l)OaX/uLia, Preston, (jtaivuiJLeva — Sylvester
ascribes to Baxter, not ' pathos,' but TraOoQ.f
HOog is a word at the present moment preparing
for a like passage from Greek characters to Eng-
lish, and certainly before long will be acknow-
ledged as an English word. The only cause
which has hindered this for some time past is the
misgiving whether it will not be read ^ ethos,'
* He is not indeed perfectly accurate in this statement, for
the Greeks spoke of iv KixXa Traibeia and eyKixXLos naibeia,
but had no such composite word as eyKv^XoTratSeia. We
gather however from these expressions, as from Lord Bacon's
using the term 'circle-learning' (=' orbis doctrine,' Quin-
tilian), that ' encyclopaedia' did not exist in their time.
f See the passages quoted in my paper, On some Defi-
ciencies in our English Dictionaries, p. 38,
70 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
and not ' ethos/ and thus not be the word in-
tended.
Let us trace a like process in some French
word^ which is at this moment becoming EngUsh.
I know no better example than the French ' pres-
tige' will afford. 'Prestige' has manifestly no
equivalent in our own language ; it expresses some-
thing which no single word in English, which only
a long circumlocution, could express ; namely, that
magic influence on others, which past successes,
as the pledge and promise of future ones, breed.
The word has thus naturally come to be of very
frequent use by good English writers ; for they do
not feel that in employing it they are passing by
as good or a better word of their own. At first
all used it avowedly as French, writing it in
italics to indicate this. At the present moment
some write it so still, some do not ; some, that is,
regard it still as foreign, others consider that it
has now become Enghsh, and obtained a settle-
ment among us.* Little by little the number of
those who write it in italics will become fewer
and fewer, till they cease altogether. It will then
only need that the accent should be shifted, in
obedience to the tendencies of the English lan-
* We may see the same progress in Greek words which
were being incorporated in the Latin. Thus Cicero writes
avTiTToSe? {Acad. ii. 39, 123), but Seneca {Ujj. 122), ' anti-
podes ;' that is, the word tor Cicero was still Greek, while in
the period that elapsed between him and Seneca, it had be-
come Latin : so too Cicero wrote eiScoXoi/, the Younger Pliny
* idolou,' and TertuUiau ' idolum.*
II.] SHIFTING OF ACCENTS. 71
guage, as far back in the word as it will go, that
instead of ^ prestige/ it should be pronounced
' prestige^ even as within these few years instead
of ' depot^ we have learned to say ' depot/ and its
naturalization will be complete. I have little doubt
that in twenty years it will be so pronounced by
the majority of well educated Englishmen, — some
pronounce it so already, — and that our present
pronunciation will pass away in the same manner
as ' obleege/ once universal, has past away, and
everywhere given place to ' oblige.^*
Let me here observe in passing, that the pro-
cess of throwing the accent of a word back, by
way of completing its naturalization, is one which
we may note constantly going forward in our
language. Thus, while Chaucer accentuates some-
times ^ nature,^ he also accentuates elsewhere
' nature/ while sometimes ^ virtue/ at other times
' virtue.' ' Prostrate' ' adverse/ ' aspect, ' process/
' insult/ ' impulse,' ' pretext,' ' contrite,' ' uproar/
' contest,' had all their accent on the last syllable
in Milton ; they have it now on the first ; ' cha-
racter' was * character* with Spenser ; * theatre'
was ' theatre' with Sylvester ; while ' academy'
was accented ' academy' by Cowley and Butler.f
' Essay' was ' essay' with Dryden and with Pope ;
* See in Coleridge's Table Talk, p. 3, the amusing story
of John Kemble's stately correction of the Prince of Wales
for adhering to the earlier pronunciation, ' obleege, — " It will
become your royal mouth better to say obh'ge."
■\ " In this great academy of mankind."
Butler, To the Memory of Du Tal.
72 GAINS OF THE EXGIJSH LANGUAGE, [lect.
the first closes an heroic line \^ith the word ;
Pope does the same with ' barrier^* and ' effort ;'
therefore pronounced ' barrier/ ' effort/ by him.
There are not a few other French words which
like * prestige^ are at this moment Iiovering on the
verge of English, hardly knowing whether they
shall become such, or no. Such are ' ennui/
^ exploitation/ ' verve/ ' persiflage/ ' badinage/
^ chicane/ ' finesse/ and others ; all of them often
employed by us, — and it is out of such frequent
employment that adoption proceeds, — because ex-
pressing shades of meaning not expressed by any
words of our own. Some of these, we may con-
fidently anticipate, will complete their naturaliza-
tion ; others will after a time retreat again, and
become for us avowedly French. ^ Solidarity,' a
word which we owe to the French Communists,
and which signifies a fellowship in gain and loss,
in honour and dishonour, in victory and defeat, a
being, so to speak, all in the same bottom, is so
convenient that, unattractive as confessedly it is,
it will be in vain to struggle against its reception.
The newspapers already have it, and books will
not long exclude it ; not to say that it has esta-
blished itself in German, and probably in other
European languages as well.
Greek and Latin words also we still continue to
adopt, although now no longer in troops and com-
panies, but only one by one. "With the lively
interest which alwavs has been felt in classical
" 'Twixt that aiul reason what a nice harrier."
II.] GREEK IN ENGLISH. 73
studies among us, and which will continue to be
felt, so long as any greatness and nobleness sur-
vive in our land, it must needs be that accessions
from these quarters would never cease altogether.
I do not refer here to purely scientific terms ;
these, so long as they continue such, and do not
pass beyond the threshold of the science or sciences
for the use of which they were invented, being
never heard on the lips, or employed in the
writings, of any but the cultivators of these
sciences, have no right to be properly called
words at all. They are a kind of shorthand of
the science, or algebraic notation ; and will not
find place in a dictionary of the language, con-
structed upon true principles, but rather in a
technical dictionary apart by themselves. Of
these, compelled by the advances of physical
science, we have coined multitudes out of number
in these later times, fashioning them mainly from
the Greek, no other language within our reach
yielding itself at all so easily to our needs.
Of non- scientific words, both Greek and Latin,
some have made their way among us quite in
these latter times. Burke in the House of Com-
mons is said to have been the first who employed
the word ' inimical.^ He also launched the verb
^ to spheterize^ in the sense of to appropriate or
make one's own ; but this without success. Others
have been more fortunate ; ' sesthetic^ we have
got indeed through the Germans, but froyn the
Greeks. Tennyson has given allowance to ' seon /
and ' myth' is a deposit which wide and far- reach-
74 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
ing controversies have left in the popular language.
' Photography^ is an example of what I was just
now speaking of — namely, a scientific word which
has travelled beyond the hmits of the science
which it designates, and which gave it birth.
' Stereotype^ is another word of the same charac-
ter. It was invented — not the thing, but the
word^ — by Didot not very long since ; but it is
now absorbed into healthy general circulation^
being current in a secondary and figurative sense.
Buskin has given to ' ornamentation^ the sanction
and authority of hisname. * NormaF and ' ab-
normal ;^ not quite so new, are yet of recent in-
troduction into the language.
When we consider the near affinity between
the English and German languages, which, if not
sisters, may at least be regarded as first cousins,
it is somewhat remarkable that almost since the
day when they parted company, each to fulfil its
own destiny, there has been little further com-
merce between them in the matter of giving or
taking. At any rate adoptions on our j^art
from the German have been till within this period
extremely rare. ' Crikesman^ (Kriegsmann) and
'brandschaf (Brandschatz), with some other Ger-
man words common enough in the State Papers of
the sixteenth century, found no permanent place
in the language. The explanation lies in the
fact that the literary activity of Germany did
not begin till very late, nor our interest in it till
later still, not indeed till the beginning of the
present century. Yet ' plunder,' as I have men-
II.] GERMAN IMPORTATIONS. 75
tioned elsewhere, was brought back from Germany
about the beginning of our Civil Wars, by the
soldiers who had served under Gustavus Adolphus
and his captains. And ' trigger/ written ' tricker^
in Hudibras is manifestly the German ' driicker/
though none of our Dictionaries have marked it
as such ; a word first appearing at the same period,
it may have reached us through the same channel.
' Iceberg^ (eisberg) also we must have taken whole
from the German, as, had we constructed the word
for ourselves, we should have made it not ^ ice-
berg,' but ' ice-mountain.^ T have not found it in
our earlier voyagers, often as they speak of the
^ icefield,' which yet is not exactly the same thing.
An English ' swindler' is not exactly a German
' sch windier,' yet the notion of the ' nebulo/
though more latent in the German, is common to
both ; and we must have drawn the word from
Germany (it is not an old one in our tongue)
during the course of the last century. If ^ life-
guard' was originally, as Richardson suggests,
' /eiZ>-garde,' or ^ Z'Of/^-guard,' and from that trans-
formed, by the determination of Englishmen to
make it significant in English, into ' /«/e-guard,'
or guard defending the life of the sovereign, this
will be another word from the sareie quarter. Yet
I have my doubts ; * leibgarde' would scarcely
have found its way hither before the accession of
the House of Hanover, or at any rate before the
arrival of Dutch William with his memorable
guards ; while ^ lifeguard,' in its present shape, is
certainly an older word in the language ; we hear
76 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
often of the ' lifeguards' in our Civil Wars ; as wit-
ness too Fuller's words : " The Cherethites were a
kind of lifegard to king David."*
Of late our German importations have been
somewhat more numerous. With several German
compound words we have been in recent times so
well pleased, that we must needs adopt them into
English, or imitate them in it. We have not
always been very happy in those which we have
selected for imitation or adoption. Thus we might
have been satisfied with ' manual/ and not called
back from its nine hundred years of oblivion that
ugly and unnecessary word ^ handbook.' And
now we are threatened with ' word-building,' as I
see a book announced under the title of " Latin
word-building,'' and, much worse than this, with
* stand -point.' ^ Einseitig' (itself a modern word,
if I mistake not, or at any rate modern in its
secondary application) has not, indeed, been
adopted, but is evidently the pattern on v»'hich we
have formed ' onesided' — a word to which a few
years ago something of affectation was attached ;
so that any one who employed it at once gave
evidence that he w^as more or less a dealer in
German wares ; it has however its manifest con-
veniences, and will hold its ground. ' Fatherland'
(Vaterland) on the contrary will scarcely establish
itself among us, the note of affectation will con-
tinue to cleave to it, and we shall go on contented
with ' native country' to the end. The most suc-
* Fisgah Sight of Palestine, 1650, p. 217.
II.] COMPOUNDED WORDS. 77
cessfal of these compounded words, borrowed
recently from the German, is ' folk-lore/ and the
substitution of this for popular superstitions, must
be esteemed, I think, an unquestionable gain.
To speak now of other sources from which the
nQvf words of a language are derived. Of course
the period when absolutely new roots are gene-
rated will have past away, long before men begin
by a reflective act to take any notice of processes
going forward in the language which they speak.
This pure productive energy, creative we might
call it, belongs only to the earlier stages of a
nation^s existerice, — to times quite out of the ken
of history. It is only from materials already
existing either in its own bosom, or in the bosom
of other languages, that it can enrich itself in the
later, or historical stages of its life.
And first, it can bring its own words into new
combinations; it can join two, and sometimes
even more than two, of the words which it already
has, and form out of them a new one. Much
more is wanted here than merely to attach two
or more words to one another by a hyphen ; this
is not to make a new word : they must really
coalesce and grow together. Different languages,
and even the same language at different stages of
its existence, will possess this power of forming
new words by the combination of old in very
different degrees. The eminent felicity of the
Greek in this respect has been always acknowledged.
" The joints of her compounded words," says
78 GAINS or THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
Fuller, " are so naturally oiled, that they run
nimbly on the tongue, which makes them though
long, never tedious, because significant."* Sir
Philip Sidney boasts of the capability of our
English language in this respect — that " it is par-
ticularly happy in the composition of two or three
* Holy State, b. 2, c. 6. There was a time when the
Latin promised to display, if not an equal, yet not a very
inferior, freedom in this forming of new words by the happy
marriage of old. But in this, as in so many respects, it
seemed possessed at the period of its highest culture with a
timidity, which caused it voluntarily to abdicate many of its
own powers. Where do we find in the Augustan period of
the language so grand a pair of epithets as these, occurring as
they do in a single line of Catullus : Ubi cerva silvicultrix,
ubi aper nemorivagus ? or again, as his ' fluentisonus ?'
Yirgil's vitisator [JEn. 7, 179) is not his own, but derived
from one of the earlier poets. Nay, the language did not
even retain those compound epithets which it once had
formed, but was content to let numbers of them drop : ' par-
cipromus,' ' turpilucricupidus,' and many more, do not ex-
tend beyond Plautus. On this matter Quhitilian observes
(i. 5. 70) : Res tota magis Graecos decet, nobis minus suc-
cedit ; nee id fieri natura puto, sed alienis faveums ; ideoque
cum Kvpravx^va mirati sumus, incurvicervicum vix a risu
defendimus. Elsewhere he complains, though not with re-
ference to compound epithets, of the little generative power
which existed in the Latin language, that its continual losses
were compensated by no equivalent gains (viii. 6. 32) : Deinde,
tanquam consummata sint omnia, nihil generare audemus ipsi,
quum multa quotidie ab antiquis ficta moriantur. Notwith-
standing this complaint, it must be owned that the silver
age of the language, which sought to recover, and did recover
to some extent the abdicated energies of its earlier times, re-
asserted among other powers that of combining words, with
a certain measure of success.
II.] COMPOUNDED WORDS. 79
words together, near equal to the Greek/' No
one has done more than Milton to justify this
praise, or to make manifest what may be effected
by this marriage of words. Many of his compound
epithets, as ' golden- tressed/ ' tinsel-slippered,'
' coral-paven,' ' flowry-kirtled,' ^ violet-embroi-
dered/ Vermeil- tinctured,' are themselves poems
in miniature. Not unworthy to be set beside
these are Sylvester's '* opal-coloured morn," Dray-
ton's " silver-sanded shore," and perhaps Mar-
lowe's " golden-fingered Ind."
Our modern inventions in the same kind are for
the most part very inferior : they could hardly fail
to be so, seeing that the formative, plastic powers
of a language are always waning and diminishing
more and more. It may be, and indeed is, gaining
in other respects, but in this it is losing ; and thus
it is not strange if its later births in this kind are
less successful than its earlier. Among the poets
of our own time Shelley has done more than any
other to assert for the language that it has not
quite renounced this power ; while among writers
of prose in these later days Jeremy Bentham has
been at once one of the boldest, but at the same
time one of the most unfortunate, of those who
have issued this money from their mint. Still
we ought not to forget, while we divert ourselves
with the strange and formless progeny of his brain,
that we owe ^international' to him — a word at
once so convenient and supplying so real a need,
that it was and with manifest advantage at once
adopted by all.
80 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
Auotlier way in which languages increase their
stock of vocables is by the forming of new words
according to the analogy of formations, which in
seemingly parallel cases have been already allowed.
Thus long since upon certain substantives such as
* congregation/ ' convention/ were formed their
adjectives, * congregational/ ' conventional / yet
these also at a comparatively modern period; ' con-
gregational first rising up in the Assembly of
Divines, or during the time of the Commonwealth.*
These having found admission into the language,
it is attempted to repeat the process in the case of
other words with the same ending. I confess the
effect is often exceedingly disagreeable. We are
now pretty well used to ' educational,' and the
word is sometimes serviceable enough ; but I can
perfectly remember when some twenty years ago
an " Educational Magazine" was started, the first
impression on one's mind was, that a work having
to do with education should not thus bear upon
its front an offensive, or to say the best, a very
dubious novelty in the English language. These
adjectives are now^ multiplying fast. We have
' inflexional/ ' seasonal,' * denominational/ and,
not content with this, in dissenting magazines at
least, the monstrous birth, ^ denominationalism ;'
* emotional' is creeping into books, ' sensational,'
and others as well ; so that it is hard to say where
this influx will stop, or whether all our words with
* Collection of Scarce Tracts, edited by Sir W. Scott,
vol. vii. p. 91.
TI.] HISTORY or THE WORD ' STARVATION.' 81
this termination will not finally generate an adjec-
tive. Convenient as you may sometimes find these,
I would yet certainly counsel you to abstain from
all but the perfectly well recognised formations of
this kind. There may be cases of exception ; but
for the most part Pope's advice is good, as cer-
tainly it is safe, that we be not among the last to
use a word which is going out, nor among the
first to employ one that is coming in.
' Starvation' is another word of comparatively
recent introduction, formed in like manner on the
model of preceding formations of an apparently
similar character — its first formers, indeed, not
observing that they were putting a Latin termina-
tion to a Saxon word. Some have supposed it to
have reached us from America. It has not how-
ever travelled from so great a distance, being a
stranger indeed, yet not from beyond the Atlantic,
but only from beyond the Tweed. It is an old
Scottish word, but unknown in England, till used
by Mr. Dundas, the first Viscount Melville, in an
American debate in 1775. That it then jarred
strangely on English ears is evident from the nick-
name, '' Starvation Dundas,-" which in consequence
he obtained.*
Again, languages enrich themselves, our own has
done so, by recovering treasures which for a while
* See Letters of Horace Walpole and Mann, vol. ii.
p. 396, quoted in Notes and Queries, No. 225 ; and another
proof of the novelty of the word in Pegge's Anecdotes of the
English Language, 1814, p. 38.
82 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
had been lost by them or foregone. I do not mean
that all which drops out of use is loss ; there are
^^ ords which it is gain to be rid of; which it would
be folly to wish to revive ; of w hich Dryden, setting
himself against an extravagant zeal in this direc-
tion, says in an ungracious comparison — they do
" not deserve this redemption, any more than the
crowds of men who daily die, or are slain for six-
pence in a battle, merit to be restored to life, if a
wish could revive them.^^* There are others,
however, which it is a real gain to draw back
again from the temporary oblivion which had over-
taken them ; and this process of their setting and
rising again, or of what, to use another image, we
might call their suspended animation, is not so
unfrequent as at first might be supposed.
You may perhaps remember that Horace, tracing
in a few memorable lines the history of words,
while he notes that many once current have now
dropped out of use, does not therefore count that
of necessity their race is for ever run ; on the
contrary he confidently anticipates a palhif/enesy
for many among them ;t and I am convinced that
there has been such in the case of our English
w ords to a far greater extent than we are generally
aware. Words slip almost or quite as impercep-
tibly back into use as they once slipped out of it.
Let me produce a few facts in evidence of this. In
* Postscript to his Translation of the JEneid.
f Multa renasccntur, qua? jam cecidere.
Be A. P. IG— 72j cl". j&>. 2. 2. 115.
II.] WORDS COME BACK ITs^TO USE. 83
the coterai^orary gloss which an anonymous friend
of Spenser's furnished to his Shepherd's Calendar,
first published in 1579, " for the exposition of
old words," as he declares, lie thinks it expedient
to include in his list, the following, ' dapper,'
' scathe,' * askance/ ' sere,' ' embellish,' ' bevy/
' forestall/ ' fain/ with not a few others quite as
familiar as these. In Speght's Chaucer (1667),
there is a long list of " old and obscure words in
Chaucer explained/' these" old and obscure words"
including ' anthem/ ' blithe,' ' bland,' ' chapelet,'
* carol, ' deluge,' ' franchise/ ' illusion/ ' problem,'
' recreant,' 'sphere/ 'tissue,' ' transcend/ with very
many easier than these. In Skinner's Etymologi-
con (1671), there is another such list of obsolete
words,* and among these he includes ' to dovetail,'
' to interlace,' ' elvish,' ' encombred,' ' phantom'
(fantome), ' gawd/ ' glare/ ' masquerade' (mas-
carade), ' oriental,' ' plumage,' ' pummel' (pomell),
and ' stew/ that is, for fish. Who will say of
the verb * to hallow' that it is now even obsoles-
cent ? and yet Wallis two hundred years ago
observed — "it has almost gone out of use" (fere
desuevit). It would be difficult to find an ex-
ample of the verb, ' to advocate/ between Milton
and Burke. Franklin, a close observer in such
matters, as he was himself an admirable master
of English style, considered the word to have
* Etymologicon vocum omnium antiquarum quce usque
a Wilhelmo Victore invaluerunt, et jam ante 'parentum
cetatem in usu esse desiet'unt.
G 2
84 GAINS OV THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
sprung up during his own residence in Europe.
In this indeed he was mistaken ; it had only
during this period revived. Johnson says of
'jeopardy' that it is a'' word not now in use;"
which certainly is not any longer true.*
I am persuaded that in facility of being under-
stood, Chaucer is not merely as near, but much
nearer, to us than Dryden and his cotemporaries
felt him to be to them. He and the writers of his
time make exactly the same sort of complaints,
only in still stronger language, about his archaic
])hraseology and the obscurities which it involves,
that are made at the present day. Thus in the
Preface to his Tales from Chaucer, having quoted
some not very difficult lines from the earlier poet
whom he was modernizing, he proceeds : " You
have here a specimen of Chaucer's language, which
is so obsolete that his sense is scarce to be under-
stood." Nor was it merely thus with respect of
Chaucer. These wits and poets of the Court of
Charles the Second were conscious of a greater
gulf between themselves and the Elizabethan sera,
separated from them by little more than fifty
years, than any of which we are aware, separated
* In like manner La Bruyere, in his Caracieres, c. 14,
laments the extinction of a large number of French words
which he names. At least half of these have now free course
in the language, as ' valeureux,' Miaineux,' 'peineux,' ' fruc-
tueux,' ' mensonger,' ' coutumier,' ' vantard,' ' courtois,' 'jo-
vial,' ' fetoyer,' ' larmoyer,' ' verdoyer.' Two or three of these
may be rarely used, but every one would be found in a dic-
tionary of the living language.
II.] NUGGET, INGOT.
85
from it by nearly two centuries more. I do not
mean merely that tbey felt themselves more re-
moved from its tone and spirit ; their altered cir-
cumstances might explain this ; but I am convinced
that they found a greater difficulty and strangeness
in the language of Spenser and Shakespeare than
we find now ; that it sounded in many ways more
uncouth, more old-fashioned, more abounding in
obsolete terms than it does in our ears at the pre-
sent. Only in this way can I explain the tone
in which they are accustomed to speak of these
worthies of the near past. I must again cite
Dryden, the truest representative of literary Eng-
land in its good and in its evil during the last
half of the seventeenth century. Of Spenser,
whose death was separated from his own birth by
little more than thirty years, he speaks as of one
belonging to quite a difiFerent epoch, counting it
much to say, "notwithstanding his obsolete lan-
guage, he is still intelligible.''* Nay, hear what
his judgment is of Shakespeare himself, so far as
language is concerned : " It must be allowed to
the present age that the tongue in general is
so much refined since Shakespeare's time, that
many of his words and more of his phrases are
scarce intelligible. And of those which we un-
derstand, some are ungraramatical, others coarse;
and his wdiole style is so pestered with figura-
tive expressions, that it is as affected as it is
obscure."t
* Preface to Juvenal.
f Preface to Troilus and Cressida. In justice to Diyclen,
86 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
Sometimes a word will emerge anew from the
undercurrent of society, not indeed new, but yet
to most seeming as new, its very existence having
been altogether forgotten by the larger number of
those speaking the language ; although it must
have somewhere lived on upon the lips of men.
Thus, for instance, since the Californian and Aus-
tralian discoveries of gold we hear often of a
' nugget' of gold ; being a lump of the pure metal ;
and there has been some discussion whether the
word has been born for the present necessity, or
whether it be a recent malformation of ' ingot.'
I am inclined to think that it is neither one nor
the other. T would not indeed affirm that it may
not be a popular recasting of ' ingot / but only
that it is not a recent one ; for ^ nugget' very
nearly in its present form, occurs in our elder
writers, being spelt ^ niggot' by them.* There
can be little doubt of the identity of ' niggot' and
^ nugget ;' all the consonants, the stamina of a
word, being the same ; while this early form
^ niggot' makes more plausible their suggestion
and lest it should be said that he had spoken poetic blas-
phemy, it ought not to be forgotten that * pestered' had not
in his time at all so offensive a sense as it would have now.
It meant no more than inconveniently crowded; thus Milton:
" Confined and pestered in this pinfold here."
* Thus in North's Flularch, p. 499 : "After the fire was
quenched, they found in nicjgots of gold and silver mingled
together, about a thousand talents ;" and again, p. 323 :
" There was brought a marvellous great mass of treasure in
oiifjgots of gold." The word has not found its way into our
dictionaries or glossaries.
II.] PROPER NAMES BECOME WORDS. 87
that * nugget' is only ^ ingot' disguised, seeing that
there wants nothing but the very common trans-
position of the first two letters to bring that out
of this.
New words are often formed from the names
of persons, actual or mythical. Some one has ob-
served how interesthig would be a complete collec-
tion, or a collection approaching to completeness,
in any language of the names of persons which
have afterwards become names of things, from
' nomina appellativa' have become ' nomina realia.'
Let me without confining myself to those of more
recent introduction endeavour to enumerate as
many as I can remember of the words which have
by this method been introduced into our language.
To begin with mythical antiquity — the Chimasra
has given us ^ chimerical,' Hermes ^ hermetic,'
Tantalus ^ to tantalize/ Hercules ' herculean,'
Proteus 'protean,' Vulcan Wolcano' and 'vol-
canic,' and Dsedalus ' dedal,' if this word may on
Spenser's and Shelley's authority be allowed.
Gordius, the Phrygian king who tied that famous
' gordian' knot which Alexander cut, will supply
a natural transition from mythical to historical.
Here Mausolus, a king of Caria, has left us ' mau-
soleum,' Academus ' academy,' Epicurus ' epicure,'
Philip of Macedon a ' philippic,' being such a dis-
course as Demosthenes once launched against the
enemy of Greece, and Cicero ' cicerone.' Mithri-
dates, who had made himself poison-proof, gave us
the now forgotten word ' mithridate,' for antidote ;
as from Hippocrates we derived ' hipocras,' or
88 GAINS or THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
'ypocras/ a word often occurring in our early
poets, being a wine supposed to be mingled after
Lis receipt. Gentius, a king of Illyria, gave his
name to the plant ' gentian/ having been, it is
said, the first to discover its virtues. A grammar
used to be called a ' donat^ or ' donet^ (Chaucer),
from Donatus, a famous grammarian. Lazarus,
perhaps an actual person, has given us ^ lazar^ and
* lazaretto / St. Veronica and the legend con-
nected with her name, a ' vernicle / being a napkin
with the Saviour^s face portrayed on it; Simon
Magus ' simony / Mahomet a ' mammet' or ' mau-
met,' meaning an idol ; and ' mammetry^ or
idolatry ; ' dunce' is from Duns Scotus ; while
there is a legend that the ' knot' or sandpiper is
named from Canute or Knute, with whom this
bird was a special favourite. To come to more
modern times, and not pausing at Ben Jonson's
' chaucerisms,' Bishop HalPs ^ scoganisms,' from
Scogan, Edward the Fourth's jester, or his ' are-
tinismiS,' from an infamous writer, ' a poisonous
Italian ribald,' as Gabriel Harvey calls him, named
Aretine; these being probably not intended even
by their authors to endure; a Boman cobbler
named Pasquin has given us the ^ pasquil' or
'pasquinade;' 'patch' in the sense of fool, and
often so used by Shakespeare, was originally the
proper name of a favourite fool of Cardinal
Wolsey's ; Colonel Negus in Queen Anne's time
first mixed the beverage which goes by his name;
Lord Orrery was tlie first for whom an ' orrery'
was constructed ; and Lord Spencer first wore, or
II.] PROPER NAMES BECOME AVORDS. 89
at least first brouglit into fashion, a * spencer/
Dahl, a Swede, introduced the cultivation of the
' dahlia/ and M. Tabinet, a Trench Protestant
refugee, the making of the stuff called ' tabinet' in
Dublin; in ' tram-rosid,' the second syllable of the
name of Ontram, the inventor, survives. The
' tontine' was conceived by an Italian named
Tonti; and another Italian, Galvani, first noted
the phenomena of animal electricity or ' galvan-
ism / V7hile a third It alian, ' Volta/ gave a name
to the ' voltaic' battery. ^ Martinet,' ^ mackin-
tosh,' ' doyly,' ^ brougham/ ' to macadamize,' ' to
burke/ are all names of persons or formed from
persons, and then transferred to things, on the
score of some connexion existing between the one
and other.*
* Several of these we have in common with the French.
Of their own they have * sardanapalisme,' any piece of pro-
fuse luxury, from Sardanapalus ; while for 'lambiner,' to
dally or loiter over a task, they are indebted to Denis Lambin,
a worthy Greek scholar of the sixteenth century, whom his
adversaries accused of sluggish movement and wearisome dif-
fuseness in style. Every reader of Pascal's Provincial
Letters will remember Escobar, the great casuist among the
Jesuits, whose convenient subterfuges for the relaxation of
the moral law have there been made tamous. To the noto-
riety which he thus acquired, he owes his introduction into
the French language ; where ' escobarder' is used in the
sense of to equivocate, and ' escobarderie' of subterfuge or
equivocation. The name of an unpopular minister of finance,
M. de Silhouette, unpopular because he sougiit to cut down
unnecessary expenses in the state, was applied to whatever
was cheap, and, as was implied, undul v economical ; it has
survived in the black outline portrait which is now called a
90 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
Again the names of popular characters in lite-
rature, such as have taken strong hold on the
national mind, give birth to a number of new words.
Thus from Homer we have ' mentor' for a monitor;
' stentorian' for loud-voiced ; and inasmuch as with
all of Hector's nobleness there is a certain amount
of big talking about him, he has given us ' to
hector;'* while the medieval romances about the
siege of Troy ascribe to Pandarus that shameful
ministry out of which his name has past into the
words ' to pandar' and ^ pandarism.' ^ Rodomon-
tade' is from Kodomont, a blustering and boasting
hero of Boiardo, adopted by Ariosto; ^ thrasonical/
from Thraso, the braggart of the Roman comedy.
Cervantes has given us ' quixotic ;' Swift ^ lilli-
putian ;' to Moliere the French language owes
' tartuffe' and ' tartutferie.' ' Reynard' too, which
with us is a duplicate for fox, while in the French
' renard' has quite excluded the older ' volpils,' wfis
originally not the name of a kind, but the proper
name of the fox-hero, the vulpine Ulysses, in that
famous beast-epic of the middle ages, Reineke
Fuchs ; the immense popularity of which we
gather from many evidences, from none more
clearly than from this. ' Chanticleer' is in like
manner the proper name of the cock, and ' Bruin'
'silhouette' (Sismondi, Histoire des Frangais, torn. xix.
pp. 04, 95.) In the ' mansarde' roof we have the name of
Mansart, the architect wlio introduced it. I need hardly
add ' ^nnllotine.'
* See Cul. iMure, Languaf/e and LUerature of Ancient
Greece, vol. i. p. 350.
IT.] PROPER NAMES BECOME WORDS. 91
of the bear in the same poem.* These have not
made fortune to the same extent of actually putting
out in any language the names which before ex-
isted, but still have become quite familiar to us all.
We must not count as new words properly so
called, although they may delay us for a minute,
those comic words, most often comic combinations
formed at will, and sometimes of enormous length,
in which, as plays and displays of power, great
writers ancient and modern have delighted. These
for the most part are meant to do service for the
moment, and then to pass away. The inventors
of them had themselves no intention of fastening
them permanently on the language. Thus among
the Greeks Aristophanes coined fxEWoviKiaoj, to
loiter like Nicias, with allusion to the delays with
which this prudent commander sought to put off
the disastrous Sicilian expedition, with not a few
other familiar to every scholar. The humour of
them sometimes consists in their enormous length,
as in the a/i^tTrroXf^toTrr^Srifricrrparog of Eupolis ;
the (T7rtpiJ.ayopaioXEKi6oXayai>67roj\ig of Aristo-
phanes; sometimes in their mingled observance and
transgression of the laws of the language, as in the
*oculissimus^ of Plautus, acomic superlative of ^ocu-
luo/ ^occisissimus' of ' occisus/ as in the ^dosones,'
' dabones,^ which in Greek and in medieval Latin
were names given to those who were ever pro-
mising, ever saying " I will give," but never per-
* See Genin, Des Variations dit Lang age Fran^ais,
p. 12.
92 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
forming their promise. Plautus witli liis exube-
rant wit, and exulting in his mastery and com-
mand of the Latin language, will compose four or
five lines consisting entirely of comic combina-
tions thrown off for the occasion.* Of the same
character is Butler's ^ cynarctomachy/ or battle of
a dog and bear. Nor do I suppose that Fuller,
when he used ' to avunculize,' to imitate or follow
in the steps of one^s uncle, or Cowper, when he
suggested ' extraforaneous^ for out of doors, in
the least intended them as lasting additions to the
language.
Sometimes a word springs up in a very curious
way ; here is one, not having, I suppose, any great
currency except among schoolboys ; yet being no
invention of theirs, but a genuine English word,
though of somewhat late birth in the language, I
mean ' to chouse.' It has a singular origin. The
word is, as I have mentioned already, a Turkish
one, and signifies interpreter.' Such an inter-
preter or ' chiaous' (written ' chaus' in Hackluyt,
' chiaus' in Massinger), being attached to the
Turkish embassy in England, committed in the
year 1609 an enormous fraud on the Turkish and
Persian merchants resident in London. He suc-
ceeded in cheating them of a sum amounting to
* Persa, iv. 6, 20 — 23. At the same time tliese words
may be earnest enough ; such was the eXaxia-rorfpos of St.
Paul (Ephes. iii. 8) ; just as in the Middh; Ages some did
not account it sufficient to call themselves " fratres minores,
minimi, postremi," but coined ' postrcmissimi/ to express the
depth ol" their " voluntary humility,"
II.] DirFERENT SPELLING OF WORDS. 93
£4000 — a sum very mucli greater at that day
than at the present. From the vast dimensions of
the fraud, and th^ notoriety which attended it,
any one who cheated or defrauded was said ' to
chiaous,^ ^ chause/ or ' chouse / to do, that is, as
this ' chiaous^ had done.*
There is another very fruitful source of new
words in a language, or perhaps rather another
way in which it increases its vocabulary, for a
question might arise whether the words thus pro-
duced ought to be called new. I mean through
the splitting of single words into two or even more.
The impulse and suggestion to this is in general
first given by varieties in pronunciation, which
are presently represented by varieties in spelling ;
but the result very often is that what at first
were only precarious and arbitrary differences in
this, come in the end to be regarded as entirely
different words ; they detach themselves from one
another, not again to reunite ; just as accidental
varieties in fruits or flowers, produced at hazard,
have yet permanently separated off, and settled into
different kinds. They have each its own distinct
domain of meaning, as by general agreement as-
signed to itj dividing the inheritance between
* It is curious that a correspondent of Skinner {Etymolo-
gicoji, 1671), although quite ignorant of this stor}^ and indeed
wholly astray in his application, had suggested that 'chouse'
mio-ht be thus connected with the Turkish ' chiaus.' I believe
Gifford, in his edition of Ben Jonson, was the first to clear up
the matter. A passage in T/ie Alchemist (Act i. Sc. 1) will
have put him on the right track.
94 GAINS or THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
them, which hitherto they held in common. No
one who has not had his attention called to this
matter, who has not watched and catalogued these
words as they have come under his notice, would
at all believe how numerous they are.
Sometimes as the accent is placed on one syl-
lable of a word or another, it comes to have diffe-
rent significations, and those so distinctly marked,
tliat the separation may be regarded as complete.
Examples of this are the following : ^ divers/ and
* diverse / ^conjure' and ' conjure / ' antic^ and
* antique / ^ hitman^ and ^ humane •' ' lirban^ and
' urbane ;' * gentle^ and ' genteel / * custom' and
' costume -' * essay' and ' assay / ' property' and
' propriety.' Or again, a w^ord is pronounced with
a full sound of its syllables, or somewhat more
shortly : thus ' spirit' atid ' sprite ;' ' blossom' and
' bloom ;' ^ courtesy' and ' curtsey ;' ' nourish' and
' nurse ;' ^ personality' and * personalty ;' 'fantasy'
and ' fancy ;' * triumph' and ' trump' (the winning
card*) ; ' happily' and ' haply ;' ' waggon' and
' wain ;' ' ordinance' and ' ordnance ;' ' shallop'
and ' sloop ;' ' brabble' and ' brawl / ' syrup' and
' shrub ;' ' balsam' and ' balm ;' ' eremite' and
' hermit;' 'nighest' and ' next ;' ' poesy' and 'posy;'
' fragile' and ' frail ;' * achievement' and ' hatch-
ment ;' ' mancEuvre' and ' manure ;' — or with the
dropping of the first syllable: ' history' and 'story;'
* If there were any doubt about this matter, which in-
deed there is not, a reference to Latimer's famous Sermon on
Cards would abundantly remove it, where ' triumph' and
* trump' arc interchangeably used.
II.] DirFERENT SPELLING OE WORDS. 95
'etiquette' and 'ticket/ 'escheat' and 'cheat/
' estate' and ' state ;' and, older probably than any
of these, ' other' and ' or ;' — or with a dropping
of the last syllable, as ' Britany' and Britain ;'
' crony' and ' crone ;' — or without losing a syllable,
with more or less stress laid on the close : ' regi-
ment' and ' regimen ;' ' corpse' and ' corps ;' ' bite'
and ' bit ;' ' sire' and ' sir ;' ' land' or ' laund' and
' lawn ;' ' suite' and ' suit ;' ' swinge' and ' swing ;'
' gulph' and * gulp ;' ' launch' and ' lance;' ' wealth'
and ' weal ;' ' stripe' and ' strip ;' ' borne' and
' born ;' ' clothes' and ' cloths j' — or a slight inter-
nal vowel cbange finds place, as between ' dent'
and ' dint ;' ' rant' and ' rent' (a ranting actor
tears or rends a passion to tatters) ; ' creak' and
' croak ;' ' float' and ' fleet ;' ' sleek' and ' slick ;'
' sheen' and ' shine ;' ' shriek' and * shrike ;'
' pick' and ' peck ;' ' peak/ ' pique/ and ' pike /
' weald' and ' wold / ' drip' and ' drop / ' wreathe'
and ' writhe / ' spear' and ' spire' (" the least
spiy^e of grass/' South) ; ' trist' and ' trust /
' band/ ' bend' and ' bond / ' cope/ ' cape' and
' cap / ' tip' and ' top / ' slent' (now obsolete)
and ' slant / ' sweep' and ' swoop / ' wrest' and
' wrist / ' gad' (now surviving only in gadfly) and
'goad/ 'complement' and ' compliment/ 'fitch' and
' vetch / ' spike' and ' spoke / ' tamper' and ' tem-
per / ' ragged' and ' rugged / ' gargle' and ' gur-
gle / ' snake' and ' sneak' (both crawl) ; ' deal' and
' dole / ' giggle' and ' gaggle' (this last is now
commonly spelt ' cackle') ; ' sip/ ' sop/ ' soup'
and ' sup / ' clack/ ' click' and ' clock / ' tetchy'
9G GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
and ' touchy ;' ' neat' and ' nett / ' stud' and
' steed ;' ' then' and ' than ;'* ' grits' and ' grouts /
^ spirt' and ' sprout ;' ' cure' and ' care ;' ' prune'
and ^ preen ;' ' mister' and ' master ;' ' allay' and
' alloy ;' ' ghostly' and ' ghastly ;' ' person' and
'parson / ' cleft' and ' clift/ now written 'cliff;'
' travel' and ' travail ;' ' truth' and ' troth ;' ' pen-
non' and ' pinion / ' quail' and ' quell ;' ' quell'
and ' kill ;' ' metal' and ' mettle ;' ' chagrin' and
' shagreen ;' ' can' and ' ken ;' ' Francis' and
' Frances ;'t ^ chivalry' and ' cavalry ;' ' oaf and
'elf;' 'lose' and '"^loose ;' 'taint' and 'tint.'
Sometimes the difference is mainly or entirely
in the initial consonants, as hetween ' phial' and
' vial ;' ' pother' and ' bother ;' ' bursar' and ' pur-
ser ;' ' thrice' and ' trice ;' ' shatter' and ' scatter ;'
' chattel' and ' cattle ;' ' chant' and ' cant ;' ' zea-
lous' and 'jealous;' 'channel' and 'kennel;'
' wise' and ' guise ;' ' quay' and ' key ;' ' thrill,'
' trill' and ' drill ;' — or in the consonants in the
middle of the word, as between ' cancer' and ' can-
ker ;' 'nipple' and 'nibble;' 'tittle' and 'title;'
' price' and ' prize ;' ' consort' and ' concert ;' — or
there is a change in both, as between ' pipe' and
' fife.'
* On these words see a learned discussion in English Re-
traced, Cambridge, 1862.
t The appropriating of * Frances' to women and * Franc/s'
to men is quite of modern introduction; it was formerly
nearly as often Sir Frances Drake as Sir Francis, while Fuller
{Holy State, b. iv. c. 1 i) speaks of Franc/5 Brandon, eldest
daughter of Charles ]>riindc)n, Duke of Suffolk ; and see ^jcw
Jonson's New Inn, Act. ii. Sc. i.
Il.J DIFFERENT SPELLING OF WORDS. 97
Or a word is spelt now with a final k and now
with a final ch ; out of this variation two different
words have been formed ; with, it may be, other
slight differences superadded ; thus is it with
' poke^ and ' poach ;' ' dyke' and ' ditch / ' stink'
and ' stench ;' ^ prick' and ^ pritch' (now obsolete) ;
' break' and ' breach ;' to which may be added
' broach ;' ^ lace' and ' latch ;' ' stick' and *" stitch ;'
Murk' and Murch;' Mmnk' and 'bench;' 'stark'
and * starch;' 'wake' and 'watch.' So too t and
d are easily exchanged ; as in ' clod' and ' clot ;'
* vend' and ' vent ;' ' brood' and ' brat ;' ' halt' and
' hold ;' ' sad' and ' set ;' ' card' and ' chart ;'
' medley' and ' motley.' Or there has grown up,
besides the rigorous and accurate pronunciation of
a word, a popular as well ; and this in the end has
formed itself into another word ; thus is it with
' housewife' and ' hussey ;' ' hanaper' and 'hamper;'
' puisne' and ' puny ;' ' patron' and ' pattern ;'
' spital' (hospital) and ' spittle' (house of correc-
tion) ; ' accompt' and ' account ;' ' donjon' and
'dungeon;' 'nestle' and 'nuzzle' (now obsolete) ;
' Egyptian' and ' gypsy ;' ' Bethlehem' and ' Bed-
lam ;' 'exemplar' and 'sampler;' 'dolphin' and
'dauphin;' 'iota' and 'jot.'
Other changes cannot perhaps be reduced ex-
actly under any of these heads ; as between ' ounce'
and ' inch ;' ' errant' and ' arrant ;' ' slack' and
' slake ;' ' slow' and ' slough ;' ' bow' and ' bough ;'
'hew' and ' hough ;' ' dies' and ' dice' (both plurals
of 'die'); 'plunge' and 'flounce;' 'staff' and
' stave ;' ' scull' and ' shoal ;' ' benefit' and ' bene-
H
98 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
fice/* Or^ it may be_, the difference which con-
stitutes the two forms of the word into two words
is in the spelling only^ and of a character to be
appreciable only by the eye, escaping altogether
the ear : thus is it with ' drafts and ' draught •/
' plain' and ' plane / ' coign' and ^ coin •/ ' flower'
and ' flour ;' ' check' and ' cheque ;' ' straight' and
^ strait ;' * ton' and ' tun ;' ' road' and ' rode ;'
' throw' and * throe ;' ' wrack' and ' rack ;' ' gait'
and ' gate ;' ' hoard' and ' horde ;' ' knoll' and
' noil j' * chord' and ^ cord ;' ^ drachm' and ^ dram ;'
' sergeant' and ' serjeant ;' 'mask' and ' masque;'
' villain' and ' villein.'
* Were there need of proving that these both lie in
'beneficium,' which there is not, for in Wiclif's translation
of the Bible the distinction is still latent, (1 Tim. vi. 2,)
one might adduce a singularl}' characteristic little trait of
Papal policy, which once turned upon the double use of
this word. Pope Adrian the Fourth writing to the Emperor
Frederic the First to complain of certain conduct of his,
reminded the Emperor that he had placed the imperial
crown upon his head, and would willingly have conferred
even greater ' beneficia' upon him than this. Had the word
been allowed to pass, it would no doubt have been afterwards
appealed to as an admission on the Emperor's part, that he
held the Empire as a feud or fief (for ' beneficium' was then
the technical word for this, though the meaning has much
narrowed since) from the Pope — the very point in dispute
between them. The word was indignantly repelled by the
Emperor and the whole German nation, whereupon the
Pope appealed to the etymology, that * beneficium' was but
• bonum factum,' and protested that he meant no more than
to remind the Emperor of the ' benefits* which he had
done him, and which he would have willingly multiplied
still more.
II.] WORDS IN TWO FORMS. 99
Now, if you will put the matter to proof, you
■will find, I believe, in every case that there has
attached itself to the different forms of a word a
modification of meaning more or less sensible, that
each has won for itself an independent sphere of
meaning, in which it, and it only, moves. For
example, ' divers' implies difference only, but
* diverse' difference with opposition ; thus the
several Evangelists narrate the same event in
* divers' manner, but not in ' diverse.' ' Antique'
is ancient, but * antic' is now the ancient regarded
as overlived, out of date, and so in our days gro-
tesque, ridiculous ; and then, with a dropping of
the reference to age, the grotesque, the ridiculous
alone, ' Human' is what every man is, 'humane'
is what every man ought to be ; for Johnson's
suggestion that ' humane' is from the French
feminine, ' humaine,' and ' human' from the mas-
culine, cannot for an instant be admitted. ' In-
genious' expresses a mental, 'ingenuous' a moral,
excellence. A gardener ' prunes,' or trims his
trees, properly indeed his vines alone {^Yovigner)^
birds ' preen' or trim their feathers. We ' allay'
wine with water; we * alloy' gold with platina.
' Bloom' is a finer and more delicate efflorescence
even than ' blossom ;' thus the ' bloom,' but not
the ' blossom,' of the cheek. It is now always
' clots' of blood and ' clods' of earth ; a ' float' of
timber, and a ' fleet' of ships ; men ' vend' wares,
and ' vent' complaints. A ' curtsey' is one, and
that merely an external, manifestation of ' cour-
tesy.' * Gambling' may be, as with a fearful irony
H 2
100 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
it is called, pJay, but it is nearly as distant from
' gambolling^ as hell is from heaven. Nor would
it be hard, in almost every pair or larger group of
words which I have adduced, as in others which
no doubt might be added to complete the list, to
trace a difference of meaning which has obtained
a more or less distinct recognition."^
But my subject is inexhaustible ; it has no limits
except those, which indeed may be often narrow
enough, imposed by my own ignorance on the one
side ; and on the other, by the necessity of consult-
* The same happens in other languages. Thus in Greek
' dvddefia and ' dvddrjfxa both si«fnify that which is devoted,
though in very different senses, to the gods ; * Odpaos,' bold-
ness, and * Opdaos,' temerity, were no more at first than
different spellings of the same word ; not otherwise is it with
yplnos and yp'i(f)os, edos and rjdos, ^pvKco and I3pv)(a) : while
olSeXos and o^oXos, aopos and aapos, are probably the same
words. So too in Latin 'penna' and * pinna' differ only in
form, and signify alike a 'wing;' while yet 'penna' has
come to be used for the wing of a bird, ' pinna' (its diminu-
tive * pinnaculum,' has given us * pinnacle') for that of a build-
ing. So is it with ' Thrax' a ' Thracian, and ' Threx' a gla-
diator; with 'codex' and 'caudex;' 'forfex' and 'forceps;'
' anticus' and ' antiquus ;' * celeber' and ' creber ; ' infacetus'
and 'inficetus;' ' providentia,' ' prudentia,' and 'provincia;'
' columen' and 'culmen;' 'coitus' and 'coetus;' 'fegrimonia'
and ' a?rumna ;' ' Luciua' and ' luna;' * navita' and ' nauta :'
in German with ' I'echtlich' and * redlich ;' ' schlecht' and
' schlicht ;' * ahnden' and ' ahnen ;' ' biegsam' and ' beugsam ;'
' fursehung' and 'vorsehung;' 'deich' and ' teich ;' ' trotz'
and ' trutz ;* ' born' and 'brunn;' ' athem' and *odem:' in
French with ' harnois' the armour, or ' harness,' of a soldier,
' harnais' of a horse ; with * Zephire' and 'zcphir,' and with
many more.
II.] MOTIVE or A NEW WORD-COINAGE. 101
ing your patience, and of only choosing such
matter as will admit a popular setting forth.
These necessities, however, bid me to pause, and
suggest that I should not look round for other
quarters from whence accessions of new words are
derived. Doubtless I should not be long without
finding many such. I must satisfy myself for the
rest with a very brief consideration of the motives
which, as they have been, are still at work among
us, inducing us to seek for these augmentations of
our vocabulary.
And first, the desire of greater clearness is a
frequent motive and inducement to this. It has
been well and truly said: "Every new term, express-
ing a fact or a difference not precisely or adequately
expressed by any other word in the same lan-
guage, is a new organ of thought for the mind that
has learned it.''* The limits of their vocabulary
are in fact for most men the limits of their know-
ledge ; and in a great degree for us all. Of course
I do not affirm that it is absolutely impossible to
have our mental conceptions clearer and more dis-
tinct than our words ; but it is very hard to have,
and still harder to keep, them so. And therefore
it is that men, conscious of this, so soon as ever
they have learned to distinguish in their minds,
are urged by an almost irresistible impulse to dis-
tinguish also in their words. They feel that no-
thing is made sure till this is done.
The sense that a word covers too large a space
* Coleridge, Church and State, p. 200.
102 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
of meaning, is the frequent occasion of the intro-
duction of another, which shall relieve it of a
portion of this. Thus, there was a time when
' witch^ was applied equally to male and female
dealers in unlawful magical arts. Simon Magus,
for example, and Elymas are both ^ witches,^ in
Wiclif s Neiv Testament (Acts viii. 9 ; xiii. 8), and
Posthumus in Cijmbeline : but when the medieval
Latin ' sortiarius' (not ^ sortitor^ as in Richardson),
supplied another word, the French ' sorcier/ and
thus our English ' sorcerer' (originally the ^' caster
of lots''), then ' witch' gradually was confined to
the hag, or female practiser of these arts, while
^ sorcerer' was applied to the male.
New necessities, new evolutions of society into
more complex conditions, evoke new words ; which
come forth, because they are required now ; but did
not formerly exist, because they were not required
in the period preceding. For example, in Greece
so long as the poet sang his own verses, ^ singer'
[aoi^oq] sufficiently expressed the double function;
such a ' singer' was Homer, and such Homer de-
scribes Demodocus,the bard of the Phaacians; that
double function, in fact, not being in his time con-
templated as double, but each part of it so naturally
completing the other, that no second word was
required. When, however, in the division of labour
one made the verses which another chaunted, then
' poet' or ' maker,' a word unknown in the Homeric
age, arose. In like manner, when ^physicians' were
the only natural philosophers, the word covered this
meaning as well as that other which it still retains ;
II.] PROCESS OF DISSIMILATION. 1^^
but when the investigation of nature and natural
causes detached itself from the art of healing,
became an independent study of itself, the name
' physician' remained to that which was as the
stock and stem of the art, while the new offshoot
sought out a new name for itself.
Another motive to the invention of new words,
is the desire thereby to cut short lengthy explana-
tions, tedious circuits of language. Science is often
an immense gainer by words, which say singly
what it would have taken whole sentences other-
wise to have said. Thus ' isothermal' is quite of
modern invention ; but what a long story it would
be to tell the meaning of ' isothermal lines,' all
which is summed up in and saved by the word.
We have long had the word ' assimilation' in our
dictionaries ; ' dissimilation' has not yet found its
way into them, but it speedily will. It will ap-
pear first, if it has not already appeared, in our
books on language. I express myself with this
confidence, because the advance of philological en-
quiry has rendered it almost a matter of necessity
that we should possess a word to designate a certain
process, and no other word would designate it at
all so well. There is a process of ' assimilation'
going on very extensively in language ; it occurs
where the organs of speech find themselves helped
by changing a letter for another which has just
occurred, or will just occur in a word ; thus we say
not ' af//iance' but 'a^iance,' not ' Yeno\\m/ as our
ancestors did when the word ' renommee' was first
naturalized, but ' renown J At the same time
101' GAINS or THE EiNGLTSH LANGUAGE, [lect.
there is another opposite process, where some letter
would recur too often for euphony or comfort in
speaking, if the strict form of the word were too
closely held fast, and where consequently this
letter is exchanged for some other, generally for
some nearly allied ; thus it is at least a reasonable
suggestion, that ^ coeruleum' was once ' coe/uleum/
from caelum : so too the Italians prefer ' veleno'
to ' \ene7io / and we ' cinnamow^ to ' cinnaraom^
(the earlier form) ; in ' turtle^ and ' purple' we
have shrunk from the double ' r^ of ' turtur' and
* purpura / and this process of makhig unlike, re-
quiring a term to express it, will create, or indeed
has created, the word ' dissimilation,^ which pro-
bably will in due time establish itself among us
in far wider than its primary use.
' Watershed^ has only recently begun to appear
in books of geography ; and yet how convenient it
must be admitted to be; how much more so than
" line of water parting,^^ which it has succeeded ;
meaning, as I need hardly tell you it does, not
merely that which sheds the waters, but that
which divides them [' wasserscheide^) ; and being
applied to that exact ridge and highest line in a
mountain region, where the waters of that region
separate off and divide, some to one side, and some
to the other ; as in the llocky jMountains of North
America there are streams rising within very few
miles of one another, which flow severally cast and
west, and, if not in unbroken course, yet as allluents
to larger rivers, fall at last severally into the Pacific
and Atlantic oceans. It must be alloued^ I tliink,
n.] 'affluent' a recet^t noun. 105
that not merely geographical terminology^ but
geography itself, had a benefactor in him who first
endowed it with so expressive and comprehensive
a word, bringing before ns a fact which we should
scarcely have been aware of without it.
There is another word which I have just em-
ploy ed_, * affluent/ in the sense of a stream which
does not flow into the sea, but joins a larger stream,
as for instance, the Isis is an ' affluent' of the
Thames, the Moselle of the Rhine. It is itself au
example in the same kind of that whereof I have
been speaking, having been only recently consti-
tuted a substantive, and employed in this sense,
w'hile yet its utility is obvious. ^ Confluents' would
perhaps be a fitter name, where the rivers, like
the Missouri and the Missisippi, were of equal or
nearly equal importance up to the time of their
meeting.
Again, new words are coined out of the necessity
which men feel of filling up gaps in the language.
Thoughtful men, comparing their own language
with that of other nations, become conscious of
deficiencies, of important matters unexpressed in
their own, and with more or less success proceed
to supply the deficiency. For example, that sin
of sins, the undue love of self, with the postponing
of the interests of all others to our own, had for a
longtime no word to express it in English. Help
was sought from the Greek, and from the Latin.
' Philauty' ((^iXavTia) had been more than once
attempted by our scholars ; but found no popular
acceptance. This failing, men turned to the Latin ;
106 GAINS or THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
one writer trying to supply the want by calling the
man a ^ suist/ as one seeking Ms oion things (' sua^),
and the sin itself, ' suicism/ The gap, however,
was not really filled up, till some of the Puritan
writers, drawing on our Saxon, devised ' selfish^
and ' selfishness,^ words which to us seem obvious
enough, but which yet are little more than two
hundred years old.*
* A passage from Hacket's Life of ArchhisJiop Williams,
part 2, p. 144, marks the first rise of this word, and the
quarter from whence it arose: "When they [the Presby-
terians] saw that he was not selfish (it is a word of their own
new mint), &c." In Whitlock's Zootomia (1654) there is
another indication of it as a novelty, p. 364 : " If constancy
may be tainted with this selfishness (to use our new wordinffs
of old and general actings)" — It is he who in his striking
essay, The Grand Schismatic, or Suist Anatomized, puts
forward his own words, ' suist,' and ' suicism,' in lieu of tho.se
which have ultimately been adopted. ' Suicism,' let me
observe, had not in his time the obvious objection of resem-
bling another word too nearly, and being liable to be confused
with it ; for ' suicide' did not then exist in the language, nor
indeed till some twenty j-ears later. The coming up of
* suicide' is marked by this passage in Phillips' New World
of IVords, 1671, 3rd edit. : " Nor less to be exploded is tlie
word 'suicide,' which may as well seem to participate of sus
a sow, as of the pronoun sui." In the Index to Jackson's
Works, published two years later, it is still ' suicidiuni — "the
horrid suicidium of the Jews at York." ' Suicide' is appa-
rently of much later introduction into French. Gcnin {Re-
creatiuiis Philol. vol. i. p. 194) places it about the year 1738,
and makes the Abbe Desfontaines its first sponsor. He is
wrong, as the words just quoted show, in supposing that we
borrowed it from the French, or that the word did not exist
in English till the middle of last century. The French
sometimes complain that the fashion of suicide was borrowed
II.] NOTICES OF NEW WORDS. 107
Before quitting this part of the subject, let me
say a few words iu conclusion on this deliberate
from England. It would seem at all events probable that
the word was so borrowed.
Let me urge here the advantage of a complete collection, or
one as nearly complete as the industry of the collectors would
allow, of all the notices in our literature, which mark, and
would serve as dates for, the first incoming of new words into
the language. These notices are of the most various kinds.
Sometimes they are protests and remonstrances, as that just
quoted, against a new word's introduction ; sometimes they
are gratulations at the saraej while many hold themselves
neuter as to approval or disapproval, and merely state, or
allow us to gather, the fact of a word's recent appearance.
There are not a few of these notices in Eichardson's Dic-
tionary : thus one from Lord Bacon under ' essay ;' from
Swift under 'banter;' from Sir Thomas Elyot under * man-
suetude;' from Lord Chesterfield under 'flirtation;' from
Davies and Marlowe's Epigrams under ' gull ;' from Roger
North under ' sham' (Appendix) ; the third quotation from
Dryden under ' mob ;' one from the same under ' philan-
thropy,' and again under ' witticism,' in which he claims the
authorship of the word; that from Evelyn under 'miss;' and
from Milton under ' demagogue.' There are also notices of
the same kind in Todd's Johnson. The work, however, is
one which no single scholar could hope to accomplish, which
could only be accomplished by many lovers of their native
tongue throwing into a common stock the results of their
several studies. The sources from which these illustrative
passages might be gathered cannot beforehand be enume-
rated, inasmuch as it is difficult to say in what unexpected
quarter they would not sometimes be found, although some
of these sources are obvious enough. As a very slight sample
of what might be done in this way by the joint contribu-
tions of many, let me throw together references to a tew
passages of the kind which I do not think have found thciir
108 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
introduction of words to supply felt omissions in a
language, and the limits within which this or any
way into any of our dictionaries. Thus add to that which
Richardson has quoted on ' banter,' another from The Tathr,
No. 230. On ' plunder' there are two instructive passages in
Fuller's Church History, b. xi. § 4, 33 ; and b. ix. § 4 ; and
one in Heylin's Animadversions thereupon, p. 196. On * ad-
miralty' see a note in Harington's Ariosto, book 19 ; on
' maturity' Sir Thomas Elj'ot's Governor, b. i. c. 22 ; and on
' industry' the same, b. i. c. 23; on ' neoph^^te' a notice in
Fulke's Defence of the English Bible, Parker Society's
edition, p. 586 ; and on ' panorama,' and marking its recent
introduction (it is not in Johnson), a passage in Pegge's
Anecdotes of the English Language, first published in
1803, but my reference is to the edition of 1814, p. 306; on
' accommodate,' and supplying a date for its first coming into
popular use, see Shakespeare's 2 Henry IV. Act 3, Sc. 2 ; on
* shrub,' Junius' Etyniologicon, s. v. ' syrup ;' on ' sentiment'
and ' cajole' Skinner, s. vv., in his Etymologicon (' voxnuper
civitate donata') ; and on 'opera' Evelyn's Memoirs and
Diary, 1827, vol. i. pp. 189, 190. In such a collection should
be included those passages of our hterature which supply
implicit evidence for the non-existence of a word up to a cer-
tain moment. It may be urged that it is difficult, nay im-
possible, to prove a negative ; and yet a passage like this
from Bolingbroke makes certain that when it was written the
word ' isolated' did not exist in our language : ** The events
we are witnesses of in the course of the longest life, appear to
us very oft^n original, unprepared, signal and unrelative :
if I may use such a word for want of a better in English. In
French I would say isole.s" {Notes and Queries, No. 226).
Compare Lord Chesterfield in a letter to Bishop Chenevix, of
date March 12, 1767 : " I have survived almost all my cotem-
poraries, and as I am too old to make new acquaintances, I
find my f^eWisolt." So,too, it is pretty certain that 'amphibious'
w'ua not yet English, when one writes (in 1018) : '* We are
II.] ' zoology/ ' zoophyte/ 109
other conscious interference with the development
of a language is desirable or possible. By tlie
time that a people begin to meditate upon their
language, to be aware l)y a conscious reflective act
either of its merits or deficiencies, by far the greater
and more important part of its work is done; it
is fixed in respect of its structure in immutable
forms ; the region in which any alteration or modi--
ficatiou, addition to it, or subtraction from it,
deliberately devised and carried out, may be pos-
sible, is very limited indeed. Its great laws are
too firmly established to admit of this; so that
like those creatures called dfjicfu^ia, who live in water or on
land." ZcooXoyia, the title of a book published in 1649, makes
it clear that ' zoology' was not yet in our vocabulary, as
C(A)6({)VTov (Jackson) proves the same for ' zoophyte,' and ttoXv-
Oeiaixos (Gell) for 'polytheism.' One precaution, let me ob-
serve, would be necessary in the collecting, or rather in the
adopting of any statements about the newness of a word — lor
the passages themselves, even v^rhen erroneous, ought not the
less to be noted — namely, that, where there is the least motive
for suspicion, no one's affirmation ought to be accepted simply
and at once as to the novelty of a word ; for all here are liable
to error. Thus more than one which Sir Thomas Elyot indicate^i
as newinhis time, 'magnanimity'for example, {T/ie Governor,
2, 14) are to be met in Chaucer. When Skinner affirmed of
* sentiment' that it had only recently obtained the rights of
English citizenship from the translators of French books, he
was altogether mistaken, this word being also one of continual
recurrence in Chaucer. An intelligent correspondent gives in
Notes and Queries, No. 225, a useful catalogue of recent
neologies in our speech, which yet would require to be used
with caution, for there are at least half a dozen in the list
which have not the smallest right to be so considered.
110 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
almost notliing can be taken from it, which it has
got ; ahnost nothing added to it, which it has not
got. It will travel indeed in certain courses of
change ; but it would be as easy almost to alter the
career of a planet as for man to alter these. This
is sometimes a subject of regret with those who see
what they believe manifest defects or blemishes
in their language, and such as appear to them
capable of remedy. And yet in fact this is well;
since for once that these redressers of real or
fancied wrongs, these suppliers of things lacking,
would have mended, we may be tolerably confident
that ten times, yea, a hundred times, they would
have marred; letting go that which would have
been well retained ; retaining that which by a
necessary law the language now dismisses and lets
go ; and in manifold ways interfering with those
processes of a natural logic, which are here ever-
more at work. The genius of a language, uncon-
sciously presiding over all its transformations, and
conducting them to a definite issue, will have been
a far truer, far safer guide, than the artificial wit,
however subtle, of any single man, or of any asso-
ciation of men. For the genius of a language is
the sense and inner conviction of all who speak it,
as to what it ought to be, and the means by which
it will best attain its objects ; and granting that
a pair of eyes, or two or three pair of eyes may
see much, yet millions of eyes will certainly see
more.
It is only with the words, and not with the
forms and laws of a language, that any interference
II.] GERMAN PURISTS. Ill
such as I have jnst supposed is possible. Some-
thing, indeed much, may here be done by wise
masters, in the way of rejecting that which would
deform, allowing and adopting that which will
strengthen and enrich. Those who would purify
or enrich a language, so long as they have kept
within this their proper sphere, have often effected
much, more than at first could have seemed pos-
sible. The history of the German language
atfords so much better illustration of this than
our own would do, that I shall make no scruple
in seeking ray examples there. When the patriotic
Germans began to wake up to a consciousness of
the enormous encroachments which foreign lan-
guages, the Latin and French above all, had made
on their native tongue, the lodgements which they
had therein effected, and the danger which threat-
ened it, namely, that it should cease to be German
at all, but only a mingle-mangle, a variegated
patchwork of many languages, without any unity
or inner coherence at all, various societies were
instituted among them, at the beginning and during
the course of the seventeenth century, for the
recovering of what was lost of their own, for the
expelling of that which had intruded from abroad ;
and these with excellent effect.
But more effectual than these societies were the
efforts of single men, who in this merited well of
their country.* In respect of words which are now
* There is an admirable Essay by Leibnitz with this view
{Opera, vol. vi. part 2, pp. 6—51) in French and German,
112 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
entirely received by the whole nation, it is often
possible to designate the writers who first substi-
tuted them for some affected Gallicism or unneces-
sary Latinism. Thus to Lessing his fellow-country-
men owe the substitution of ^zartgefiihP for ^delica-
tesse/ of ' empfindsamkeit^ for ^ sentimentalitat/
of Svesenheit^ for 'essence/ It was Yoss (1786)
w'ho first employed ' altertliiimlich^ for ' antik.'
Wieland too was the author or reviver of a multi-
tude of excellent w'ords, for which often he had to
do earnest battle at the first ; such were ' seligkeit/
'anmuth/ ' entziickung/ 'festlich/ 'entwirren/ with
many more. For ' maskerade/ Campe would have
fain substituted ' larventauz.' It was a novelty
when Biisching called his great work on geography
' erdbeschreibung^ instead of ' geographic ;^ while
' schnellpost' instead of ' diligence/ ' zerrbild^ for
' carricatur' are also of recent introduction. In
regard of ' worterbuch^ itself, J. Grimm tells us
he can find no example of its use dating earlier
than 1719.
Yet at the same time it must be acknowledged
that some of these reformers proceeded ^Yith more
zeal than knowledge, wdiile others did whatever in
them lay to make the whole movement absurd —
even as there ever hang on the skirts of a noble
movement, be it in literature or politics or higher
things yet, those who contribute their little all to
bring ridicule and contempt upon it. Thus in the
with this title, Considerations sur la Culture et la Perfec-
tion lie la Langue Allemaiule.
II.] GERMAN PURISTS. 113
reaction against foreign interlopers which ensued,
and in the zeal to purify tlie language from them,
some went to such extravagant excesses as to de-
sire to get rid of ' testament/ ^ apostel/ which last
Campe would have replaced by ' lehrboce/ with
other words like these, consecrated by longest use,
and to find native substitutes in their room ; or
they understood so little what words deserved to
be called foreign, or how to draw the line between
them and native, that they would fain have gotten
rid of 'vater,^ ^mutter,^ ^wein,^ 'fenster,^ ^meister,-
* kelch /* the first three of which belong to the
German language by just as good a right as they do
to the Latin and the Greek ; while the other three
have been naturalized so long that to propose to
expel them now was as if, having passed an alien
act for the banishment of all foreigners, we should
proceed to include under that name, and as such
drive forth from the kingdom, the descendants of
the French Protestants who found refuge here at
the Revocation of tlie Edict of Nantes, or even of
the Flemings who settled among us in the time of
our Edwards. One notable enthusiast in this line
proposed to create an entirely new nomenclature
for all the mythological personages of the Greek
and the Roman pantheon, who, one would think,
might have been allowed, if any, to retain their
Greek and Latin names. So far however from
this, they were to exchange these for equivalent
* Zur Gescliichte unci Beurtheiluncj der Fremdivbrtcr
im Beutschen, von Aug. Fuchs, Dessau, 1842, pp. 85-91.
I
114 GAINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT. TI.
German titles ; Cupid was to be ' Lustkind/ Flora
' Blurainne/ Aurora ' Rothin / instead of Apollo
schoolboys were to speak of ' Singbold •' instead of
Pan of ' Scliaflieb ;' instead of Jupiter of ' Helfe-
vater/ with much else of the same kind. Let
us beware (and the warning extends much further
than to the matter in hand) of making a good
cause ridiculous by our manner of supporting it,
of assuming that exaggerations on one side can
only be redressed by exaggerations as great upon
the other.
115
LECTURE III.
DIMINUTIONS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
I TOOK occasion to observe at the commence-
ment of my last lecture that it is the essential
character of a living language to be in flux and
flow, to be gaining and losing ; the words which
constitute it as little continuing exactly the same,
or in the same relations to one another, as do
the atoms which at any one moment make up our
bodies remain for ever without subtraction or ad-
dition. As I then undertook for my especial sub-
ject to trace some of the acquisitions which our
own language had made, I shall consider in the
present some of the losses, or at any rate diminu-
tions, which during the same period it has endured.
But it will be well here, by one or two remarks
going before, to avert any possible misapprehen-
sions of my meaning.
It is certain that all languages must, or at least
all languages do in the end, perish. They run their
course ; not all at the same rate, for the tendency
to change is different in different languages, both
from internal causes (mechanism and the like), and
also from causes external to the language, laid in
the varying velocities of social progress and social
decline ; but so it is, that whether of shorter or
longer life_, they have their youth, their manhood,
I 2
116 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
their old age, their decrepitude, their final dissolu-
tion. Not indeed that, even when this last hour
has arrived, they disappear, leaving no traces be-
hind them. On the contrary, out of their death
a new life comes forth ; they pass into new forms,
the materials of which they were composed more
or less survive, but these now organized in new
shapes and according to other laws of life. Thus,
for example, the Latin perishes as a living lan-
guage, but a chief part of the words that composed
it live on in the four daughter languages, French,
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese ; or the six, if we
count the Proven9al and Wallachian ; not a few
in our own. Still in their own proper being lan-
guages perish and pass away ; there are dead
records of what they were in books; not living
men who speak them any more. Seeing then
that they thus die, they must have had the germs
of a possible decay and death in tliem from the
beginning.
Nor is this all ; but in such mighty strong built
fabrics as these, the causes which thus bring about
their final dissolution must have been actually at
work very long before the results began to be
visible. Indeed, very often it is with them as
with states, which, while in some respects they
arc knitting: and strengthening, in others are
already unfolding the seeds of their future and, it
may be, still remote overthrow. Equally in these
and those, in states and in languages, it would be a
serious mistake to assume that all up to a certain
point and period is growth and gain, while all after
III.] LANGUAGES GAIN AND LOSE. 117
is decay and loss. On the contrary, there are long
periods during which growth in some directions is
going hand in hand with decay in others ; losses
in one kind are being compensated_, or more than
compensated, by gains in another; during which
a language changes, but only as the bud changes
into the flower, and the flower into the fruit. A
time indeed arrives when the growth and gains,
becoming ever fewer, cease to constitute any
longer a compensation for the losses and the
decay ; which are ever becoming more ; when the
forces of disorganization and death at work are
stronger than those of life and order. It is from
this moment the decline of a language may pro-
perly be dated. But until that crisis and turning
point has arrived, we may be quite justified in
speaking of the losses of a language, and may
esteem them most real, without in the least thereby
implying that the period of its commencing dege-
neracy has begun. This may yet be far distant :
and therefore when I dwell on certain losses and
diminutions which our own has undergone, or is
undergoing, you will not conclude that I am seek-
ing to present it to you as now travelling the
downward course to dissolution and death. This
is very far from my intention. If in some respects
it is losing, in others it is gaining. Nor is every-
thing which it lets go, a loss; for this too, the
parting with a word in which there is no true
help, the dropping of a cumbrous or superfluous
form, may itself be sometimes a most real gain.
English is undoubtedly becoming different from
118 DIMINUTIOISIS or ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
what it has been ; but ouly different in that it is
passing into another stage of its development ;
only different, as the fruit is different" from the
flower, and the flower from the bud; having
changed its merits, but not having renounced
them ; possessing, it may be, less of beauty, but
more of usefulness ; not, perhaps, serving the poet
so well, but serving the historian and philosopher
and theologian better than before.
One observation more let me make, before enter-
ing on the special details of my subject. It is this.
The losses and diminutions of a language differ in
one respect from its gains and acquisitions —
namely, that they are of two kinds, while its gains
are only of one. Its gains are only in woy^ds ; it
never puts forth in the course of its later evolution
a new power ; it never makes for itself a new case,
or a new tense, or a new comparative. But its
losses are both in words and in powers — in words
of course, but in powers also : it leaves behind it,
as it travels onward, cases which it once possessed;
renounces the employment of tenses which it once
used; forgets its dual; is content with one ter-
mination both for masculine and feminine, and so
on. Nor is this a peculiar feature of one lan-
guage, but the universal law of all. " In all lan-
guages," as has been well said, " there is a constant
tendency to relieve themselves of that precision
which chooses a fresh symbol for every shade of
meaning, to lessen the amount of nice distinction,
and detect as it were a royal road to the inter-
change of opinion." For example, a vast number
III.] WORDS BECOME EXTINCT. 119
of languages had at an early period of their develop-
ment, besides the singular and plural, a dual num-
ber, some even a trinal, which they have let go at
a later. But what I mean by a language re-
nouncing its powers will, I trust, be more clear
to you before my lecture is concluded. This much
I have here said on the matter, to explain and jus-
tify a division which I shall make, considering first
the losses of the English language in words, and
then in powers.
And first, there is going forward a continual
extinction of the words in our language — as indeed
in every other. When I speak of this the dying
out of words, I do not refer to mere tentative,
experimental words, not a few of which I adduced
in my last lecture, words offered to the language,
but not accepted by it ; I refer rather to such as
either belonged to the primitive stock of the lan-
guage, or if not so, which had been domiciled in
it long, that they might have been supposed to
have found in it a lasting home. Thus not a few
pure Anglo-Saxon words which lived on into the
times of our early English, have subsequently
dropped out of our vocabulary, sometimes leaving
a gap which has never since been filled, but their
places oftener taken by others which have come up
in their room. Not to mention those of Chaucer
and Wiclif, which are very numerous, many held
their ground to far later periods, and yet have
finally given way. That beautiful word ' wanhope^
for despair, hope which has so waned that now
there is an entire want of it, was in use down to
120 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
the reign of Elizabeth ; it occurs so late as in the
poems of Gascoigiie.* ' Skinker' for cupbearer,
(an ungraceful word, no doubt) is used by Shake-
speare, and lasted to Dry den's times and beyond.
Spenser uses often ' to welk' (welken) in the sense
of to fade, ' to sty' for to mount, ' to hery' as to
glorify or praise, ' to halse' as to embrace, ' teene^
as vexation or grief : Shakespeare ' to tarre^ as to
provoke, ' to sperr^ as to enclose or bar in ; 'to
sag' for to droop, or hang the head doAvnward.
Holland employs 'geir'f for vulture ('S'ultures or
^geirs''), 'specht' for woodpecker, ' reise' for journey,
' frimm^ for lusty or strong. ' To schimmer'
occurs in Bishop Hall ; '^ to tind,' that is, to kindle,
and surviving in ' tinder,' is used by Bishop San-
derson ; ' to nimm,^ or take, as late as by Fuller.
A rogue is a ' skellum' in Sir Thomas Urquhart.
' Nesh' in the sense of soft through moisture, ' leer'
in that of empty, ' eame^ in that of uncle, mother's
brother (the German ' oheim'), good Saxon-Eng-
lish once, still live on in some of our provincial
* It is still used in prose as late as the age of Henry VIH. ;
see the State Papers, vol. viii. p. 247. It was the latest
survivor of a whole group or famil}^ of words which continued
much longer in Scothind than with us ; of which some per-
haps continue there still ; these are but a few of them ; * wan-
thrift' for extravagance ; ' wanluck,' misfortune ; ' wanlust,'
languor; 'wan wit,' lolly; ' wangrace,' wickedness; 'wan-
trust' (Chaucer), distrust.
f We must not suppose that this still survives in '(//>'-
falcon ;' which wholly belongs to the Latin element of the
language ; being the later Latin ' gyrofalco,' and that, " a
gijrando, (j[uia diu yt/rcDido acriter pricdani insequitur."
III.] VIGOROUS COMPOUND WORDS. 121
dialects ; so does ' flitter- mouse^ or 'flutter-mouse'
(mus volitans), where we should use bat. Indeed
of those above named several do the same ; it is
so with 'frimm/ with ' to sag/ ' to nimm.' ' Heft/
employed by Shakespeare in the sense of w^eight,
is still employed in tlie same sense by our peasants
in Hampshire.
A number of vigorous compounds we have
dropped and let go. ' Earsports' for entertain-
ments of song or music (aKpoajiara) is a con-
stantly recurring word in Holland^s Plutarch.
Were it not for Shakespeare^ we should have quite
forgotten that young men of hasty flery valour
were called ' hotspurs / and even now we regard
the word rather as the proper name of one than
that which would have been once alike the desig-
nation of all.* Fuller warns men that they should
not ' witwanton^ with God. Severe austere old
men, such as, in Falstaff^s words, would " hate us
youth/' were ' grimsirs' or ' grimsires' once (Mas-
singer). 'Realmrape' ( = usurpation), occurring
in The Mirror for Magistrates, is a vigorous
word. ' Rootfast' and ' rootfastness'f were ill
lost, being worthy to have lived ; so too was Lord
Brooke's ' bookhunger / and Baxter's ' word-
warriors,' with which term he noted those whose
strife was only about words. ' Malingerer' is
familiar enough to military men, but I do not find
* " Some hotspurs there were that gave counsel to go
against them with all their forces, and to fright and terrify
them, if they made slow haste." (Holland's Liv^, p. 922.)
f State Papers, vol. vi, p. 53 1<.
122 DIMINUTIONS or ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
it in onr dictionaries ; being the soldier -who, out
of evil ivill (malin gre) to his work, shams and
shirks, and is not found in the ranks.
Those who would gladly have seen the Anglo-
Saxon to have predominated over the Latin element
in our language, even more than it actually has
done, must note with regret that in many instances
a word of the former stock has been dropped, and
a Latin coined to supply its place ; or where the
two once existed side by side, the Saxon has died,
and the Latin lived on. Thus Wiclif employed
' soothsaw,^ where we now use proverb; ^sour-
dough,^ where we employ leaven ; ' wellwillingness'
for benevolence ; ' againbuying^ for redemption ;
' aorainrisino^ for resurrection : ' undeadliness^ for
immortality ; ^ uncunniugness ' for ignorance ;
' aftercomer' for descendant ; ' greatdoingly^ for
magnificently ; ^ to afterthink' (still in use in Lan-
cashire) for to repent ; ' medeful,' which has given
way to meritorious ; ' untellable' for ineffable ;
^ dearwortV for precious ; Chaucer has ' foreword'
for promise ; Sir John Cheke ' freshman^ for prose-
lyte ; ' moonecr for lunatic ; ' foreshewer' for pro-
phet ; * hundi-eder' for centurion ; Jewel ^ fore-
talk,' where we now employ preface ; Holland
* sunstead' where we use solstice ; ' leechcraft' in-
stead of medicine; and another, ^ wordcraft' for logic ;
^ starconncr' (Gascoigne) did service once, if not
instead of astrologer, yet side by side with it ;
* halfgod' (Golding) had the advantage over ' demi-
god,' that it was all of one piece ; ' to cycbite'
(Holland) told its story at least as well as to
111.] LOCAL AND niOVlNCLAL ENGLISH. 123
fascinate ; ' sliriftfather' as confessor ; ' earshrift'
(Cartwright) is only two syllables, while auricular
confession is eight ; ' waterfright^ is a better word
than our awkward Greek hydrophobia. The lam-
prey (lambens petram) was called once the ' suck-
stone* or the ' lickstone ;* and the anemone the
' windflower.' ' Umstroke/ if it had lived on (it
appears as late as Fuller, though our Dictionaries
know nothing of it), migh thave made • circum-
ference' and 'periphery* unnecessary. ^Wanhope,*
as we saw just now, has given place to despair,
' middler* to mediator ; and it would be easy to
increase this list.
I had occasion just now to notice the fact that
many words survive in our provincial dialects,
long after they have died out from the main body
of the speech. The fact is one connected with so
much of deep interest in the history of language
that I cannot pass it thus slightly over. It is one
which, rightly regarded, may assist to put us in a
just point of view for estimating the character of
the local and provincial in speech, and rescuing it
from that unmerited contempt and neglect with
which it is often regarded. I must here go some-
what further back than I could wish ; but only so,
only by looking at the matter in connexion with
other phenomena of speech, can I hope to explain
to you the worth and significance which local and
provincial words and usages must oftentimes possess.
Let us then first suppose a portion of those
speaking a language to have been separated off
from the main body of its speakers, either through
124 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
tlieir forsaking for one cause or other of their
native seats, or by the intrusion of a hostile people,
like a wedge, between them and the others, forci-
bly keeping them asunder, and cutting off their
communications one with the other, as the Saxons
intruded between the Britons of Cornwall and of
Wales. In such a case it will inevitably happen
that before very long differences of speech will
begin to reveal themselves between those to whom
even dialectic distinctions may have been once
unknown. The divergences will be of various
kinds. Idioms will come up in the separated body,
which, not being recognized and allowed by those
who remain the arbiters of the language, will be
esteemed by them, should they come under their
notice, violations of its law, or at any rate depar-
tures from its purity. Again, where a colony has
gone forth into new seats, and exists under new
conditions, it is probable that the necessities, phy-
sical and moral, rising out of these new conditions,
will give birth to words, which there will be nothing
to call out among those who continue in the old
haunts of the nation. Intercourse with new tribes
and people will bring in new words, as, for in-
stance, contact with the Indian tribes of North
America has given to American English a certain
number of words hardly or not at all allowed or
known by us ; or as the presence of a large Dutch
population at the Cape has given to the English
spoken there many words, as 'inspan,' 'outspan/
' spoor,' of which our home English knows nothing.
There is another cause, however, which will pro-
III.] ANTIQUATED ENGLISH. 125
bably be more effectual than all these, namely,
that words will in process of time be dropped by
those who constitute the original stock of the
nation, which will not be dropped by the offshoot ;
idioms which tliose have overlived, and have stored
up in the unhonoured lumber-room of the past, will
still be in use and currency among the smaller
and separated section which has gone forth; and
thus it will come to pass that what seems and in
fact is the newer swarm, will have many older
words, and very often an archaic air and old-
world fashion both about the words they use, their
way of pronouncing, their order and manner of
combining them. Thus after the Conquest we
know that our insular French gradually diverged
from the French of the Continent. The Prioress
in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales could speak her
French " full faire and fetishly," but it was French,
as the poet slyly adds,
" After the scole of Stratford atte bow,
For French of Paris was to hire unknowe."
One of our old chroniclers, writing in the reign of
Elizabeth, informs us that by the English colonists
within the Pale in Ireland numerous words were
preserved in common use, '^ the dregs of the old
ancient Chaucer English^' as he contemptuously
calls it, which had become quite obsolete and for-
gotten in England itself. For example they still
called a spider an ' attercop' — a word, by the way,
still in. popular use in the North ; — a physician a
* leech,' as in poetry he still is called ; a dunghill
126 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
was still for tliem a ' mixen / (the word is still
common all over England in this sense ;) a quad-
rangle or base court was a * bawn ;'* they em-
ployed * uncouth^ in the earlier sense of unknown.
Nay more, their general manner of speech was so
different, though continuing English still, that
Englishmen at their first coming over often found
it hard or impossible to comprehend. We have
another example of the same in what took place
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and
the consequent formation of colonies of Protestant
Erench emigrants in various places, especially in
Amsterdam and other chief cities of Holland.
There gradually grew up among these what came to
be called " refugee French," which within a gene-
ration or two diverged in several particulars from
the classical language of France; its divergence
being mainly occasioned by this, that it remained
stationary, while the classical language was in
motion ; it retained usages and words, which the
latter had dismissed.f
Nor is it otherwise in respect of our English
provincialisms. It is true that our country people
who in the main employ them, have not been
separated by distance of space, nor yet by insur-
mountable obstacles intervening, from the main
* The only two writers of whom I am aware as suhse-
quently usin^ this word are, both writing in Ireland and of
Irish matters, Spenser and Swift. The passages are both
quoted in Richardson's Dictionary.
f There is an exceUent account of this " refugee French"
in Weiss' History of the Protestant Refugees of France.
III.] PROVINCIAL ENGLISH. 127
body of their fellow-countrymen ; but they have
been quite as effectually divided by deficient
education. They have been, if not locally, yet
intellectually, kept at a distance from the onward
march of the nation^s mind ; and of them also it
is true that many of their words, idioms, turns
of speech, which we are ready to set down as
vulgarisms, solecisms of speech, violations of the
primary rules of grammar, do merely attest that
those who employ them have not kept abreast
with the advance of the language and nation, but
have been left behind by it. The usages are only
local in the fact that, having once been employed
by the whole body of the English people, they
have now receded from the lips of all except
those in some certain country districts, who have
been more faithful than others to the traditions of
the past.
It is thus in respect of a multitude of isolated
words, which were excellent Anglo-Saxon, which
were excellent early English, and which only
are not excellent present English, because use,
which is the supreme arbiter in these matters,
has decided against their further employment.
Several of these I enumerated just now. It is
thus also with several grammatical forms and
flexions. For instance, where we decline the
plural of ' I sing/ ' we sing,' ' ye sing,' ' they
sing/ there are parts of England in which they
would decline, Sve singe>z,' 'ye singew,' 'they
singe/z.' This is not indeed the original form of
the plural^ but it is that form of it which, coming
128 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
lip about Chaucer's time, was just going out iu
Spenser's; he, though we must ever keep in mind
that he does not fairly represent the language of
his time, or indeed of any time, affecting a certain
artificial archaism both in words and forms, con-
tinually uses it.* After him it becomes ever
rarer, the last of whom I am aware as occa-
sionally using it being Fuller, until it quite dis-
appears.
Of such as may now employ forms like these
we must say, not that they violate the laws of the
language, but only that they have taken their
peiinantnt stand at a point which was only a
point of transition, and which it has now left be-
hind, and overlived. Thus, to take examples w^hich
you may hear at the present day in almost any
part of England — a countryman will say, " He
made me afeard ;" or " The price of corn ris last
* With all its severity, there is some truth in Ben Jonson's
observation : " Spenser, in affecting the ancients, writ no lan-
guage." In tliis matter, however, Ben Jonson was at one
with him ; for he does not hesitate to express his strong regret
that this form has not been retained. " The }tersons plural,"
he says {English Grammar, c. 17), "keep the termination
of the first person singular. In former times, till about the
reign of King Henry VIII., they were wont to be formed by
adding en ; thus, loven, sayen, complainen. But now (what-
soever is the cause) it hath quite grown out of use, and that
other so generally prevailed, that I dare not presume to set
this afoot again ; albeit (to tell you my opinion) I am per-
suaded that the lack hereof, well considered, will be Ibund a
great blemish to our tongue. For seeing time -aw^ person be
as it were the right and left hand of a verb, what can the
maiming bring else, but a lameness to the whole body .?"
III.]. EARLIER AND LATER ENGLISH. 129
market day;" or '' I will axe him his name •" or
" I tell ije.*' You would probably set these phrases
down for barbarous English, They are not so at
all ; in one sense they are quite as good English
as " He made me afraid f^ or " The price of corn
rose last market day ;" or " I will ask him his
name." ^ Afeard/ used by Spenser, is the regular
participle of the old verb ' to affear/ still existing
as a law term, as ' afraid' is of to ^ affray/ and
just as good English ; ' ris' or ' risse' is an old
preterite of ^ to rise ;' ' to axe' is not a mispro-
nunciation of ^ to ask/ but a genuine English form
of the word, the form which in the earlier English
it constantly assumed ; in Wiclif s Bible almost
without exception ; and indeed ^ axe' occurs con-
tinually, I know not whether invariably, in Tyn-
dale's translation of the Scriptures; there was
a time when * ye' was an accusative, and to have
used it as a nominative or vocative, the only per-
mitted uses at present, would have been incorrect.
Even such phrases as " Put them things away," or
" The man what owns the horse," are not bad,
but only antiquated English.* Saying this, I
would not in the least imply that these forms are
open to you to employ, or that they would be good
English for you. They would not ; inasmuch as
* Genin {Recreations Philologiques, vol. i. p. 71) says to
the same effect : " II n'y a gueres de f'aute de rran9ais, je dis
faute g^nerale, accreditee, qui n'ait sa raison d'etre, et ne put
au besoin produire ses lettres de noblesse ; et souvent mieux
en regie que celles des locutions qui out usurpe leur place
au soleil."
130 DIMINUTIONS OP EKGLISII LANGUAGE. [lecT.
they are contrar}' to present use and custom, and
these must be our standards in \\ hat we speak, and
in what we write ; just as in our buying and sell-
ing we are bound to employ the current coin of
the realm, must not attempt to pass that which
long since has been called in, whatever merits or
intrinsic value it may possess. All which I
affirm is that the phrases just brought forward
represent past stages of the language, and are not
barbarous violations of it.
The same may be asserted of certain ways of
pronouncing words, which are now in use among
the lower classes, but not among the higher ; as,
for example, ' contrary,^ 'mischievous,^ ' blasphem-
ous/ instead of * contrary,' ' mischievous,' ' blas-
phemous.'' It would be abundantly easy to show
by a multitude of quotations from our poets, and
those reaching very far down, that these are merely
the retention of the earlier pronunciation by the
people, after the higher classes have abandoned it.*
And on the strength of what has just been spoken,
let me here suggest to you how well worth your
while it will prove to be on the watch for pro-
vincial words and inflexions, local idioms and
modes of pronunciation, and to take note of these.
Count nothing in this kind beneath your notice.
Do not at once ascribe anything which you hear
to the ignorance or stupidity of the speaker. Thus
* A single proof may in each case sufl&ce :
" Our wills and dxies do so contrdty run." — S/iakespeare.
**Ne let mischiSvous witches with their charms." — Speiiser,
*' argument hlasphtmous, false and proud." — Milton.
III.] LUNCHEON, NUNCHEON. 131
if you hear ^ nunclieon/ do not at once set it clown
for a malformation of ' lancheon/* nor ' yeePf
* I cannot doubt that this form which our country people
in Hampshire, as in many other parts, always employ, either
retains the original pronunciation, our received one being a
modern corruption ; or else, as is more probable, that tue have
made a confusion between two originally different words, from
which they have kept clear. Thus in Howell's Vocabulary/,
1659, and in Cotgrave's French and JEnglish Dictionary,
both words occur : " nuncion or nuncheon, the afternoon's re-
past," (cf. Iludibras, i. 1, 346 : " They took their breakfasts
or their nuncheons,'') and " lunchion, a big piece" i.e. of bread ;
for both give the old French * caribot,' which has this mean-
ing, as the equivalent of 'luncheon.' It is clear that in this
sense of lump or ' big piece' Gay uses ' luncheon :'
" When hungry thou stood'st staring like an oaf,
I sliced the luncheon from the barlej'- loaf;"
and Miss Baker in her Northamptonshire Glossary explains
* lunch' as "a large lump of bread, or other edible; 'He
helped himself to a good lunch of cake.' " We may note
further that this ' nuntion' may possibly put us on the right
track for arriving at the etymology of the word. Richardson
has called attention to the fact that it is spelt " noon-shun"
in Browne's Pastorals, which must at least suggest as pos-
sible and plausible that the ' nuntion' was originally applied
to the labourer's slight meal, to which he withdrew for the
shunning of the heat of the middle noon : especially when in
Lancashire we find a word of similar formation, ' noon-scape,'
and in Norfolk ' noon-miss,' for the time when labourers rest
after dinner. It is at any rate certain that the dignity to
which ' lunch' or ' luncheon' has now arrived, as when we read
in the newspapers of a " magnificent luncheon," is altogether
modern ; the word belonged a century ago to rustic life, and
in literature had not travelled beyond the " hobnailed pasto-
rals" which professed to describe that life.
t See it so written, Holland's Pliny, vol. ii. p. 428, and
often.
132 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
of ' eel/ Lists and collections of provincial usage,
such as I have suggested, always have their value.
If you are not able to turn them to any profit
yourselves, and they may not stand in close enough
connexion with your own studies for this, yet
there always are those who will thank you for
them ; and to whom the humblest of these collec-
tions, carefully and intelligently made, will be in
one Avay or other of real assistance.* And there
is the more need to urge tliis at the present,
because, notwithstanding the tenacity with which
our country folk cling to their old forms and
usages, still these forms and usages must now be
rapidly grow ing fewer ; and there are forces, moral
and material, at work in England, which will
probably cause that of those which now survive
the greater part will within the next fifty years
have disappeared.
Before quitting this subject, let me instance one
example more of that which is commonly accounted
ungrammatical usage, but which is really the re-
tention of old grammar by some, where others
have substituted new ; I mean the constant appli-
cation by our rustic population in the south, and
I dare say through all parts of England, of ' his' to
inanimate objects, and to these not personified, no
* As a proof of the excellent service which an accurate ac-
quaintance with provincial usages may render in the investi-
gation of the innumerable perplexing phenomena of the Enjj^-
hsh language, I would refer to the admirable article On
^English Pronouns Personal in Trcmsactions of the Philo-
logical Socieij/, vol. i. p. 277.
III.] ' its' of late introduction. 133
less tlian to persons; where 'its' would be employed
by others. This was once the manner of speech
among all; for 'its' is a word of very recent
introduction, many would be surprised to learn
of how recent introduction, into the language.
You will look for it in vain through the whole
of our Authorized Version of the Bible ; the office
which it now fulfils being there accomplished, as
our rustics accomplish it at the present, by ' his'
(Gen.i. 11; Exod. xxxvii. 17 ; Matt. v. 15) or 'her'
(Jon. i. 15 ; Rev. xxii. 2) apphed as freely to
inanimate things as to persons, or else by ' there-
of (Ps. Ixv. 10) or ' of it' (Dan. vii. 5). Nor may
Lev. XXV. 5 be urged as invalidating this assertion ;
for reference to the exemplar edition of 1611, or
indeed to any earlier editions of King James'
Bible, will show that in them the passage stood,
" of it own accord."* ' Its' occurs very rarely
in Shakespeare, in many of his plays it will not
once be found. Milton also for the most part
avoids it, and this, though in his time others freely
allowed it. How soon all this was forgotten we
* This last very curious usage, which served as a kind of
stepping-stone to ' its,' and of which another example occurs
in the Geneva Version (Acts xii. 10), and three or four in
Shakespeare, has been abundantly iUustrated by those who
have lately written on the early history of the word * its ;'
thus see Craik, On the English of Shakespeare, p. 91 ;
Marsh, Manual of the English Language (Eng. Edit.),
p. 278; Transactions of the Philological Society, vol. i.
p. 280 ; and my book On the Authorized Version of the
New Testament, p. 59.
134 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
have striking evidence in the fact that when
Dryden, in one of his fault-finding moods with
the great men of the preceding generation, is
taking Ben Jonson to task for general inaccuracy
in his English diction, among other counts of his
indictment, he quotes this line from Catiline
" Though heaven should speak with all his wrath at once,"
and proceeds, " heaven is ill syntax with his ;''
while in fact up to within forty or fifty years o
the time Avhen Dryden hegan to write, no other
syntax was known ; and to a much later date was
exceedingly rare. Curious also, is it to note that
in the earnest controversy which followed on Chat-
terton^s publication of the poems ascribed by him
to a monk Rowlie, who should have lived in the
fifteenth century, no one appealed to such lines as
the following,
*' Life and all its goods I scorn,"
as at once deciding that the poems were not of the
age which they pretended. Warton, who denied,
though with some hesitation, the antiquity of
the poems, giving many and sufficient reasons for
this denial, failed to take note of this little word ;
while yet there needed no more than to point it
out, for the disposing of the whole question ; the
forgery at once was betrayed.
What has been here affirmed concerning our
provincial English, namely that it is often old
English rather than bad English, may be affirmed
with equal right of many so called Americanisms,
There are parts of America where ' lict' is used.
III.] AMERICAN ENGLISH. 135
or was used a few years since, as the perfect of
' to heat / ' holp' as the perfect of ' to help ;'
' stricken^ as the participle of ' to strike/ Again,
there are words which have become obsolete here
during the last two hundred years, which have not
become obsolete there, although many of them
probably retain only a provincial existence. Thus
' slick,^ which indeed is only another form of
' sleek,^ was employed by our good writers of the
seventeenth century.* Other words again, which
have remained current on both sides of the
Atlantic, have yet on our side receded from their
original use, while they have remained true to it
on the other. ' Plunder^ is a word in point.
In the contemplation of facts like these it has
been sometimes asked, whether a day will ever
arrive when the language spoken on this side of
the Atlantic and on the other, will divide into two
languages, an old English and a new. We may
confidently answer. No. Doubtless, if those who
went out from us to people and subdue a new
continent, had left our shores two or three cen-
turies earlier than they did, when the language was
very much farther removed from that ideal after
which it was unconsciously striving, and in which,
once reached, it has in great measure acquiesced ;
if they had not carried with them to their distant
homes their English Bible, and what else of
* Thus Fuller {Pisgah Sight of Palestine, vol. ii. p. 190) :
" Sure I am this city [the New Jerusalem] as presented by
the prophet, was fairer, finer, slicker, smoother, more exact,
than any fabric the earth afi'orded."
136 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
wortli had been already uttered in the English
tongue ; if, having once left us, the intercourse
between Old and New England had been entirely
broken oft*, or only rare and partial ; there would
then have unfolded themselves diff'erences between
the language spoken here and there, which in
tract of time accumulating and multiplying, might
in the end have justified the regarding of the lan-
guages as no longer one and the same. It could
not have failed but that such difi'erences should
have displayed themselves ; for while there is a
law of necessity in the evolution of languages,
while they pursue certain courses and in certain
directions, from which they can be no more turned
aside by the will of men than one of the heavenly
bodies could be pushed from its orbit by any engines
of ours, there is a law of liberty no less ; and this
liberty must inevitably have made itself in many
ways felt. In the political and social condition
of America, so far removed from our own, in the
many natural objects which are not the same with
those which surround us here, in efforts indepen-
dently carried out to rid the language of imper-
fections, or to unfold its latent powers, even in the
different effects of soil and climate on the organs
of speech, there would have been causes enough to
have provoked in the course of time not imma-
terial divergencies of language.
As it is, however, the joint operation of those
three causes referred to already, namely, that the
separation did not take place in the infancy or
youth of the language, but only in its ripe man-
III.] EXTINCT ENGLISH. 137
hood, that England and America owned a body of
literature, to which they alike looked up and ap-
pealed as containing the authoritative standards
of the language, that the intercourse between the
one people and the other has been large and fre-
quent, hereafter probably to be larger and more
frequent still, has effectually wrought. It has been
strong enough so to traverse, repress, and check
all those causes which tended to divergence, that
the written language of educated men on both
sides of the water remains precisely the same,
their spoken manifesting a few trivial differences of
idiom ; while even among those classes which do
not consciously acknowledge any ideal standard of
language, there are scarcely greater differences, in
some respects far smaller, than exist between
inhabitants of different provinces in this one island
of England ; and in the future we may reasonably
anticipate that these differences, so far from mul-
tiplying, will rather diminish and disappear.
But I must return from this long digression.
It seems often as if an almost unaccountable
caprice presided over the fortunes of words, and
determined which should live and which die.
Thus in instances out of number a word lives on
as a verb, but has ceased to be employed as a
noun ; we say ' to embarrass,^ but no longer an
' embarrass / ^ to revile,^ but not, with Chapman
and Milton, a ' revile / ' to dispose,^ but not a
* dispose / ^ to retire' but not a ' retire ;^ ' to wed,'
but not a ' wed / we say ' to infest,* but use no
138 DIMINUTIONS or ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
longer the adjective ' infest/ Or with a reversed
fortune a word lives on as a noun, but has perished
?.s a verb — thus as a noun substantive, a ' slug/
but no longer '' to slug' or render slothful ; a
' child/ but no longer ' to chikl/ ['^ childmg
autumn/' Shakespeare) ; a ' rape/ but not ' to
rape' (South) ; a ' rogue/ but not ' to rogue /
'malice/ but not 'to malice/ a 'path/ but not
' to path / or as a noun adjective, ' serene/ but
not ' to serene,' a beautiful word, which we have
let go, as the French have ' sereiuer /* ' meek/
hut not 'to meek' (Wiclif ) ; ' fond/ but not ' to
fond' (Dryden); 'dead/ but not ' to dead / 'intri-
cate,' but ' to intricate' (Jeremy Taylor) no
longer.
Or again, the affirmative remains, but the nega-
tive is gone ; thus ' wisdom,' ' bold,' ' sad/ but
not any more ' unwisdom,' ' unbold,' ' unsad' (all
in AViclif ) ; 'cunning/ but not 'uncunning/
' manhood/ ' wit/ ' mighty/ ' tall/ but not ' un-
manhood,' ' unwit/ ' unmighty,' ' untall' (all in
Chaucer); 'buxom,' but not ' unbuxom' (Dryden);
' hasty/ but not ' unhasty' (Spenser) ; ' blithe,'
* How many words modern French has lost which are most
vigorous and admirable, the absence of which can only now
be supplied by a circumlocution or by some less excellent
word — 'Oseur,' *atfrancliisseur' (Amyot), 'mepriseur,' ' mur-
murateur,' ' blandisseur' (Bossuet), 'abuseur' (Rabelais),
* d6sabusement,' ' rancoeur,' are all obsolete at the present.
So ' desaimer,' to cease to love ('disamai-e' in Italian), ' <;uir-
lander,' ' steriliser,' * blandissant/ ' ordounement' (Mon-
taigne), with innumerable others.
III.] EXTINCT ENGLISH. 139
but not 'unblithe/ 'ease/ but not 'unease'
(Hacket) ; ' repentance/ but not ' unrepentance /
' remission/ but not ' irremissiou' (Donne) ;
'science/ but not ' nescience' (Glanvill); 'to know/
but not ' to unknow' (Wiclif ) ; ' to give/ but not
' to ungive/ Or once more, with a curious varia-
tion from this, the negative survives, wliile the
affirmative is gone ; thus ' wieldy' (Chaucer) sur-
vives only in ' unwieldy ; ' couth' and ' couthly'
(both in Spenser), only in 'uncouth' and ' un-
conthly / ' ruly' (Foxe) only ' in unruly / 'gainly'
(Henry More) in ' ungainly / these last tvvo were
both of them serviceable words, and have been ill
lost ; ' gainly' is indeed still common in the West
Riding of Yorkshire; ' exorable' (Holland) and
' evitable' only in ' inexorable' and ' inevitable /
' faultless' remains, but hardly ' faultful' (Shake-
speare). In like manner ' semble' (Foxe) has, ex-
cept as a technical law term, disappeared ; while
' dissemble' continues. So also of other pairs one
has been taken and one left ; ' height/ or ' highth,'
as Milton better spelt it, remains, but ' lowth'
(Becon) is gone ; ' righteousness,' or ' rightwise-
ness,' as it would once more accurately have
been written, for ' righteous' is a corruption of
'rightwise/ remains, but its correspondent 'wrong-
wiseness' has been taken ; ' inroad' continues, but
' outroad' (Holland) has disappeared ; ' levant'
lives, but ' ponent' (Holland) has died ; ' to ex-
tricate' continues, but, as we saw just now, ' to
intricate' does not ; ' parricide/ but not ' filicide'
(Holland). Again, of whole groups of words
140 DIMINUTIONS or ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
formed on some particular sclieme it may be
only a single specimen will survive. Thus ' gain-
say/ that is, again say, survives; but 'gainstrive'
(Foxe), ' gainstand/ ' gaincope' (Golding), and
other similarly formed vrords exist no longer. It
is the same with ' foolhardy/ which is but one,
though now indeed the only one remaining, of at
least five adjectives formed on the same principle ;
thus ' foollarge/ quite as expressive a word as
prodigal, occurs in Chaucer, and ^ foolhasty,^ found
also in him, lived on to the time of Holland ;
while ' foolhappy' is in Spenser ; and ' foolbold'
in Bale. ^ Steadfast* remains, but ' sharaefast,*
' rootfast/ 'bedfast* ( = bedridden), Miomefast/
' housefast/ ' masterfast* (Skelton), with others_,
are all gone. ' Exhort* remains ; but ' dehort,* a
word whose place neither ' dissuade* nor any other
exactly supplies, has escaped us. We have ' twi-
light/ but ' twibill* = bipennis (Chapman) is
extinct.
Let me mention another real loss, where in like
manner there remains in the present language
something to remind us of that which is gone.
The comparative ' rather* stands alone, having
dropped on one side its positive ' rathe,* and on the
other its superlative ' rathest.* ' Rathe/ having
the sense of early, though a graceful word, and not
fallen quite out of popular remembrance, inasmuch
as it is embalmed in the Lyc'idas of Milton,
"And the rathe primrose, which forsaken dies,
might still be suffered without remark to share
HI.] RATHE, RATHER, RATHEST. 141
the common lot of so many words which have
perished, though w^orthy to have lived ; but the
disuse of ^ rathest^ has left a real gap in the lan-
guage, and the more so, seeing that ' liefest' is
gone too. ' Rather' expresses the Latin ' potius/
but ' rathest' being out of use, we have no word,
unless ' soonest' may be accepted as such, to
express ' potissimum/ or the preference not of one
way over another or over certain others, but of
one over all ; which we therefore effect by aid of
various circumlocutions. Nor has * rathest' been
so long out of use, that it would be playing the
antic to attempt to revive it. It occurs in the
Sermons of Bishop Sanderson, who in the opening
of that beautiful sermon from the text, " When my
father and my mother forsake me, the Lord taketh
me up," puts the consideration, " why these,"
that is, father and mother, '' are named the rathest,
and the rest to be included in them."*
It is sometimes easy enough, but indeed oftener
hard, and not seldom quite impossible, to trace
the causes which have been at work to bring about
that certain words, little by little, drop out of the
language of men, come to be heard more and more
rarely, and finally are not heard any more at all
— to trace the motives which have induced a whole
people thus to arrive at a tacit consent not to em-
ploy them any longer ; for without this tacit con-
sent they could never have thus become obsolete.
* For other passages in which 'rathest' occurs, see the
State Papers, vol. ii. pp. 92, 170.
142 DIMINUTIONS or ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
That it is not accident, that there is a law here at
^vork, however hidden it may be from us, is plain
from the fact that certain families of words, words
formed on certain patterns, have a tendency thus
to fall into desuetude.
Thus, I think, we may trace a tendency in
words ending in ' some,^ the Anglo-Saxon and
early English 'sum,' theGerman ' sam' ('friedsam,'
'seltsam') to fall ont of use. It is true that a vast
number of these survive, as 'gladsome,' 'hand-
some,' ' w earisome,' ' buxom' (this last spelt better
' bncksome,' by our earlier w riters, for its present
spelling altogether disguises its true character, and
the family to which it belongs ; being the same
word as the German 'beugsam' or 'biegsam,' bend-
able, compliant) ; but a larger number of these
•words than can be ascribed to accident, many
more than the due proportion of them, are either
quite or nearly extinct. Thus in Wiclif's Bible
alone you might note the following. •' lovesum,'
' hatesum,' ' lustsum,' ' gilsum' (guilesome), ' weal-
sum,' ' heavysum,' ' lightsum,' ' delightsum ;' of
these ' lightsome' long survived, and indeed still
survives in provincial dialects -, but of the others
all save ' delightsome' are gone ; and that, altliougli
used in our Authorized Version (Mai. iii. 12), is
now only employed in poetry. So too 'might-
some' (see Coleridge's Glossary), ' brightsomo,'
(Marlowe), ' wieldsome,' and ' vuiwieldsome'
(Golding), ' unlightsome' (Milton), ' healthsome'
(Homilies), ' ugsome' and ' ugglesome' (both in
Foxe), ' laboursome' (Shakespeare), 'friendsome/
III.] WORDS ENDING IN SOME. 113
' longsorae' (Bacon), ^ quietsorae/ '^ m irksome^
(both in Spenser), * toothsome' (Beaumont and
Fletcher), ' gleesome/ '^ joysome' (both in Browne's
Pastorals), ' gay some' [Mirror for Magistrates),
* roomsome/ ' bigsome,' ' avvsorae,' ' timersome/
'winsome,' ' viewsome/ ' dosome' ( = prosperous),
'flaysome' ( = fearful), ' auntersome' ( = adven-
turous), ' claraorsome' (all these still surviving in
the North), ' playsome' (employed by the historian
Hume), lissome,' have nearly or quite disappeared
from our English speech. They seem to have
held their ground in Scotland in considerably
larger numbers than in the south of the Island.*
Neither can I esteem it a mere accident that of
a group of depreciatory and contemptuous words
ending in ' ard,' at least one half should have
dropped out of use; I refer to that group of
which * dotard,' ' laggard,' ' braggard,' now spelt
' braggart,' ' sluggard,' ' buzzard,' ^ bastard,'
'wizard,' may be taken as surviving specimens;
* blinkard' [Homilies), ' dizzard' (Burton), ' dul-
lard' (Udal), ' musard ' (Chaucer), ^trichard'
[Political Songs), 'shreward' (Robert of Glou-
cester), ' ballard' (a bald-headed man, Wiclif ) ;
' puggard,' ' stinkard' (Ben Jonson), ' haggard,'
a worthless hawk, as extinct.
Thus too there is a very curious province of our
* Jamieson's Dictionary gives a large number of words
with this termination which T should suppose were always
peculiar to Scotland, as 'bangsome,' i.e. quarrelsome, ' freak-
some,' ' drysome,' * grousome' (the German * grausam').
144 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
language, in ^Thich we were once so rich, that
extensive losses here have failed to make us poor j
so many of its words still surviving, even after as
many or more have disappeared. T refer to those
double words which either contain within them-
selves a strong rhyming modulation, such for ex-
ample as Svilly-nilly,^ 'hocus-pocus,' 'helter-skelter,'
'tag-rag,' 'namby-pamby,' 'pell-mell,' 'hodge-
podge ;' or with a slight difference from this,
though belonging to the same group, those of
which the characteristic feature is not this in-
ternal likeness with initial unlikeness, but initial
likeness with internal unlikeness ; not rhyming,
but strongly alliterative, and in every case with a
change of the interior vowel from a weak into a
strong, generally from i into a or o ; as ' shilly-
shally,' 'mingle-mangle,' 'tittle-tattle,' ' prittle-
prattle,' ' riff-raff,' ' see-saw,' ' slip-slop.' No one
who is not quite out of love with the homelier yet
more vigorous portions of the language, but will
acknowledge the life and strength which there is
often in these and in others still current among
us. But of the same sort what vast numbers
have fallen out of use, some so fallen out of all
remembrance that it may be difficult almost to
find credence for them. Thus take of rhyming
the following : ' hugger-mugger,' ' hurly-burly,'
' kicksy-wicksy' (all in Shakespeare) ; ' hibber-
gibbcr,' ' rusty-dusty,' ' liorrcl-lorrcl,' ' slaump-
paump' (all in Gabriel Harvey), ' roystcr-doyster'
(Old Play), ' hoddy-doddy' (Ben Jonson) ; while
of alliterative might be instanced these : ' skimble-
III.] WORDS UNDER BAN. 145
skamble/ ' bibble-babble' (both in Shakespeare),
' twittle-twattle/ ' kim-kam' (both in Holland),
' hab-naV (Lilly), ' trim-tram/ ' trish-trash/
' swish-swash' (all in Gabriel Harvey), ' whim-
wham' (Beaumont and Fletcher), ' mizz-mazz'
(Locke), 'snip-snap' (Pope), 'flim-flam' (Swift),
' tric-trac,' and others.
Again, there was once a whole family of words,
whereof the greater number are now under ban ;
which seemed at one time to have been formed
almost at pleasure, the only condition being that
the combination should be a happy one — I mean
all those singularly expressive words formed by a
combination of verb and substantive, the former
governing the latter; as 'telltale,' 'scapegrace,'
' turncoat,' ' turntail,' ' skinflint,' ' spendthrift,'
'spitfire,' 'lickspittle,' 'daredevil' ( = wagehals),
'makebate' ( = storenfried), 'marplot,' 'killjoy.'
These with a certain number of others, have held
their ground, and may be said to be still more or
less in use ; but what a number more are for-
gotten ; and yet, though not always elegant, they
constituted a very vigorous portion of our lan-
guage, and preserved some of its most genuine
idioms.* It could not well be otherwise ; they
* Many languages have groups of words formed upon the
same scheme, although, singularly enough, they are altogether
absent from the Anglo-Saxon. (J. Grimm, Deutsche Gramm.,
vol. ii. p. 976.) The Spaniards have a great many very ex-
pressive words of this formation. Thus with allusion to the
great struggle in which Christian Spain was engaged for so
many centuries, a vaunting hraggart is a 'matamoros,' a
L
146 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
are almost all -^orcls of abuse^ and the abusive
words of a language are always among the most
picturesque and vigorous and imaginative which
it possesses. The whole man speaks out in them,
and often the man under the influence of passion
and excitement, which always lend force and fire
to his speech. Let me remind you of a few of
them ; ' smellfeast/ if not a better, is yet a more
graphic, word than our foreign parasite ; as gra-
phic indeed for us as rpiy^i^mrvoq to Greek ears ;
^ claw^back^ (Racket) is a stronger, if not a more
graceful, word than flatterer or sycophant ; *" toss-
pof (Fuller), or less frequently ' reel-pot^ (Middle-
ton), tells its own tale as well as drunkard ; and
' pinchpenny' (Holland), or ' nipfarthing^ (Drant),
as well as or better than miser. And then what
a multitude more there are in like kind ; ^ spin-
text,^ * lacklatin,^ ' mumblematins,' all applied to
ignorant clerics ; ' bitesheep^ (a favourite word
with Foxe) to such of these as were rather wolves
tearing, than shepherds feeding, the flock ; ' slip-
string' = pendard (Beaumont and Fletcher), ^ slip-
gibbet,* ' scapegallows ;' all names given to those
who, however they might have escaped, were justly
owed to the gallows, and might still " go upstairs
to bed.''
How many of these words occur in Shake-
speare. The following list makes no pretence to
* slaymoor ;' he is a ' matasieie,' a * slayseven ;' a * perdona-
vidas,' a ' sparelives.' Others may be added to these, a^j
* azotacalles,' * picapleytos,' * saltaparedes,' * rorapeesquinas,'
* ganapan,' * cascatreguas.'
III.] GROUP OF DISUSED WORDS. 147
completeness ; ' martext/ ' carrytale/ ^pleaseman/
^ sneakcup/ '^mumbleiievvs/ Svantwit/ ^lackbrain/
Mackbeard/ ' lacklove/ ' ticklebrain/ ^ cutpurse/
' cutthroat/ ' crackhemp/ ' breedbate/ ' swinge-
buckler/ ^ pickpurse/ ^ pickthank/ * picklock/
^ scarecrow/ ^ breakvow/ ' breakpromise/ ' make-
peace^ — this last and ' telltruth' (Fuller) being the
only ones in the whole collection, wherein reproba-
tion or contempt is not implied. Nor is the list ex-
hausted yet ; there are further ' dingthrift' = pro-
digal (Herrick), * wastegood^ (Cotgrave), ' stroy-
good' (Golding), ' wastethrift' (Beaumont and
Fletcher), ^ scapethrift/ ' swashbuckler' (both in
Holinshed), ' shakebuckler/ ' rinsepitcher' (both in
Becon), ^ crackrope' (Howell), ' waghalter/ ' wag-
feather' (both in Cotgrave), ' blabtale' (Hacket),
' getnothing' (Adams), ' findfault' (Florio), ' tear-
throat' (Gayton), ' marprelate/ ' spitvenom/ ' nip-
cheese,' ' nipscreed,' ' killman' (Chapman), ' lack-
land,' ^pickquarrel,' "^ pickfaults,' ^pickpeuny'
(Henry More), ' makefray' (Bishop Hall), ' make-
debate' (Richardson's Letters), ' kindlecoal' (at-
tisefeu), 'kindlefire' (both in Gurnall), Hurntippet'
(Cranmer), ' swillbowl' (Stubbs), ^ smellsmock,'
'cumberwold' (Drayton), ^ curryfavor/ 'pinchfist/
' suckfist, ' ^ hatepeace ' (Sylvester), ' hategood '
(Bunyan), ' clutchfist,' ' sharkgull' (both in Mid-
dleton), 'makesport' (Fuller), 'hangdog' ("He-
rod's hangdogs in the tapestry," Pope), ' catchpoll/
' makeshift' (used not impersonally, as now),
' pickgoose' (" the bookworm was never but a
pickgoose'^), ' killcow' (these three last in Gabriel
L 2
148 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
Harvey), ^ rakesliame' (Milton, prose), with others
which it will be convenient to omit. ' Eakehell/
whicli used to be spelt ' rakeP or ^rakle' (Chaucer),
a good English word, would be only through an
error included in this list, although Cowper, when
he writes ' rakehelP ("rake-hell baronet^^) evidently
regarded it as belonging to this group.*
Perhaps one of the most frequent causes which
leads to the disuse of words is this : in some in-
explicable way there comes to be attached some-
thing of ludicrous, or coarse, or vulgar to them,
out of a feeling of which they are no longer used
in earnest serious writing, and at the same time
fall out of the discourse of those who desire to
speak elegantly. Not indeed that this degrada-
tion which overtakes words is in all cases inexpli-
cable. The unheroic character of most men's
minds, with their consequent intolerance of that
heroic which they cannot understand, is con-
stantly at work, too often with success, in taking
down words of nobleness from their high pitch ;
and, as the most effectual way of doing this, in
casting an air of mock-heroic about them. Thus
'^to dub,^ a word resting on one of the noblest
usages of chivalry, has now something of ludicrous
about it ; so too has ^ dou<:!;hty ;^ they belong to
that serio-comic, mock-heroic diction, the multi-
* The mistake is far earlier; long before Cowper wrote
the sound suggested first this sense, and then this spelling.
Thus Stanihurst, Description of Ireland, p. 28: "They are
taken for no better than ralcehels, or the deviVs black
guard;" and often elsewhere.
III.] WORDS BECOME VULGAU. 149
plication of whicli, as of all parodies on greatness,
and the favour with which it is received, is always
a sign of evil augury for a nation, is at present a
sign of evil augury for our own.
' Pate^ in the sense of head is now comic or
ignoble ; it was not so once ; as is plain from its
occurrence in the Prayer Book Version of the
Psalms (Ps. vii. 17); as little was ^noddle/ which
occurs in one of the few poetical passages in
Hawes. The same may be said of ^ sconce/ in
this sense at least ; of ' nowF or ' noil/ which
Wiclif uses ; of ' slops^ for trousers (Marlowe's
Lucan) ; of ' cocksure' (Rogers), of ' smug,' which
once meant no more than adorned (" the smug
bridegroom," Shakespeare). 'To nap' is now a
word without dignity ; while yet in Wiclif's Bible
it is said, '* Lo he schall not nappe, nether slepe
that kepeth Israel" (Ps. cxxi. 4). 'To punch/ ' to
thump,' botli which, and in serious writing, occur
in Spenser, could not now obtain the same use,
nor yet ' to wag,' or ' to buss.' Neither would
any one now say that at Lystra Barnabas and
Paul " rent their clothes and skipped out among
the people" (Acts xiv. 14), which is the language
that Wiclif employs; nor yet that "the Lord
trounced Sisera and all his host" as it stands in
the Bible of 1551 . "A sight of angels/' for which
phrase see Cranmer's Bible (Heb. xii. 22), would
be felt as a vulgarism now. We should scarcely
call now a delusion of Satan a " flamoi the devil"
(Henry More). It is not otherwise in regard of
phrases. '' Through thick and thin/' occurring
150 DIMINUTIONS or ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
in Spenser, ' cheek by jowP in Dubartas, do not
now belong to serious poetry. In the glorious
ballad of Chevy Chase, a noble warrior whose legs
are hewn off, is described as being '* in doleful
dumps ;" just as, in Holland's Livy, the Romans
are set forth as being " in the dumps" as a con-
sequence of their disastrous defeat at Cannse. In
Golding's Ovid, one fears that he will ^' go to pot.'^
In one of the beautiful letters of John Careless,
preserved in Foxe's Martyrs, a persecutor, who
expects a recantation from him, is described as
" in the wrong box.'^ And in the sermons of
Barrow, who certainly intended to write an elevated
style, and did not seek familiar, still less vulgar,
expressions, we constantly meet such terms as ' to
rate,^ ' to snub,' ' to gull,^ ' to pudder,' ' dumpish,^
and the like; which we may confidently affirm
were not vulgar when he used them.
Then too the advance of refinement causes
words to be foregone, which are felt to speak too
plainly. It is not here merely that one age has
more delicate ears than another ; and that matters
are freely spoken of at one time which at another
are withdrawn from conversation. This is some-
thing; but besides this, and even if this delicacy
were at a standstill, there would still be a con-
tinual process going on, by M'hich the words,
which for a certain while have been employed to
designate coarse or disagreeable facts or things,
would be disallowed, or at all events relinquished to
the lower classes of society, and others adopted in
their place. The former by long use being felt
III.] COARSENESS ATTACHED TO WORDS. 151
to have come into too direct and close relation
with that which they designate, to summon it up
too distinctly before the mind's eye, they are
thereupon exchanged for others, which, at first at
least, indicate more lightly and allusively the
offensive thing, rather hint and suggest than paint
and describe it : although by and bye these new
will also in their turn be discarded, and for exactly
the same reasons which brought about the dis-
missal of those which they themselves superseded.
It lies in the necessity of things that I must leave
this part of my subject, very curious as it is, with-
out illustration * But no one, even moderately
acquainted with the early literature of the Refor-
mation, can be ignorant of words freely used in it,
which now are not merely coarse and as such
under ban, but which no one would employ who
did not mean to speak impurely and vilely.
Thus much in respect of the words, and the
character of the words, which we have lost or let
go. Of these, indeed, if a language, as it travels
onwards, loses some, it also acquires others, and
probably many more than it loses ; they are leaves
* As not, however, turning- on a very coarse matter, and
illustrating the subject with infinite wit and humour, I
might refer the Spanish scholar to the discussion between
Don Quixote and his squire on the dismissal of ' regoldar,'
from the language of good society, and the substitution of
' erutar' in its room {Bon Quijcote, 4. 7. 43). In a letter
of Cicero to Pastus {Fam. ix. 22) there is a subtle and
interesting disquisition on forbidden words, and their philo-
sophy.
152 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
on the tree of language, of which if some fall
away, a new succession takes their place. But
it is not so, as I already observed, with the forms
or powers of a language, that is, with the various
inflections, moods, duplicate or triplicate formation
of tenses ; which the speakers of a language come
gradually to perceive that they can do without,
and therefore cease to employ ; seeking to suppress
grammatical intricacies, and to obtain grammatical
simplicity and so far as possible a pervading
uniformity, sometimes even at the hazard of letting
go what had real worth, and contributed to the
more lively, if not to the clearer, setting forth of
the inner thought or feeling of the mind. Here
there is only loss, with no compensating gain ; or,
at all events, diminution only, and never addition.
In regard of these inner forces and potencies of a
language, there is no creative energy at work in
its later periods, in any, indeed, but quite the
earliest. They are not as the leaves, but may be
likened to the stem and leading branches of a
tree, whose shape, mould and direction are deter-
mined at a very early stage of its growth ; and
which age, or accident, or violence may diminish,
but which can never be multiplied. I have already
slightly referred to a notable example of this,
namely, to the dropping of the dual number in
the Greek language. Thus in all the New Testa-
ment it doesnot once occur, having quite fallen out
of the common dialect in which that is composed.
Elsewhere too it has been felt that the dual was
not worth preserving, or at any rate, that no
III.] EXTINCTION OF POWERS. 153
serious inconvenience would follow on its loss.
There is no such number in the modern German,
Danish or Swedish; in the old German and Norse
there was.
How many niceties, delicacies, subtleties of lan-
guage, we, speakers of the English tongue, in the
course of centuries have got rid of; how bare
(whether too bare is another question) we have
stripped ourselves ; what simplicity for better or
for worse reigns in the present English, as com-
pared with the old Anglo-Saxon. That had six
declensions, our present English but one ; that had
three genders, English, if we except one or two
words, has none; that formed the genitive in a
variety of ways, we only in one ; and the same
fact meets us, wherever we compare the grammars
of the two languages. At the same time, it can
scarcely be repeated too often, that in the estimate
of the gain or loss thereupon ensuing, we must
by no means put certainly to loss everything which
the language has dismissed, any more than every-
thing to gain which it has acquired. It is no real
wealth in a language to have needless and super-
fluous forms. They are often an embarrassment
and an encumbrance to it rather than a help.
The Finnish language has fourteen cases. Without
pretending to know exactly what it is able to
effect, I yet feel confident that it cannot effect
more, nor indeed so much, with its fourteen as the
Greek is able to do with its five. It theiefore
seems to me that some words of Otfried Miiller,
in many ways admirable, do yet exaggerate the
154 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
losses consequent on the reduction of the forms
of a language. " It may be observed/^ he says,
" that in the lapse of ages, from the time that the
progress of language can be observed, grammatical
forms, such as the signs of cases, moods and tenses
have never been increased in number, but have
been constantly diminishing. The history of the
Komance, as well as of the Germanic, languages
shows in the clearest manner how a grammar,
once powerful and copious, has been gradually
weakened and impoverished, until at last it pre-
serves only a few fragments of its ancient inflec-
tions. Now there is no doubt that this luxuriance
of grammatical forms is not an essential part of a
language, considered merely as a vehicle of thought.
It is well known that the Chinese language, which
is merely a collection of radical words destitute of
grammatical forms, can express even philosophical
ideas with tolerable precision ; and the English,
which, from the mode of its formation by a mixture
of different tongues, has been stripped of its
grammatical inflections more completely than any
other European language, seems, nevertheless,
even to a foreigner, to be distinguished by its
energetic eloquence. All this mus^t be admitted
by every unprejudiced inquirer; but yet it can-
not be overlooked, that this copiousness of gram-
matical forms, and the flne shades of meaning
which they express, evince a nicety of observation,
and a faculty of distinguishing, which unquestion-
ably prove that the race of mankind among whom
these languages arose was characterized by a re-
III.] TERMINATION IN ESS. 155
raarkable correctness and subtlety of thought.
Nor can any modern European, who forms in his
mind a lively image of the classical languages in
their ancient grammatical luxuriance, and com-
pares them with his mother tongue, conceal from
himself that in the ancient languages the words,
with their inflections, clothed as it were with
muscles and sinews, come forward like living bodies,
full of expression and character, while in the
modern tongues the words seem shrunk up into
mere skeletons/'*
Whether languages are as much impoverished
by this process as is here assumed, may, I think,
be a question. I will endeavour to give you some
materials which shall assist you in forming your
own judgment in the matter. And here I am
sure that I shall do best in considering not forms
which the language has relinquished long ago, but
mainly such as it is relinquishing now; which,
touching us more nearly, will have a far more
lively interest for us all. For example, the female
termination which we emplovin certain words, such
asfrom Hieir' ' heiress,' from 'prophet' 'prophetess,'
from ' sorcerer' ' sorceress,' was once far more
widely extended than at present ; the words which
retain it are daily becoming fewer. It has already
fallen away in so many, and is evidently becoming
of less frequent use in so many others, that, if we
may augur of the future from the analogy of the
past, it will one day altogether vanish from our
* Literature of Greece, p. 5.
156 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
tongue. Thus all these occiu' in WicliPs Bible ;
'techeress' as the female teacher (2 Chron. xxxv.
25) ; ' friendess^ (Prov. vii. 4) ; ' servautess'
(Gen. xvi. 2); Meperess^ ( = saltatrix, Ecclus. ix.
4) ; ' daunceress' (Ecclus. ix. 4) ; ' neiglibouress'
(Exod. iii. 22) ; ' sinneress^ (Luke vii. 37) ; ' pur-
puress^ (Acts xvi. 14) ; ' cousiness' (Luke i. 36) ;
' slayeress^ (Tob. iii. 9) ; ' devouress^ (Ezek. xxxvi.
13) ; * spousess^ (Prov. v. 19) ; thralless^ (Jer.
xxxiv. 16) ; ^ dwelleress^ (Jer. xxi. 13) ; ' waileress'
(Jer. ix. 17); ' cheseress' ( = electrix, Wisd. viii.
4) ; ' singeress/ ' breakeress/ ^ waiteress/ this last
indeed having recently come up again. Add to
these * chideress/ the female chider, ' herdess/
' constabless/ ' moveress/ ^ jangleress/ ' soudaness/
( = sultana), ' guideress / ' charmeress^ (all in
Chaucer) ; and others, -which however we may have
now let them fall, reached to far later periods of
the language; thus Sanqueress^ (Fabyan) ; ^ poi-
soneress^ (Greneway) ; ' knightess' (Udal) ; ' ped-
leress,^ 'championess^ ^ vassaless,^ ' avengeress,'
' warriouress,^ ' victoress,' ^ creatress^ (all in Spen-
ser) ; 'fornicatress,^ 'cloistress,^ 'jointress' (all in
Shakespeare) ; ' vowess^ (Holinshed) ; ' miuistress,^
'flatteress^ (both in Holland) ; ' captainess' (Sidney);
'saintess^ (Sir T. Urquhart) ; ' heroess,^ ' dragoness,'
* butleress,^ ' contendress,' ' waggoness,^ ' rectress'
(all in Chapman); 'shootress^ (Fairfax); ' archeress'
(Fanshawe) ; ' clientess,^ ' pandress' (both in
Middleton) ; ' papess,' ' Jesuitess^ (Bishop Hall) ;
* incitress' (Gayton) ; ' soldieress,^ ' guardianess/
' votaress' (all in Beaumont and Fletcher) ; ' com-
III.] TERMINATION IN STER. 157
fortress/ ' fosteress^ (Ben Jonson) ; ' soveraintess'
(Sylvester) ; ^ preserveress' (Daniel) ; ^ soiioitress/
*impostress/ ' buildress/ *^intrudress^ (all in Fuller) ;
' favouress' (Hakewell) ; ' cornmandress' (Burton);
' raonarchess/ ' discipless' (Speed) ; ' auditress/
' cateress/ ' chantress/ ' tyranness^ (all in Mil-
ton) ; ' citess/ ' divineress' (both in Dryden) ;
' deaness ' (Sterne) ; ' detractress ' (Addison) ;
' hucksteress' (Howell) ; ' tutoress' (Shaftesbury) ;
^ farmeress' (Lord Peterborough, Letter to Pope) ;
' laddess/ which however still survives in the
contracted form of ^ lass ■/ with more which, I
doubt not, it would not be very hard to bring
together.*
Exactly the same thing has happened with
another feminine affix. I refer to ' ster,' taking
the place of ' er' where a feminine doer is in-
tended.t ' Spinner' and * spinster' are the only
pair of such words, which still survive. There
were formerly many such ; thus ' baker' had
' bakester,' being the female who baked : ' brewer,
' brewster ;' ' sewer' ' sewster / ' reader' ' readster;'
' seamer' ' seamster ;' ' fruiterer' ' fruitester ;'
' tumbler' ' tumblester ;' ' hopper' * hoppester'
(these last three in Chaucer ; " the shippes hop-
pesteres/' about which so much difficulty has been
made, are the ships dancing, i.e., on the waves),
* In Cotgrave's Dictionary I find * praiseress,' * commen-
dress,' ' fluteress,' ' possesseress,' ' loveress/ but have never
met them in use.
t On this termination see J. Grimm, Deutsche Gramm.,
voL ii. p. 134; vol. iii. p. 339.
158 DIMINUTIONS or ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
' knitter^ ' knitster, (a word, I am told, still alive
in Devon). Add to these ' whitster' (female
bleacher^ Shakespeare), M^empster^ (pectrix), ^dry-
ster^ (siccatrix), 'brawdster, (I suppose embroi-
deress), and ^ salster^ (salinaria).* It is a singular
example of the richness of a language in forms at
the earlier stages of its existence, tliat not a few
of the words which had, as we have just seen, a
feminine termination in ' ess,' had also a second
in ' ster/ Thus ' daunser,' beside ' daunseress/
had also ^ daunster' (Ecclus. ix. 4) ; ' wailer/ be-
side 'waileress,' had ' wailster' (Jer. ix. 17);
'dweller' 'dwelster' (Jer. xxi. 13); and *' singer'
' singster' (2 Kin. xix. 35) ; so too, ' chider' had
' chidester' (Chaucer), as well as ' chideress,'
'slayer' 'slayster' (Tob. iii. 9), as well as 'slayeress,'
'chooser' ' chesister,' (Wisd. viii. 4), as well as
' cheseress,' with others that might be named.
It is difficult to understand how Marsh, with
these examples before him should affirm,"! find no
positive evidence to show that the termination 'ster'
was ever regarded as a feminine termination in
English." It may be, and indeed has been, urged that
the existence of such words as 'seamstr<?^5,' 'song-
stre55,'is decisive proof that the ending'ster' of itself
was not counted sufficient to designate persons as
female ; for if, it has been said, ' seam^/e^r^ and
' song^/er' had been felt to be already feminine,
no one would have ever thought of doubling on
* I am indebted for these last four to a Notninale in the
National Antiquities, vol. i. p. 21G.
III.] TERMINATION IN STER. 159
this^ and adding a second female termination ;
' seamstress/ ' songstress.' But all which can
justly be concluded from hence is, that when this
final ^ess^ was added to these already feminine
forms, and examples of it will not, I think, be
found till a comparatively late period of the lan-
guage, the true principle and law of the words
had been lost sight of and forgotten * The same
may be affirmed of such other of these feminine
forms as are now applied to men, such as ' game-
ster,^ ' youngster,^ ' oldster,^ ^ drugster' (South),
^ huckster,^ ^ hackster,^ (= swordsman, Milton,
prose), 'teamster,^ ^throwster/ 'rhymester,^
* punster^ {Spectator), ^ tapster,-' ^ whipster^ (Shake-
speare) , ^ trickster.' Either like ' teamster/ and
' punster/ the words first came into being, when
the true significance of this form was altogether
lost ;t or like ' tapster,' which was female in
* The earliest example which Richardson gives of * seam-
stress' is from Gay, of ' songstress,' from Thomson. I find
however 'sempstress' in the translation of Olearius' Voyages
and Travels, 1669, p. 43. It is quite certain that as late as
Ben Jonson, ' seamster' and ' songster' expressed i\\e female
seamer and singer; a single passage from his Masque of
Christmas is evidence to this. One of the children of Christ-
mas there is " Wassel, like a neat sempster and songster ;
her page bearing a brown bowl." Compare a passage from
Holland's Leaguer, 1632 : " A tyre-iooman of phantastical
ornaments, a sempster for ruffes, cuffes, smocks and waist-
coats."
t This was about the time of Henry VIII. In proof of
the confusion which reigned on the subject in Shakespeare's
time, see his use of ' spinster' as = * spinner,' the man spin-
160 DIMINUTIONS or ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
Chaucer {" the gay tapstere''), as it is still in
Dutch and Frisian, and distinguished from
' tapper/ the 7nan who keeps the inn, or has charge
of the tap, or as 'bakester,' at this day used in Scot-
land for ' baker,^ as ' dyester' for ' dyer,^ the word
did originally belong of right and exclusively to
■women; but with the gradual transfer of the
occupation to men, and an increasing forgetful-
ness of what this termination implied, there went
also a transfer of the name,* just as in other
words, and out of the same causes, the exact con-
verse has found place ; and ' baker^ or ' brewer,^
not ' bakester' or ^ brewster,^ would be now in
ning, Henri/ VIII., Act i. Sc. 2 ; and I have no doubt that
it is the same in Othello, Act i. Sc. 1. And a little later, in
Howell's Vocabulary, 1659, ' spinner' and ' spinster' are both
referred to the male sex, and the barbarous ' spinstress' in-
vented for the female.
* I have included ' huckster,' as will be observed, in this
list. I certainly cannot produce any passage in which it is
employed as theyewaZe pedler. We have only, however, to
keep in mind the existence of the verb * to huck,' in the sense
of to peddle (it is used by Bishop Andrews), and at the same
time not to let the present spelling of ' hawker' mislead us,
and we shall confidently recognize * hucker' (the German
* hoker' or ' hocker'), in hawker, that is, the man who
* hucks,' 'hawks,' or peddles, as in 'huckster' the female
who does the same. When therefore Howell and others
employ * hucksteress,' they fall into the same barbarous
excess of expression, whereof we are all guilty, when we use
* seamstress' and ' songstress.' — The note stood thus in the
third edition. Since that was published, I have met in the
Nominale referred to p. 158, the following, " ha3C auxiatrix,
a /mkstcr."
ITI.] DECEPTIVE ANALOGIES. 161
England applied to the woman baking or brewing.
So entirely has this power of the language died
out, that it survives more apparently than really
even in ' spinner' and ' spinster ;' seeing that
'spinster' has obtained now quite another meaning
than that of a woman spinnings whom, as well as
the man, we should call not a ' spinster/ but a
' spinner/* It would indeed be hard to believe,
if we had not constant experience of the fact, how
soon and how easily the true law and significance
of some form, which has never ceased to be in
everybody's mouth, may yet be lost sight of by
all. No more curious chapter in the history of
language could be written than one which should
trace the violations of analogy, the transgressions
of the most primary laws of a language, which fol-
low hereupon ; the plurals like ' welkin' ( = wolken,
the clouds), ' chicken,'t which are dealt with as
singulars, the singulars, like ' riches' (richesse),J
* Notes and Queries, No. 157.
f When Wallis wrote, it was only beginning to be for-
gotten that * chick' was the singular, and ' chicken' the
plural : " Sunt qui dicunt in singulari * chicken,' et in plurali
* chickens ;' " and even now the words are in many country
parts correctly employed. In Sussex, a correspondent writes,
they would as soon think of saying * oxens' as ' chickens.'
;j: See Chaucer's Eomaufit of the Hose, 1032, where Rich-
esse, " an high lady of great noblesse," is one of the persons
of the allegory ; and compare Rev. xviii. 17, Authorized Ver-
sion. This has so entirely escaped the knowledge of Ben
Jonson, English scholar as he was, that in his Grammar he
cites ' riches' as an example of an English word wanting a
singular.
M
162 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
^ pease' (pisum, pois),* ^alms/ 'eaves/ \vliich are
assumed to be plurals.
There is one example of this, familiar to us all;
probably so familiar that it would not be worth
while adverting to it_, if it did not illustrate, as no
other word could, this forgetfulness which may
overtake a whole people, of the true meaning of
a grammatical form which they have never ceased
to employ. I refer to the mistaken assumption
that the ' s' of the genitive, as ' the king's
countenance,' was merely a more rapid way of
pronouncing ' the king his countenance,' and that
the final ' s' in * king's' was in fact an elided
' his.' This explanation for a long time prevailed
almost universally ; I believe there are many who
accept it still. It was in vain that here and there
a deeper knower of our tongue protested against
this '^ monstrous syntax," as Ben Jonson in his
Grammar justly calls it.f It was in vain that
"Wallis, another English scholar of the seventeenth
century, pointed out in his Grammar that the
slightest examination of the facts revealed the un-
tenable character of this explanation, seeing that
we do not merely say ^' the king\s countenance,"
but " the queen^s countenance ;" and in this case
the final ' s' cannot stand for ' his,' for " the queen
* " Set shallow brooks to surging seas,
An orient pearl to a white />ease."
PuUenliam.
f It is curious that despite of this protest, one of his plays
lias for its name, Sejanus his Fall,
III.] UNGRAMMATICAL TORM. 163
his countenance'^ cannot be intended ;* we do not
say merely *Hhe child's bread/' but ''the children's
bread/' where it is no less impossible to resolve the
phrase into " the children his bread.^f Despite of
these protests the error held its ground. This
much indeed of a plea it could make for itself,
that such an actual employment of * his' had
found its way into the language, as early as the
fourteenth century, and had been in occasional,
though rare use, from that time downward. J
Yet this, which has only been elicited by the re-
searches of recent scholars, does not in the least
* Even this does not startle Addison, or cause him any
misgiving; on the contrary he boldly asserts [Spectator y
No. 135), " The same single letter ' s' on many occasions
does the office of a whole word, and represents the ' his' or
* her^ of our forefathers."
t Nothing can be better than the way in which Wallis
disposes of this scheme, although less successful in showing
what this ' s' does mean than in showing what it cannot
mean {Gramm. Ling. Anglic, c. 5); Qui autem arbitrantur
illud s, loco his adjunctum esse (priori scilicet parte per
aphseresim abscissa), ideoque apostrophi notam semper vel
pingendaia esse, vel saltem subintelligendam, omnino errant.
Quamvis enim non negem quin apostrophi nota commode
nonnunquam affigi possit, ut ipsius litterse s usus distinctius,
ubi opus est, percipiatur j ita tamen semper fieri debere, aut
etiara ideo fieri quia vocem his innuat, omnino nego. Ad-
jungitur enim et fceminarum nominibus propriis, et substan-
tivis pluralibus, ubi vox his sine soloecismo locum habere non
potest : atque etiam in possessivis ours, yours, theirs, herSy
ubi vocem his innui nemo somniaret.
X See the proofs in Marsh's Manual of the English Lan-
guage, English Edit., pp. 280, 293.
M 2
164 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
justify those who assumed that in the habitual
* s^ of the genitive were to be found the remains
of ^ his^ — an error from which the books of scho-
lars in the seventeenth, and in the early decades
of the eighteenth, century are not a whit clearer
than those of others. Spenser, Donne, Fuller,
Jeremy Taylor, all fall into it ; I cannot say con-
fidently whether Milton does. Dryden more than
once helps out his verse with an additional syllable
gained by its aid. It has even forced its way into
our Prayer Book itself, where in the " Prayer for
all sorts and conditions of men," added by Bishop
Sanderson at the last revision of the Liturgy in
1661, we are bidden to say, "and this we beg for
Jesus Christ his sake."* I need hardly tell you
that this ' sMs in fact the one remnant of flexion
surviving in the singular number of our English
noun substantives ; it is in all the Indo-Germanic
languages the original sign of the genitive, or at
any rate the earliest of which we can take cogni-
zance ; and just as in Latin ^ lapis' makes * lapidis'
* I cannot think that it would exceed the authority of our
University Presses, if this were removed from the Prayer
Books which they put forth, as certainly it is supprest by
many of the clergy in the reading. Such a liberty they have
already assumed with the Bible. In all earher editions of
the Authorized Version it stood at 1 Kin. xv. 24 : " Never-
theless Asa his heart was perfect with the Lord;" it is
" Asas heart" now. In the same way " Mordecai his
matters" (Esth. iii. 4) has been silently changed into " Mor-
decai s matters ;" and in some modern editions, but not in
all, " Holofernes his head" (Judith xiii. 9} into " Kolo-
feinies head."
III.] ADJECTIVES IN EN. 165
in the genitive, so ^ king/ ' queen/ ' cliild/ make
severally ' kings/ ' queens/ ' chilcls/ the comma,
an apparent note of elision, heing a mere modern
expedient, '^ a late refinement," as Ash calls it,*
to distinguish the genitive singular from the plural
cases.f
Notice another example of this willingness to
dispense with inflection, of this endeavour on the
part of the speakers of a language to reduce its
forms to the fewest possible, consistent with the
accurate communication of thought. Of our adjec-
tives in 'en/ formed on substantives, and expressing
the material or substance of a thing, some have
gone, others are going, out of use ; while we con-
tent ourselves with the bare juxtaposition of the
substantive itself, as sufficiently expressing our
meaning. Thus instead of " (/olden pin" we say
"gold pin/^ instead of "earthen works" we say
" earth works." ' Golden^ and ' earthen,^ it is
true, still belong to our living speech, though
mainly as part of our poetic diction, or of the
solemn and thus stereotyped language of Scrip-
ture ; but a whole company of such words have
nearly or quite disappeared ; some lately, some
long ago. ' Steelen^ and ' flowren^ belong only to
the earliest period of the language ; ' rosen^ also
went early. Chaucer is my latest authority for it
(" 7'osen chapelet"). ' Hairen^ is in Wiclif and in
* In a good note on the matter, p. 6, in the Comprehensive
Grammar prefixed to his Dictionary, London, 1775.
f See Grimm, Deut. Gramm., vol. ii. pp. 609, 944.
166 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
Chaucer ;' stonen^ in the former (John iii. 6),*
* Silvern' stood originally in WicliPs Bible {" sil-
verne housis to Diane/' Acts xix. 24) ; but already
in the second recension of this was exchanged for
' silver / ^ hornen/ still in provincial use, he also
employs, and ^ clayen' (Job iv. 19) no less. ' Tinnen'
occurs in Sylvester's Du Bartas ; where also we
meet w^ith *' Jove's milken alley," as a name for
the Via Lactea, in Bacon also not " the Milky/'
but " the Milken Way." In the coarse polemics
of the Beformation the phrase, " breaden god,"
provoked by the Romish doctrine of transubstan-
tiation, was of frequent employment, and occurs
as late as in Oldham. " Mothen parchments" is
in Fulke ; " twiggen bottle" in Shakespeare ;
' yewen/ or, according to earlier spelling, " eivghen
bow," in Spenser ; " cedarn alley," and '^ azurn
sheen" are both in Milton ; " boxen leaves" in
Dryden ; " a treeyi cup" in Jeremy Taylor ;
'^ eldern popguns" in Sir Thomas Overbury ; '^ a
glassen breast," in Whitlock ; " a reeden hat" in
Coryat ; ' yarnen' occurs in Turberville ; ^ fiirzen'
in Holland ; ' threaden' in Shakespeare ; and
' bricken,' * papern ' appear in our provincial
glossaries as still in use.
It is true that many of these adjectives still
* The existence of * stony' = ' lapidosus,' ' steinig,' does
not make ' stonen' = * lapideus,' ' steinern,' superfluous any
more than * earthy' makes * earthen.' That part of the field
in which the good seed withered so quickly (Matt. xiii. 5) was
* stony.' The vessels which held the water that Christ
turned into wine (John iii. 6) were ' stonen.'
III.] LANGUAGE SIMPLIFIES ITSELF. 167
hold their ground; but it is curious to note how the
roots which sustain even these are being gradually
cut away from beneath them. Thus ' brazen^
might at first sight seem as strongly established in
the language as ever ; it is far from so being ; its
supports are being cut from beneath it. Even now
it only lives in a tropical and secondary sense, as
^ a brazen face -^ or if in a literal, in poetic diction
or in the consecrated language of Scripture, as
^ the brazen serpent ;' otherwise we say ' a brass
farthing,^ ^a brass candlestick.^ It is the same
with ' oaten,^ ^ oaken,^ ' birchen,^ ^ beechen,^
' strawen,^ and many more, whereof some are ob-
solescent, some obsolete, the language manifestly
tending now, as it has tended for a long time past,
to the getting quit of these, and to the satisfying
of itself with an adjectival apposition of the sub-
stantive in their stead.
Let me illustrate by another example the way
in which a language, as it travels onward, simpli-
fies itself, approaches more and more to a gram-
matical and logical uniformity, seeks to do the
same thing always in the same manner ; where it
has two or three ways of conducting a single opera-
tion, lets all of them go but one ; and thus becomes,
no doubt, easier to be mastered, more handy, more
manageable ; for its very riches were to many an
embarrassment and a perplexity; but at the same
time imposes limits and restraints on its own
freedom of action, and is in danger of forfeiting
elements of strength, variety and beauty, which
it once possessed. I refer to the tendency of our
168 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [leCT.
verbs to let go their strong prseterites, and to sub-
stitute weak ones in their room ; or, where they
have two or three prseterites, to retain only one of
them, and that invariably the weak one. Thougli
many of us no doubt are famihar with the terms
^strong' and 'weak^ prseterites, which in all our
better grammars have put out of use the wholly
misleading terms, * irregular' and ' regular/ I may
perhaps as well remind you of the exact meaning
of the terms. A strong prseterite is one formed
by an internal vowel change ; for instance the verb
' to drive' forms the prseterite ' drove' by an in-
ternal change of the vowel ' i' into ^ o.' But why,
it may be asked, called ' strong'? In respect of
the vigour and indwelling energy in the word,
enabling it to form its past tense from its own
resources, and with no calling in of help from
without. On the other hand ^ lift' forms its prse-
terite 'Yiited,' not by any internal change, but by
the addition of ' ed ;' ' grieve' in like manner has
'grievec?.' Here are weak tenses; as strength
was ascribed to the other verbs, so weakness to
these, which can only form their prseterites by ex-
ternal aid and addition. You will see at once that
these strong praeterites, while they witness to a
vital energy in the words which are able to put
them forth, do also, as must be allowed by all,
contribute much to the variety and charm of a
language.*
* .1. Grimm {Deutsche Gramm.voX. i. p. 1010) : Dass die
starke form die illtere, kviiftigere, iniiere ; die scliwache die
III.] WEAK AND STRONG PR^ETERITES. 169
The point, however, which I am urging now is
this, — that these are becoming fewer every day;
multitudes of them having disappeared, while others
are in the act of disappearing. Nor is the balance
redressed and compensation found in any new
creations of the kind. The power of forming strong
prseterites is long ago extinct; probably no verb
which has come into the language since the Con-
quest has asserted this power, while a whole legion
have let it go. For example, ' shape' has now a
weak prseterite, ' shaped,' it had once a strong one,
' shope ;' ^ bake' has now a weak prseterite, ' baked,'
it had once a strong one, ' boke ;' the prseterite of
' glide' is now ' glided,' it was once ' glode' or
* glid ;' ' help' makes now * helped,' it made once
'halp' and ' holp.' ^ Creep' made ' crope,' still
current in the north of England ; ^ weep' ' wope ;'
' yeir ' yoU' (both in Chaucer) ; ' seethe' ^ soth' or
' sod' (Gen. xxv. 29) ; ^ sheer' in like manner once
made ^ shore ;' as ' leap' made ' lope ;' ^ w' ash'
' wishe' (Chaucer); ' snow' ^ snew ;' ^ sow' ^ sew ;'
' delve' ' dalf and ' dolve ;' ' sweat' ' swat ;' ' yield'
' yold' (both in Spenser); ' mete' ' mat' (Wiclif ) ;
^stretch' 'straught;' ^melt' *molt;' Svax' Svex' and
spafcere, gehemmtere und mehr ausserliche sey, leuchtet ein.
Elsewhere, speaking generally of inflections by internal vowel
change, he characterizes them as a ' chief beauty' (haupt-
schonheit)of the Teutonic languages. Marsh {Manual of the
English Language, p. 233, English ed.) protests, though, as
it seems to me, on no sufficient grounds, against these terms
* strong' and ' weak,' as themselves fanciful and inappropriate.
170 DIxMIXUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
' wox ;' ' laugV ' leugli ;' with others more than
can be enumerated here.*
Observe further that where verbs have not
actually renounced their strong prseterites, and
contented themselves with weak in their room,
yet, once possessing two, or, it might be three of
these strong, they now retain only one. The
others, on the principle of dismissing whatever can
be dismissed, they have let go. Thus ' cliide^ had
once ' chid^ and ' chode,' but though ' chode^ is in
our Bible (Gen. xxxi. 36), it has not maintained
itself in our speech ; ' sling^ had ^ slung^ and ' slang'
(1 Sam. xvii. 49); only ^ slung' remains; 'fling'
had once ' flung' and ' flang ;' ' strive' had ' strove'
and ' strave ;' ' stick' had ' stuck' and ' stack ;'
'hang' had 'hung' and ' hing' (Golding); 'tread'
had ' trod' and ' trad ;' ' choose' had ' chose' and
' chase ;' ' give' had ' gave' and ' gove ;' ' lead' had
' led' ' lad' and ' lode ;' ' write' had ' wrote' ' writ'
and ' wrate.' In all these cases, and more miglit
* The entire ignorance as to the past historic evolution of
the language, with which some have undertaken to write
about it, is curious. Thus the author of Observafions vpon
the English Language, without date, but publislicd about
1730, treats all these strong praeteritcs as of recent introduc-
tion, counting ' knew' to have lately expelled ' knowed,' * rose'
to have acted the same part toward ' rised,' and of course
esteeming them as so many barbarous violations of the laws
of the language; and concluding with the warning that
** great care must be taken to prevent their increase."!! —
p. 24. Cobbett does not fall into this absurdity, yet ])roposes
in his English Grammar, that they should all be abolished
3s inconvenient.
III.] LANGUAGES SIMPLIFY THEMSELVES. 171
easily be cited, only the prseterites wliicli I have
named, the first remains in use.
Observe too that in every instance where a con-
flict is now going on between weak and strong
forms, which shall continue, the battle is not to
the strong ; on the contrary the weak is carrying
the day, is getting the better of its stronger com-
petitor. Thus ^ climbed^ is gaining the upper hand
of ' clomb/ ' swelled' of ^ swoll/ ' hanged^ of
^ hung.^ It is not too much to anticipate that a
time will come, although it may be still far off,
when all English verbs will form their prseterites
weakly ; not without serious damage to the fulness
and force which in this respect the language even
now displays, and once far more eminently dis-
played.*
Take another proof of this tendency in our own
language to drop its forms and renounce its own
inherent powers; though here also the renuncia-
tion, threatening one day to be complete, is only
partial at the present. I refer to the formation
of our comparatives and superlatives ; and I will
ask you again to observe here that curious law
of language, namely, that wherever there are two
or more ways of attaining the same result, there
is always a disposition to drop and dismiss all of
these but one, so that the alternative or choice of
ways once existing, shall not exist any more. If
only it can attain a greater simplicity, it seems
* J. Grimm {Deutsche Gramm. vol. i. p. 839) : " Die starke
flexion stufenweise versinkt und ausstirbt, die schwacheaber
um sich greift." Cf. i. 994, 1040 3 ii. 5 3 iv. 509.
172 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
to grudge no self-impoverishment by which this
result may be brought about. We have two ways
of forming our comparatives and superlatives, one
dwelling in the word itself, which we have inherited
from our old Gothic stock, as ^ bright/ ' brighter/
' brighter// the other supplementary to this, by
prefixing the auxiliaries ' more' and ' most/ The
first, organic we might call it, the indwelling power
of the word to mark its own degrees, must needs
be esteemed the more excellent way ; which yet,
already disallowed in almost all adjectives of more
than two sylla])les in length, is daily becoming of
narrower and more restrained application. Com-
pare in this matter our present with our past.
Wiclif for example forms such comparatives as
' grievouser/ 'gloriouser,' 'patienter/ 'profitabler,''
such superlatives as ' grievousest/ ^ famousest /
this last occurring also in Bacon. We meet in
Tyndale, ^ excellenter/ ' miserablest / in Shake-
speare, ' violentest / in Gabriel Harvey, ' vendi-
blest,^ ' substantialest/ ' insolentest / in Rogers,
' insufficienter,^ ^goldener/ in Beaumont and
Fletcher, ' valiantest.' Milton uses ' virtuosest,^
and in prose * vitiosest,' ' elegantest/ * artificialest,'
' servilest,' ^ sheepishest,^ ^ resolutest,^ ^sensualest/
Fuller has ^ fertilest / Baxter ' tediousest / Butler
' preciousest/ ' intolerablest / Burnet ' copionsest/
Gray ^ impudentest.' Of these forms, and it
would be easy to adduce almost any number, we
should hardly employ any now. In participles
and adverbs in ' ly,' these organic comparatives
and superlatives hardly survive at all. Wc do
III.] COMPARATIVES AND SUPEKLATIVES. 173
not say * vvillinger^ or ' lovinger/ and still less
' flourishingest/ or ' shiningest/ or ' surmounting-
e.*t/ all which Gabriel Harvey, a foremost
master of the English of his time, employs ;
' plenteouslyer_, ' ' fuUiest^ (Wiclif), ' easiliest'
(Fuller), 'plainliest^ (Dryderi), would be all inad-
missible at present.
In the manifest tendency of English at the pre-
sent moment to reduce the number of words in
which this more vigorous scheme of expressing
degrees is allowed, we must recognize an evidence
that the energy which the language had in its
youth is in some measure abating, and the stiff-
ness of age overtaking it. Still it is with us here
only as it is with all languages, in which at a
certain time of their life auxiliary words, leaving
the main word unaltered, are preferred to inflections
of this last. Such preference makes itself ever
more strongly felt; and, judging from analogy, I
cannot doubt that a day, however distant now, will
arrive, when the only way of forming comparatives
and superlatives in the English language will be
by prefixing ' more' and ' most ' or, if the other
survive, it will be in poetry alone.
It will fare not otherwise, as I am bold to predict,
with the flexional genitive, formed in '^s' or ' es' (see
p. 162). This too will finally disappear altogether
from the language, or will survive only in poetry,
and as much an archaic form there as the 'pictai'
of Yirgil. A time will come when it will not any
longer be free to say, as now, either, " the king's
sons/' or " the sons of the king/' but when the
174 DIMINUTIONS or ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
latter will be the only admissible form. Tokens
of this are already evident. Tlie region in which
the alternative forms are equally good is daily
narrowing. We should not now any more write,
" when man's son shall come" (Wiclif), but
" when the Son of man shall come," nor yet, ^' the
hypocrite's hope shall perish" (Job viii. 13, Autho-
rized Version), but, " the hope of the Jnjpocrite
shall perish ;'^ not with Barrow, " No man can
be ignorant of human life's brevity and uncertainty"
but " No man can be ignorant of the brevity and
uncertainty of human life." The consummation
which I anticipate may be centuries off, but will
assuredly arrive.
Then too diminutives are fast disappearing
from the language. If we desire to express small-
ness, we prefer to do it by an auxiliary word ;
thus a little fist, and not a ' fistock' (Golding), a
little lad, and not a * ladkin,^ a little worm, rather
than a ' wormling^ (Sylvester). It is true that of
diminutives very many still survive, in all our four
terminations of such, as ' hillock, ' streamlet,'
* lambkin/ 'gosling;' but those which have
perished are many more. Where now is ' king-
ling' (Holland), * whimling' (Beaumont and Flet-
cher), ' godling,' * loveling,' ' dwarfling,' ' sherperd-
ling' (all in Sylvester), * chasteling' (Becon),
' niceling' (Stubbs), * fosterling' (Ben Jonson), and
'masterling' ? Where now 'porelet' ( = paupercula,
Isai. X. 30, Vulg.), ' bundelet,' (both in Wiclif) ;
' cushioned (Henry More), * havenet,' or little
'haven,' ' pistolct,' ' bulkin' (Holland), and a
III.] THE QUAKER USE OF THOU. 175
hundred more? Even of those which remain many
are putting off, or have long since put off, their
diminutive sense ; a ' pocket^ being no longer a
small poke_, nor a ' latchet^ a small lace, nor a
' trumpet' a small trump, as once they were.
Once more — in the entire dropping among the
higher classes of 'thou/ except in poetry or in
addresses to the Deity, and as a necessary conse-
quence, the dropping also of the second singular of
the verb with its strongly marked flexion, as 'lovest,'
* lovedst,' we have another example of a force once
existing in the language, which has been, or is
being, allowed to expire. In the seventeenth
century * thou' in English, as at the present ' du'
in German, ' tu' in French, was the sign of fami-
liarity, whether that familiarity was of love, or of
contempt and scorn.* It was not unfrequently
the latter. Thus at Sir Walter Kaleigh's trial
(1603), Coke, when argument and evidence failed
him, insulted the defendant by applying to him
the term ' thou' : — *' All that Lord Cobham did
was at thy instigation, tliou viper ! for I thou thee,
thou traitor." And when Sir Toby Belch in
Twelfth Night is urging Sir Andrew Aguecheek
to send a sufficiently provocative challenge to
Viola, he suggests to him that he " taunt him
with the licence of ink -, if thou thou'st him some
thrice, it shall not be amiss." To keep this in
* Thus Wallis {Gramm. Ling. Anglic, 1654): Singular!
nuraero siquis alium compellet, vel dedignantis iilud esse solet,
vel familiariter blandientis.
176 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. [lecT.
mind will throw much light on one peculiarity of
the Quakers, and give a certain dignity to it, as
once maintained, which at present it is very far
from possessing. However needless and unwise
their determination to ' thee' and ' thou' the whole
world was, yet this had a significance. It was not,
as now to us it seems, and, through the silent
changes which language has undergone, as now it
indeed is, a gratuitous departure from the ordinary
usage of society. Right or wrong, it meant some-
thing, and had an ethical motive : being indeed
a testimony upon their parts, however misplaced,
that they would not have high or great or rich
men's persons in admiration ; nor give the obser-
vance to some which they withheld from others.
It was a testimony too which cost them something ;
at present we can very little understand the
amount of courage wdiich this ' thou-ing' and
* thee-ing' of all men must have demanded on
their parts, nor yet the amount of indignation and
offence which it stirred up in them w ho w-ere not
aware of, or would not allow for, the scruples
which obliged them to it.* It is, however, in its
* What the actual position of the compellation ' thou' was
at that time, we may perhaps best learn from this passage in
Fuller's Church History, Dedication of Book vii. : " In
opposition whereunto [i.e. to the Quaker usage] we maintain
that thou from superiors to inferiors is proper, as a sign of
command ; from equals to equals is passable, as a note of
familiarity ; but from inferiors to superiors, if proceeding
from ignorance, hath a smack of clownishness ; if from affec-
tation, a tone of contempt."
III.] FEMALE AND FEMININE. 177
otlier aspect that we must chiefly regret the dying
out of the use of ' tliou^ — that is, as the pledge of
peculiar intimacy and special affection, as between
husband and wife, parents and children, and such
other as might be knit together by bands of more
than common aff'ection.
I have preferred during this lecture to find my
theme in changes which are now going forward
in En^ilish, but I cannot finish it without drawing
one illustration from its remoter periods, and
bidding you to note a force not now waning and
failing from it, but extinct long ago. I cannot
well pass it by ; being as it is by far the boldest
step which in this direction of simplification the
English languaoje has at anv time taken. I refer
to the renouncing of the distribution of its nouns
into masculine, feminine, and neuter, as in German,
or even into masculine and feminine, as in French ;
and with this, and as a necessary consequence of
this, the dropping of any flexional modification in
the adjectives connected with them. Natural sex
of course remains, being inherent in all language ;
but grammatical gender, with the exception of ' he,'
' she,' and ' it,' and perhaps one or two other frag-
mentary instances, the language has altogether
foregone. An example will make clear the dis-
tinction between these. Thus it is not the word
' poetess' which is feminine^ but the person indi-
cated who is female. So too ' daughter,' ' queen,'
are in English not feminine nouns, but nouns
designating female persons. Take on the con-
trary * filia' or ' regina,' ' fille' or ' reine,' there
178 DIMINUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, [lect.
you have feminine nouns as well as female persons.
I need hardly say to you that we did not inherit
this simplicity from others, but, like the Danes, in
so far as they have done the like, have made it for
ourselves. Whether we turn to the Latin, or,
which is for us more important, to the old Gothic,
we find gender; and in all daughter languages which
have descended from the Lratin, in most of those
which have descended from the ancient Gothic
stock, it is fully established to this day. The
practical business-like character of the English
mind asserted itself in the rejection of a distinc-
tion, which in a vast proportion of words, that
is, in all which are the signs of inanimate objects,
and as such incapable of sex, rested upon a fiction,
and had no ground in the real nature of things.
It is only by an act and effort of the imagination
that sex, and tlius gender, can be attributed to a
table, a ship, or a tree ; and there are aspects, this
being one, in which the English is among the least
imaginative of all languages, even while it has been
employed in some of the mightiest works of imagi-
nation which the world has ever seen.*
What, it may be asked, is the meaning and ex-
planation of all this ? It is that at certain earlier
periods of a nation^s life its genius is synthetic,
and at later becomes analytic. At earlier periods
all is by synthesis ; and men love to contemplate
* See on this subject of the dropping of grammatical
gender, Pott, Elijmologische Forschungen, part 2, pp. 401,
8^q.
III.] FEMALE AND TEMININE. 179
the thing, and the mode of the thing, together, as
a single idea, bound up in one. But a time arrives
when the intellectual obtains the upper hand of
the imaginative, when the tendency of those
that speak the language is to analyse, to distin-
guish between these two, and not only to dis-
tinguish but to divide, to have one word for the
thing itself, and another for the quality of the
thing ; and this^ as it would appear, is true not of
some languages only, but of all.
N 2
180
LECTURE IV.
CHANGES IN THE MEANING OE ENGLISH WOllDS.
I PROPOSE, according to the plan sketched
out in my first lecture, to take for my subject
in the present those changes which in the course
of time have found place, or now are finding
place, in the meaning of many among our English
words ; so that, whether we are aware of it or
not, we employ them at this day in senses very
different from those in which our forefathers
employed them of old. You will observe that it is
not obsolete words, words quite fallen out of present
■use, which I propose to consider ; but such, rather,
as are still on the lips of men, but with mean-
ings more or less removed from those which once
they possessed. My subject is far more practical,
has far more to do with your actual life, than if
I had taken obsolete words, and considered them.
These last have an interest indeed, but it is an
interest of an antiquarian character. They cqn-
stituted a part of the intellectual money with
which our ancestors carried on the business of
their life; but now they are rather medals for the
cabinets and collections of the curious than cur-
rent money for the needs and pleasures of all.
Their wings are clipped, so that they are^ivhif/ed
words^^ no more ; the spark of thought or feeling.
DUTCH OR GERMAN. 181
kindling from mind to mind, no longer runs along
them, as along the electric wires of the soul.
And then, besides this, there is little or no danger
that any should be misled by them. A reader
lights for the first time on one of these obsolete
English words, as ^frampold,^ or ^garboil,' or
'brangle / he is at once conscious of his ignorance ;
he has recourse to a glossary, or if he guesses from
the context at the word^s signification, still his gness
is as a guess to him, and no more. But words that
have changed their meaning have often a deceiv-
ableness about them ; a reader not once doubts
but that he knows their intention, has no mis-
giving but that they possess for him the same force
which they possessed for their writer, and con-
veyed to his contemporaries, when indeed it is
quite otherwise. The old life has gone out of
them and a new life entered in.
Thus, for example, a reader of our day lights
upon such a passage as the following (it is from
the Preface to HowelPs Lexicon, 1660) : "Though
the root of the English language be Dutch, yet
it may be said to have been inoculated afterwards
on a French stock.^^ He may know that the
Dutch is a sister language or dialect to our own ;
but this that it is the mother or root of it will
certainly perplex him, and he will hardly know
what to make of the assertion ; perhaps he
ascribes it to an error in his author, who is thereby
unduly lowered in his esteem. But presently in
the course of his reading he meets with the follow-
ing statement, this time in Fuller's Holy War,
182 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS. [leC.
being a history of the Crusades : " The French,
J)?//f//, Italian, and English were the four elemental
nations, whereof this army [of the Crusaders] was
compounded." If the student has sufficient his-
torical knowledge to know that in the time of the
Crusades there were no Dutch in our use of the
word, this statement would merely startle him ;
and probably before he had finished the chapter,
having his attention once roused, he would per-
ceive that Fuller with the writers of his time used
' Dutch^ for German ; even as it was constantly so
used up to the end of the seventeenth century ;
and as the Americans use it to this present day ;
what we call now a Dutchman being then a
Hollander. But a young student might very pos-
sibly want that amount of previous knowledge,
which should cause him to receive this announce-
ment with misgiving and surprise; and thus he
might carry away altogether a wrong impression,
and rise from a perusal of the book, persuaded that
the Dutch, as we call them, played an important
part in the Crusades, while the Germans took
little or no part in them at all.
And as it is here with an historic fact, so still
more often will it happen with the subtler changes
which words have undergone. Out of this it will
continually happen that they convey now much
more blame and condemnation, or convey now
much less, than formerly they did ; or of a diffe-
rent kind ; and a reader not aware of the altered
value which they now possess, may be in con-
tinual danger of misreading his author, of mis-
IV.] MISCREANT, TINSEL. 183
understanding his intention^ while he has no
doubt whatever that he perfectly apprehends and
takes it in. Thus when Shakespeare in 1 Henry
VI. makes the gallant York address Joan of
Arc as a ^ miscreant/ how coarse a piece of in-
vective this sounds ; how unlike what the chival-
rous soldier would have uttered ; or what one
might have supposed Shakespeare, even with
his unworthy estimate of the holy warrior Maid,
would have put into his mouth. But a ' mis-
creant' in Shakespeare's time had nothing of the
meaning which now it has. It was simply, in
agreement with its etymology, a misbeliever, one
who did not believe rightly the articles of the
Catholic Faith. And 1 need not remind you that
this was the constant charge which the English
brought against Joan, — namely, that she was a
dealer in hidden magical arts, a witch, and as such
had fallen from the faith. On this plea they
burnt her, and it is this which York means when
he calls her a ^ miscreant,' and not what we should
intend by the name.
In reading of poetry above all what beauties
are often missed^ what forces lost, through this
assumption that the present of a word is always
equivalent to its past. How often the poet is
wronged in our estimation ; that seeming to us
now flat and pointless, which at once would lose
this character, did we know how to read into some
word the emphasis which it once had, but which
now has departed from it. For example, Milton
ascribes in Comus the ^^ tmsel-slippe7^ed feet" to
184 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS [lec.
Thetis, the goddess of the sea. How compara-
tively poor an epithet this ' tinsel-slippered^ sounds
for those who know of ' tinsel' only in its modern
acceptation of mean and tawdry finery, affecting
a splendor which it does not really possess. But
learn its earlier use by learning its derivation,
bring it back to the French ' etincelle,' and the
Latin 'scintillula/ see in it. as Milton and the
writers of his time saw, ' the sparkling/ and how
exquisitely beautiful a title does this become
applied to a goddess of the sea ; how vividly does
it call up before our mind^s eye the quick glitter
and sparkle of the waves under the liglit of
sun or moon.* It is Homer's ' silver- footed^
{apyvp6'in:Z,a), not servilely transferred, but repro-
duced and made his own by the English poet,
dealing as one great poet will do with another;
who will not disdain to borrow, but to what he
borrows will add often a further grace of his
own.
Or, again, do we keep in mind, or are we even
aware, that whenever the word ^ influence^ occurs
in our English poetry, down to comparatively a
modern date, there is always more or less remote
allusion to invisible illapses of power, skyey,
planetary effects, supposed to be exercised by the
heavenly luminaries upon the lives of men? How
many a passage starts into new life and beauty
* So in Herrick's Electra :
" More white than are the whitest creams,
Or moonlight tinselling the streams."
IV.] FORCE OF TO BAFFLE. 185
and fulness of allusion, when this is present with
us ; even Milton^s
" store of ladies, whose bright eyes
Eain influence"
as spectators of the tournament, gain something,
when we regard them — and using this language,
he intended we should — as the luminaries of this
lower sphere, shedding by their propitious pre-
sence strength and valour into the hearts of their
knights.
The word even in its present acceptation may-
yield, as here, a convenient and even a correct
sense ; we may fall into no positive misapprehen-
sion about it ; and still, through ignorance of its
past history and of the force which it once pos-
sessed, we may miss a great part of its significance.
We are not beside the meaning of our author,
but we are short of it. Thus in Beaumont and
Fletcher^s King and no King, (Act iii. Sc. 2,) a
cowardly braggart of a soldier describes the treat-
ment he experienced, when like Parolles he was at
length found out, and stripped of his lion's skin : —
" They hung me up by the heels and beat me with
hazel sticks, . . . that the whole kingdom took
notice of me for a baffled whipped fellow.^' The
word to which I wish here to call your attention
is ^ baffled.' Were you reading this passage, there
would probably be nothing here to cause you to
pause ; you would attach to ' baffled' a sense which
sorts very well with the context — " hung up by
the heels and beaten, all his schemes of being
186 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WOUDS. [leC.
tliought much of were baffled and defeated/^ But
' baffled^ implies far more than this ; it contains
allusion to a custom in the days of chivalry, accord-
ing to which a perjured or recreant knight was
either in person, or more commonly in effigy,
hung up by the heels, his scutcheon blotted, his
spear broken, and he himself or his effigy made
the mark and subject of all kinds of indignities ;
such a one being said to be ' baffled/* Twice in
Spenser recreant knights are so dealt with. 1 can
only quote a portion of the shorter passage, in
which this infamous punishment is described :
" And after all, for greater infamy
He by the heels him hung upon a tree,
And hafflecl so, that all which passed by
The picture of his punishment might see."f
Probably when Beaumont and Fletcher wrote, men
were not so remote from the days of chivalry, or
at any rate from the literature of chivalry, but
that this custom was still fresli in their minds.
How much more to them than to us, so long as
we are ignorant of the same, would those words
I just quoted have conveyed ?
There are several places in tlie Authorized Ver-
sion of Scripture, where those who are not aware
of the changes which have taken place during the
last two hundred and fifty years in our language,
can hardly fail of being to a certain extent misled
* See llolinshed's Chronicles, vol. iii. pp. 827, 1218 :
Ann. 1513, 1570.
f Fairy Queen, vl. 7, 27 ; cf. v, 3, 37.
IV.] RELIGION AND GODLINESS. 187
as to the intention of our Translators ; or, if tliey
are better acquainted with Greek than with early
English, will be tempted to ascribe to them, though
unjustly, an inexact rendering of the original.
Thus the altered meaning of a word involves a
serious misunderstanding in that well known
statement of St. James, '^ Pure religion and unde-
filed before God and the Father is this, to visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction.'^
" There," exclaims one who wishes to set up St.
James against St. Paul, that so he may escape
the necessity of obeying either, " listen to what
St. James says ; there is nothing mystical in what
he requires ; instead of harping on faith as a con-
dition necessary to salvation, he makes all religion
to consist in practical deeds of kindness from one
to another." But let us pause for a moment.
Did ' religion,^ when our translation was made,
mean godliness ? did it mean the sum total of our
duties towards God ? for, of course, no one would
deny that deeds of charity are a necessary part of
our Christian duty, an evidence of the faith which
is in us. There is abundant evidence to show
that ' religion' did not mean this ; that, like the
Greek OprjaKua, for which it here stands, like the
Latin ' religio,' it meant the outward forms and
embodiments in which the inward principle of
piety arrayed itself, the external service of God :
and St. James is urging upon those to whom he
is writing something of this kind : " Instead of
the ceremonial services of the Jews, which con-
sisted in divers washings and in other elements of
188 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLTSHWORDS. [lec. ]
this world, let our service, our OprfdKt'ia, take a
nobler shape, let it consist in deeds of j^ity and
of love'^ — and it was this which our Translators
intended, when they used ' religion' here and
'religious' in the verse preceding. How little
' religion' once meant godline-s, how predominantly
it was used for the outward service of God, is plain
from many passages in our Homilies, and from
other contemporary literature.
Again, there are words in our Liturgy which
I have no doubt are commonly misunderstood.
The mistake involves no serious error ; yet still in
our own language, and in words which we have
constantly in our mouths, and at most solemn
times, it is certainly better to be right than
wrong. In the Litany we pray God that it would
please Him " to give and preserve to our use the
kindly fruits of the earth." What meaning do
we attach to this epithet, " the kindly fruits of
the earth" ? Probably we understand by it those
fruits in which the kindnesa of God or of nature
towards us finds its expression. This is no un-
worthy explanation, but still it is not the right
one. The " kindly fruits" are the " naturaHnuts,'^
those which the earth according to its kind should
naturally bring forth, which it is appointed to
produce. To show you how little * kindly' meant
once benignant, as it means now, I will instance
an employment of it from Sir Thomas More's
Life of Richard the Third. He tells us that
Kichard calculated by murdering his two nephews
in the Tower to make himself accounted " a kindly
IV.] OLD SENSE OF TO WORSHIP. 189
king" — not certainly a ^ kindly^ one in our present
usage of the word ; but, having put them out of
the \\ ay_, that lie should then be lineal heir of the
Crown^ and shoidd thus be reckoned as king by
kind or natural descent ; and such was of old the
constant use of the word.
A phrase in one of our occasional Services,
" with my body I thee worship/' has sometimes
offended those who are unacquainted with the
early uses of English words, and thus with the
intention of the actual framers of that Service.
Clearly in our modern sense of ^ worship/ this
language would be unjustifiable. But ' Avorship^
or ' v\ orthship' meant ' honour' in our early Eng-
lish, and ' to worship' to honour, this meaning of
' worship' still very harmlessly surviving in the
title of " your worship/' addressed to the magis-
trate on tlie bench. So little was it restrained of
old to the honour which man is bound to pay to
God, that it was employed by Wiclif to express
the honour which God will render to his faithful
servants and friends. Thus our Lord's declaration,
"If any man serve Me, him will my Father honour/'
in Wiclit's translation reads thus, " If any man
serve Me, my Father shall ivorship him." I do
not say that there is not sufficient reason to change
the words, " with my body I thee ivorship/' if only
there were any means of changing anything which
is now antiquated and out of date in our services
or arrangements. I think it would be very well
if they were changed, liable as they are to mis-
understanding and misconstruction now ; but still
190 CIIAXGED MEANING OPEN GLISH WORDS. [leC.
tliey did not mean at the first_, and therefore do
not now really mean, any more than, " with my
body I thee honour ^^ and so you may reply to
any fault-finder here.
Take another example of a very easy misappre-
hension, although not now from Scripture or the
Prayer Book. Fuller, our Church historian, having
occasion to speak of some famous divine that was
lately dead, exclaims, ^^ Oh the pawfulness of his
preaching !" If we did not know the former uses
of ' painfulness,^ we might take this for an excla-
mation wrung out at the recollection of the tedious-
ness which he inflicted on his hearers. Far from
it ; the words are a record not of the j!?«i72 which
he caused to others, but of the pains which he
bestowed himself: and I am persuaded, if we had
more * painfuP preachers in the old sense of the
word, that is, who took pains themselves, we should
have fewer ^painfuP ones in the modern sense,
who cause pain to their hearers. So too Bishop
Grosthead is recorded as " the painful writer of
two hundred books^' — not meaning hereby that
these books were painful in the reading, but that
he was laborious and painful in their composing.
Here is another easy misapprehension. Swift
wrote a pamphlet, or, as he called it, a Letter to the
Lord Treasurer J with this title, *' A proposal for
correcting, improving, and ascertaining the Eng-
lish Tongue.^' Who that brought a knowledge of
present English, and no more, to this passage,
would doubt that " ascertaining the English
Tongue'^ meant arriving at a certain knowledge of
IV.] ASCERTAIN, TREACLE. 191
what it was ? Swift, however, means something
quite different from this. " To ascertain the Eng-
lish tongue" is not with him to arrive at a sub-
jective certainty in our own minds of what that
tongue is, but to give an objective certainty to
that tongue itself, so that henceforth it shall
uot alter nor change. For even Swift liimself,
with all his masculine sense, entertained a dream
of this kind, as is more fully declared in the
work itself.*
In other places unacquaintance with the changes
in a word^s usage will not so much mislead, as
leave you nearly or altogether at a loss in respect
of the intention of an author whom you may be
reading. It is evident that he has a meaning, but
what it is you are unable to divine, even though
all the words he employs are words in familiar
employment to the present day. For example,
the poet Waller is congratulating Charles the
Second on his return from exile, and is describing
the way in which all men, even those formerly
most hostile to him, were now seeking his favour,
and he writes :
" Offenders now, the chiefest, do begin
To strive for grace, and expiate their sin :
All winds blow fair that did the world embroil,
Your vipers treacle yield, and scorpions oil."
Many a reader before now has felt, as I cannot
doubt, a moment^s perplexity at the now courtly
poet's assertion that "vipers treacle yieW — who
* See Sir W. Scott's edition of Swift's Works, vol. ix. p. 139.
192 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS. [leC.
yet lias been too indolent, or who has not had the
opportunity, to search out what his meaning might
be. There is in fact allusion here to a curious
piece of legendary lore. ' Treacle/ or ' triacle,^ as
Chaucer wrote it, was originally a Greek word, and
wrapped up in itself the once popular belief (an
anticipation, by the way, of homoeopathy), that a
confection of the viper's flesh was the most potent
antidote against the viper's bite.* Waller goes
back to this the word^s old meaning, familiar
enough in his time, for Milton speaks of " the
sovran treacle of sound doctrine,^'t while " Venice
treacle,^' or " viper wine,*' as it sometimes was
called, was a common name for a supposed anti-
dote against all poisons ; and he would imply that
regicides themselves began to be loyal, vipers not
now yielding hurt any more, but rather healing for
the old hurts which they themselves had inflicted.
To trace the word down to its present use, it may
* QrjpLGKT), from 6r}plov, a desij^nation given to the viper,
see Acts xxviii. 4. ' Theriac' is only the more rigid form of
the same word, the scholarly, as distinguished from the
popular, adoption of it. Augustine {Con. duas Epp. Pelacf.
iii. 7) : Sicut fieri consuevit autidotum etiam de serpentibus
contra venena serpentum.
t And Chaucer, more solemnly still :
" Christ, which that is to every harm triacle."
The antidotal character of treacle comes out yet more in
these lines of Lydgate :
" There is no venom so parlious in sliarpncs,
As whan it hath of treacle a likenes."
IV.] TREACLE, BLACKGUARD. 193
be observed that, designating first this antidote, it
then came to designate any antidote, then any
medicinal confection or sweet syrup; and lastly
that particular syrup, namely, the sweet syrup of
molasses, to which alone it is now restricted.
I will draw on the writings of Fuller for one
more example. In his Holij War, having enume-
rated the rabble rout of fugitive debtors, runaway
slaves, thieves, adulterers, murderers, of men
laden for one cause or another with heaviest cen-
sures of the Church, who swelled the ranks, and
helped to make up the army, of the Crusaders,
he exclaims, " A lamentable case, that the deviFs
black guard should be God^s soldiers !" What
does he mean, we may ask, by " the deviFs black
guard" ? Nor is this a solitary mention of the
'' black guard.^^ On the contrary, the phrase is
of very frequent recurrence in the early drama-
tists and others down to the time of Dryden,
who gives as one of his stage directions in Don
Sebastian, " Enter the captain of the rabble, with
the Black guard." What is this ' black guard^ ?
Has it any connexion with a word of our home-
liest vernacular ? We feel that probably it has so ;
yet at first sight the connexion is not very appa-
rent, nor indeed the exact force of the phrase. Let
me trace its history. In old times, the palaces
of our kings and seats of our nobles were not so
well and completely furnished as at the present
day : and thus it was customary_, when a royal
progress was made, or when the great nobility
exchanged one residence for another, that at such
o
194 CHANGED MEANING OE ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
a removal all kitchen utensils^ pots and pans, and
' even coals, should be also carried with them
where they went. Those who accompanied and
escorted these, the lowest, meanest, and dirtiest
of the retainers, were called ' the black guard /*
then any troop or company of ragamuffins ; and
lastly, when the origin of the word was lost sight
of, and it was forgotten that it properly implied
a company, a rabble rout, and not a single person,
one would compliment another, not as belonging
to, but as himself being, the ^ blackguard/
The examples which I have adduced are, I am
persuaded, sufficient to prove that it is not a use-
less and unprofitable study, nor yet one altogether
without entertainment, to which I invite you ;
that on the contrary any one who desires to read
with accuracy, and thus with advantage and plea-
sure, our earlier classics, who would avoid con-
tinual misapprehension in their perusal, and
would not often fall short of, and often go astray
from, their meaning, must needs bestow some
attention on the altered significance of Enghsh
words. And if this is so, we could not more
usefully employ what remains of this present lec-
ture than in seeking to indicate those changes
which words most frequently undergo; and to
trace as far as we can the causes, mental and
moral, at work in the minds of men to bring these
* " A slave that within these twenty years rode with the
hlacTc guard in the Duke's carriage, 'mongst spits and drip-
ping pans." (Webster's White Devil.)
IV.] FIXED LAWS OF CHANGE. 195
cliaiiges aboutj with the good and evil out of
which they have sprung, and to which they bear'
witness.
For indeed these changes to which words in
the progress of time are submitted are not changes
at random, but for the most part are obedient to
certain laws, are capable of being distributed into
certain classes, being the outward transcripts and
witnesses of mental and moral processes inwardly
going forward in those who bring them about.
Many, it is true, will escape any classification of
ours, the changes which have taken place in their
meaning being, or at least seeming to us, the
result of mere caprice ; and not explicable by any
principle which we can appeal to as habitually at
work in the mind. But, admitting all this, a
majority will still remain which are reducible to
some law or other, and with these we will occupy
ourselves now.
And first, the meaning of a word oftentimes
is gradually narrowed. It was once as a generic
name, embracing many as yet unnamed species
within itself, which all went by its common desig-
nation. By and bye it is found convenient that
each of these should have its own more special
sign allotted to it.* It is here just as in some
newly enclosed country, where a single household
* Genin {Lexique de la Langue de Moliere, p. 367) says
well : " En augraentant le iiombre des mots, il a fallu re-
streindre leur signification, et faire aux nouveaux un apanage
aux depens des anciens,"
o 2
196 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
'svill at first loosely occupy a whole district ; while,
as cultivation proceeds, this district is gradually
parcelled out among a dozen or twenty, and under
more accurate culture employs and sustains them
all. Thus, for example, all food was once called
^ meat / it is so in our Bible, and ^ horse-meat' for
fodder is still no unusual phrase ; yet ' meat' is
now a name given only to flesh. Any little book
or writing was a ' libeP once ; now only such a
one as is scurrilous and injurious. Any leader
was a ' duke' (dux) ; thus ^' duke Hannibal" (Sir
Thomas Elyot), '' duke Brennus" (Holland), " duke
Theseus" (Shakespeare), '^ duke Amalek," with
other 'dukes' (Gen. xxxvi.). Any journey, by
land as much as by sea, was a ' voyage.' * Fairy'
was not a name restricted, as now, to the Gothic
mythology ; thus " the fairy Egeria" (Sir J. Har-
rington). A 'corpse' might be quite as well
living as dead. * AVeeds' were whatever covered
the earth or the person ; while now as respects
the earth, those only are ' weeds' which are
noxious, or at least self-sown ; as regards the
person, we speak of no other ' weeds' but the
widow's. In each of these cases, the same con-
traction of meaning, the separating ofi' and assign-
ing to other words of large portions of this, has
found place. ' To starve' (the German ' sterben,'
and generally spelt ' sterve' up to the middle of
the seventeenth century), meant once to die any
manner of death ; thus Chaucer says, Christ
^' sterved upon the cross for our redemption;" it
now is restricted to the dying by cold or by hun-
IV.] WORDS USED- MORE ACCURATELY. 197
ger. Words not a few were once applied to both
sexes alike, which are now restricted to the female.
It is so even with ' girl/ which was once a young
person of either sex ;* while other words in this
list, such for instance as 'hoyden' (Milton, prose),
' shrew' (Chaucer), ' coquet' (Phillips, New World
of Words), ' witch' (Wiclif), ' termagant' (Bale),
'scold,' 'jade,' 'slut' (Gower), must be regarded
in their present exclusive appropriation to the
female sex as evidences of men's rudeness, and
not of women's deserts.
The necessities of an advancing civilization
demand a greater precision and accuracy in the
use of words having to do with weight, measure,
number, size. Almost all such words as ' acre,'
' furlong,' ' yard,' ' gallon,' ' peck,' were once of a
vague and unsettled use, and only at a later day,
and in obedience to the requirements of commerce
and social life, exact measures and designations.
Thus every field was once an ' acre ;' and this
remains so still with the German ' acker,' and in
our " God's acre," as a name for a churchyard ;
it was not till about the reign of Edward the First
that 'acre' was commonly restricted to a deter-
mined measure and portion of land. Here and
* And no less so in French with ' dame,' \>y which form
not * domina' only, but ' dominus,' was represented. Thus in
early French poetry, " Dame Dieu" for " Dominus Deus"
continually occurs. We have here the key to the French
exclamation, or oath, as we now perceive it to be, ' Dame !' of
which the dictionaries give no account. See Genin's Varia-
tions dio Laiigage Frangais, p. 347.
198 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
there even now a glebeland will be called " the
acre ;" and this^ even while it contains not one
but many of our measured acres. A * furlong'
was a ^ furroAvlong/ or length of a furrow.*
Any pole was a * yard/ and this vaguer use sur-
vives in ^ s?ii\yard,' ' h?dya7^d/ and in other sea-
terms. Every pitcher was a ' galon' (Mark xiv. 13,
Wiclif), while a ^ peck^ was no more than a ' poke'
or bag. And the same h^s no doubt taken place
in all other languages. 1 will only remind you
how the Greek ' drachm' was at first a handful
(^jOa;)^^// = ^manipulus/from S|Oa(7(70j, to grasp); its
later word for ' ten thousand' (juvpioi) implied in.
Homer's time any great multitude ; and with the
accent on a different syllable always retained this
meaning.
Opposite to this is a counter-process by which
words of narrower intention gradually enlarge the
domain of their meaning, becoming capable of
much wider application than any which once they
admitted. Instances in this kind are fewer than
in that which we have just been considering. The
main stream and course of human thoughts and
human discourse tends the other way, to discern-
ing, distinguishing, dividing ; and then to the per-
manent fixing of the distinctions gained, by the
aid of designations which shall keep apart for ever
in word that which has been once severed and sun-
* " k furlo)ig, (\\\?i^\ furrotvlong,\)e\\\Q^o much as a team
in England plougheth going Ibrward, before they return back
again. (Fuller, Pisgah Sight of Palestine, p. 12.)
IV.] WORDS USED LESS ACCURATELY. 199
dered in thought. Nor is it hard to perceive why
this process should be the more frequent. Men
are first struck with the likenesses between those
things which are presented to them, with their
points of resemblance ; on the strength of which
they bracket them under a common term. Further
acquaintance reveals their points of unlikeness,
the real dissimilarities which lurk under superficial
resemblances, the need therefore of a different
notation for objects which are essentially different.
It is comparatively much rarer to discover real
likeness under what at first appeared as unlikeness ;
and usually when a word moves forward, and from
a specialty indicates now a generality, it is not in
obedience to any such discovery of the true inner
likeness of things, — the steps of successful gene-
ralizations being marked and secured in other
ways. But this widening of a word's meaning
is too often a result of those elements of dis-
organization and decay which are at work in a
language. Men forget a word's history and etymo-
logy ; its distinctive features are obliterated for
them, with all which attached it to some thought
or fact which by right was its own. Appropriated
and restricted once to some striking specialty
which it vigorously set out, it can now be used in
a wider, vaguer, more unsettled way. It can be
employed twenty times for once when it would
have been possible formerly to employ it. Yet
this is not gain, but pure loss. It has lost its
place in the disciplined army of words, and be-
come one of a loose and disorderly mob.
200 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH W011DS.[lec.
Let me instance the word ^ preposterous/ It is
now no longer of any practical service at all in the
language^ being merely an ungraceful and slipshod
synonym for absurd. But restore and confine it to
its old use; let it designate that one peculiar branch
of absurdity which it designated once, namely the
reversing of the true order of things, the putting
of the last first, and, by consequence, of the first
last, snrl of what excellent service the word would
be capable. Thus it is ^preposterous,^ in the most
accurate use of the word, to put the cart before
the horse, to expect wages before the work is
done, to hang a man first and try him afterwards ;
and in this strict and accurate sense the word was
always used by our elder writers.
In like manner * to prevaricate' was never
employed by good writers of the seventeenth
century without nearer or more remote allusion
to the uses of the word in the Roman law courts,
where a ^ prsevaricator' (properly a straddler with
distorted legs) did not mean generally and loosely,
as now wdth us, one who shuffles, quibbles, and
evades ; but one who plays false in a particular
manner ; who, undertaking, or being by his office
bound, to prosecute a charge, is in secret collusion
with the opposite party ; and, betraying the cause
which he afl'ects to support, so manages the accu-
sation as to obtain not the condemnation, but the
acquittal, of the accused ; a " feint pleader," as,
I think, in our old law language he would have
been termed. IIow much force would the keep-
ing of this in mind add to many passages in our
elder divines.
IV.] EQUIVOCATE, IDEA. 201
Or take ' equivocal/ ' equivocate/ ' equivoca-
tion/ These words, which belonged at first to
logic, have slipped down into common use, and in
so doing have lost all the precision of their first
employment. ' Equivocation' is now almost any
such dealing in ambiguous words with the inten-
tion of deceiving, as falls short of an actual lie ;
but according to its etymology and in its primary
use ' equivocation/ this fruitful mother of so much
error, is the calling by the same name, of things
essentially diverse, hiding intentionally or other-
wise a real difference undor a verbal resemblance.*
Nor let it be urged in defence of its present looser
use, that only so could it have served the needs
of our ordinary conversation; on the contrary,
had it retained its first use, how serviceable an
implement of thought would it have been in
detecting our own fallacies, or those of others ;
all which it can now be no longer.
What now is ' idea' for us ? How infinite the
fall of this word since the time when Milton sang
of the Creator contemplating his newly created
world,
" how it showed,
Answering his great idea,"
to its present use when this person " has an idea
that the train has started,'' and the other " had
no idea that the dinner would be so bad." But
this word ' idea' is perhaps the worst case in the
* Thus Barrow : " Which [courage and constancy] he that
wanteth is no other than equivocally a gentleman, as an
imag-e or a carcass is a man."
202 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
English language. Matters have not mended
here since the times of Dr. Johnson ; of whom
Boswell tells us : " He was particularly indignant
against the almost universal use of the word idea
in the sense of notion or ojnnion, when it is clear
that idea can only signify something of which an
image can be formed in the mind.^^ There is
perhaps no word in the whole compass of English,
so seldom used with any tolerable correctness;
in none is the distance so immense between the
frequent sublimity of the word in its proper use,
and the triviality of it in its slovenly and its
popular.
This tendency in words to lose the sharp, rigidly
defined outline of meaning which they once pos-
sessed, to become of wide, vague, loose application
instead of lixed, definite, and precise, to mean
almost anything, and so really to mean nothing,
is among the most fatally effectual which are at
w^ork for the final ruin of a language, and, I do not
fear to add, for the demoralization of those that
speak it. It is one against which we shall all do
well to watch ; for there is none of us who cannot
do something in keeping words close to their own
proper meaning, and in resisting their encroach-
ment on the domain of others.
The causes which bring this mischief about are
not hard to trace. We all know that when a
piece of our silver money has long fulfilled its
part, as '^pale and common drudge Hween man and
man/' whatever it had at first of sharper outline
and livelier impress is in the end wholly obliterated
IV.] BOMBAST. 203
from it. So it is with words, above all with words
of science and theology. These getting into general
use, and passing often from mouth to mouth, lose
the '^ image and superscription" which they had,
before they descended from the school to the
market-place, from the pulpit to the street.
Being now caught up by those who understand
imperfectly and thus incorrectly their true value,
who will not be at the pains of understanding
that, or who are incapable of doing so, they are
obliged to accommodate themselves to the lower
sphere in which they circulate, by laying aside
much of the precision and accuracy and depth
which once they had ; they become weaker, shal-
lower, more indefinite; till in the end, as ex-
ponents of thought and feeling, they cease to be
of any service at all.
Sometimes a word does not merely narrow or
extend its meaning, but altogether changes it ;
and this it does in more ways than one. Thus a
secondary figurative sense will quite put out of
use and extinguish the literal, until in the entire
predominance of that it is altogether forgotten
that it ever possessed any other. I may instance
' bombast' as a word about which this forgetful-
ness is nearly complete. What ^ bombast' now
means is familiar to us all, namely inflated words,
"full of sound and fury,'' but "signifying nothing."
This, at present its sole meaning, was once only
the secondary and superinduced ; ' bombast' being
properly the cotton plant, and then the cotton
204 CHANGED MEANING OE ENGLISH WORDS. [leC.
wadding witli which garments were stuffed out
and lined. You remember perhaps how Prince
Hal addresses Falstaff, " How now_, my sweet
creature of bombast;'' using the word in its
literal sense ; and another early poet has this
line :
'* Thy body's bolstered out with homhast and with bags."
* Bombast^ was then transferred in a vigorous
image to the big words without strength or solidity
wherewith the discourses of some were stuffed
out, and has now quite foregone any other mean-
ing. So too ^ to garble^ was once " to cleanse
from dross and dirt, as grocers do their spices, to
pick or cull out.^^* It is never used now in this
its primary sense, and has indeed undergone this
further change, that while once ' to garble^ was to
sift for the purpose of selecting the best, it is now
to sift with a view of picking out the worst.f
' Polite^ is another word which in the figurative
sense has quite extinguished the literal. We still
speak of ' polished' surfaces ; but not any more,
with Cudworth, of "polite bodies, as looking
glasses.'-* Neither do w^e now ' exonerate' a ship
(Burton); nor ' stigmatize,' at least otherwise than
figuratively, a ' malefactor' (the same) ; nor ' cor-
roborate' our health (Sir Thomas Elyot).
* Phillips, New World of Words, 1706.
f "But his [Gideon's] army must be garbled, as too great
for God to give victory thereby; all the fearful return home
by proclamation." (Fuller, Pisgah Sight of Palestine,
b. ii. c. 8.)
IV.] GRADUAL CHANGE IN MEANING. 205
Again, a word will travel on by slow and regu-
larly progressive courses of change, itself a faithful
index of changes going on in society and in the
minds of men, till at length everything is changed
about it. The process of this it is often very
curious to observe ; capable as not seldom it is of
being watched step by step in its advances to the
final consummation. There may be said to be
three leading phases which the word successively
presents, three steps in its history. At first it
grows naturally out of its own root, is filled with
its own natural meaning. Presently the word
allows another meaning, one superinduced on the
former, and foreign to its etymology, to share
with the other in the possession of it, on the
ground that where the former exists, the latter
commonly co-exists with it. At the third step,
the newly introduced meaning, not satisfied with
its moiety, with dividing the possession of the
word, has thrust out the original and rightful pos-
sessor altogether, and remains in sole and exclu-
sive possession. The three successive stages may
be represented by a, ab, b; in which series b,
which was wanting altogether at the firs.t stage,
and was only admitted as secondary at the second,
does at the third become primary and indeed
alone.
We are not to suppose that in actual fact the
transitions from one signification to another are so
strongly and distinctly marked, as I have found it
convenient to mark them here. Indeed it is hard
to imagine anything more gradual, more subtle and
206 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WOIIDS. [leC.
imperceptible, than the process of change. The
manner in which the new meaning first insinuates
itself into the old, and then drives out the old, can
only be compared to the process of petrifaction, as
rightly understood — the water not gradually turn-
ing what is put into it to stone, as we generally
take the operation to be; but successively dis-
placing each several particle of that which is
brought within its power, and depositing a stony
particle in its stead, till, in the end, while all
appears to continue the same, all has in fact been
thoroughly changed. It is precisely thus, by such
slow, gradual, and subtle advances that the new
meaning filters through and pervades the word,
little by little displacing entirely that which it
before possessed.
No word would illustrate this process better than
that old example, familiar probably to us all, of
' villain.' The ' villain' is, first, the serf or peasant,
' villanus,' because attached to the ^ villa' or farm.
He is, secondly, the peasant who, it is further
taken for granted, will be churlish, selfish, dis-
honest, and generally of evil moral conditions,
these having come to be assumed as always be-
longing to him, and to be permanently associated
with his name, by those higher classes of society
who in the main commanded the springs of lan-
guage. At the third step, nothing of the mean-
ing which the etymology suggests, nothing of
'villa,' survives any longer; the peasant is wholly
dismissed, and the evil moral conditions of him
who is called by this name alone remain ; so that
IV.] GOSSIPS SPONSORS. 207
the name would now in this its final stage be
applied as freely to peer, i£ he deserved it^ as to
peasant. ^Boor^ has had exactly the same his-
tory j being first the cultivator of the soil ; then
secondly, the cultivator of the soil who, it is
assumed, will be coarse, rude, and unmannerly ;
and then thirdly, any one who is coarse, rude, and
unmannerly. So too ' pagan / which is first vil-
lager, then heathen villager, and lastly heathen.
You may trace the same progress in ' churl,'
' clown,' ' antic,' and in numerous other words.
The intrusive meaning might be likened in all
these cases to the e^^ which the cuckoo lays in
the sparrow's nest ; the young cuckoo first sharing
the nest with its rightful occupants, but not rest-
ing till it has dislodged and ousted them altogether.
I will illustrate by the aid of one word more
this part of my subject. T called your attention
in my last lecture to the true character of several
words and forms in use among our country people,
and claimed for them to be in many instances
genuine English, although English now more or
less antiquated and overlived. ' Gossip' is a word
in point. I have myself heard this name given
by our Hampshire peasantry to the sponsors in
baptism, the godfathers and godmothers. I do
not say that it is a usual word ; but it is occa-
sionally employed, and well understood. This is
a perfectly correct employment of ' gossip,' in fact
its proper and original one, and involves moreover
a very curious record of past beliefs. ^ Gossip,'
or 'gossib,' as Chaucer spelt it, is a compound
208 CHANGED MEANING OE ENGLISH WORDS. [leC.
■word^ made up of the name of ' God/ and of an old
Anglo-Saxon word, ' sib/ still alive in Scotland, as
all readers of Walter Scott will remember, and in
some parts of England, and which means, akin ;
they were said to be ' sib/ who are related to one
another. But why, you may ask, was the name
given to sponsors? Out of this reason; — in the
middle ages it was the prevailing belief (and the
Romish Church still affirms it), that those who
stood as sponsors to the same child, besides con-
tracting spiritual obligations on behalf of that child,
also contracted spiritual affinity one with another;
they became sib, or akin, in God; and thus 'gos-
sips;^ hence ^gossipred/ an old word, exactly analo-
gous to ' kindred/ Out of this faith the Roman.
Catholic Church will not allow (unless indeed by
dispensations procured for money), those who have
stood as sponsors to the same child, afterwards to
contract marriage with one another, affirming them
too nearly related for this to be lawful.
Take ' gossip' however in its ordinary present
•use, as one addicted to idle tittle-tattle, and it
seems to bear no relation whatever to its etymology
and first meaning. The same three steps, however,
which we have traced before will bring us to its pre-
sent use. 'Gossips' are, first, the sponsors, brought
by the act of a common sponsorship into affinity
and near familiarity with one another; secondly,
these sponsors, who being thus brought together,
allow themselves one with the other in familiar, and
then in trivial and idle, talk; thirdly, any who
allow themselves in this trivial and idle talk, —
IV.] CHANGE IS ALWAYS GOING ON. 209
called in Freiicli ' commerage/ from the fact that
^ commere^ has run through exactly the same stages
as its English equivalent.
It is plain that words which designate not things
and persons only, but these as they are contem-
plated more or less in an ethical light, words which
tinge with a moral sentiment what they designate,
are peculiarly exposed to change ; are constantly
liable to take a new colouring, or to lose an old.
The gauge and measure of praise or blame, honour
or dishonour, admiration or abhorrence, which they
convey, is so purely a mental and subjective one,
that it is most difficult to take accurate note of
its rise or of its fall, while yet there are causes
continually at work leading it to the one or the
other. There are words not a few, but ethical
words above all, which have so imperceptibly
drifted away from their former moorings, that
although their position is now very different from
that which they once occupied, scarcely one in a
hundred of casual readers, whose attention has not
been specially called to the subject, will have
>bserved that they have moved at all. Here too
we observe some words conveying less of praise
>r blame than once, and some more; while some
aave wholly shifted from the one to the other.
Some were at one time words of slight, almost of
offence, which have altogether ceased to be so
now. Still these are rare by comparison with
those which once were harmless, but now are
harmless no more; which once, it may be, were
terms of honour, but which now imply a slight or
p
210 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS. [leC.
even a scorn. It is only too easy to perceive why
these should exceed those in number.
Let us take an example or two. If any were
to speak now of royal children as "royal imps,*'
it would sound, and with our present use of the
word would be, impertinent and unbecoming
enough ; and yet * imp' was once a name of
dignity and honour, and not of slight or of undue
familiarity. Thus Spenser addresses the Muses
in this language,
" Ye sacred imps that on Parnasso dwell ;"
and ^imp' was especially used of the scions of
royal or illustrious houses. More than one epi-
taph, still existing, of our ancient nobility might
be quoted, beginning in such language as this,
" Here lies that noble imp.*' Or what should we
say of a poet who commenced a solemn poem in
this fashion,
"Oh Israel, oh household of the Lord,
Oh Abraham's brats, oh brood of blessed seed" ?
Could we conclude anything else but that he meant,
by using low words on lofty occasions, to turn
sacred things into ridicule? Yet this was very
far from the intention of Gascoigne, the poet
whose lines I have just quoted. *' Abraham's
brats'' was used by him in perfect good faith, and
without the slightest feeling that anything ludi-
crous or contemptuous adhered to the word * brat,'
as indeed in his time there did not, any more
than adheres to ' brood,' which is another form of
the same word now.
IV.] PRAGMATICAL, PROSE, PROSER. 211
Call a person ' pragmatical/ and you now im-
ply not merely that he is busy, but over-busy,
officious, self-important, and pompous to boot.
But it once meant nothing of the kind, and
' pragmaticaP (like irpay/^iaTiKog), was one en-
gaged in affairs, being an honourable title, given
to a man simply and industriously accomplishing
the business which properly concerned him.* So
too to say that a person ' meddles' or is a 'meddler'
implies now that he interferes unduly in other
men's matters, without a call mixing himself up
with them. This was not insinuated in the
earlier uses of the word. On the contrary three
of our earlier translations of the Bible have,
'' Meddle with your own business" (1 Thess. iv.
11) ; and Barrow in one of his sermons draws at
some length the distinction between ' meddling'
and " being meddlesome/' and only condemns the
latter.
Or take again the words, ' to prose' or a
'proser.' It cannot indeed be affirmed that
they convey any moral condemnation, yet they
certainly convey no compliment now ; and are
almost among the last which any one would desire
should with justice be applied either to his talk-
ing or his writing. For ' to prose,' as we all now
know too well, is to talk or write heavily and
* *'We cannot always be contemplative, or pragmatical
abroad: but have need of some delightful intermissions,
wherein the enlarged soul may leave off awhile her severe
schooling." (Milton, TetracJiordon.)
p 2
212 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
tediously, without spirit and without animation ;
but once it was simply the antithesis of to versify,
and a ' proser^ the antithesis of a versifier or a
poet. It will follow that the most rapid and live-
liest writer who ever wrote, if he did not write in
verse would have ' prosed^ and been a ' proser,' iu
the language of our ancestors. Thus Drayton
writes of his contemporary Nashe :
" And surely Nashe, though he a proser were,
A branch of laurel yet deserves to bear ;"
that is, the ornament not of a ^ proser,' but of a
poet. The tacit assumption that vigour, anima-
tion, rapid movement, with all the precipitation
of the spirit, belong to verse rather than to prose,
and are the exclusive possession of it, is that
which must explain the changed uses of the
word.
Still it is according to a word's present signi-
fication that we must apply it now. It would be
no excuse, having applied an insulting epithet to
any, if we should afterwards plead that, tried by
its etymology and primary usage, it had nothing
offensive or insulting about it ; although indeed
Swift assures us that in his time such a plea was
made and was allowed. '^ I remember," he says,
*' at a trial in Kent, where Sir George Rooke was
indicted for calling a gentleman ^ knave' and
' villain,^ the lawyer for the defendant brought off
liis client by alledging that the words were not in-
jurious ; for' knave' in the old and true significa-
tion imported only a servant ; and ' villain' in
TV.] VILLAIN, SYCOPHANT. 213
Latin is villicus, which is no more than a man
employed in country labour, or rather a baily/'
The lawyer may have deserved his success for
his ingenuity and his boldness ; though, if Swift
reports him aright, not certainly on the ground of
the strict accuracy either of his Anglo-Saxon or
his Latin.
The moral sense and conviction of men is often
at work upon their words, giving them new turns
in obedience to these convictions, of which their
changed use will then remain a permanent record.
Let me illustrate this by the history of our word
^ sycophant.^ You probably are acquainted with
the story which the Greek scholiasts invented by
way of explaining a word of which they knew
nothing, namely that the * sycophant^ was a
" manifester of figs,^^ one who detected others in
the act of exporting figs from Attica, an act for-
bidden, they asserted, by the Athenian law ; and
accused them to the people. Be this explanation
worth what it may, the word obtained in Greek
a more general sense ; any accuser, and then any
false accuser, was a ^ sycophant ;^ and when the
word was first adopted into the English lan-
guage, it was in this meaning : thus an old
English poet speaks of " the railing route of
sycophants ;" and Holland : " The poor man that
hath nought to lose, is not afraid of the syco-
phant.'^ But it has not kept this meaning ; a
* sycophant' is now a fawning flatterer ; not one
who speaks ill of you behind your back ; rather
one who speaks good of you before your face,
214 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS. [leC.
but good which he does not in his heart believe.
Yet how true a moral instinct has presided over
the changed signification of the word. The
calumniator and the flatterer, although they seem
so opposed to one another, how closely united
they really are. They grow out of the same
root. The same baseness of spirit which shall
lead one to speak evil of you behind your back,
will lead him to fawn on you and flatter you
before your face ; there is a profound sense in that
Italian proverb, " Who flatters me before, spatters
me behind."
But it is not the moral sense only of men
which is thus at work, modifying their words ;
but the immoral as well. If the good which men
have and feel, penetrates into their speech, and
leaves its deposit there, so does also the evil.
Thus we may trace a constant tendency — in too
many cases it has been a successful one — to
empty words employed in the condemnation of
evil, of the depth and earnestness of the moral
reprobation which they once conveyed. Men^s
too easy toleration of sin, the feebleness of their
moral indignation against it, brings about that the
blame which words expressed once, has in some
of them become much weaker now than once,
has from others vanished altogether. ^' To do a
shrewd turn,'^ was once to do a wicked turn ;
and Chaucer, using ^ shrewdness' by which to
translate the Latin ^ improbitas,' shows that it
meant wickedness for him ; nay, two murderers
he calls two ' shrews,' — for there were, as already
IV.] ANTECEDENTS OF WOllDS. 215
noticed, male shrews once as well as female.
But " a shrewd turn^^ now, while it implies a cer-
tain amount of sharp dealing, yet implies nothing
more ; and ' shrewdness' is applied to men rather
in their praise than in their dispraise. And not
' shrewd' and * shrewdness' only, but a multitude
of other words, — I will only instance ' prank/
' flirt,' * luxury,' ^ luxurious/ ' peevish,' ' way-
ward,' ' loiterer,' ^ uncivil/ — conveyed once a
much more earnest moral disapproval than now
they do.
But I must bring this lecture to a close. I
have but opened to you paths, which you, if
you are so minded, can follow up for your-
selves. We have learned lately to speak of men's
' antecedents / tbe phrase is newly come up ; and
it is common to say that if we would know what
a man really now is, we must know his ' antece-
dents,' that is, what he has been in time past. This
is quite as true about words. If we would know
what they now are, we must know what they have
been ; we must know, if possible, the date and
place of their birth, the successive stages of their
subsequent history, tlie company which they have
kept, all the road which they have travelled, and
what has brought them to the point at which now
we find them ; we must know, in short, their an-
tecedents.
And let me say, without attempting to bring
back school into these lectures which are out of
school, that, seeking to do this, we might add an
interest to our researches in the lexicon and the
216 CHANGED MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS.
dictionary which otherwise they could never have ;
that taking such words, for example, as iKKXr](Tia,
or waXiyjEVicJia, or evTpair^Xia, or aocjuari^q, or
ayoXaGTLicoQ, in Greek ; as * religio/ or ' sacra-
mentum/ or ' urbanitas/ or ' superstitio/ in Latin ;
as ' libertine/ or ' casuistry/* or ^ humanity/ or
' humourous/ or ' danger/ or ' romance/ in Eng-
lish, and endeavouring to trace the manner in
which one meaning grew out of and superseded
another, and how they arrived at that use in
which they have finally rested (if indeed before
our English w^ords there is not a future still), we
shall derive, I believe, amusement, I am sure,
instruction ; we shall feel that we are really get-
ting something, increasing the moral and intel-
lectual stores of our minds ; furnishing ourselves
with that which may hereafter be of service to
ourselves, may be of service to others — than which
there can be no feeling more pleasurable, none
more delightful. I shall be glad and thankful,
if you can feel as much in regard of that lecture,
which I now bring to its end.f
* See Wbewell, Sisiory of Moral Philosophy in Eng-
land, pp. xxvii. — xxxii.
t For a fuller treatment of the subject of this lecture, see
my Select Glossary of English Words used formerly in
senses different from their present, 2nd Ed., London,
1859.
217
LECTURE V.
CHANGES IN THE SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS.
WHEN T announce to you that the subject of
my lecture to-clay will be English ortho-
graphy, or the spelling of words in our native
langruasre, with the alterations which this has un-
dergone, you may perhaps think with yourselves
that a weightier, or, if not a weightier, at all
events a more interesting, subject might have
occupied this our concluding lecture. I cannot
admit it to be wanting either in importance or
in interest. Unimportant it certainly is not, but
might well engage, as it often has engaged, the
attention of those with far higher acquirements
than any which I possess. Uninteresting it may
be, by faults in the manner of treating it ; but I
am sure it ought as little to be this ; and
would never prove so in competent hands.* Let
us then address ourselves to this matter, not with-
out good hope that it may yield us both profit
and pleasure.
I know not who it was that said, " The inven-
* In proof that it need not be so, I would only refer to a
paper, On OrtJiocfraphical E.x^ecUents, by Edwin Guest,
Esq., in the Transactions of the Philological Society^
vol. iii., p. 1.
218 CHANGED SPELLING or ENGLISH WORDS, [leg.
tion of printing was very well ; but, as compared
to the invention of writing, it was no such great
matter after all/* Whoever it was who made
this observation, it is clear that for him use and
familiarity had not obliterated the wonder which
there is in that, whereat we probably have long
ceased to wonder at all — the power, namely, of
representing sounds by written signs, of repro-
ducing for the eye that which existed at first only
for the ear : nor was the estimate which he formed
of the relative value of these two inventions other
than a just one. Writing indeed stands more nearly
on a level with speaking, and deserves rather to be
compared with it, than with printing ; which, with
all its utility, is yet of altogether another and
inferior type of greatness : or, if this is too much
to claim for writing, it may at any rate be
affirmed to stand midway between the other two,
and to be as much superior to the one as it is
inferior to the other.
The intention of the written word, that which
presides at its first formation, the end whereunto
it is a mean, is by aid of symbols agreed on before-
hand, to represent to the eye with as much accuracy
as possible the spoken word.
It never fulfils this intention completely, and
by degrees more and more imperfectly. Short as
man's spoken word often falls of his thought, his
written word falls often as short of his spoken.
Several causes contribute to this. In the first
place, the marks of imperfection and infirmity
cleave to writing, as to every other invention of
v.] PHONETIC ALPHABET. 219
man. All alphabets have been left incomplete.
They have superfluous letters, letters, that is,
which they do not want, because other letters
already represent the sound which they represent ;
they have dubious letters, letters, that is, which
say nothing certain about the sounds they stand
for, because more than one sound is represented
by them — our ' c' for instance, which sometimes
has the sound of 's,' as in ' city,' sometimes of 'k,'
as in ' cat ;' they are deficient in letters, that is,
the language has elementary sounds which have no
corresponding letters appropriated to them, and
can only be represented by combinations of letters.
All alphabets, I believe, have some of these faults,
not a few of them have all, and more. This then
is one reason of the imperfect reproduction of
the spoken word by the written. But another
is, that the human voice is so wonderfully fine
and flexible an organ, is able to mark such subtle
and delicate distinctions of sound, so infinitely
to modify and vary these sounds, that were an
alphabet complete as human art could make it,
did it possess eight and forty instead of four and
twenty letters, there would still remain a multi-
tude of sounds which it could only approximately
give back.
But there is a further cause for the divergence
which comes gradually to find place between
men's spoken and their written words. What
men do often, they will seek to do with the least
possible trouble. There is nothing which they do
oftener than repeat words; they will seek here
220 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS. [leC.
then to save themselves pains; they will contract
two or more syllables into one ; {' toto opere' will
become ' topper f ' vuestra merced/ ' usted ;^ and
' topside the other way/ ' topsy-turvey/*) they will
slur over^ and thus after a while cease to pro-
nounce, certain letters ; for hard letters they will
substitute soft ; for those which require a certain
effort to pronounce, they will substitute those
which require little or none. Under the opera-
tion of these causes a gulf between the written
and spoken word will not merely exist; but it
will have the tendency to grow ever wider and
wider. This tendency indeed will be partially
counterworked by approximations which from time
to time will by silent consent be made of the
written word to the spoken ; here and there a
letter dropped in speech will be dropped also in
writing, as the ^ s' in so many French words,
where its absence is marked by a circumflex ; a
new shape, contracted or briefer, which a word has
taken on the lips of men, will find its representa-
tion in their writing ; as ' chirurgeon^ will not
merely be pronounced, but also spelt, ' surgeon/
and ' synodsman' ' sidesman/ Still for all this,
and despite of these partial readjustments of the
relations between the two, the anomalies will be
infinite ; there will be a multitude of written
* I have not observed this noticed in our Dictionaries as
the original form of the phrase. There is no doubt however
of the lact; see Stanihwrsfs Ireland, p. 33, iu Holinshed's
Chronicles,
v.] SPOKEN AND WRITTEN. 221
letters which have ceased to be sounded letters ;
a multitude of words will exist in one shape upon
our lips, and in quite another in our books.
It is inevitable that the question should arise —
Shall these anomalies be meddled with ? shall it
be attempted to remove them, and bring writing
and speech into harmony and consent — a harmony
and consent which never indeed in actual fact at
any period of the language existed, but which yet
may be regarded as the object of written speech,
as the idea which, however imperfectly realized,
has, in the reduction of spoken sounds to written,
floated before the minds of men ? If the attempt
is to be made, it is clear that it can only be made
in one way. The alternative is not open, whether
Mahomet shall go to the mountain, or the moun-
tain to Mahomet. The spoken word is the moun-
tain ; it will not stir ; it will resist all interference.
It feels its own superior rights, that it existed the
first, that it is, so to say, the elder brother;
and it will never be induced to change itself for
the purpose of conforming and complying with the
written word. Men will not be persuaded to pro-
nounce ' wou/d' and ' de6t,' because they write
* would^ and ' debt^ severally with an ^ P and with
a ^ b^: but what if they could be induced to write
' woud^ and ' det,' because they pronounce so ; and
to deal in like manner with all other words, in
which there exists at present a discrepancy between
the word as it is spoken, and the word as it is
written ?
Here we have the explanation of that which ia
222 CHANGED SPELLING OFENGLTSH WORDS, [lec.
the history of almost all literatures has repeated
itself more than once^ namely, the endeavour to
introduce phonetic writing. It has certain plausi-
bilities to rest on ; it has its appeal to the unques-
tionable fact that the written word was intended
to picture to the eye what the spoken word
sounded in the ear. At the same time I believe
that it would be impossible to introduce it ; and,
even if it were possible, that it would be most un-
desirable, and this for two reasons ; the first being
that the losses consequent upon its introduction
would far outweigh the gains, even supposing those
gains as great as the advocates of the scheme pro-
mise ; the second, that these promised gains would
themselves be only very partially realized, or not
at all.
In the first place, I believe it to be impossible.
It is clear that such a scheme must begin with
the reconstruction of the alphabet. The first thing
that the phonographers have perceived is the
necessity for the creation of a vast number of new
signs, the poverty of all existing alphabets, at any
rate of oar own, not yielding a several sign for all
the several sounds in the language. Our English
phonographers have therefore had to invent ten
of these new signs or letters, which are henceforth
to take their place with our a, b, c, and to enjoy
equal rights with them. Rejecting two (q, x),
and adding ten, they have raised their alphabet
from twenty-six letters to thirty-four. But to pro-
cure the reception of such a reconstructed alphabet
is simply au impossibility, as much an impossi-
v.] ALPHABETS IMPERFECT. 223
"bility as would be the reeonstitutiori of the struc-
ture of the language in any points where it was
manifestly deficient or illogical. Sciolists or
scholars may sit down in their studies, and devise
these new letters^ and prove that we need them,
and that the introduction of them would be a
great gain, and a manifest improvement ; and this
may be all very true : but if they think they can
induce a people to adopt them, they know little of
the ways in which its alphabet is entwined with
the whole innermost life of a people. One may
freely own that all present alphabets are redun-
dant here, are deficient there; our Engbsh per-
haps is as greatly at fault as any, and with that
we have chiefly to do. Unquestionably it has
more letters than one to express one and the same
sound ; it has only one letter to express two or
three sounds ; it has sounds which are only capable
of being expressed at all by awkward and round-
about expedients. Yet at the same time we must
accept the fact, as we accept any other which it is
out of our power to change — with regret, indeed,
but with a perfect acquiescence : as one accepts
the fact that Ireland is not some thirty or forty
miles nearer to England — that it is so difficult to
get round Cape Horn — that the climate of Africa
is so fatal to European life. A people will no more
quit their alphabet than they will quit their lan-
guage ; they will no more consent to modify the
one ab extra than the other. Csesar avowed that
with all his power he could not introduce a new
word, and certainly Claudius could not introduce
224 CHANGED SPELLING OFENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
a new letter. Centuries may sanction the bring-
ing in of a new one, or the dropping of an old.
But to imagine that it is possible suddenly to
introduce a group of ten new letters, as these
reformers propose — they might just as feasibly
propose that the English language should form its
comparatives and superlatives on some entirely
new scheme, say in Greek fashion, by the termi-
nations ^ oteros^ and ' otatos •/ or that we should
agree to set up a dual; or that our substantives
should return to our Anglo-Saxon declensions.
Any one of these or like proposals would not
betray a whit more ignorance of the eternal laws
which regulate human language, and of the limits
within which deliberate action upon it is possible,
than does this of increasing our alphabet by ten
entirely novel signs.
But grant it possible, grant our six and twenty
letters to have so little sacredness in them that
Englishmen would endure a crowd of upstart
interlopers to mix themselves on an equal footing
with them, still this could only be from a sense of
the greatness of the advantage to be derived from
this introduction. Now the vast advantage claimed
by the advocates of the system is, that it would
facilitate the learning to read, and wholly save the
labour of learning to spell, which " on the present
plan occupies,'' as they assure us, " at the very
lowest calculation from three to five years."
Spelling, it is said, would no longer need to be
learned at all ; since whoever knew the sound,
would necessarily know also the spelling, this
\
v.] SPELLING BY THE EAR. 225
being in all cases in perfect conformity with that.
The anticipation of this gain rests upon two
assumptions which are tacitly taken for granted,
but both of them erroneous.
The first of these assumptions is, that all men
pronounce all words alike, so that whenever they
come to spell a word, they will exactly agree as to
what the outline of its sound is. Now we are sure
men will not do this from the fact that, before
there was any fixed and settled orthography in our
language, when therefore everybody was more or
less a phonographer, seeking to write down the
word as it sounded to Mm, (for he had no other
law to guide him,) the variations of spelling were
infinite. Take for instance the word ^ sudden;^
which does not seem to promise any great scope
for variety. I have myself met with this word
spelt in the following fifteen ways amOng our early
writers : ' sodain,^ ' sodaine,^ ' sodan,^ ' sodayne,^
' sodden,' ' sodein,^ '' sodeine,' ' soden,^ ' sodeyn/
' suddain,' ' suddaine,' ^ suddein,' ^ suddeine/ ' sud-
den/ ' sudeyn.' Again, in how many ways was
Raleigh^s name spelt, or Shakespeare^s ? The
same is evident from the spelling of uneducated
persons in our own day. They have no other
rule but the sound to guide them. How is it
that they do not all spell alike; erroneously, it
may be, as having only the sound for their guide,
but still falling all into exactly the same errors?
What is the actual fact ? They not merely spell
wrong, which might be laid to the charge of our
perverse system of spelling, but Y.ith an inex-
Q
226 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec,
haustible diversity of error, and that too in the
case of simplest words. Thus the little town of
Woburn would seem to give small room for caprice
in spelling, while yet the postmaster there has
made, from the superscription of letters that have
passed through his hands, a collection of two
hundred and forty-four varieties of ways in which
the place has been spelt.* It may be replied that
these were all or nearly all from the letters of the
ignorant and uneducated. Exactly so ; — but it is
for their sakes, and to place them on a level with
the educated, or rather to accelerate their education
by the omission of a useless yet troublesome dis-
cipline, that the change is proposed. I wish to
show you that after the change they would be just
as much, or almost as much, at a loss in their
spelling as now.
And another reason which would make it quite
as necessary then to learn orthography as now, is
the following. Pronunciation, as I have already
noticed, is far too fine and subtle a thing to be
more than approximated to, and indicated in the
written letter. In a multitude of cases the diffi-
culties which pronunciation presented would be
sought to be overcome in different ways, and thus
different spellings w^ould arise; or if not so, one
would have to be arbitrarily selected, and would
have need to be learned, just as much as the
spelling of a word now has need to be learned. I
will only ask you, in proof of this which I affirm,
* Notes and Queries, No. 147.
v.] PRONOUNCING DICTIONARIES. 227
to turn to any Pronouncing Dictionary. That
greatest of all absurdities, a Pronouncing Dic-
tionary, may be of some service to you in this
matter ; it will certainly be of none in any other.
When you mark the elaborate and yet ineffectual
artifices by which it toils after the finer distinc-
tions of articulation, seeks to reproduce in letters
what exists, and can only exist, as the spoken
tradition of pronunciation, acquired from lip to
lip by the organ of the ear, capable of being
learned, but incapable of being taught; or when
you compare two of these Dictionaries with one
another, and mark the entirely different schemes
and combinations of letters which they employ for
representing the same sound to the eye ; you
will then perceive how idle the attempt to make
the written in language commensurate with the
sounded; you will own that not merely out of
human caprice, ignorance, or indolence, the former
falls short of and differs from the latter ; but that
this lies in the necessity of things, in the fact
that man^s voice can effect so much more than
ever his letter can.* You will then perceive that
there would be as much, or nearly as much, of
the arbitrary in spelling which calls itself pho-
netic as in our present, that spelling would have
to be learned just as really then as now. We
should be unable to dismiss the spelling card even
after the arrival of that great day, when, for ex-
* See Boswell's Life of Johnson, Crolver's edit. 1848,
p. 233.
q2
228 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
ample, those lines of Pope which hitherto we have
thus spelt and read^
" But errs not nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep ?"
■when, I say, instead of this they should present
themselves to our eyes in the following attractive
form :
"But S erz not netiur from dis greens end,
from burnii) sunz when hvid debs disend,
when erbkweks swolec, or when tempests swip
tonnz tu wnn grsv, hed neconz tu de dip."
The scheme would not then fulfil its promises.
Its vaunted gains, when we come to look closely
at them, disappear. And now for its losses. There
are in every language a vast number of words,
which the ear does not distinguish from one
another, but which are at once distinguishable to
the eye by the spelling. 1 will only instance a
few which are the same parts of speech ; thus
' sun^ and ^son / Sdrge^ ('virga,^ now obsolete) and
* verge -^ ' reign,' ^ rain,' and ' rein ;' ' hair' and
' hare ;' ' plate' and ' plait ;' ' moat' and ' mote ;'
' pear' and ' pair ;' ^ pain' and ' pane ;' ' raise' and
' raze ;' ' air' and ' heir ;' * ark' and ' arc ;' ' mite'
and ' might ;' * pour' and 'pore ;' 'veil' and 'vale j'
* knight' and ' night ;' ' knave' and ' nave ;' ' pier'
and ' peer ;' ' rite' and ' right ;' ' site' and ' sight ;'
' aisle' and ' isle ;' * concent' and ' consent ;'
*■ signet' and ' cygnet.' Now, of course, it is a real
v.] LOSSES OP PHONETIC SPELLING. 229
disadvantage, and may be the cause of serious
confusion, that there should be words in spoken
language of entirely different origin and meaning,
which yet cannot in sound be differenced from
.one another. The phonographers simply propose
to extend this disadvantage ah-eady cleaving to our
spoken language, to the written language as well.
It is fault enough in the French language, that
' mere' a mother, ' mer' the sea, ' maire' a mayor
of a town, should have no perceptible difference
between them in the spoken tongue ; or again that
in some there should be nothing to distinguish
' sans,' ' sang,' ' sent,' ' sens,' ' s'en,' ' cent ;' nor
yet between ' ver,' 'vert/ ' verre' and 'vers.'
Surely it is not very wise to propose gratuitously
to extend the same fault to the written language as
well.
This loss in so many instances of the power to
discriminate between words, which, however liable
to confusion now in our spoken language, are
liable to none in our written, would be serious
enough ; but far more serious than this would be
the loss which would constantly ensue, of all which
visibly connects a word with the past, which tells
its history, and indicates the quarter from which
it has been derived. In how many English words
a letter silent to the ear, is yet most eloquent to
the eye — the g for instance in ' deign,' ' feign,'
' reign,' ' impugn,' telling as it does of ' dignor,'
'fingo,' 'regno,' ' impugno ;' even as the b in
' debt,' ' doubt,' is not idle, but tells of ' debitum'
and ' dubium.'
230 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
At present it is the written word which is in all
languages their conservative element. In it is the
abiding witness against the mutilations or other
capricious changes in their shape which affectation,
folly, ignorance, and half- knowledge would intror
duce. It is not indeed always able to hinder the
final adoption of these corrupter forms, but does
not fail to oppose to them a constant, and very
often a successful, resistance. "With the adoption
of phonetic spelling, this witness would exist no
longer; whatever was spoken would have also to
be written, let it be never so barbarous, never so
great a departure from the true form of the word.
Nor is it merely probable that such a barbarizing
process, such an adopting and sanctioning of a
vulgarism, might take place, but among phonogra-
phers it already has taken place. We all probably
are aware that there is a vulgar pronunciation of
the word ' 'Eiwrope' as though it were ' Eur?//;.^
Now it is quite possible that numerically more
persons in England may pronounce the word in
this manner than in the right ; and therefore the
phonographers are only true to their principles
when they spell it in the fashion which they do,
' Eurup,^ or indeed omitting the E at the begin-
ning, ' Urup,^* with thus the life of the first syllable
assailed no less than that of the second. What
are the consequences ? First, its relations with
* A chief phonographer writes to me to deny that this is the
present spelling (1856) of 'Europe.' It was so when this
paragraph was written.
v.] PRONUNCIATION ALTERS. 231
the old mythology are at once and entirely broken
off; secondly, its most probable etymology from
two Greek words, signifying ' broad^ and ' face/
Europe being so called from the broad line or face
of coast which our continent presented to the
Asiatic Greek, is totally obscured. But so fc\r from
the spelling servilely following the pronunciation, I
should be bold to affirm that if ninety-nine out of
every hundred persons in England chose to call
Europe ' Urup,^ this would be a vulgarism still,
against which the written word ought to maintain
its protest, not sinking down to their level, but
rather seeking to elevate them to its own.* '
And if there is much in orthography which is
unsettled now, how much more would be unsettled
then. Inasmuch as the pronunciation of words is
* Quintilian has expressed himself with the true dignity of
a scholar ou this matter {Inst. 1. 6. 45) : Consuetudinem
sermonis vocabo consensum eruditorum ; sicut vivendi con-
sensum bonorum. — How different from innovations like this
the changes in the spelling of German which J. Grimm, so
far as his own example may reach, has introduced ; and the
still bolder and more extensive ones which in the Preface to
his Deutsclies Worterbuch, pp. liv. — Ixii., he avows his
desire to see introduced ; — as the employment ofy, not merely
where it is at present used, but also wherever v is now em-
ployed ; the substituting of the v, which would be thus dis-
engaged, for w, and the entire dismissal of w. They may be
advisable, or they may not ; it is not for strangers to offer
an opinion ; but at any rate they are not a seizing of the
fluctuating, superficial accidents of the present, and a seeking
to give permanent authority to these, but they all rest on a
deep historic study of the language, and of the true genius
of the language.
232 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS. [leC.
continually altering, their spelling would of course
have continually to alter too. For the fact that
pronunciation is undergoing constant changes,
although changes for the most part unmarked, or
marked only by a few, would be abundantly easy
to prove. Take a Pronouncing Dictionary of fifty
or a hundred years ago ; turn to almost any page,
and you will observe schemes of pronunciation
there recommended, which are now merely vul-
garisms, or which have been dropped altogether.
We gather from a discussion in Boswell's Life of
Johnson,^ that in his time ' great' was by some
of th^e best speakers of the language pronounced
^ gr^et/ not ' grate :' Pope usually rhymes it with
' cheat/ ' complete/ and the like ; thus in the
Dimciad :
" Here swells the shelf with Ogilby the great,
There, stamped with arms, Newcastle shines complete."
Spenser's constant use of the word a century and
a half earlier, leaves no doubt that such was the
invariable pronunciation of his time. Again, Pope
rhymes ' obliged' with ' besieged / and it has only
ceased to be ' oble^ged' almost in our own time.
AVho now drinks a cup of ' tay' ? yet there is
abundant evidence that this was the fashionable
pronunciation in the first half of the last century ;
the word, that is, was still regarded as French :
Locke writes it ' the / and in Pope's time though
no longer written, it was still pronounced so.
Take this couplet of his in proof:
* Croker's edit. 1818, pp. 57, 61, 233.
v.] SWIFT ON PHONETIC SPELLING. 233
" Here thou, great Anna, whom three reahiis ohey.
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea^^
So too a pronunciation which still survives,
though scarcely among well-educated persons, I
mean ^ Rooni^ for ^ Rome,' must have been in
Shakespeare's time the predominant one, else
there would have been no point in that play on
words where in Julius Caesar Cassius, complaining
that in all Rome there was not room for a single
man, exclaims,
"Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough."
Samuel Kogers too assures us that in his youth
" everybody said ' Lonnon' not ^ London / that
Fox said ' Lonnon^ to the last."
The following quotation from Swift will prove
to you that T have been only employing here an
argument, which he employed long ago against
the phonographers of his time. He exposes thus
the futility of their scheme* : '' Another cause
which has contributed not a little to the maiming
of our language, is a foolish opinion advanced of
late years that we ought to spell exactly as we
speak : which, besides the obvious inconvenience
of utterly destroying our etymology, would be a
thing we should never see an end of. Not only
the several towns and counties of England have
a different way of pronouncing, but even here in
London they clip their words after one manner
'^ A proposal for correcting, improving and ascertaining
the English Tongue, 1711, Works, vol. ix, pp. 139 — 159.
234 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
about the court, anotlier in the city, and a third
in the suburbs ; and in a few years, it is probable,
will all differ from themselves, as fancy or fashion
shall direct ; all which, reduced to writing, would
entirely confound orthography/^
This much I have thought good to say in re-
spect of that entire revolution in English ortho-
graphy, which some rash innovators have proposed.
Let me, dismissing them and their innovations,
call your attention now to those changes in
spelling which are constantly going forward, at
some periods more rapidly than at others, but which
never wholly cease out of a language ; while at
the same time I endeavour to trace, where this is
possible, the motives and inducements which bring
them about. It is a subject which none can
neglect, who desire to obtain even a tolerably ac-
curate acquaintance with their native tongue.
Some principles have been laid down in the course
of what has been said ah^eady, that may help us
to judge whether the changes which have found
place in our own have been for better or for worse.
We shall find, if I am not mistaken, of both kinds.
There are alterations in spelling which are for
the worse. Thus an altered spelling will some-
times obscure the origin of a word, concealing it
from those who, but for this, would at once have
known whence and what it was, and would have
found both pleasure and profit in this knowledge.
I need not say that in all those cases where the
earlier spelling revealed the secret of the word,
v.] GROGRAM, PIGMY. 235
told its history, whicli the latter defaces or con-
ceals, the change has been injurious, and is to be
regretted ; while, at the same time, where it has
thoroughly established itself, there is nothing to
do but to acquiesce in it : the attempt to undo
it would be absurd. Thus, when ' grocer ^ was
spelt ' grosser,' it was comparatively easy to see
that he first had his name, because he sold his
wares not by retail, but in the gross. ' Co<rcomV
tells us nothing now ; but it did when spelt, as
it used to be, ^ cockseomh/ the comb of a cock
being then an ensign or token which the fool was
accustomed to wear. In ^ grogra?/*^ we are en-
tirely to seek for the derivation ; but in ' grogra?^^
or ' grograi/z,^ as earlier it was spelt, one could
scarcely miss ^ grosgrain,^ the stuff of a coarse
gram or woof. How many now understand
' woodbine T but who could have helped under-
standing ^ woodbinf/^ (Ben Jonson) ? What a
mischievous alteration in spelling is ^ divest^ in-
stead of ^ devest/ This change is so recent that
I am tempted to ask whether it would not here
be possible to return to the only intelligible
spelling of this word?
^ Pigmy^ used formerly to be spelt ' p?/gmy,'
and so long as it was so, no Greek scholar could
see the word, but at once he knew that by it
were indicated manikins whose measure in height
was no greater than that of a man's arm from the
elbow to the closed fist.^ Now he may know
* Pygrasei, quasi cuhitales (Augustine).
236 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
this in other ways ; but the word itself, so long
as he assumes it to be rightly spelt, tells him
nothing. Or again, the old spelling, ^ diamant/
was preferable to the modern 'diamond.' It
was preferable, because it told more of the quarter
from whence the word had reached us. ' Dia-
mant' and ' adamant^ are in fact only two different
adoptions on the part of the English tongue, of
one and the same Greek, which afterwards became
a Latin, word. The primary meaning of ^ ada-
mant^ is, as you know, the indomitable, and it
was a name given at first to steel as the hardest
of metals ; but afterwards transferred* to the most
precious among all the precious stones, as that
which in power of resistance surpassed everything
besides.
Neither are new spellings to be commended,
which obliterate or obscure the relationship of a
word with others to which it is really allied ; sepa-
rating from one another, for those not thoroughly
acquainted Avith the subject, words of the same
family. Thus when ^^aw' was spelt ' diaw,' no
* First so used by Theophrastus in Greek, and by Pliny
in Latin, — The real identity of the two words explains
Milton's use of ' diamond' in Paradise Lost, b. 7 ; and also
in that subHme passage in his A2:)ology for Smectymnuus :
"Then zeal, whose substance is ethereal, arming in complete
diamond." — Diez {Worterhuch d. Roman. Sprachen, p. 123)
supposes, not very probably, that it was under a certain
influence of ' c^mfano,' the translucent, that * adamante' was
in the Italian, from whence we have derived the word,
chan'^ed into * c//canante.'
v.] COUSIN, BRAND-NEW. 237
one could miss its connexion with tlie verb ' to
chew/ Now probably ninety-nine out of a
hundred who use both words, are entirely unaware
of any relationship between them. It is the same
with * cousin^ (consanguineus), and * to cozen^ or
to deceive. I do not propose to determine which
of these words should conform itself to the spelling
of the other. There was great irregularity in
the spelling of both from the first ; yet for all this,
it was then better than now, when a permanent
distinction has established itself between them,
keeping out of sight that ' to cozen' is in all
likelihood to deceive under show of kindred
and affinity; which if it be so^ Shakespeare's
words,
" Cousins indeed, and by their uncle cozened
Of comfort, '*
will be found to contain not a pun, but an
etymology. The real relation between ' bliss'
and ' to bless' is in like manner at present ob-
scured.
The omission of a letter, or the addition of a
letter^ may each effectually do its work in keep-
ing out of sight the true character and origin of
a word. Thus the omission of a letter. When
the first syllable of ' bran-new,' was spelt ^ brauc^'
with a final ' d/ ^ bran^Z-new,^ how vigorous an
image did the word contain. The ' brand' is the
fire, and ' brand-new' equivalent to ' fire-new'
(Shakespeare), is that which is fresh and bright;
* Blchard III Act iv. Sc. 4.
238 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISHWORDS. [lec.
as being newly come from the forge and fire.
As now spelt, ' bran-new' conveys to us no image
at all.
Again, you have the word ' scrip' — as a ' scrip'
of paper, ji,overnraent ' scrip.' Is this the same
Avord with the Saxon ^ scrip/ a wallet, having in
some strange manner obtained these meanings so
different and so remote ? Have we here only two
different applications of one and the same word,
or two homonyms, wholly different words, though
spelt alike ? We have only to note the way in
which the first of these ' scrips' used to be
written, namely with a final ' t,' not ' scrip' but
' scrip/,' and we are at once able to answer the
question. This ' scrip' is a Latin, as the other
is an Anglo-Saxon, word, and meant at first
simp)ly a ivydtien (scripta) piece of paper — a cir-
cumstance which since the omission of the final
' t' may easily escape our knowledge. ^ Afraid' was
spelt much better in old times with the double ' ff,'
than with the single ' f as now. It w^as then clear
that it was not another form of ' afeared,' but
wholly separate from it, the participle of the verb
' to aftray,' ' affrayer,' or, as it is now written,
' effrayer.^
In the cases hitherto adduced, it has been the
omission of a letter which has clouded and con-
cealed the etymology. The intrusion of a letter
sometimes does the same. Thus in the early edi-
tions of Paradise Lost, and in all writers of that
time, you will find ' scent,' an odour, spelt
^sent.' It was better so; there is no other noun
v.] WHOLE, HALE, HEAL. 239
substantive ' sent/ with which it is in danger of
being confounded ; while its relation witli ^ sentio/
with ' YQsent,'^ ' dissent/ and the like, is put out
of sight by its novel spelling ; the intrusive ' c'
serves only to mislead. The same thing was at-
tempted with ' site/ ' situate/ ' situation,' spelt for
a time by many, ' sc'ite/ ' scituate/ ^ scituation /
but it did not continue with these. Again, ' whole,^
in Wiclif s Bible, and indeed much later, occa-
sionally as far down as Spenser, is spelt ' hole/
without the ' w' at the beginning. The present
orthography may have the advantage of at once
distinguishing the word to the eye from any other ;
but at the same time the initial ' w/ now prefixed,
hides its relation to tlie verb ' to heal/ with which
it is closely allied. The ' whole' man is he whose
hurt is ' healed' or covered (we say of the conva-
lescent that he ' recovers') ; ' whole' being closely
aUied to ' hale' (integer), from which also by its
modern spelling it is divided. ' Wholesome' has
naturally followed the fortunes of ^ whole / it was
spelt ^ holsome' once.
Of ^ island' too cur present spelling i^^inferior to
the old, inasmuch as it suggests a hybrid forma-
* How close this relationship was once, not merely in
respect of etymolo.^^y, but also of significance, a passage like
this will prove : " Perchance, as vultures are said to smell the
earthiness of a dying corpse ; so this bird of prey [the evil
spirit which personated Samuel, 1 Sam. xxviii. 14] resented
a worse than earthly savor in the soul of Saul, as evi-
dence of his death at hand." (Fuller, The Profane State,
b. 5. c. 4.)
240 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS. [leC.
tion, as though the word were made up of the
Latin ' insula/ and the Saxon ' land/ It is quite
true that ' isle' is in relation with^ and descent
from, ' insula/ ' isola/ ^ ile / and hence probably
the misspelling of ' island/ This last however has
nothing to do with ' insula/ being identical with
the German ' eiland/ the Anglo-Saxon ' ealand/
and signifying the sea-land, or land girt round
with the sea. And it is worthy of note that this
' s' in the first syllable of Msland' is quite of
modern introduction. In all the earlier versions
of the Scriptures, and in the Authorized Version
as at first set forth, it is ^ iland / while in proof
that this is not accidental, it may be observed
that, while ' iland' has not the ^ s,' ' isle' has it
(see Rev.' i. 9). Hland' indeed is the spelling
which we meet Avith far down into the seventeenth
century.
What has just been said of ^ island' leads me as
by a natural transition to observe that one of the
most frequent causes of alteration in the spelling
of a word is a wrongly assumed derivation. It is
then souglft to bring the word into harmony with,
and to make it by its spelling suggest, this deriva-
tion, which has been erroneously thrust upon it.
Here is a subject which, followed out as it deserves,
would form an interesting and instructive chapter
in the history of language. Let me off*er one or
two small contributions to it ; noting first by the
way how remarkable an evidence we have in this
fact, of the manner in which not the learned only,
but a]i persons learned and unlearned alike, crave
v.] PYRAMID WHY SO SPELT. 241
to have a meaning in the words which they employ,
crave to have these words not body only, but
body and soul. What an attestation, I say, of
this lies in the fact that where a word in its proper
derivation is unintelligible to them, they will shape
and mould it into some other form, not enduring
that it should be a mere inert sound without sense
in their ears ; and if they do not know its right
origin, will rather put into it a wrong one, than
that it should have for them no meaning, and
suggest no derivation at all.*
There is probably no language in which such a
process has not been going forward ; in which it is
not the explanation, in a vast number of instances,
of changes in spelling and even in form, which,
words have undergone. I will offer a few exam-
ples of it from foreign tongues, before adducing any
from our own. ' Pyramid^ is a word, the spelling
of which was affected in the Greek by an erroneous
assumption of its derivation ; the consequences of
this error surviving in our own word to the present
day. It is spelt by us with a ^ y' in the first sylla-
ble, as it was spelt with the v corresponding in the
Greek. But why was this ? It was because the
Greeks assumed that the pyramids were so named
from their having the appearance of flame going
up into a point,t and so they spelt * p?/ramid,^ that
they might find ttu^ or ^ pyre^ in it ; while in fact
* Diez looks with much favour on this process, and calls it,
ein sinnreiches mittel fremdlinge ganz heimisch zu machen.
f Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 15, 28
R
242 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
' pyramid' has nothing to do with flame or fire at
all ; being, as those best qualified to speak on the
matter declare to us, an Egyptian word of quite
a diff'erent signification, and the Coptic letters
being much better represented by the diphthong
' ei' than by the letter ' j/ as no doubt, but for
this mistaken notion of what the word was intended
to mean, they would have been.
Once more — the form ' Hierosolyma,' wherein
the Greeks reproduced the Hebrew ^ Jerusalem,'
was intended in all probability to express that the
city so called was the sacred city of the Solymi.^
At all events the intention not merely of repro-
ducing the Hebrew word, but also of making it
significant in Greek, of finding lepou in it, is plainly
discernible. For indeed the Greeks were exceed-
ingly intolerant of foreign words, till they had laid
aside their foreign appearance — of all words which
they could not thus quicken with a Greek soul ;
and, with a very characteristic vanity, an ignoring
of all other tongues but their own, assumed with no
apparent misgivings that all words, from whatever
quarter derived, were to be explained by Greek
etymologies. t
* Tacitus, Hist. v. 2.
f Let me illustrate this by further instances in a note.
Thus ^ovTvpov, from which, through the Latin, our ' butter*
has descended to us, is borrowed (Pliny, S.N. xxviii. 9) from
a Scythian word, now to us unknown : yet it is sufficiently
plain that the Greeks so shaped and spelt it as to contain
apparent allusion to cow and cheese ; there is in jiovrvpov an
evident feeling after I^ovq and rvpov. Bozra, meaning citadel
v.] ♦ TARTAR. 243
' Tartar' is another word, of which it is at least
possible that a wrongly assumed derivation has
modified the spelling, and indeed not the spelling
only, but the very shape in which we now possess
it. To many among us it may be known that the
people designated by this appellation are not pro-
perly ' Tartars,^ but ' Tatars / and you sometimes
perhaps have noted the omission of the * r' on the
part of those who are curious in their spelling.
How then, it may be asked, did the form ' Tartar^
in Hebrew and Phoenician, and the name, no doubt, which
the citadel of Carthage bore, becomes 'Qvpo-a on Greek lips ;
and then the well known legend of the ox-hide was invented
upon the name ; not having suggested it, but being itself sug-
gested by it. Herodian (v. 6) reproduces the name of the
Syrian goddess Astarte in a shape that is significant also for
Greek ears — 'Aarpoapxr], The Star-ruler,or Star-queen. When
the apostate and hellenizing Jews assumed Greek names,
' Eliakim' or " Whom God has set," became ' Alcimus'
{aXKLfios) or The Strong (1 Mace. vii. 5). Latin examples
in like kind are ' comy'ssatio,' spelt continually * comessatio,'
and ' comessation' by those who sought to naturalize it in
England, as though it were connected with 'comedo,' to eat,
beng indeed the substantive from the verb 'comissari'
(= KcofMaCeiv), to revel ; as Plutarch, whose Latin is in
general not very accurate, long ago correctly observed, and
' orichalcum,' spelt often ' «2^richalcum,' as though it were a
composite metal of mingled cfold and brass ; being indeed the
mountain brass {opeixcOiKos). The miracle play, which is
* mystere,' in French, whence our English ' mystery,' was
originally written ' mistere,* being properly derived from
* ministere,' and having its name because the clergy, the
ministri Ecclesise, conducted it. This was forgotten, and it
then took its present form of ' mystery,' as though so called
because the mysteries of the faith were in it set out.
r2
244 CHANGED SPELLING OFENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
arise ? When tlie terrible hordes of middle Asia
burst iu upon civilized Europe in the thirteenth
century, many beheld in the ravages of their innu-
merable cavalry a fulfilment of that prophetic word
in the Revelation (chap, ix.) concerning the open-
ing of the bottomless pit; and from this belief
ensued the change of tlieir name from * Tatars^ to
^ Tartars/ which was thus put into closer relation
with ' Tartarus^ or hell, out of which their multi-
tudes were supposed to have proceeded.*
Another good example in the same kind is the
German word ' siindflut/ the Deluge, which is now
so spelt as to signify a ' sinflood,^ the plague or
flood of waters brought on the world by the sins
of mankind ; and probably some of us have before
this admired the pregnant significance of the word.
Yet the old High German word had originally no
such intention ; it was spelt ' sinfluot/ that is, the
great flood ; and as late as Luther, indeed in
Luther^s own translation of the Bible, is so spelt
as to make plain that the notion of a ' si^i-flood'
had not yet found its way into, even as it had
not affected the spelling of, the word.f
* We have here, in this bringing of the words by their
supposed etymology together, the explanation of the fact that
Spenser {Fairy Queen, i. 7, 44), Middleton {Worlds, vol. 5.
pp. 524, 528, 538), and others employ ' Tartary' as equivalent
to ' Tartarus' or hell.
f For a full discussion of this matter and fixin<^ of the
period at which * sinlluot' became * siindflut,' see the Theol.
Stud. u. Krit. vol. ii. p. G13; and Delitzsch, Genesis, 2nd
(!d. vol. ii. p. 210.
v.] COURT-CARDS ONCE COAT-CARDS. 245
But to look now nearer home for our examples.
The little raisins brought from Greece, which play-
so important a part in one of the national dishes
of England, the Christmas plum-pudding, used to
be called ' corinths ;' and so you would find them
in mercantile lists of a hundred years ago : either
that for the most part they were shipped from
Corinth, the principal commercial city in Greece,
or because they grew in large abundance in the
immediate district round about it. Their likeness
in shape and size and general appearance to our
own currants, working together with the ignorance
of the great majority of English people about any
such place as Corinth, soon brought the name
' corinths^ into ' currants,^ which now with a cer-
tain unfitness they bear ; being not currants at all,
but dried grapes, though grapes of diminutive size.
' Court -cards/ that is, the king, queen, and knave
in each suit, were once ' coat-cards ;'* having their
name from the long splendid ' coat' (vestis talaris)
with which they were arrayed. Probably 'coat'
after a while did not perfectly convey its original
meaning and intention ; being no more in common
use for the long garment reaching down to the
heels ; and then ' coat' was easily exchanged for
' court,' as the word is now both spelt and pro-
nounced, seeing that nowhere so fitly as in a Court
should such splendidly arrayed personages be found.
A public house in the neighbourhood of London
having a few years since for its sign " The George
* Ben Jonson, The New Inn, Act i. Sc. i.
246 CHANGED SPE]>LING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
Canning'^ is already " The George and Cannon"
— so rapidly do these transformations proceed, so
soon is that forgotten which we suppose would
never be forgotten. ^' Welsh rarebit" becomes
"Welsh rabbit;" and ^farced' or stuffed ' meat^
becomes "forced meat/^ Even the mere deter-
mination to make a word look English, to put it
into an English shape, without thereby so much as
seeming to attain any result in the way of etymo-
logy, this is very often sufficient to bring about a
change in its spelling, and even in its form.* It
is thus that ' sipahi^ has become ' sepoy ;' and
only so could ^ weissager^ have taken its present
form of ' wiseacre.^t
It is not very uncommon for a word, while it is
derived from one word, to receive a certain impulse
and modification from another. This extends
sometimes beyond the spelling, and in cases where
it does so, would hardly belong to our present
theme. Still I may notice an instance or two.
* 'Leghorn' is sometimes quoted as an example of this;
but erroneously; for, as Admiral Smyth has shown {The
Mediterranean,^. 409) 'Livorno'is itself rather the modern
corruption, and ' Ligorno' the name found on the earlier
charts.
t Exactly the same happens in other languages ; thus,
*armbrust,' a crossbow, looks German enough, and yet has
nothing to do with ' arm' or ' brust,' being a contraction of
'arcubalista,' but a contraction under these influences. As
little has * abenteuer' anything to do with 'abend' or ' theuer,*
however it may seem to be connected with them, being indeed
the Provencal ' adventura.' And * weissagen' in its earlier
forms had nothing in common with ' sajjen.'
v.] TRANSFORMATION OF WORDS. 247
Thus our ' obsequies' is the Latin ^ exequise/ but
formed under a certain impulse of * obsequium/
and seeking to express and include the observant
honour of that word. ' To refuse' is ' recusare/
while yet it has derived the ^ f ' of its second syllable
from ^ refutare ;' it is a medley of the two. The
French ' rame/ an oar^ is * remus/ but that modi-
fied by an unconscious recollection of ^ ramus.'
' Orange' is no doubt a Persian word, which has
reached us through the Arabic, and which the
Spanish * naranja' more nearly represents than
any form of it existing in the other languages of
Europe. But what so natural as to thiuk of the
orange as the golden fruit, especially when the
" aurea mala" of the Hesperides were familiar to
all antiquity ? There cannot be a doubt that
' aurum,' ^ oro,' ^ or,' made themselves felt in the
shapes which the word assumed in the languages
of the West, and that here we have the explana-
tion of the change in the first syllable, as in the
low Latin ^aurantium,' '^orangia,' and in the French
' orange,' which has given us our own.
It is foreign words, or words adopted from
foreign languages, as might beforehand be ex-
pected, which are especially subjected to such
transformations as these. The soul which the
word once had in its own language, having, for as
many as do not know that language, departed from
it, or at least not being now any more to be recog-
nized by such as employ the word, these are not
satisfied till they have put another soul into it,
and it has thus become alive to them again. Thus
248 CHANGED SPELLIN G OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
— to take first one or two very familiar instances,
but which serve as well as any other to ilhistrate
my position — the Bellerophon becomes for our
sailors the ' Billy Kufhan/ for what can they know
of the Greek mythology, or of the slayer of
Chimsera? an iron steamer, the Hirondelle, now
or lately plying on the Tyne, is the ^ Iron Devil/
* Contre danse/ or dance in which the parties stand
face to face with one another, and which ought to
have appeared in English as ' counter dance,^ does
become ' country dance,^* as though it were the
dance of the country folk and rural districts, as
distinguished from the quadrille and waltz and
more artificial dances of the town. A well known
rose, the ^* rose des quatre saisons'^ or of the four
seasons, becomes on the lips of some of our gar-
deners, the '^ rose of the quarter sessions," though
here it is probable that the eye has misled, rather
than the ear. ' Dent de lion,' (it is spelt ' dent-
* It is upon this word that De Quincey [Life and Man-
ners, p. 70, American Ed.) sa3^s excellently well : " It is in
fact by such corruptions, by off-sets upon an old stock, arising
through ignorance or mispronunciation originally, that every
language is frequently enriched ; and new modifications of
thought, unfolding themselves in the progress of society,
generate for themselves concurrent!}'' appropriate expressions.
.... It must not be allowed to weigh against a word once
fairly naturalized by all, that originally it crept in upon an
abuse or a corruption. Prescription is as strong a ground of
legitimation in a case of this nature, as it is in law. And the
old axiom is applicable — Fieri non debuit, factum valet.
Were it otherwise, languages would be robbed of much of
their wealth."
v.] NECROMANCY. 249
delyon' in our early writers) becomes ' clanclylion/
" chaucle melee," or an affray in hot blood, " chance-
medley," ' causey' (cbaussee) becomes ' causeway/
' racbitis' ^ rickets/ and in Frencb ' mandragora'
' main de gloire/
* Necromancy' is anotber word wbicb, if not
now, yet for a long period was erroneously spelt,
and indeed assumed a different sbape, under tbe
influence of an erroneous derivation ; wbich,
curiously enougb, even now that it bas been dis-
missed, bas left bebind it tbe marks of its pre-
sence, in our common pbrase, " tbe Black Art/'
I need bardly remind you tbat ' necromancy' is a
Greek word, wbicb signifies, according to its
proper meaning, a propbesying by aid of tbe dead,
or tbat it rests on tbe presumed power of raising
up by potent spells tbe dead, and compelling
tbem to give answers about tbings to come. We
all know tbat it was supposed possible to exercise
sucb power ; we bave a very awful example of it
in tbe story of tbe witcb of Endor, and a very
borrid one in Lucan.* But tbe Latin medieval
writers, wbose Greek was either little or none,
spelt tbe word, ' nigromantia/ as if its first sylla-
bles bad been Latin : at tbe same time, not wbolly
forgetting tbe original meaning, but in fact getting
round to it tbougb by a wrong process, tbey
understood tbe dead by tbese ^ nigri/ or blacks,
wbom tbey had brought into the word.f Down
* Phars. vi. 720—830.
f Thus in a Vocabulary, 1475: Nigromansia dicitur
divinatio facta per nigros.
250 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
to a rather late period we find the forms, ' negro-
mancer' and ' negromdmcy' frequent in English.
' Pleurisy' used often to be spelt, (I do not think
it is so now,) without an ^ e ' in the first syllable,
evidently on the tacit assumption that it was from
plus pluris. When Shakespeare falls into an
error, he " makes the offence gracious /' yet, I
think, he would scarcely have written,
" For goodness growing to a plurisy
Dies of his own too much,"
but that he too derived ' plurisy' from pluris.
This, even with the " small Latin and less Greek,"
which Ben Jonson allows him, he scarcely would
have done, had the word presented itself in that
form, which by right of its descent from irXivpa
(being a pain, stitch, or sickness in the side) it
ought to have possessed. Those who for ' cru-
cible' wrote 'chrysoble' (Jeremy Taylor does so,)
must evidently have done this under the assump-
tion that the Greek for gold, and not the Latin
for cross, lay at the foundation of this word.
' Anthymn' instead of ' anthem' (Barrow so spells
the word), rests plainly on a wrong etymology,
even as this spelling clearly betrays what that
wrong etymology is. ^ Rhyme' with a ^ y' is a
modern misspelling ; and would never have been
but for the undue influence which the Greek
' rhythm' has exercised upon it. Spenser and his
cotemporaries spell it ' rime.' ^ Abominable' was
by some etymologists of the seventeenth century
spelt ' abhominablc,' as though it were that which
v.] WRONG SPELLING. 251
departed from the human (ab homine) into the
bestial or devilish.
In all these words which I have adduced last^
the correct spelling has in the end resumed its
sway. It is not so with ' frontispiece/ which ought
to be spelt ' frontispice/ (it was so by Milton and
others), being the low Latin ' frontispicium/ from
' frons' and ' aspicio/ the forefront of the building,
that part which presents itself to the view. It
was only the entirely ungrounded notion that the
word ' piece^ constitutes the last syllable, which
has given rise to our present orthography.*
* As ' orthography' itself means properly " right spelling,"
it might be a curious question whether it is permissible to
speak of an incorrect orMography, that is, of a wrong right-
spelling. The question which would be thus started is one of
not unfrequent recurrence, and it is very worthy of observa-
tion how often, so soon as we take note of etymologies, this
co7itradictio in adjer.to is found to occur. I will here adduce
a few examples from the Greek, the Latin, the German, and
from our own tongue. Thus the Greeks having no con-
venient word to express a rider, apart from a rider on a
horse, did not scruple to speak of the /ior^eman (lirirevs)
upon an elephant. They often allowed themselves in a like
inaccuracy, where certainly there was no necessity ; as in
using hvbpids of the statue of a woman ; where it would have
been quite as easy to have used elKcov or ayaX^a. So too
their ' table' (rpa7re^a=Terpa7re^a) involved probably the four
feet which commonly support one ; yet they did not shrink
from speaking of a three-iooted table {rpLTrovs rpoTre^a), in
other words, a " three-footed foiir-footed ;" much as though
we should speak of a " i^Aree-footed quadruped" Homer
writes of a ' hecatomb' not of a hundred, but of twelve,
oxen; and elsewhere of Hebe he says, in words not repro-
252 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
You may, perhaps, wonder that I have dwelt so
long on these details of spelling ; that I have be-
stowed on them so much of my own attention, that
I have claimed for them so much of yours ; yet in
truth I cannot regard them as unworthy of our
very closest heed. For indeed of how much beyond
itself is accurate or inaccurate spelling the certain
indication. Thus when we meet ' s?/ren,' for ' seren,'
as so strangely often we do, almost always in news-
papers, and ofteu where we should hardly have
expected (I met it lately in the Quarterly Review,
ducible in Enghsh, vkmrap ecovoxo^i-. ' Tetrarchs' were
often rulers of quite other than fourth parts of a land.
"AKparoi had so come to stand for wine, without any thought
more of its signifying originally the u)i>mngled,i\\ix.t'&i. ^oXin
speaks oi^oKparos Kexepao-/jeVos(Rev, xiv. 10), or the unmingled
mingled. Boxes in which precious ointments were con-
tained were so commonly of alabaster, that the name came to
be applied to them whether they were so or not; and
Theocritus celebrates "golden alabasters." Cicero having to
mention a water-clock is obliged to call it a toaier sund\a\
(solarium ex aqua). Columella speaks of a " vintage of
honey" (vindemia mellis), and Horace invites his friend to
im/jef/e, not his /bo/', but his head, with myrtle {caput ini-
ped'wQ myrto.) Thus too a German writer who desired to
tell of the golden shoes with which the folly of Caligula
adorned his horse could scarceh' avoid speaking of golden
\\oo^-irons. The same inner contradiction is involved in
such languMge as our ovvn, a "false verdict," a " steel cuirass"
{' coriacea' from corium, leather), " antics new" (Harrington's
Ariosto), an " erroneous c^^wology," a " com chandler,"
that is, a " corn candle-\\\?ikQY,' " rather late" ' rather' being
the comparative of * rathe,* early, and thus "rather late"
being indeed " more early late ;" and in others.
v.] WRONG SPELLING. 253
and again in GifforcVs Massinger)^ how difficult it
is not to be ^'^ judges of evil thoughts/^ and to
take this slovenly misspelling as the specimen and
evidence of an inaccuracy and ignorance which
reaches very far wider than the single word which
is before us. But why is it that so much signifi-
cance is ascribed to a wrong spelling ? Because
ignorance of a vvord^s spelling at once argues igno-
rance of its origin and derivation. I do not mean
that one who spells rightly may not be ignorant of
it too, but he who spells wrongly is certainly so.
Thus, to recur to the example I have just adduced,
he who for ' siren^ writes ' s?/ren/ certainly knows
nothing of the magic coy^ds {(reipai) of song, by
which those fair enchantresses were supposed to
draw those that heard them to their ruin.
Correct or incorrect orthography being, then,
this note of accurate or inaccurate knowledge, we
may confidently conclude where two spellings of a
word exist, and are both employed by persons who
generally write with precision and scholarship,
that there must be something to account for this.
It will generally be worth your while to inquire
into the causes which enable both spellings to hold
their ground and to find their supporters, not
ascribing either one or the other to mere careless-
ness or error. It will in these cases often be
found that two spellings exist, because two views
of the word^s origin exist, and each of those
spellings is the correct expression of one of these.
The question therefore which way of spelling
should continue, and wholly supersede the other,
254 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
and which, while the alternative remains, we should
ourselves employ, can only be settled by settling
which of these etymologies deserves the preference.
So is it, for example, with ' chz/mist^ and ' chemist,'
neither of which has obtained in our common use
the complete mastery over the other. It is not
here, as in some other cases, that one is certainly
right, the other as certainly wrong : but they seve-
rally represent two different etymologies of the
word, and each is correct according to its own. If
we are to spell ' ch?/mist' and ' chz/mistry,^ it is
because these words are considered to be derived
from the Greek word, ^i»^og, sap; and the chymic
art will then have occupied itself first with distil-
ling the juice and sap of plants, and will from this
have derived its name. I have little doubt, how-
ever, that the other spelling, ' chemist,^ not
' chymist,^ is the correct one. It was not with the
distillation of herbs, but with the amalgamation
of metals, that chemistry occupied itself at its
rise, and the word embodies a reference to Egypt,
the land of Ham or * Cham,^* in which this art
was first practised with success.
Of how much confusion the spelling which used
to be so common, ^ satyr' for * satire/ is at once
the consequence, the expression, and again the
cause ; not indeed that this confusion first began
with us ;t fo^* the same already found place in the
* Xrjfxia, the name of Egypt ; see Plutarch, De Is. et Os.
c. 33.
f We have a notable evidence how deeply rooted this error
was, how long this confusion endured, of the way in which it
v.] ' satyr/ ' SATIRE.' 255
Latin, where ' satyricus' was continually written
for ' satiricus^ out of a false assumption of the
identity between the Roman satire and the Greek
satyric drama. The Roman ^ satira/ — I speak of
things familiar to many of my hearers, — is pro-
perly a/w// dish (lanx being understood) — a dish
heaped up with various ingredients, a * farce^ (ac-
cording to the original signification of that word),
or hodge-podge ; and the word was transferred
from this to a form of poetry which at first ad-
mitted the utmost variety in the materials of which
it was composed, and the shapes into which these
materials were wrought up; being the only form
of poetry which the Romans did not borrow from
the Greeks. Wholly different from this, having
no one point of contact with it in its form, its
history, or its intention, is the ' satyric' drama of
Greece, so called because Silenus and the ' Satyrs-'
supplied the chorus; and in their naive selfish-
ness, and mere animal instincts, held up before
men a mirror of what they would be, if only the
divine, which is also the truly human, element of
was shared by the learned as well as the unlearned, in Milton'i?
Apology for Smectymnuus , sect. 7, which everywhere pre-
sumes the identity of the ' satyr' and the * satirist.* It was
Isaac Casaubon who first effectually dissipated it even for the
learned world. The results of his investigations were made
popular for the unlearned reader by Dryden, in the very
instructive Discow^se on Satirical Poetry, prefixed to his
translations of Juvenal ; but the confusion still survives, and
* satyrs' and ' satires,' the Greek * satyric' drama, the Latin
* satirical' poetry, are still assumed by most to have some-
thing to do with one another.
256 CHANGED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
humanity, were withdrawn ; what man, all that
properly made him man being withdrawn, would
prove.
And then what light, as w^e have already seen,
does the older spelling of a word often cast upon
its etymology; how often does it clear up the
mystery, which would otherwise have hung about
it, or which had hung about it till some one had
noticed and turned to profit this its earlier spelling.
Thus ^ dirge^ is always spelt ' dirige' in early
English. This ' dirige' may be the first word in
a Latin psalm or prayer once used at funerals ;
there is a reasonable probability that the explana-
tion of the word is here ; at any rate, if it is not
here, it is nowhere. The derivation of ' midwife^
is uncertain, and has been the subject of discus-
sion j but when we find it spelt ' medewife' and
' meadwife,^ in Wiclif^s Bible, this leaves hardly a
doubt that it is the wife or woman who acts for a
mead or reward. In cases too where there was
no mystery hanging about a word, how often does
the early spelling make clear to all that which was
before only known to those who had made the
language their study. For example, if an early
edition of Spenser should come into your hands,
or a modern one in which the early spelling is
retained, what continual lessons in English might
you derive from it. Thus ' nostriF is always spelt
by him and his cotemporaries ' nosctlu'ill / a little
earlier it w^is ' nosethirle.' Now ' to thrilP is the
same as to drill or pierce ; it is plain then here at
once that the word signifies the orifice or opening
v.] MORRIS-DANCE, CRAY-FISH. 257
with which the 7iose is thrilled, drilled, or pierced.
We might have read the word for ever in our
modern spelling without being taught this. ' EIF
tells us nothing about itself ; but in ^ eln,^ used
in Holland's translation of Camden^ we recognize
' ulna^ at once.
Again, the ' morris' or ' morrice-dance,' which
is alluded to so often by our early poets, as it is
now spelt informs us nothing about itself; but
read ' moriske dance,' as it is generally spelt by
Holland and his cotemporaries, and you will
scarcely fail to perceive that of which indeed
there is no manner of doubt ; namely, that it was
so called either because it was really, or was
supposed to be, a dance in nse among the moris-
coes of Spain, and from thence introduced into
England.*
Again, philologers tell ns, and no doubt
rightly, that our ' cray-fish,^ or ' craw-fish,' is the
French ^ ecrevisse.' This is true, but certainly it
is not self-evident. Trace however the word
through these successive spellings, ' krevys' (Lyd-
gate), ^crevish' (Gascoigne), ' craifish' (Holland),
and the chasm between ^ cray-fish' or ' craw-fish'
and ' ecrevisse' is by aid of these three inter-
mediate spellings bridged over at once ; and in
the fact of our Gothic ' fish' finding its way into
* " I have seen him
Caper upright, hke a wild Morisco,
Shaking the hloody darts, as he his bells."
Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. Act iii. Sc. 1.
258 CHAT^GED SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
this French word we see only another example of a
law, which has been already abundantly illustrated
in this lecture.*
* In the reprinting of old books it is often very difficult to
determine how far the old shape in which words present
themselves should be retained, how far they should be con-
formed to present usage. It is comparatively easy to lay
down as a rule that in books intended for popular use, wherever
the form of the word is not affected by the modernizing of
the spelling, as where this modernizing consists merely in the
dropping of -superfluous letters, thei'e it shall take place; as
.whp would wish our Bibles to be now printed letter for letter
after the edition of 1611, or Shakespeare with the orthography
■ of the first folio ; but wherever more than the spelling, the
actual shape, outline, and character of the word has been
affected by the changes which it has undergone, that in all
such cases the earlier form shall be held fast. The rule is a
judicious one; but when it is attempted to carry it out, it is
not always easy to draw the line, and to determine what
affects the form and essence ot a word, and what does not.
About some words there can be no doubt ; and therefore when
a -modern editor of Fuller's Church History complacently
announces that he has allowed himself in such changes as
* dirige' into ' dirge,' * barreter' into * barrister,' ' synonymas'
into ' synonymous' !, ' extempory' into ' extemporary,' ' scited'
into ' situated,' ' vancurrier' into ' avant-courier ;' he at the
same time informs us that for all purposes of the study of
the English language (and few writers are for this more
important than Fuller), he has made his edition utterly worth-
less. Or again, when modern editors of Shakespeare print,
and that without giving any intimation of the fact,
" Like quills upon the fretful porcupine"
he having written, and in his first folio and quarto the words
standing,
"Like quills upon the ^veih\[ porpeniine,"
this being the earlier, and in Shakespeare's time the more
v.] RENEGADE, RUNAGATE. 259
In otlier ways also an accurate taking note of
the spelling of words^ and of the successive changes
which it has undergone, will often throw Hght
upon them. Thus we may know, others having
assured us of the fact, that ' ant' and ' emmet'
were originally only two different speUings of one
and the same word ; but we may be perplexed to
understand how two forms of a word, now so
different, could ever have diverged from a single
root. When however we find the different
spellings, 'emmet/ 'emet/ 'amet/ 'amt/ 'ant/. the
gulf which appeared to separate ' emmet' from-
' ant' is bridged over at once, and we not merely,
know on the assurance of others that these two
are in fact identical, their differences being • only
superficial, but we perceive clearly in what manner
they are so.
Even before any close examination of the mat-
ter, it is hard not to suspect that ' runagate' is in
fact another form of ' renegade,' slightly trans-
formed, as so. many words, to put an English
signification into its first syllable; and then the
meaning gradually modified in obedience to the
new derivation which was assumed to be its ori-
ginal and true one. Our suspicion of this is very
greatly strengthened (for we see how very closely
the words approach one another), by the fact that
common form of the word, they must be considered as taking
, a very unwarrantable liberty with his text ; and no less, when
they substitute 'Kenilworth' for ' Killingworth,' which he
wrote, and which was his, Marlowe's, and generally the earlier
form of the name.
s 2
260 CHANGED SPELLING OE ENGLISH WORDS, [lec.
' renega^e^ is constantly spelt ' renegade' in our
old authors, while at the same time the denial of
faith, which is now a necessary element in ' rene-
gade/ and one differencing it inwardly from
'runagate/ is altogether wanting in early use —
the denial of country and of the duties thereto
owing being all that is implied in it. Thus it is
constantly employed in Holland^s Livy as a ren-
dering of ' perfuga /* while in the one passage
where 'runagate^ occurs in the Prayer Book
Version of the Psalms (Ps. Ixviii. 6), a reference
to the original will show that the translators could
only have employed it there on the ground that
it also expressed rebel_, revolter, and not runaway
merely.
I might easily occupy your attention much
longer, so little barren or unfruitful does this sub-
ject of spelling appear likely to prove ; but all
things must have an end ; and as I concluded my
first lecture with a remarkable testimony borne hy
an illustrious German scholar to the. merits of our
English tongue,, I will conclude my last with the
words of another, not indeed a German, but still of
the great Germanic stock; words resuming in them-
selves much of which we have been speaking upon
this and upon former occasions : " As our bodies/'
he says, " have hidden resources and expedients, to
remove the obstacles which the very art of the
* " The Cavtlia<]^inians shall restore and deliver back all
the renecfates [perfuj^'as] and fugitives that have fled to their
side I'roni us." — p. 751.
v.] STRANGE WORDS NATURALIZED. 261
physician puts in its way, so language, ruled by an
indomitable inward principle^ triumphs in some
degree over the folly of grammarians. Look at
the English, polluted by Danish and Norman con-
quests, distorted in its genuine and noble features
by old and recent endeavours to mould it after
the French fashion_, invaded by a hostile entrance
of Greek and Latin words, threatening by increas-
ing hosts to overwhelm the indigenous terms. In
these long contests against the combined power of
so many forcible enemies, the language, it is true,
has lost some of its power of inversion in the
structure of sentences, the means of denoting the
difference of gender, and the nice distinctions by
inflection and termination — almost every word is
attacked by the spasm of the accent and the draw-
ing of consonants to wrong positions ; yet the old
English principle is not overpowered. Trampled
down by the ignoble feet of strangers, its springs
still retain force enough to restore itself. It lives
and plays through all the veins of the language;
it impregnates the innumerable strangers entering
its dominions with its temper, and stains them
with its colour, not unlike the Greek which in
taking up oriental words, stripped them of their
foreign costume, and bid them to appear as native
Greeks.^^*
* Halbertsma, quoted by Bosworth, Origin of the English
and Gerinanic Languages, p. 39.
INDEX OF WOKDS.
PAGE
Abenteuer . . . . . 246
Abnormal 74
Abominable ...... 250
Academy 71
Accommodate .... 108
Acra 197
Adamant 236
Admiralty 108
Advocate 83
^on 73
Esthetic 73
Afeard 128
Affluent 105
Afraid 129
Affcertbink 122
Alcimus 243
Alcove 15
Amphibious 108
Analogic 57
Ant 259
Anthem 250
Antipodes 70
Apotheosis 69
Armbrust 246
Arride 60
Ascertain 190
Ask 129
Astarte 243
Attercop 125
Aurantium 247
Aurichalcum .... 243
Avunculize 92
Axe 129
Baffle 185
Baker, bakester . . .160
Banter 107
Barrier 72
PAGE
Battalion , , . . . 63
Bawn 126
Benefice, benefit ... 97
Bitesheep 146
Black Art 249
Blackguard 193
Blasphemous .... 130
Bombast 203
Book 20
Boor 207
Bozra 242
Bran-new 237
Brat . . . . . . .210
Brazen 167
Breaden 166
Bruin 90
Buffalo 16
Butter . . .... .242
Buxom . . . . . . 142
Casuistry 216
Chagrin 96
Chance-medley .... 249
Chanticleer 90
Chemist, chemistry . . 249
Chicken 161
Chouse 92
Chymist, chymistry . . 254
Clawback 146
Coraissatio 243
Commerage 209
Confluent 105
Congregational .... 80
Contrary 130
Corpse ...... 196
Country dance .... 248
Court card 245
Coxcomb 235
264
INDEX OF WORDS.
PAGE
Cozen 237
Crawfish 257
Creansur 47
Criterion. ..... 69
Crone, crony .... 95
Crucible 250
Crusade 64
Cuirass 252
Currant 245
Cynarctomachy . ... 92
Dahlia 89
Dame 197
Dandylion 249
Dearworth 122
Dedal .87
Dehort 140
Demagogue 57
Denominationalism . , 80
Depot 71
Diamond 236
Dirge 256
Dissimilation .... 103
Divest 235
Donat 88
Dorter 20
Dosones 91
Doughty 148
Drachm 198
Dragoman 12
Dub 148
Duke 196
Dumps 150
Dutch .' 181
Eame 120
Earsport 121
Educational 80
Effervescence .... 57
Einseitig 76
Eliakim 243
Ell 257
Emet 259
Emotional ..... 80
Encyclopedia .... 69
PAGE
Enfantillage 57
Equivocation .... 201
Ei-utar 151
Escobarder 89
Europe 230
Eyebite 122
Fairy 196
Farfalla 15
Fatherland 76
Flitter-mouse .... 121
Flota 16
Folklore 77
Foolhappy 140
Foolhardy 140
Foolhasty 140
Foollarge . . . . . 140
Foretalk 122
Fougue ...... 68
Fraischeur 68
Frances .96
Francis 96
Frimm . . . . . . 121
Frivolite ..*... 57
Frontispiece 251
Furlong 197
Gainly 139
Gallon 197
Galvanism 9
Garble 204
Geir 120
Gentian 88
Girdle 20
Girfalcon 120
Girl 197
Glassen 166
Gordian 87
Gossip 207
Great 232
Grimsire 121
Grocer 235
Grogram 235
Ilalfgod 122
INDEX OF WORDS.
265
PAGE
Hallow 83
Handbook 76
Hangdog 147
Hector 90
Heft 121
Hermetic 87
Hery 120
Hierosolyma 242
HijDOcras 87
Hippodame 65
His 162
Hooker 15
Hoppester 157
Hotspur 121
Huck 160
Huckster, hucksteress . . 160
Hurricane 14
Iceberg 75
Icetield 75
Idea 201
Imp 210
Influence 184
International .... 79
Island 239
Isle 240
Isolated 108
Isothermal 103
Its . 133
Jaw 236
Jeopardy 84
Kenilworth 259
Kindly 188
Kirtle 20
Knave 212
Knitster 158
Knot 87
Lambiner 89
Lazar 88
Leer 120
Leghorn ^ 246
Libel 196
PAGE
Lifeguard 75
London 233
Lunch, luncheon . . . 131
Malingerer 121
Mammet, mammetry . . 88
Mandragora 249
Mansarde 90
Matachin 16
Matamoros 145
Mausoleum 87
Meat 196
Meddle, meddlesome . . 211
Middler 123
Midwife 256
Milken 166
Mischievous 130
Miscreant 183
Mithridate 87
Mixen 126
Morris-dance .... 257
Mystery, mystere . . . 243
Myth 73
Nap 149
Necromancy .... 249
Negus 88
Nemorivagus . . . . 78
Neophyte . . . . .108
Nesh • . 120
Niggot 86
Nimm 121
Noonscape . . ... .131
Noonshun . , . . . 131
Normal 74
Nostril ....... 256
Nugget 86
Nuntion 131
Oblige 71
Obsequies 247
Oculissimus 91
Orange 247
Orichalcum 243
Ornamentation . , . ; 74
266
INDEX OF WORDS.
Orrery . .
Orthography
Pagan ....
Painful, painfuhiess
Pandar, pandarism
Panorama
Pasquhiade . . .
Patch ....
Pate
Pease
Pester
Philauty . .
Photography
Physician . ,
Pigmy . .
Pinclipenny .
Pleurisy . .
Plunder . .
Poet . . .
Polite . . .
Polytheism .
Porcupine
Porpoise . .
Postremissimus
Potecary . .
Prsevaricator
Pragmatical .
Preliber . .
Preposterous
Prestige . .
Prevaricate .
Privado .
Prose, proser
Punctilio . .
Punto . .
Pyramid . .
PAGE
, 88
, 246
207
, 190
90
108
88
88
. 149
. 162
85
, 105
74
, 103
. 235
. 146
. 250
', 108
. 102
. 204
. 109
. 258
65
92
, 66
. 200
. 211
, 57
. 200
. 70
. 200
16
. 2)1
. 16
, 16
. 241
Quellio 16
Quinsey 65
Quirpo 16
Quirry 66
Eakehell .148
Kame 247
PAGE
Rathe, rathest . . 14-0, 141
Realmrape 121
Redingote ..... 65
Refuse 247
Regoldar 151
Religion 187
Renegade .... 260
Renown 103
Resent 239
Reynard 90
Rhyme 250
Rodomontade .... 90
Riches ...... 161
Righteousness . . . .139
Rome 233
Rootftist ...... 121
Rosen ....... 165
Ruly 139
Runagate 260
Sag , 121
Sardanapalisme ... 89
Sash 64
SateUites 63
Satire, satirical . . . .255
Satyr, satyric . . 254, 255
Scent 238
iSchimmer 120
Scrip 238
Seamster, seamstress 158, 159
Selfish, selfishness . . . 106
Sentiment 109
Sepoy 246
Serene 138
Shrewd, shrewdness . .215
Silhouette 89
Silvern 166
Silvicultrix 78
Siren 252
Skinker 120
Skip 149
Slick 135
Smellfcast 146
Snnig 149
Solidarity 72
INDEX OF WORDS,
267
PAGE
Songster, songstress 158, 159
Sorcerer ...... 102
Spencer 89
Sperr 120
Spheterize 74
Spinner, spinster . . .159
Starconner 122
Starve 196
Starvation . . . , . 81
Stereotype 74
Stonen 166
Suckstone 123
Sudden 225
Suicide 106
Suicism, suist .... 106
Siindflut 244
Sunstead 122
Swindler 75
Sycophant 213
Tabinet 89
Tapster 159
Tarre 120
Tartar 243
Tartary 244
Tea 232
Theriac 192
Thou 175
Thrasonical ..... 90
Tind 120
Tinnen 166
Tinsel 184
Tinsel-slippered . . . 184
Tontine 89
Topsy-turvy 220
Tosspot 146
Tram 89
PAGE
Treacle 192
Trigger 75
Trounce . . . . . .149
Turban 13
Umstroke 123
Van currier ..... 65
Vicinage 64
Villain .... 206, 212
Volcano 87
Voltaic 89
Voyage 196
Wanhope 119
Waterfright 123
Watershed 104
Weed 196
Welk 120
Welkin 161
Whole 239
Windflower 123
Wiseacre 246
Witch 102
Witticism 107
Witwanton 121
Woburn 226
Woodbine 235
Worship 189
Worterbuch 112
Yard 198
Youngster 159
Zoology 109
Zoophyte 109
THE END.
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