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PHILOLOGICAL
ESSAYS
T. HEWITT KEY, M.A., F.E.S.,
FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IX THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, U.
THEN OF LATIN IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON J
NOW OF COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR IN THE SAME,
AND HEAD MASTER OF THE SCHOOL.
LONDON :
BELL & DALDY, YORK STREET, COVEXT GARDEN.
1868.
\.JU rig h(i reserved.]
>^ -7t
<*
LONDON :
R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL.
-//3tf 7jT
7
PBEFACE.
The following Papers are in part now published for
the first time, in part reprinted from the ' Transac-
tions of the Philological Society,' but with many
changes or additions. In the selection I have passed
over several papers, because I wish to reserve them
for a systematic treatise on language, the greater part
of which is already ripe for publication.
I fear that some traces of haste will be visible in
what I am now putting out; but I have two pleas
in excuse : first, that the head-master of a school of
nearly four hundred boys has little leisure for other
work ; and secondly, that such leisure cannot now be
expected to be very productive for one who has entered
his seventieth year.
I take the present opportunity of enumerating the
various philological papers which have proceeded from
my pen during the forty years or so in which I have
been connected with University College, first as Pro-
fessor of Latin (thirteen years) and then as Pro-
fessor of Comparative Grammar (nearly twenty-seven
years).
*>
VI PREFACE.
A. Quarterly Journal of Education, published by
the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge : —
Vol. i. p. 89, Keview of Zumpt's Grammar, in
which I first put forth several of the new ideas which
appear in my Latin Grammar.
Vol. ii. p. 143, Eeview of Sallust's Catiline and
Jugurtha, as edited (l) by the Eev. W. Trollope, M.A. ;
(2) by Professor Charles Anthon, of New York.
Vol. ii. p. 344, School Editions of Terence, where
(pp. 349-364, &c.) I first give my theory of Terentian
metres.
Vol. iii. p. 312, Eeview of Crombie's 'Gymnasium/
Vol. iv. p. 134, Eeview of Allen's Treatise ' On
Latin Particles/
Vol. iv. p. 336, Eeview of Carey's ' Latin Prosody
made Easy/
B. Various articles in the Penny Cyclopaedia,
chiefly bearing on language. Among these papers
was one on Terentian metres, in agreement with the
article already mentioned as published in the Journal
of Education. These papers were for the most part
collected in a little volume entitled : —
C. ' The Alphabet, Terentian Metres, &c.;' with a new
paper on ' Good, Better, Best, Well/ &c. 1844. To
this was prefixed 'A Prefatory Letter' (to Mr. Long),
with ' Eemarks on the Varronianus of the Eev. J. W.
Donaldson, 1844,' where I brought against him several
distinct charges of plagiarism. The first published
copy of this book was sent to him August 23d.
In 1849 there was a ' second issue' of this book,
with a paper ' On the Pronouns of the Third Person/
D. The publication of the above-mentioned ' Pre-
. PREFACE. Vll
fatory Letter' led to a controversy with Mr. Donaldson,
which took the shape of four additional pamphlets :
first from him what he was pleased to call, 'A Eeply
to the Calumnies and Misrepresentations of Professor
T. H. Key/ A copy of this I received on the 20th
of November 1844. I at once wrote, and on the
30th of the same month sent him a printed copy of
A Kejoincler to the Eeply of the Eev. J. W. Donald-
son, B.D., in a second ' Letter to G. Long, Esq. M.A.
&c. ;' to which I attached a paper on
The Formation of the Latin Perfects amavi, &c.
On the 13th of December I received his second
pamphlet, entitled 'A Brief Examination of Professor
Key's Eejoinder;' and on the 8th of the following
January I sent him again in print —
Comments on Mr. Donaldson's Brief Examination
of a Eejoinder, &c.
All the five pamphlets in the year 1845 I had
reprinted, and distributed in private circulation nearly
five hundred copies, which produced from him a threat
that he would apply to the Court of Chancery for an in-
junction, — a threat however that ended, as I expected,
in nothing; for although of course I had no legal
right to print what he had written, yet I felt justified
in so doing, because he had implied that I looked
forward to a verdict in my favour in the sole hope
that my readers might not see his replies.
E. In 1846 I published—
A Latin Grammar on the System of Crude Forms ;
and in 1862 what I may call a third edition of the
same, ' corrected and somewhat enlarged.'
F. Proceedings of the Philological Society, vol. ii.
o
Vlll PREFACE.
p. 50 : On the English Verb do and the Latin dare ;
and On the Formation of the English "Weak Perfects.
Ibid. p. 143 : On the Eelations which exist between
the Preterite went and the Verb go ; and also between
va and the Verbs aller and andare.
Ibid. p. 180 : The Lapp and Finn Tongues not un-
connected with the Indo-European Family.
Ibid. p. 249 : On the Origin of certain Latin Words.
Ibid. vol. iii. p. 45 : On the Misuse of the Terms
Epenthesis and Euphony.
Ibid. p. 57 : On the Origin of the Demonstrative
Pronoun, the Definite Article, the Pronouns of the
Third Person, the Eelative and the Interrogative.
Ibid. p. 115 : On the Names of the Parts of the
Human Bodv, as common to the several Families of
the Indo-European Language.
- Ibid. p. 130 : On apparent Exceptions from the Tri-
literal Form of Monosyllabic Eoots.
Ibid. p. 136 : On the Chronology of the Catilinarian
Orations.
Ibid. p. 205 : On the Origin of certain Latin Words.
Ibid. vol. iv. p. 25 : On the Pronouns of the First
and Second Persons.
Ibid. p. 87 : An Attempt to prove the Identity of
the Eoots is, ivas, and be.
Ibid. vol. v. p. 51 : On the Nature of the Verb, par-
ticularly on the Formation of the Middle or Passive
Voice.
Ibid. p. 89 : On the Derivation and Meaning of
certain Latin Words.
Ibid. p. 103 : On the Etymology of certain Latin
Words.
!
PREFACE. IX
Ibid. p. 191 : On Vowel-assimilation, especially in
relation to Professor Willis's Experiment on Vowel
Sounds.
Ibid. vol. vi. p. 63 : On the Imperfect Infinitive,
Imperfect Participle, and those Substantives which
fall under the definition ' Nomen actionis/
Ibid. p. 93 : Miscellaneous Eemarks on some Latin
Words.
Ibid. p. 117: On some alleged Distinctions in Lan-
guages believed to be without foundation.
Ibid. p. 127 : On the Etymology of dirXoos, 8i7r\oo9,
&c.
Ibid. p. 138 : On the Etymology of aroa.
Ibid. p. 139 : Some Eemarks on the Speech 'Pro
Plancio/
Ibid. p. 152 : On the Etymology of circumforaneus,
circulator, cento.
Ibid. p. 155 : A Translation (from the German) of
Ahren s Paper, * On Feminines in co and a>s ; and on the
word yvvrj!
Ibid. p. 188 : A Translation (from the Italian)
of Dr. G. Henzens Paper, 'On the Inscription
of Sora.'
G. Transactions of the Philological Society — vol.
for 1854, p. 26 : On the Derivation of maritimus,
aeditimus, jinitimus, legitimus, miles, and diues.
Ibid. p. 29 : A Search in some European Languages
after the Eepresentatives of the Greek Preposition ava
as prefixed to Verbs.
An unfavourable review of this paper appeared in
Kuhn s ' Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung/
vol. iv. pp. 217 — 219; but the editor, with somewhat
X PREFACE.
unusual courtesy, gave admission to a reply from me
(zur Erwiederung) in vol. v. pp. 72 — 80.
Ibid. p. 72 : On the Meaning of adaequare.
Ibid. p. 85 : On the Prepositions evi, in, and related
Words.
Ibid. p. 131 : On the Etymology of the Verb obso-
lescense (but see pp. 200, 220).
Ibid. p. 199 : On the Use of the Keflective form
deuerti.
Ibid. p. 206 : On Metathesis.
Ibid. vol. for 1855, p. 1 : On the Latin Verb mittere,
its Origin and Affinities ; and generally on Verbs
signifying 'to go' in the Indo-European Family.
Ibid. p. 96 : On the Derivation and Meaniog of the
Latin Verb usurpare.
Ibid, p. 119 : On Greek Accentuation.
Ibid, vol. for 1856, p. 219 : On Diminutives.— I .
English.
Ibid. p. 195 : (On Diminutives. — II. Latin; or) On
the Eepresentatives of the Keltic suffix agh or ach
' little/ in the Latin Vocabulary.
Ibid, vol. for 1857, p. 115 : On the Word Inkling.
Ibid. vol. for 1859, p. 136 : On the Derivations of
duntaxat, tranquillus, and si in si dis placet.
Ibid. p. 140 : On the Derivation of the G-othic hanfs
' one-handed.'
Ibid. p. 143 : On the Derivation of the Word
&7)fJL09.
Ibid. p. 145 : On the Convertibility of n and d.
Ibid. p. 273 : A Supplemental Paper on the Keltic
Suffix agh, &c. as occurring in Latin, Greek, and other
Languages.
^ i
PREFACE. XI
Ibid. vol. for 1860-1, p. 172 : Miscellaneous Eemarks
suggested by Kitschl's Plautus, especially on the For-
mation of the Latin Perfect.
Ibid. vol. for 1862-3, p. 1 : Miscellaneous Papers:
(A) On cdtero- and its Analogues ; (B) On Words which
denote 'Waterfowl' and ' Swimming ;' (C) On eir of
enreiv (inquit) and eV of kirofxai (sequor) ; (D) On
alaceri- and some related Greek Words ; (E) On urn-
eve, &c.
Ibid. p. 113 : The Sanskrit Language as the Basis
of Linguistic Science, and the Labours of the German
School in that Field — are they not over-valued ?
Ibid. p. 213 : On titillare and tiktciv.
Ibid. p. 216 : The Anglo-Saxon Language called
in aid to support the Doctrine which attributes a Suffix
agh or ag to Latin Verbs.
Ibid. vol. for 1865: On the so-called 'A priva-
tivum/
Ibid. vol. for 1866, p. 1 : Daughter and Fille, are
they connected ?
Ibid. p. 25 : On the Latin Words temere and teme-
rare.
Ibid. p. 30 : On the Latin Prepositions re and^ro;
their Origin and Primitive Meaning.
Ibid. p. 49 : The Latin et, que, at que (ac), and the
Greek teat, re, all of one Origin.
Ibid. vol. for 1867, p. 1 : On the Formation of Greek
Futures and First Aorists.
H. Bell's English Journal of Education. Thirteen
papers on Latin Etymology, signed ' Claudius/ viz. :
I. July 1850, p. 254 ; II. August, p. 292 ; III. Sep-
tember, p. 310; IV. October, p. 354; V. November,
Xll
PREFACE.
p. 402 ; VI. January 1851, p. 1 ; VII. March, p. 69 ;
VIII. April, p. 109; IX. May, p. 149; X. June,
p. 196; XL July, p. 240; XII. August, p. 281;
XIII. September, p. 313.
I. A Keview of Smith's Latin Dictionary in the
Westminster, July 1855.
As my arguments touched upon moral questions
as well as matters of scholarship, I was the more
unwilling to take shelter under the anonymous, and
accordingly gave him formal notice that I was the
writer.
J. Knight's English Cyclopaedia, article ' Language/
One object in entering into these particulars has
been to correct some errors which have appeared in
certain classical publications, and are believed to pre-
vail somewhat widely. In an edition of the Adelphi
by the Eev. Wharton B. Marriott (formerly Fellow
of Exeter College, Oxford, and late Assistant Master
of Eton), 1863, the second part of the Introduction
deals with the metres of Latin comedy, and to the
views of Bentley are opposed those of ' more recent
scholars' (p. 13) ; and he then proceeds to discuss 'the
main ground these " recent scholars " take up/ adding
a note, —
' See particularly the article on Terentian Metres in
the Penny Cyclopaedia, evidently by Professor Donald-
son ; and the chapter of the same author's Varronianus
(xiv.), on the Constitution and Pathology of the Latin
Language.'
Soon after, in § 5, he speaks of 'the three kinds of
PREFACE. Xlll
evidence they adduce in support of (their) view ;' and
then says, 'The two first of these arguments have
already been stated by Donaldson (Varron. pp. 433,
437, sqq.) in a way that leaves nothing for others
to add/
Again, his notes (vv. 688 and 899) on the pronuncia-
tion first of item quidem modo, and then of student
and facer e, refer to Donaldson's ' interesting chapter '
as the source of his information.
On my first seeing Mr. Marriott's book, I wrote a
note to him in which I pointed out that he had fallen
into a very natural mistake in ascribing to the author
of the Varronianus the paternity of the article
Terentian Metres in the Penny Cyclopaedia, for this
article and the corresponding chapter in the Varroni-
anus evidently proceeded from the same pen ; but that
the simple fact was that the article in the Penny
Cyclopaedia was written by me, and dishonestly
appropriated by Donaldson. He at once favoured me
with a courteous reply, in which he admitted his error,
and at the same time assured me that the mistake
he had made was one of general currency.
And in fact I find that the editor of Terence in the
' Bibliotheca Classica' shares the error, for he also com-
mences his Introduction on the Metres of Terence
(p. xxviii.) thus : —
' This subject has been noticed by the author of the
Varronianus (chap, x.), who refers to the Journal of
Education (vol. ii. p. 344, &c), where it is treated gene-
rally in a manner which leaves nothing for others/
When he wrote these words, I have little doubt that,
in his own mind, Mr. Parry ascribed to Dr. Donaldson
I:
XIV PREFACE.
the authorship of the article in the Journal of Education,
for in his preface (p. ix.), after saying that 'the ques-
tion of Terentian language and metre is a subject which
has till lately lain fallow in England since the time of
Bentley and Hare/ he adds in a note, * When I wrote
this sentence, I had not seen Mr. Key's Essay on the
Metres of Terence and Plautus. My only acquaint-
ance with his researches was through the Varronianus/
Now the whole of the chapter of the Varronianus in
question is, with two petty exceptions, an unmitigated
plagiarism by Donaldson from my two articles on
Terentian Metres, that in the Journal of Education
and that in the Cyclopaedia. One exception is the
doctrine that homines (in the Phormio, v. 1, 37) is
a monosyllable (!). The honour of this is all his own.
The other is that puellam in Haut. v. 5, 16 is to be
pronounced pullam. It must have been somewhat
grating to Dr. Donaldsons conscience to find that
Mr. Parry, amid his general approval of his chapter
on the comic metres, selects this one remark for dis-
approval (p. xxxv. note).
I confess that it is not satisfactory to me that
my views should come to the knowledge of scholars
through the medium of Donaldsonian writings ; and
I have deemed it a duty to print these pages, although
the offender has now passed away. I never thought
it necessary to notice the abusive or contemptuous
terms in which I have been habitually alluded to in
the later editions of the Cratylus and Varronianus,
for such abuse I heeded as little as I did the flattery
he bestowed upon me in the first edition of the former
work.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preface v
I. On the Eepresentatives of ava in Allied Languages . 1
II. On the Prepositions evi, in, and related Words . . 57
III. On the Latin Prepositions re and pro 74
IV. On the German Prefix ver and Allied Forms . . . 101
V. Post and after the same Word 117
VI. On the so-called 'a privative' 127
VII. The Latin et, que, atque (ac), and the Greek kou, re, all
of one Origin 149
VIII. On the Latin Particles a ut, an, n e 170
IX. On Plural Forms in Latin with a Singular Meaning,
and especially on Virgil's use of menta . . . . 185
X. Excrescent Consonants 204
XL On False Division of Suffixes 225
XII. Qvaeritvr : The Sanskrit Language as the Basis of
Linguistic Science; and the Labours of the German
School in that Field — are they not over- valued ? —
First Part 248
XIII. Qvaeritvr— Second Part 270
XIV. Postscript to Qvaeritvr 309
Addenda, Corrigenda, &c 317
Index 323
\
PHILOLOGICAL ESSAYS.
I.
ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF ava
IN ALLIED LANGUAGES.
The little syllables which are prefixed or affixed to
roots in the process of word-building were probably
at the outset possessed of an importance equal to
that claimed for the roots to which they are attached ;
in other words, they also are roots ; but, supporting
for the time an inferior part, are of course subject to
be treated with some indignity beside the greater per-
sonage on whom they wait. Thus it will be often
found that both prefixes and suffixes are curtailed of
their fair proportions. But among such secondary
syllables, none perhaps suffer more abridgement or
alteration than the prepositions used in the compo-
sition of verbs, especially those which fall under the
class called by German grammarians inseparable.
Grimm has particularly noticed this liability (Deutsche
Grammatik, ii. 865).
' The doctrine/ says he, ' which holds true gene-
rally of particles, that they become obscure in signi-
fication and disguised in form, is specially applicable
B
ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
!
to the inseparable particles. The notion which they
express wavers between increased intensity and a
privative character, or occupies an intermediate posi-
tion. The form again passes commonly through all the
vowels, and at last fades away into an unaccented e,
while the.\u- ; b. verbs of searching or investigating, in which
ava seems to signify up to the very sources: av-eip-
(r.), -epevva-, -epcora-, -era^-', ava-^re-, -Kpiv-, -fiavOav-,
-fiacTTev-, -fi7]\o-, -irvvOav- (r.), -a/coire- ; — C. loud noise,
where the loudness is attributed to ava, just as we
ourselves say ' speak up, raise your voice, you speak
too low to be heard/ Under this head Liddell
and Scott's Lexicon furnishes some thirty or forty
Of the phrases aia aro/Jia, am Bvp^ov ^X £LV '> anc ^ ava T0VS
7rpwTovs avai, mention is made "helow.
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 5
examples, some of which however perhaps belong-
to § 6.
2. As downward motion, by the law of gravity, is
the natural course of most visible bodies, the idea of
up is connected with reversed action. Hence the sense
of back is found in more than thirty compounds in
the same lexicon.
3. But to go back is to go over the same ground
again. This idea, again, occurs as frequently as the
last. I will only quote the examples ava-yiyvcoafc- and
ava-yvwpi^- e know again, recognise ' ; and ava-fn,/jt,vw(rft~,
f remind/
4. But to retrace one's steps is another phrase for
the reversal of some preceding action, where the
English prefix is commonly un-. Hence av-apa- (r.)
1 recall a curse,' ava-&L$aaK- ' unteach,' -eXiaa- ' unroll/
-evx- (r.) ' recall a prayer,' -koXvitt- ' unwrap,' -k\w6-
1 untwist (what has been spun),' -KoXv^pa- ' come to
the surface again after diving,' -kvttt- ' raise (the head)
again after stooping,' -fxavrev- (r.) i make an oracle in-
valid,' -TTTva-cr- ' unfold, ( -vp-, 'mix
thoroughly, mix up.' But very possibly a better inter-
pretation, so far as regards the verbs of mixing, may
be obtained directly from the idea of upward move-
ment, seeing that the process of mixing is a constant
battle with the heavier ingredients which persist in
sinking. The truth of this will be felt by any one
who has mixed a bowl of salad or a powder containing
calomel.
12. The idea of completeness or thoroughly might
well be expected in compounds with ava, and accord-
ingly we find this meaning attributed to av-apfio%-,
-accTL/jio-, -eXey^- ; ava-ftiftpaxTK-, -^wypafye-, -irpi-. Even
of these some may be doubted, and at best the list is
very short. The explanation of the paucity may perhaps
8
OX THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
be this. It was noticed above that ava obtained its
sense of ' through ' from the notion of a fictitious
acclivity, where a person goes up this line and down
that. Hence Kara 'down' would be entitled to share
the privilege, and accordingly this preposition is equally
used in distributival phrases, as Kara (f>v\a ' by tribes/
kclt av&pa ' man by man/ &c. On the same principle
it is well calculated to express * thoroughness ' with
verbs. This office it performs in the Greek vocabulary
to a great extent, being in much higher favour for the
purpose than ava, whereas with us the word up is more
in vogue. Hence Kar-eaOi- ' eat up/ Kara-ircv- ' drink
up/ Kara-xpa- (r.) ' use up.' 1
In a few instances the idea oi on or at is said to be
the signification of ava, as in av-eip- ' fasten on/ ava-
KoX\a,- ' glue on,' avapparrr-, ' sew on.' But here we
seem to have a totally different preposition, the ana-
logue of the Gothic ana, German an, signifying ' on.'
I find that I have spent many more words upon
this preliminary matter than I had intended. My
apology must be, that I knew of no grammar or dic-
tionary in which the subject was handled in sufficient
detail. Nor indeed is there any part of language more
commonly neglected in grammars, for to them the
question properly belongs, than the power of prepo-
sitions as prefixed to verbs. At the same time, what I
have said seems necessary for the just appreciation of
the evidence I shall have to adduce ; and I have now
1 It should be stated that, in drawing up these lists of compound
verbs, I have relied almost exclusively on the excellent lexicon of
Liddell and Scott, an acknowledgment I am the more bound to
mate, as I have ventured at times to criticise some of their state-
ments.
THE GREEK PEEPOSITION ava. 9
the satisfaction of knowing that Pott in his new
edition of the Etymologische Forschungen (p. 305),
has adopted my distribution of the meanings of ava.
After this preface, the first problem is, whether the
Latin language has any representative of ava. My
answer is, that it has at least one, and, as I believe, no
less than three, or even four representatives. That
ava should appear in Latin without a final vowel is
what is to be expected when we compare the cases of
airo and ab, ein and ob, irapa and per in perjurus, evi
and in. Further, in Greece itself ava was reduced to
av in some forms and dialects, just as Kara, irapa, evt
were to fear, 7m/), and ev, and this especially in those
dialects which have the closest affinity to Latin, the
Doric, and iEolic. Now in three words, ancisus,
(Lucr. iii. 660), anquir-, and anliela-, the form an has
been preserved ; but for all of these a word of remark
seems necessary. Lucretius is speaking of a snake
suddenly divided into many parts, and yet in these
several parts still exhibiting signs of vitality for a
while :
" Omnia iam sorsum cernes ancisa recenti
Volnere tortari."
Here therefore ancisa is no compound of am, as
Forcellini would make it ; but clearly means ' cut off,
or cut through.' Anquir- seems to have for its mean-
ing ' search up to the sources/ and indeed avajxaarev- is
explained by Liddell and Scott as = anquir-. Anhela-
is used of those violent up-blowings which follow
volcanic action, as in Cic. anhelitus terrae, and Ovid,
Fast, iv. 491 ; also of the flame driven out by a furnace-
blast, or from the nostrils of Colchian bulls. Com p.
10
ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
ava-(j>vcra-, whence ava-^varj-cn- ' the blow-hole of a
crater/ and ava-v(ria- ' blow as a dolphin/ At any
rate such an explanation of anhela- seems more satis-
factory than what we find in Andrews's Lexicon, who
gives as the ' literal! sense : c to draw the breath from
around the whole body/ This translation no doubt
proceeded on the assumption that the word contains
the prefix am ' round/ although in this case it should
have been am-helar, if we may judge from am-ici-.
But besides this, an-hela- clearly means an expiration
rather than an inspiration.
Of course before a labial an would pass into am,
and accordingly we have am-puta- ' cut off/ am-mone-
' remind ' avafjLifivrjo-K-, am-bur- ' begin to burn, singe/
am-bed- * begin to eat/ ' nibble at/ Cf. our own burn,
bite. The notion of am 'round/ is inconsistent with the
meaning of both am-puta- and am-mone- , and the form
a/m/mone is that which for Ovid's Fasti has by far the
best authority, if we may take for our guides those
MSS. which Merkel himself collated.
Assimilation also accounts for the forms alleva-
' lift up/ alliga- ' tie up/ and the impersonal allub-
escit of a commencing love, for in all these the
notion of ad 'to/ seems out of place. The first has
for synonyms in Forcellini, ' sublevo, in altum tollo,
sursum levo/ As for alliga-, it is enough to quote
the phrase alligare vidnus, and to note that Pliny,
when he has occasion for the idea ' tie to/ or rather,
' tie up to/ uses adalliga- ; but a verb twice com-
pounded with the same preposition would be some-
thing strange. Alloqui too is very insufficiently
translated by the verb 'address/ It means to 'console,
cheer up/ and so is clearly a compound of an.
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 11
Again, before sanw would of course be silent ; and
so we have an explanation of such forms as assicca-
' dry up ' = avafrpaiv-, assudesc- ' burst . out into a
sweat/ and assurg- 'rise again/ In such phrases as
majoribus natu assurgere, both the notion of ad and
that of ava are intelligible, but in all other uses of
this verb, that of ava alone is admissible, especially
in sentences where the notion of ' get up again ? after
a fall is implied, as in ' Galli neque sustinere se pro-
lapsi neque adsurgere (assurgere ?) ex voraginibus
poterant' (Liv. xxii. 2) ; and again : 'Tetra ibi luctatio
erat . ... in prono citius pede se fallente ut seu
manibus in adsurgendo seu genu se adjuvissent, ipsis
adminicidis prolapsis (or prolapsi) iterum cornier ent'
(xxi. 36).
I next take cases where in place of an I find
but a simple a to represent the prefix. Here again
we have what is parallel to the usage of Greece. In
the Doric and iEolic dialects (see Ahrens, De Dialectis),
if the simple verb began with a c-, followed imme-
diately by another consonant, the fuller form av, or
its equivalent, ov, dropped its nasal. Accordingly we
find in Latin a-scend- opposed to descend-, a-spira-
1 exhale ' (' pulmones se contrahunt aspirantes/ Cic),
a-stru- ' build up/ opposed to de-stru- ; a-sta-, as used
in Plautus without any meaning of ad, e.g. ' Haut
ineusceme ( for so the MSS. = avevo-xrj/jLws,) astite-
runt,' 'no inelegant pose that' (Trin. iii. 1, 24). On
the same principle we have a-gnosc- ' recognise/ =
ava-ycy vco a/c-.
Thus already we have a respectable stock of words
in which an assumed an, = ava, has all in its favour
alike as to form and meaning. But I also venture on
12 OX THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
the assertion, that a visible ad in Latin compound
verbs not unfrequently stands as a substitute for our
an ; so that the language had in fact for the com-
position of verbs two prepositions of this shape,
which it is important to distinguish. The interchange
of an n and d is what most philologers will readily
admit, and indeed the relation between these letters
is precisely the same as that between m and b, and as
that between the nasal ng and g (of go). Only when
the nasal passage is in communication with the
wind-pipe 1 , have w.e m, n, and ng ; but the moment
this passage is closed by the velum palati, these
respectively pass into b, d, and g. (See Mr. Wey-
mouth's paper on this subject, in the ' Transactions
of the Philological Society' for 1856, page 21, and
the work of Blindeisen, to which he refers.)
But I cannot now stop to discuss this point at any
length. Assuming that a preposition an may well
take the form ad, 1 request attention to the following :
aeclivi- ' up-hill,' opposed to de-clivi-, 'down hill;'
accresc- ' grow up/ by the side of de-cresc- ' grow
down;' as in 'Valitudo mi decrescit, accrescit labor'
(Plant. Cure. ii. 1, 4) ; acced- 'rise as the tide,' and
deced- ' ebb ;' ad-olesc- ' grow up,' but ab-olesc- ' cause
to grow down / ad-aestua- ' boil up,' apprehend- ' take
up,' accumida- 'heap up,' agger- ' heap up,' ad-imple-
' fill up, ad-aeqaa- ' raise 1 to a level (with),' ad-operi-
' cover up,' atting- 'begin to touch, lay a finger upon,'
ad-juva- ' lift up/ and accumbo ' I lie with the body
raised/ as on a dinner couch, = ava-Kei^ai.
1 In Livy i. 29 we ought to read, omnia tecta solo aequavit (not
adaequat).
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 13
Secondly, the notion of { again ' has already been
seen in a-gnosc- and ammone-, which by some are
written adgnosc- and admone-.
Thirdly, the reversal of an act was common with
ava, but for ad I can only produce acquiesc- ' rest
after labour/ identical in sense and perhaps in form
with ava-iravecrOai, seeing that the Latin loves to have
q as the analogue of a Greek nr.
Fourthly, ad-aperi- bears a close analogy to av-oiy- ;
and as in discussing the powers of ava I deduced from
the idea of opening that of commencement, so in Latin
I find ad-ama- ' fall in love/ ad-mira- (r.) ' be sud-
denly seized with wonder/ affle- ' burst into tears/ ad-
dormisc- ' fall asleep/ ad-hinni- ' set up a loud neigh/
accend- and ad-ole- 1 ' set on fire/ ad-gem- ' all at once
sigh/ ad-vesperasc- ' begin to be dusk/ ad-esuri- ' be
seized with a fit of hunger/
The physical notion of through clearly resides in
ad-ig- ' drive through, pierce, transfix/
Again, the sense of removal growing out of the
sense of upward movement, as seen in compounds of
ava, § 9, has its counterpart in ad-im- ' take up and so
take away' (comp. av-aipe-), ad-aresc- 'dry up' (in-
trans.), ad-bib- ' drink up/
With the class of ava-fitay-, ava-$vp-, I unite ad-
misce-, as also assicca- already quoted.
To the lists already given I am not sure but that I
1 This adule- is virtually one with adolesc-, the root-syllable ol
being only a variety of al of alere. In both the notion of ' upward'
prevails, only in adole- we have that special sense which occurs in
the familiar al-ere flammam. Ard-ere and ard-uus, of the same
stock, also unite the two meanings.
14
ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
ought to add many others. Thus ad-i-, aggredi- (i\),
ad-equita-, accurr-, aceed-, acci- invite me as it were
to the translations, * go up, march up, run up, ride up,
step up to any one, call up ; ' at any rate, these phrases
are quite in agreement with the idiom of our own
language. Again, (uhnin-ictdum 'a prop,' seems to
imply a verb ad-mtii- 'prop up ;' and ad-juva- in its
preposition claims affinity with ava, partly because
verbs of assistance are very apt to appear with a
preposition signifying up, as sub-leva-, sub-veni-, suc-
eiirr-, subsid-ium, and partly because the simple verb
jura- seems in itself to have had for its first sense 'to
lift or elevate,' which will at once explain its double
power ' to delight' and * to assist.' I think, nay, I
suspect the root to be identical with that of the verb
lev-a- and adj. levi-, and our own lift, for an initial^' in
Latin raises the suspicion of a lost I ; thus jecur and
rjirap are brought into connexion with our liver, jocus
with our laugh. The close connexion between I and
the y sound (of the Latin j) is well seen in the ' V
mouille of the FrencL
I am fully aware that some of the compounds with
ad to which I have laid claim might admit of an
explanation from the power of the ordinary preposi-
tion ad. Thus the first element in acclivis might
have been justified by the prefix of the Greek irpoa-
avTrjs. Yet in many instances this preposition ad fails
utterly, while the senses of ava are all-sufficient, so
that I still adhere to what I have said, the doubtful
instances receiving a borrowed light from the non-
doubtful.
With all this I in no way deny that ad ' to or near'
has contributed its compounds to the Latin language,
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 15
so that it may often be difficult to adjudicate between
the conflicting claims of the prepositions ; and at
times a just judgment will perhaps make a division
between the two rivals, assigning some uses of the
same word to the one, some to the other, as in the
case of acced-. Or possibly the ad = ava may have
been at first the only prefix admitted to composition
with verbs, and subsequently compelled to submit to
invasion of its domain, when the Eoman, no longer
alive to the sense of up, may have allowed himself to
be unduly biassed by the meanings of the familiar
preposition ad ' to/ Be this as it may, there will be
seen in the sequel not a few instances of independent
prefixes sinking into an identity of form.
I proceed to yet another variety. It is a peculiarity
of Latin notation that it often prefers a weak vowel
to the stronger vowels of other languages. Thus, to
the Greek o^po- and §a/cTv\o- stand opposed the Latin
imberi- and digitulo-, to the Sanskrit agni- the Latin
igni- ; and again the Latin sine and lingua are repre-
sented in French by sans and langue. But the most
valuable instance for the present question is that of
the so-called privative particle av of Greek = in of
Latin. It will presently be seen too, that the prepo-
sition ava takes in German a form in which the first a
gives place to i or e. Am I not justified then in
expressing a suspicion that the Bomans in such distri-
butival phrases as in-dies, in-horas, &c, employed a
preposition in = ava ? But the present dealings are
rather with compound verbs, and here I first throw
together — intumesc- * swell up/ ingrandesc- ' grow up/
incresc- ' grow up/ inhorre- ' bristle up/ institu- ' set
up/ insurg- 'rise up/ innntri- ' bring up by nursing/
16
ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
inflar ' puff up,' incita- 'rouse up, 1 incandesc- 'blaze
up/ inardesc- 'blaze up/ incend-, inflammar ' set on
fire/ indaga-, investiga- 'trace up to the sources;'
to which we should probably add the adjective or
rather participle insdenti- ' swelling up with pride/
from a lost verb sole- 'swell/ so that it corresponds
to the German participle anschwellend.
Then with the notion of back : in-hibe- 'hold up or
back = av-ex-, and in-fleet- ' bend back/
For 'again 5 I find two clear cases: instaura- = re-
staura- and in-gemina- 'redouble/
But the most striking use of ava is in the sense of
'reversing.' Now the Latin inconcilia- in some current
dictionaries is said to have the two somewhat oppo-
site meanings of ' to win over to one's side, to conciliate/
and ' to make an enemy of/ Concilia- also is for the
most part mis-explained. But Forcellini had already
given the right view as to both these verbs. Thus of
concilia- he says : ' Verbum est fullonuml quoting
Varro, { Vestimentwm < to ufar
and nidar, the Old Germ, itr (= Goth, i^s) and bit
(== our i^/i) to uzar and widar. It is on this prin-
ciple that Grimm is disposed to deduce from the
prefix and- a theoretic andar- (p. 716), which, though
not producible in Gothic, he holds to be represented
by the Old Norse endr- (for endir-). While he thus
connects the prefix endr- with the family of the
Gothic and-, he seems to regard the prefix undr-
(p. 914) as one no way related to it. But I feel
compelled to claim undr- as more nearly akin to and-
than endr- itself, holding the former to be the full
equivalent of Grimm's theoretic andar-, while endr-
appears to me to be for the Old Norse the comparatival
form of the simple prefix ed- ' again,' so familiar on
Ang.-Sax. ground. It is not a very strange matter
that languages should be capricious in their use of
these particles, especially as the comparatival form
differs little, if at all, in practical use from the simple
particle. Thus the Eomans abstain from using ad
' again' as an adverb, employing for this object the
secondary form iterum (comp. the Old Germ, it or
ita ' again'). A final medial in Latin was probably
pronounced as a tenuis (comp. ab, ob, sub, with the
Greek airo, viro, €7tl ; and with the derivatives from
sub itself). Hence ad was probably spoken as at, so
that iterum is entitled to a t. Again, the Ang.-Saxon
has a simple prefix ed- ' again,' but seems to have
avoided the formation of a comparative. On the
other hand, the Norse endr-, Danish atter, Swedish
(Iter, all signifying ' again,' have at home no positive
to which they may be referred. But while the words
D 2
36 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
just enumerated all agree in the limitation of their
power to the one idea of ' again/ undr- gives to the
verbs connected with it meanings of various kinds,
but amid that variety only such as will flow from the
idea of 'up ;' indeed, one half of them are by Grimm
himself regarded as equivalents of Latin compounds
with sub.
But the prefix undr-, or, as Haldorson writes it,
undir-, seems to be identical with the Ang.-Sax.,
Danish, and Swedish under-, as also with the German
unter- and Dutch onder-. The forms justify the
assumption that they are only comparatival exten-
sions of the prefixes we have been considering in
the preceding pages. Thus the Danish and Swedish
und-er- stands accurately in the required relation to
und- ; and nearly so the German unt-er- to ent-, the
Dutch ond-er- to out- ; and even the Ang.-Sax.
und-er- differs in no intolerable degree from the
simple prefix on-. But if the forms be favourable,
not less so are the meanings, which the disyllabic
prefixes give to verbs in composition. The argu-
ments, if stated at length, would be for the most
part a repetition of what has been said in discussing
the simple prefixes ; and the very variety of powers
which will be found to belong to unter-, &c. will only
strengthen the position, when it appears that this
variety is in nearly every element the counterpart of
what has been seen in the compounds with ent-, Sec.
In the German, unter-halten signifies ' to sustain, to
support, to entertain, to keep up/ the last in all the
varieties of its use, ' to keep up a friendship, a corre-
spondence, a building, a fire / comp. av-ex~- Unter-
nehmen and unter-ziehen ' to undertake/ including
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 37
the very word by which I have translated them,
possess a meaning which has been already seen and
considered in the Gothic ancl-niman and Old Germ.
en-rieman (p. 30). Unter-fangen (sich) 'to take upon
oneself, to presume/ is substantially explained in the
same place. Unter-stehen (sich) ' to be so bold/
brings to mind what was said of the Gothic and-
standan, to which it is immediately related in both
elements ; and similarly our own understand is in
agreement with the Old Saxon and-standan and Old
Germ, ind-stantan ' intelligere/ Further, we have
unter-stutzen ' to prop up/ unter-wuhlen ' to grub or
rummage up' (like a hog), unter-heilen ' to wedge up/
'raise by wedges;' unter-bauen, unter-mauern, 'to
support an object by building a wall, &c. up to it/
Unter-suchen ' to search up to the sources/ has in its
prefix the same power that ava has in ava-Kpiv-, Sec.
Unter-richten and unter-weisen, 'to instruct/ may
well be classed with the numerous verbs of ' educa-
tion/ which owe their power largely to the notion of
: up/ as bring up, educate, rear, edify, instruct, train
up, instituere, innutrire, alumnus (from al-ere 'to
raise '). Another power of the Greek ava and German
ent- shows itself in unter-lassen 'to leave off/ The
idea thus expressed by the fuller prefix is not far
remote from what belongs to the German ent-lassen or
Dutch ont-laten ' to let off, to release/ while it pre-
cisely agrees with what we see in the Danish und-lade
'to leave off/ Unter-sagen einem etwas 'to forbid,
to interdict/ and ent-sagen (einer sache) ' to renounce
a thing/ or its equivalent in form, the Ang.-Sax. on-
sacan ' to refuse/ all agree in expressing a prohibitory
injunction, and the prohibitory portion of the idea
38 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
must reside in the prefixes. Again, such verbs as
unter-arbeiten, -graben, -hoklen, -minen, -spulen,
-ivaschen, speak of an action directed from below,
i.e. upwards.
Further, I cannot but attach some little weight
to the consideration that the Latin preposition
sub, which truly represents our up in both form
and sense, forces itself constantly upon us when we
translate these German compounds into Latin : nay, it
seems probable that a desire to give a literal German
equivalent led to the formation of some among the fol-
lowing German verbs from the Latin: unter-drucken=
' supprimere,' unter-werfen = subjicere,' unter-jochen
= ' subjugare,' unter-schreiben = e subscribere/ unter-
siegeln and unter-zeichnen = i subsignare,' unter-eitern
and unter-schwaren = i suppurare.' Unter-bleiben 'to
remain behind,' expresses the same notion as the
Greek viro-XeareaOaL and the Latin re-manere, and the
prefixes of these two verbs are in agreement with
the power of ava. Unter-mischen and unter-mengen
I would rather translate by the vernacular, ' to mix
up/ than by 'intermix,' for here also is found the
idea of upward movement, as in ava-fitay-, ava-(j>vp.
But while I have been thus enumerating a long
series of German compounds with unter-, I have
probably exposed the theory to a suspicion of some
weakness, by appearing to ignore that familiar pre-
position unter-, or, as we English write it, under-,
with the sense of ' lower.' But in truth I have not
lost sight of this word, nor was it my intention to
claim as akin to ava all the instances in which the
German vocabulary presents a compound with unter-.
In the first place, I resign all claim to those sub-
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 39
stantives which are directly formed from a simple
substantive by the addition of this prefix, as unter-
lehrer ' under-teacher/ unter-kleid ' under-garment/
Of the other substantives, I claim only such as are
deduced from verbs in which the unter- has already
been claimed. It is therefore solely in the region
of the verbs that the battle between the rival prefixes
must be fought ; but, to use a more pacific metaphor,
it may be asked, Where is the line of demarcation
to be drawn ? Now I find a strong confirmation of
my theory in the fact, that the compounds which I
have been led to claim on the evidence of their
meaning alone, turn out to belong, every one of
them, to a natural class, and the principle of dis-
tinction on which this class is formed had wholly
escaped my attention when first making a collection
of examples. It is however a familiar fact with
German scholars, that the compounds with unter- are
divisible into those which have a separable prefix, as
unter-yehen 'to go down, sink, perish/ whence ich
yehe unter and unter-zn-yehen, and, secondly, those
with an inseparable prefix, as unter-sagen ' to inter-
dict/ whence ich unter-sage, never ich sage unter,
zu unter-sagen, not unter-zu-sagen. Further, there
is an invariable distinction of accent, those with
a separable prefix accentuating the prefix itself,
unter-gehen 'to go down/ the others as uniformly
giving the accent to the verb, unter-sdgen. Thus
we have two streams of words, which, though they
meet in a common bed, do not mix their waters, and
by this distinction seem to justify me in referring
them to different sources. Now all the verbs which
I claim possess the inseparable prefix, with the accent
40 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
on the root syllable of the verb ; on the other hand,
to the separable prefix and its peculiar accent is
regularly attached the notion of ' down or under/
My views as to the origin of this other preposition
do not belong to the present subject ; and as I have
enough upon my hands, I purpose to reserve them
for subsequent consideration. It may be observed,
however, that the compounds with my own unter-
seem to be the older occupants of the ground. In
the Old Norse, Grimm expresses his belief that undr-
is always inseparable ; and at any rate it is not until
the period of the Middle German that we meet with
a first attempt to import the Latin inter (from in).
This was for the purpose of creating a quasi-hybrid
formation, which however, in obedience to the law
that holds in the physical world under like circum-
stances, soon died out. I allude to the use of unter
as an equivalent to the Latin inter or French entre in
the formation of reciprocal verbs, as sic h unter-kussen,
&c. in evident imitation of the French s entre-baiser
(see Grimm, ii. 878).
The Ang. -Saxon will also yield to my wooing. Here
I find the prefixes on- and under- unmistakeably as-
serting their relationship to each other by the similarity
of power which they bring with them to the simple
verb. On-gitan is translated by Dr. Bosworth ' to
know, perceive, understand/ under-gitan 'to under-
stand, know, perceive ; ' 2. on-gynnan ' to begin, un-
dertake,' under-gynnan 'to begin;' 3. on-secan 'to
inquire,' under-secan 'to seek under, to inquire, to
examine;' 4. on-wendan 'to turn upon, &c. over-
throw,' under-wendan ' to turn under, to subvert ; '
5. on-cerran ' to turn, to turn from, to invert,' under-
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 41
cerran 'to turn under, to subvert;' 6. on-fon 'to
receive, take,' under-fon ' to undertake.'
Now it is plain from the translations, — ' to seek
under' in 3, 'to turn upon' and 'turn under' in 4,
and 'turn under' in 5, — that the lexicographer was
anxious to give in the first place what he deemed a
literal translation, and that in his endeavour to effect
this object he was biassed by the supposition that the
Ang.-Sax. prefixes on- and under- had the power
which belongs to the two prepositions so written at
the present time. In truth the words subvert and
overthrow, for over is but a comparatival form of up,
give strong evidence in favour of the power here
claimed for the two Ang.-Sax. prefixes ; and thus up-
turn or up-set would have been the simplest transla-
tion. 'Under-turn' or 'turn under' are both rejected
by the idiom of our language.
In what has been said, it has been more than once
assumed that the original meaning of the Latin sub is
' up.' But this will not obtain the ready assent of all
scholars. Those whose matured intellect has been more
especially devoted to the Greek language, — and this
condition applies to the great bulk of classical scholars
both in England and Germany, — are very apt to have
what I must consider an erroneous bias as to the
power of this prefix. Grimm also (iii. p. 253) puts
forward views in which I cannot agree. His sections
6 and 8 in that chapter seem to me to require re-
modelling ; and I would put together as equivalent
forms, Lat. sub, Greek vtto, Go. uf, Old and Mid.
Germ, uf, Modern Germ, auf, Old Frisian op or up,
Dutch op, Norse and Swedish upp, Eng. up. The
Latin sub, as it stands superior to the rest in having
42 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
preserved the initial consonant, so also exhibits the
true meaning of the word with more clearness than its
sister language, the Greek. Its power is well seen
when it is employed as a prefix to verbs, and also in
its derivatives. Thus we have sub-veh- ' carry up '
(see Caesar, B. G. i. 1 6), sum- (= sub-im-) ' take up '
(opposed to dem- 'take down'), sub-due- 'draw up'
(sc. naves, opposed to deduc-), sub-leg- 'gather up,'
sub-leva- ' lift up,' sub-sili- ' leap up,' subsist- ' stand
up,' sub-vert- ' up-turn,' sub-i- ' ascend,' sue-eed- ' go
up,' suc-cing- ' gird up,' sub-veni-, suceurr- ' come up
or run up to a person's support,' sue-cuti- ' toss up,'
suf-fer- ' bear up, sustain/ suf-jieit the opposite to de-
Jieit, suf-jla- ' blow up,' suf-fulci- ' prop up,' sug-ger-
' heap up,' sup-pie- ' fill up,' surg- (= sur-rig-) ' rise
up/ with sub-rig- 'raise up,' sus-eip- 'take up,' sus-
cita- ' rouse up/ suspend- ' hang up/ suspic- ' look
up/ suspira- = ' an-hela-', sus-tine- ' hold up/ sus-toll-
1 raise up/ sursum (= sub-vorsum) ' upward.'
Surely then, so far as s%6 is concerned, Grimm is
not justified in the assertion " that it is merely by the
addition of the suffix er (as seen in super) that this
preposition obtains its full sense of upward motion."
But let us look to the derivatives from sub and its
representatives : as, superi, superior, summus, all of
which distinctly denote ' elevation.' So in Greek, to
say nothing of virep, we have in viraros} an epithet of
1 Yet the following statement has been made : " vttcltoq for
v7repTa.Tog, like Lat. summus for supremus." Would the sup-
porters of such doctrines regard postumus, primus, {xeaaroQ, npioTog,
as contractions of postremus, priorimus, /ieacpraros, TrporepwraTog 1
Again, when In-ciTr] is translated 'the lowest chord or note,' it must
be remembered that the names employed in the Greek musical
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 43
Jupiter on the one hand, and on the other the ordinary
title in Greek writers of the Roman consul. Again,
are not vyfros 'height/ and vijn 'on high/ evidently
connected with our preposition ? But if these instances
be not enough, all the Teutonic languages, with the
exception of the Gothic, conspire in supporting our
view ; for the prepositions uf auf op, up and upp in
the different branches of this family have a power too
distinct and too invariable for any doubt. And even
in the Gothic, though Grimm would assign \ under '
to the preposition as its primary sense, his own short
list of compounds with uf (ii. 902) includes uf-haban
' sustinere ' (hold up), uf-brinnan ' exardescere ' (blaze
up), uf-graban 'suffodere' (dig up), ufbrikan 'reji-
cere/ uf-kunnan 'cognoscere' (say rather 're-cogno-
scere'), uf-vdpjan ' exclamare/ ufsvogjan ' ingemiscere/
all of which contain senses such as would be suited to
compounds of ava, and therefore may well reside in
compounds with another preposition signifying 'up/
But if we pass from the Gothic to the Old GermaD, the
evidence is of the clearest character. The following
eleven verbs make up the entire list of Grimm
(p. 897) : uf-haben ' supportare/ uf -lief an ' suspendere/
uf-kan ' surgere/ ufgienc ' exiit/ uf-kangit ' adolescit/
uf pur gen ' suscitare ;' uf -burr en 'attollere ;' uf-que-
man 'oriri, exoriri;' uf-richten ' erigere / ufstantan
' surgere / uf-stikan ' ascendere, scandere/ Again,
the comparatival forms, Lat. super, Gr. virep, Goth.
ufar, Old Germ, upar, ubar, Mod. Germ, ilber with
ober as an inseparable prefix, Old Sax. obar, Old Fris.
terminology are precisely the opposite to ours. Compare vearrj
1 the highest note/ though the word in itself means lowest.
14 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
wer or contracted ur, Dutch over, Ang.-Sax. ofer,
Eng. over and upper, Old Norse yjir and ofr, Swed.
bfver, Dan. over, are not more regular in formation
than consistent in sense. Grimm himself admits that
they all express the idea of elevation ; but if this idea
did not already exist in the root, how could its intro-
duction be effected by the comparatival suffix ? how
could the addition of a syllable • signifying * more' or
'of two' bring about the marvellous metamorphosis of
' down' to 'up?' To admit this would be to admit
that after should signify before and nether above ;
and thus all language would be subverted.
Still there remains a difficulty not to be passed over,
in the fact that sub, viro, and the Gothic uf often re-
quire the translation ' under.' The explanation I would
offer is this, that movement upward is the first sense
of sub, &c. ; but that when that movement reaches its
limit, the body which had been moving ' up' towards
a certain object, has attained the position of being
'under' it. Accordingly sub murum ire means 'to
go up to the wall,' but sub muro esse ' to be under the
wall.' We hang ' up' a chandelier ; and the operation
over, the chandelier is ' under' the ceiling. It is there-
fore habitual to find sub denoting ' under' when com-
pounded with verbs of rest, as subiaeere, subesse : and
if it be also at times found with this sense in verbs of
motion, it should be recollected that the mere verbs
of ' putting,' though as verbs of motion they should
require the accompanying preposition to take an accu-
sative alone, yet often allow the case of rest (abl. in
Lat., dat. in Greek) to supplant the case of motion.
Thus we find collocare in navi, in cubili, in custodia,
where the strict theory of grammar would rather
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 45
demand an accusative, in navem, &c. In the same
way the syntactical rule which justly admits a dative
after verbs compounded with prepositions of rest, as
campus interiacet Tiberi ac moenibus Romanis, is
extended also to verbs of mere putting, as anatum ova
gallinis supponimus ; and this with some reason, seeing
that the act of putting is momentary, and the mind
prefers to dwell on the permanent state of things which
follows. Hence we find that submittere, though strictly
signifying ' to send up/ as Terra submittit Jlores, is
also used of ' putting under or down,' especially in the
perfect participle, where the action is over. Such a prac-
tice is well calculated to lead to equivocal results.
Thus submissus is ' upraised' in Silius Italicus, ' lowered
or low' in Cicero and Caesar. But for the most part
the verb which it accompanies by its own nature pre-
vents ambiguity, as submergere.
There is yet another point of view from which we
are apt to attribute to sub the idea of ' under.' In
the various processes of undermining, as by digging,
the action of water, &c. the agent is of course below ;
but on the other hand the action is directed upward,
so that sub is still in its proper place. A man in a
cave may dig downward or upward. It is only in the
latter case that the operation can with strict propriety
be expressed by suffodere, undermine, untergraben.
In Greek the use of viro as ' under' in compounded
verbs was carried to the greater excess, because there
lay at hand the unambiguous ava to express the notion
of 'up/ But even the Greek has distinct traces of
the original power of viro in compounds, as virohexpixat,
' 1 take upon myself, undertake,' v-mayy* ^ the same,
vire^w ' I uphold,' u7ro\afjL(3av(o ' I take up, apprehend,'
46 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
(vttoX. linrov ' pull up a horse/) ixpcarrjfM ' I support an
attack' = subsisto.
Lastly, when we find two meanings as here attached
to a word, one of which implies motion, the other rest,
it seems generally right to give a preference to the
former, seeing that verbs of the shorter form, and for
that reason the older, commonly denote action. Indeed,
if the mimetic origin of language be admitted, this
follows as a necessary consequence.
But to leave this digression. In dealing with the
German unterhalten there was given for one of its
translations ' to entertain/ a word which in power is
nearly equivalent to ' sustain/ As sustenance is con-
nected with the one word, so we have the idea of food
implied in the phrase * good entertainment for man
and horse.' Even to entertain in the sense of ' amus-
ing' is to keep up the interest and spirits of friends.
Take too the following passage from the "Life of Col.
Hutchinson," by his widow (Bohn, 1846, p. 319) :—
"Col. Hutchinson's cheerful and constant spirit never
anticipated any evil with fear. His prudence wanted
not foresight that it might come, yet his faith and
courage entertained his hope that God would either
prevent it or help him to bear it." But the word enter-
tain belongs to the Norman element of our language,
being the representative of the French entretenir and
the Italian intertenere. We are thus brought to the
Latin domain, and as tenere is the precise equivalent
in sense of the German 'halten,' the question arises
whether there can be any connexion in blood, as there
is undoubtedly much external similarity, between the
Latin inter (Fr. entre) and the German prefix unter
' up.' Enter-prise, entre-prise, entre-prendre compared
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 47
with unter-nehmen suggest the same inquiry, since the
verb prendre is identical with the Latin prehendere
or prendere. But we have also the poetical emprise,
which conducts us in like manner to the Italian noun
impresa and verb imprendere ' to undertake/ This
verb is the more interesting as it also has the sense
* to learn/ thus giving a double assurance that its
prefix is connected with the particle ava 'up/ But
besides this, I am led to assume that the Latin lan-
guage also, some time or other, in some part of Italy,
possessed two verbs of nearly equal import, im-pren-
dere and inter-prendere, where we have an exact
counterpart in the prefixes to the German ent-nehmen
and unter-nehmen.
Invited in this decided manner to the consideration
of the Latin compounds with inter, I find among
them nearly all the varieties of power which ava and
its representatives possess. At the same time the
Latin, like the German, has also compounds with a
second inter of distinct origin. With this admission
I lay claim to the following : Intel-lig- ' to pick or
gather up/ and hence 'to perceive :' inter-misce- ' to
mix up/ and inter-turba- (Plaut., Ter.) 'to stir up'
(for the true sense of turba-re is simply ' to stir,' hence
turbida aqua 'muddy water'). Inter-iung- (equos,
boves) ' unyoke/ is a distinct example of inter in the
to us uninteresting sense of reversing an act. As the
literal meaning of lunger e is rather ' to yoke' than ' to
join/ this verb truly represents the German ent-jochen.
Inter-quiesc- (Cato, Cic.) 'rest after labour' = ava-
irav- (r.). Inter-die- 'forbid/ inter-mina- (r.) (Plaut.,
Cic.) ' forbid by threats/ may be placed beside ent-
sagen ' to renounce' and unter-sagen ' to forbid, to
48 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
interdict;' and with the same we may perhaps class
inter-pella-. As the German ent- often signifies
' escaping, disappearance/ so we find inter-mor- i die
off, die out, swoon away' (Cato, Plin., Cels.) ; inter-
neca- c kill off so that none are left' (Plaut.) ; inter-
fring- ' break off' (Cato, 44, 1 but not Pliny as an
independent authority, for in xvii. 18 or 30 he is only
quoting Cato) ; inter-aresc- (Cic, Vitr.) * dry up' (comp.
ava-^rjpacv-) ; inter-bib- ' drink up' (Plaut.); inter-mitt- 2
' leave off' (comp. unter-lassen, Dutch ont-leten, &c.) ;
inter-rump- ' break off ' (comp. unter-brechen) ; inter-
stingu- (Lucr.) lit. 'stamp out,' 'extinguish;' inter-
ter- ? ' destroy by rubbing,' a verb not itself producible,
but implied in its derivatives inter-tr-igon-, inter-
tr-imento-? inter-tr-itura- ; inter-cid- ' fall away, slip
away, escape,' about which there can be less doubt,
seeing it is so frequently used of ' slipping out of the
memory, being forgotten,' and thus exhibits a pecu-
liarity common to the German verb ent-f alien ; inter-
frig esc- (Vat. Fragm. § 155) lit. 'die of cold,' and so
' become obsolete or forgotten.' This metaphor brings
to mind such passages as : i Crimen de minimis caluit
re recenti, nunc in caussa refrixit,' Cic. p. Plane. ; ' illi
rumores Cumarum tenus caluerunt, Cael. ad Cic. For
a time a word is warm with life, in the end it dies of
1 Speaking of the boughs of the olive-tree. So Ovid has 'in-
fringere lilia,' Cic. ' infriiigere florem dignitatis,' while Heinsius and
Bentley would read in Horace * teneros caules alieni infregerit horti.'
All this seems to prove that infringere has an in = ava.
2 Intermittere ignem ' to let the fire out,' Cato.
3 The Bembine Scholiast, quoted by Faernus ad Ter. Haut. iii.
1, 39, saw part of the truth, when he wrote : ' Inter et De tantunden-
significant, ad augmentum ostendendum. Hinc dicitur interfectus.
THE GKEEK PKEPOSITION ava. 49
coldness and neglect. Inter-im- 'take off/ i.e. 'kilT
(comp. av-aipe- and ab-surn-) ; inter-fic- e make away
with/ 'put out of the way/ i.e. 'kill;' inter-i- 'pass
away/ i.e. 'die/ also the expressions, 'he is gone/
' decessit/ About the Latin verb interi-re I had for a
time much doubt, which was raised by a consideration
of the German unter-gehen, lit. 'to go down, sink/
and hence applied to the ' setting of the sun/ &c. and
by an easy metaphor to ' dying/ Had the Eomans
ever used inter-ire as they do oecidere of the ' sun
going down/ I should scarcely have doubted that it
attained the sense of dying in this way ; and then I
must have admitted its substantial identity with the
verb untergehen. But this German verb has a separ-
able prefix with the accent on it, so that I could lay
no claim to it.
In this enumeration I have omitted many com-
pounds with inter, though fully satisfied that they
belong to our preposition, as inter-elud- 'shut off/
inter-nosc- 'know one from another' = Sia-yiyvcoo-K-,
inter-sepi- ' fence off/ inter-cid- ' cut off/ inter-vert-
' divert/ inter-pitng- ' point off or separate by a point;'
inter-scind- ' cut off/ At the same time I feel that
such words admit of an interpretation by means of
the ordinary inter, so that they should rather wait for
a decision upon the words previously quoted than be
adduced in proof of my doctrine. The same argument
applies to many German verbs, as unter-scheiden. Still
I am satisfied that the inseparable unter is always a
secondary form of the German ent and the Greek ava.
The sense of ' again/ so familiar in compounds with
the Greek ava, serves also to explain the strange verb
inter-polare, and the adjective inter-polus (or inter-
E
50 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
polls), from which it is evidently derived. Forcellini
is no doubt right when he says, ' proprium artis fullo-
nicae/ which is fully supported by the phrase, togam
praetextam quotannis interpolare, Cic. — and probably
he is also right in connecting it with polire, for this
word also belongs to the same business, being the
equivalent in form and meaning of our own verb to
fall (cloth). Thus inter-polus, strictly used, should
signify, * fulled anew/ and accordingly it is so used by
Cicero's friend, the lawyer Trebatius : * Si vestirnenta
interpola pro novis emerit' (Dig. xviii. i. 45). Again
when Cicero (in Verr. ii. 1, 61) uses the word of one
who having made an erasure in his books subsequently
polishes up the rough surface in order to hide the fact
of erasure and substitute of new words, the verb in itself
denotes only the repolishing, and not the interposition
of new matter. It is only in later times that the
notion of inter ' between/ was able to bias the inter-
pretation. In Plautus, at any rate, the word, used
metaphorically, is simply ' to vamp up anew, to fur-
bish up old things and give them a new shape/ Pliny
perhaps may have felt the wrong bias when he uses
the word miscetur in the passage about the plant
broom (spartum) : ' Est quidem eius natura interpolis,
rursusque quamlibeat (or quamlibet) vetustum novo
miscetur/
I next quote inter-roga-. This word is commonly
translated ' to ask/ but this is to ignore the prefix ; a
neglect the less pardonable, as no family of words
exhibit in their prefixes a more distinct power than
the other compounds of roga-, e-roga-, pro-roga-, in-
roga-, sub-rogo>, ob-roga-, ab-roga-, ar-roga-, de-roga-,
prae-roga-tiva. The present theory on the other hand
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 51
secures to this inter a very clear meaning of its own,
if we class it with such verbs as ava-icpiv-, unter-suchen.
Nay, we find its representative in the Old German int-
johrag-en ' requirere/ where the int is in immediate
relation to int-er ; and the German verb frag-en has
probably the same root as roga-re. Moreover the
meaning thus claimed for interroga- exactly accords
with its use in legal language, viz. the searching exami-
nation of witnesses and suspected persons. See the
Digests, Livy and Tacitus ; and Forcellini, sub v. inter -
rogatio. Among the Romans legal terms often passed
into the language of common life, and of course with
much carelessness, so that interroga- is often found
usurping the place of the simple verb. Inter-vis-
(Plaut.) admits of similar explanation. As vis- means
' go and see/ so inter-vis- means ' go and hunt up,
go and see thoroughly into/ The idea of 'through/
which is expressed by the prefix of ava-nrpa-, is often
found with inter in Lucretius, as inter-fod- ' dig a
passage through' (iv. 716), inter-fug- 'fly through'
(vi. 332), and inter-datus 'distributed through' (iv.
868). For the last compare ava-BcScofzi. So also inter-
spira- ' breathe through' (Cato), inter-lnce- ' shine
through' (Verg.), inter-luca- 'let the light through'
(Plin.), inter-fulge- ' shine through' (Liv.).
Having thus been brought back to the region of the
Latin language, and endeavoured to re-establish the
long-ejected inter ' up/ &c. in the possession of its
rights, one is naturally led to cast an eye back to what
has been said of Latin prefixes in the earlier part
of this inquiry ; and the retrospect will repay us in
some measure for the trouble. If my views have been
right, it follows that our prefix inter- is but a compara-
E 2
52 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
tive of the prefix ad- or in- ' up/ and thus their com-
pounds may possibly exhibit instances parallel to the
Anglo-Saxon on-gitan ' to perceive/ under-gitan ' to
perceive / on-seean ' to inquire/ under-seean ' to
inquire/ German ent-lassen 'to let off/ unter-lassen
i to leave off/ ent-sagen ' to renounce/ unter-sagen ' to
interdict / where, as the forms differ solely in the
unimportant addition of a comparatival suffix, .so the
meanings are nearly identical.
Such are found in Latin also. I refer not merely
to the theoretic verbs imprendere and interprendere,
to which our English nouns emprise and enterprise
conducted me, but to pairs of words well established
in the Latin vocabulary : ad-misce- ' mix up/ in-
ter-misce- ' mix up/ aequiesc- ' rest after labour/ inter-
quiesc- ' rest after labour/ ad-aresc- ' dry up/ inter-
aresc- ' dry up / ad-bib- ' drink up/ inter-bib- ' drink
up/ ad-im- 'take away;' inter-im- 'take away/ 1
and perhaps also to in-cid- ' cut off/ inter-cid- ' cut
off / in-fring- ' break off/ inter-fring- ' break off/
It will have been observed that the instances of
compounds with inter have been drawn in a great
measure from the older writers, — Cato, Plautus, and
Lucretius. This is to be accounted for on the reason-
able ground that the more familiar preposition inter-
was gradually intruding itself upon the minds of the
Romans to the detriment of our inter-. A preposition
which has a separate existence, and may be used before
nouns as well as in composition with verbs, has a great
1 The latter verb is only used in the sense of death taking a
person off, but even here compare Horace's two expressions, ' MysUn
ademptwrn,] and * AsdrubaU interempto.'
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 53
advantage in such an encounter over one which occurs
only as an inseparable prefix to verbs. Hence our
inter gradually lost much of its vitality, so that it
was no longer competent to form new compounds with
it ; and those existing, one after another, disappeared.
Under these circumstances the old authors naturally
contain a larger supply of such compounds than those
of later date. The same state of things exists in the
German language, where it is now much more prac-
ticable to establish a new compound with unter, sig-
nifying ' under/ than with the inseparable unter, which
leaves the accent for the following syllable.
On reviewing what has been here written, the fear
suggests itself that the mind may revolt against a
theory which involves the doctrine that prepositions
of different origin and power frequently assume an
identity of form. For example we have —
Latin ad = to, Eng. another ad = ava.
in = in or on, Eng. in = am.
inter from Lat. in inter akin to ava.
Ang.-Sax. . . on = our on on = ava.
under = our under under akin to ava.
cet = our at cet = ava.
Eng un = av privative un = ava.
Germ ent in ent-zwei = in ent = ava.
unter == our under unter akin to ava.
an = our on an = ava.
Nay, the Greek ava itself seems to represent two in-
dependent particles ; for, besides the ordinary prepo-
sition, we have something very like the Gothic ana
(= our on and in) in such phrases as ava aro/na €%eiv
' in ore habere/ ava dv^ov exeiv ' in animo habere/ ava
tovs irpwTov? eivai ' in primis esse/ examples I take
54 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
from Liddell and Scott's Lexicon, but with my own
translation. A similar power exists in ava-Ko\\a- ' glue
on or to/ &c. But if such confusion be startling, an
examination of other prepositions would lead to similar
results. For example, the Latin di or dis, Greek 8ia,
German zer, Old Norse tor, appears in Anglo-Saxon
and old Frisian as to, and thus encounters that other
preposition to, which we still possess, corresponding to
the German zu. Both are used in these languages as
prefixes to verbs. Thus in old Frisian we have to-
delva = ' zu-graben/ * dig up (earth) and throw it
against (an object)/ and. to-delva = ' zer-graben/ ' dig
to pieces ; ' in Anglo-Saxon to-dcelan ' attribuere/ with
to-dcelan ■ disjungere / to-iveorpan ' adjicere/ with to-
weorpan ' disjicere / to-clevan ' adhaerere/ * cleave to/
with to-clevan ' diffindere/ ' cleave in two/ In this
last example the confusion is increased by equivocal
prefixes falling in with verbs no less equivocal. Anglo-
Saxon scholars may perhaps be able to say whether
there was a difference of accent to distinguish such
verbs. Still in written prose the only security against
error was in the context. Such a state of things must
have been highly inconvenient ; and the struggle in
Anglo-Saxon between the two prefixes appears to have
ended in the utter annihilation of both sets of com-
pounds, for we no longer possess a single verb com-
pounded with either the one to or the other, at least
as a prefix. Yet to — dis was still a living prefix for
Chaucer, Shakspere, and the translators of the Bible.
Another marked example occurs in the Irish lan-
guage. Here two prepositions originally distinct in
form, and directly opposite in power, de ' from/ and
do ' to/ have for the most part (Kilkenny excepted)
THE GREEK PREPOSITION ava. 55
fallen into an awkward identity of form, do ; so that
nothing but the variety of accent and the sense of
the adjoining words are left to distinguish them (see
Leo, Ferienschriften, 1852, p. 195).
In the Latin language the prefixes de l down/ and
di or dis ' in two/ are constantly interchanging their
forms, so that often the sense alone is a guide to the
etymology of a compound. Nay, the poor word di-
scribere ' to distribute in writing/ has utterly escaped
the notice of all our lexicographers, the form describere
' to copy/ being allowed to usurp its place. Similarly
the prefix in ('not') of insanus is in form undistin-
guishable from the in of inire. Thus infectus
represents two different words, as also invocatus, and
according to our lexicons insepultus also, but this last
assertion is the result of a mere blunder.
In the same way the Greek ava and av- privative
become one externally when prefixed to a word with
an initial vowel, so that avio-oco might d priori signify
either ' I render unequal/ or * I equalize again/
Another fear which weighs upon me is lest it should
be supposed that I would derive all the particles I
have dealt with directly from the Greek ava. The
habit of treating one language as deduced from another
has been carried, I think, to a most unreasonable length.
Sometimes we are told that the Latin is derived from
the Greek ; at another, that it is made up of two
elements, one Greek and one Keltic. No doubt it is
easy in such cases to produce a large stock of words
more or less similar in the compared languages ; but
this proves only a connexion between them, not that
one stands in the relation of daughter to the other.
56 ON THE REPRESENTATIVES OF ava.
To call them ' sisters' would be a better metaphor;
though even this is somewhat objectionable, for in the
life of a language there is no such breach of continuity
as between a parent and a child. The Greek, Latin,
Sanskrit, Keltic, and Teutonic races, not to speak of
others, have a large amount of common property in
language, which with small exceptions they no way
owe to each other, but have received from their ances-
tors. Were it possible to trace up each variety of lan-
guage spoken by these races, we should probably see
the similarity gradually increasing and at last merging
in identity.
In conclusion, I would observe that a consideration
of the arguments put forward in this paper will show
that they ought not to be considered as a chain, where
weakness in one link would endanger the continuity of
the whole, and so invalidate all the results. Their
nature is such that they constitute rather a close net-
work, and the presence of a rotten thread here and
there no way threatens disunion, the adjoining meshes
compensating for the deficiency. Or, in plainer English,
I would request any one who may have had his doubts
about isolated points of the argument, to ask himself
whether these doubts are not removed by other parts
of the paper, for each branch of the discussion has its
bearings upon the other branches.
57
II.
ON THE PREPOSITIONS evi, in, AND RELATED
WORDS.
The inquiry into the representatives of the Greek pre-
position ava in allied languages brought me into re-
peated contact with the Latin preposition in, and its
derivative inter ' between/ The consideration then of
this preposition in, and its allied forms in other lan-
guages, may next be taken up.
Grimm has more than once noticed the tendency of
prepositions to appear at one time with only an initial
vowel, at another with only a final vowel, an older
form in his view having once possessed both. Thus,
as he observes (D. G. iii. p. 252), the Gothic ana,
whence the ordinary German preposition an and our
on, takes in the Slavic languages the shape of ncc.
This prefix na seems indeed to perform a double office,
and at times to represent the Greek ava in its various
senses of ' up,' &c. ; as from the Eussian dut' 'to
blow,' naduV 'to blow up,' 'inflate;' from ruiti 'to
dig,' naruit' 'to dig up.' Again in p. 254 Grimm
throws out very doubtingly a suggestion that the
Gothic du, Germ, zu, Eng. to, may be one in origin
with the Gothic at, Old Germ, ax, Eng. at, and so of
course with the Latin ad, on the assumption that there
5 6 ON THE PREPOSITIONS eve, 111,
once existed an original preposition adu. A close
connexion in meaning, and the possession of a dental
consonant in common, seem by themselves to be an
insufficient foundation for such a theory ; and yet I
believe the theory to be true, for the evidence wanted
may be supplied, I think, from the Keltic tongues.
In the Gaelic Grammar of the Highland Society, p. 27,
appears the following : —
' The preposition " do" loses the o before a vowel,
and the consonant is aspirated; thus, " dh' Albainn"
to Scotland. It is also preceded sometimes by the
vowel a when it follows a final consonant ; as, " dol a
dh' Eirin" going to Ireland. " Do," as has been already
observed, often loses the d altogether, and is written
a ; as, " dol a Dhuneidin" going to Edinburgh!
It will be here seen that the writer treats the a thus
alleged to be inserted as a matter too unimportant to
call for explanation ; but the strictness of modern phi-
lology will not allow any such assumption of intrusive
letters, and we may safely assume that the a was fully
entitled to its position in the phrase, and not a mere
euphonic insertion. If we assume an old preposition
ado, all the three varieties above seen are explained.
Moreover, the assumption that ado is an original type
which suffers more or less mutilation, according as the
particle happens to come into contact with vowels or
consonants in the adjoining words, is in exact agree-
ment with the fate of the preposition ag in the same
language. The use of this preposition in the forma-
tion of imperfect tenses in the Gaelic verb precisely
corresponds with our own use of the equivalent par-
ticle a (= in) for the same purpose. Thus : —
1. Preceded by a consonant and followed by a
AND RELATED WORDS. 59
vowel, the preposition is entire : as ' ta iad ag
eisdeachcT they are a-listening.
2. Between two consonants ag loses the g, and is
written a; as, 'tha iad a deanamh' they are a-doing.
3. Between two vowels the a is dropped and the g
retained ; as, 'ta mi 'g eisdeachd' / am a-listening.
4. Preceded by a vowel and followed by a consonant,
it is often suppressed altogether ; as, ' ta mi deanamh'
/ am a-doing.
Indeed this very preposition ag of the Gaelic seems
to supply another example of the same principle, for
we find standing beside each other ' ag' at and ' gu'
to, which I am strongly disposed to regard as dedu-
cible from a common source, agu. Nay, it is highly
probable that this agu is but a variety of the Gothic
ado, for the interchange of the guttural and dental
medials is not rare in the Keltic tongues. Thus, while
the Gaelic has a preposition gu or gus 'to' or ' till/ the
Manx commonly writes gys, but at times replaces this
by dys ; and, as Leo observes, the identity of the Manx
gys and dys is proved not merely by their identity of
meaning, but also by the appearance of the same
letter-change in gyn 'without/ and dyn 'without'
(Ferienschriften, Halle, 1847). We may even go far-
ther, for it seems not impossible that in the German
bis 'till' we have a third variety of the initial con-
sonant. Compare the relation which exists between
the Latin bis and the Greek 8l? ' twice/
What has been said in favour of a close connexion
in form between the prepositions at and to, receives
strong support in the equally close connexion as to
meaning. It is true that now-a-days there are but
few phrases in which an Englishman can indifferently
60 ON THE PREPOSITIONS evi, in,
use at and to. But that such distinctions are in origin
quite arbitrary is proved by many arguments. It is
considered more correct to say, ' I live at Oxford/ yet
in parts of England the preposition to has preserved
its footing in this form of words, as 'I live to Ply-
mouth/ The same variety prevails in some parts of
the United States, where ' I live to Boston' is in com-
mon use ; and it may be observed, that nearly all
those terms and phrases which are supposed to be cor-
ruptions, and of recent formation in that country, are
genuine portions of the language which early emigrants
carried out with them from the old country. I once
heard ex-President Jefferson say that he had himself
traced a very large number of such peculiarities to
their provincial site in England. Again, where we
say at home, the German says to house (zu hause).
But perhaps the most marked example of their equiva-
lent use is seen in the employment of the prepositions
before an infinitive, where the Swedish att taga and
Danish at tage correspond to our phrase to take. In
the present day at is commonly preferred where rest
is implied, and to in order to denote motion. Yet we
say, ' arrive at a town/ ' throw a stone at a pig/ and,
on the other hand, ' he lives close to the church/ ' he
sat next to me/ Thus we may fairly conclude that at
and to are substantially one in sense and probably one
in origin.
If Grimm be right in identifying the Gothic hi, Old
Germ, pi, hi, Mod. Germ, hey, and Eng. by, with the
Greek eiri, then, as there can be no doubt that the
Latin ob represents this Greek preposition, it will
follow that our by and the Latin ob are identical. But
AND RELATED WORDS. 61
my doubt about the truth of the first of these proposi-
tions prevents my assenting, as yet, to the conclusion.
A clearer example of two prepositions concealing
their affinity by the varied position of the consonant
is seen in the German urn ' round/ and the Gaelic mu
' about/ two words closely akin, if not identical in
sense, and the latter deduced from a fuller form, umu.
Thus I am inclined to regard the Old German umpi,
umbi, and Greek a^i as secondary prepositions ; while
the old Norse am and Latin am, as well as the German
um, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish om, exhibit the pre-
position in its simpler form. It is somewhat strange
that Grimm should have failed to quote the Latin am,
which is well seen in the compound verbs am-icio and
am-plector, as well as in the adjective an-ceps ; and
though the Oscan abl. amnud be no longer regarded
as = anno, the notion of a circle explains the forms
annus, annulus, anus, solemnis, peremnis, while the
interchange of m and n in these words needs no ex-
ternal support. Even amare ' to love' may first have
signified ' to embrace/ and so come eventually from
am 'round/
Grimm has no doubt truly explained the Swedish
pa (and Danish paa) as an abbreviation of uppa, the
equivalent of our upon (which also takes at times with
us the reduced form 'pon). Thus the Greek viro on
the one hand is identical with our ' up/ and on the
other has its representative, so far as the consonant
is concerned, in the first element of the Swedish pa.
A similar relation probably exists between the
English preposition of and the German von, Dutch
van. To what Grimm lias said on this subject (p. 262)
I would add that the form with n is not altogether
62 ON THE PREPOSITIONS evi, in,
wanting, as he says, to the English language. Our
vulgar, but not on that account to be neglected, on, as
used in the forms — ■' six on us/ ' two on 'em/ 'I wasn't
a hurting on 'im/ for f six of us/ &c. — represents the
derived preposition von or Old Germ, fona, itself repre-
senting, as Grimm says, a fuller form afana, from the
Gothic cif= our off and of the Greek airo, Lat. ab.
But in regard to this of -ana there is no more necessity
for holding the last letters to represent the Gothic
ana ' on/ than for assigning the same origin to the
termination of the Gothic tit- ana and hind-ana; so
that Grimm's scruple on this head seems groundless.
The inference to be drawn from these considerations
is, that whenever a preposition appears in a biliteral
form, consisting of a vowel followed by a consonant,
we should always look around for a second form in
which the said consonant has won an initial position,
and should also ask ourselves whether an earlier form
of language does not present a triliteral preposition
consisting of a consonant between two vowels.
Now, if I understand Grimm rightly, he has com-
mitted an error in speaking of the preposition in.
After comparing the Gothic ana ' on/ with the Greek
ava and Slavic na, he proceeds to say that, although
the preposition in is closely connected in signification
with the Gothic ana, yet there is a marked external
distinction, inasmuch as ana in its original form has
always a final vowel, whereas in never exhibits such a
vowel. Whatever be the case with the Gothic lan-
guages, he should not have passed over the Homeric
evi. In the following investigation, therefore, it will
not be surprising if we find the preposition evi and
its derivatives appearing at times with, and at times
AND RELATED WORDS. 63
without, an initial vowel ; and, indeed, already in the
Italian nello, nella, nei we have an example of this.
Again, the Greek evepoi ' those below/ and its deri-
vatives, eveprepo-, evepraro-, evepOev ' from below,' are
with reason referred to the preposition ev as their source;
but we are here brought to a variety of meaning, not
so distinctly belonging to the preposition. The Latin
superlative Imo- stands in a similar position. By form
it may well claim connexion with the Latin in, for a
more regular superlative in-imo-, which the analogy of
pro-imo- = primo- and sub-imo- = summo- would
suggest, would naturally be compressed down to Imo-,
just as the substantive animo- seems in the comic
writers to have had a disyllabic pronunciation, some-
thing like dmo- ; and such compression is confirmed
by the shape which this word has taken in the French
dme. Then as to meaning, although ' inmost' will
suit not a few passages in which imo- occurs, yet the
notion of ' lowest' seems more commonly implied.
Nay, even the adverb imo or immo may have had per-
haps for its original meaning { at the bottom/ for the
use of the particle is to correct those who give only a
part of the truth, not going to the bottom of things. 1
Still the two senses of 'in' and ' down' have a natural
connexion. As prepositions generally are employed to
denote the relations of place, and as the earth itself is
the great object to which all motions and all positions
are naturally referred, the ideas of ' further in' and
' further down' have a natural coincidence. Again, the
Latin in before an accusative, and the Greek eis for evs,
add the notion of ' into.' But where many meanings
1 Mr. Parry, in his Terence, has erroneously ascribed to me an
etymology of imo which was never mine.
64 ON THE PREPOSITIONS eve, in,
belong to a word, the right course is probably (see p. 46)
always to give a preference to one which implies move-
ment. Now if we accept downward motion as the
primitive idea, when such descent is checked, as for
instance by the earth, we arrive at the idea denoted
by on ; but if the motion be' not so checked, then we
come to ' into,' and that soon followed by the result of
being c in/ What is here said is quite parallel to the
case of the Latin sub. In the preceding paper (p. 44)
I assigned to that preposition as its primitive meaning
that of ' up/ or rather ' upward movement/ and con-
tended that it was when such upward movement was
terminated that the preposition acquired the sense of
' under/ with rest
Another instance of a word in which in carries with
it distinctly the notion of ' down' is incurvus, which
Forcellini was contented to translate idem quod curvus
or valde curvus, but which really means ' bent down/
Hence in " The Eunuch" Archidemides, whom Chaerea
speaks of as of the same age with his father, patris
aequalem, and who is therefore an old man, is subse-
quently described as incurvus tremulus, &c. Again
Cicero has the phrase Stesichori poetae statua senilis
incurva, and the same writer quotes from a poet, Ramos
baccarum ubertate incurviscere (Or. iii. 38). So again
Pacuvius (Varr. L. L. v., p. 19 of Spengel's edition) used
the phrase incurvicervicum pecus, corresponding to
Sallust's pecora quae natura prona fecit. The verb
inflect o shows less distinctness in its sense ; but even
this we find united with incurvus, as Incurvum et
leviter a summo inflexum bacillum.
Inclinare is another word which, duly examined,
will lead to the same result In many cases mere
AND RELATED WORDS. 65
' bending ' will satisfy the uses of the word ; yet still it
may be presumed that the preposition at first was not
added without a purpose. We may safely assume,
then, that the notion of ' down ' belonged to the word
when used of the declining sun, as in Juvenal's ' Sed
iumenta vocant et sol inclinat ; 3 or of the heeling of
a ship, ' Merso navigio inclination e lateris unius' (Plin.
viii. 208) ; or of a tree laden with fruit, ' Palladia arbor
Inclinat varias pond ere nigra comas' (Mart. i. lxxvi. 8) ;
or metaphorically of a declining condition, as, ' Incli-
nata fortuna et prope iacens' (Cic. Fain, ii. 16) ; ' In-
clinatis iam moribus' (Plin. xxv. 162); 'Is primus
inclinasse eloquentiam dicitur' (Quint, x. 1). Nay,
even the ordinary use of the word to denote a moral
inclination to any object is in harmony with the
notion of descent, for down-hill action is of course
the easier; and indeed this accounts for the forma-
tion of the words promts, propensus, proclivis so
used. (See the subsequent paper on pro)
That instances of the prefix in with the sense of
'down' are after all but few, is a fact which finds its
explanation on two sides. When the Latin language
had once established the variety of in for an or ava
* up,' the particle in = ev was liable to confusion. On
the other hand, the form de was no way ambiguous.
But even this de will presently be claimed as a deriva-
tive from in ' down.'
As regards the forms infra, inferi, inferior, infmus,
the best course is to compare them with the opposed
family of words, supra, superi, superior, summus ;
and then we are led by an irresistible necessity to the
conclusion that, as the latter series have their root in
the first three letters, so inf must contain the more
F
66 ON THE PREPOSITIONS eve, in,
radical portion of the former series. But inf being
almost an unpronounceable combination of letters, we
are further led to the assumption of an older form
enefra, &c, following therein the analogy of many
similar compressions. Thus umbra may be considered
as a compression of on-itb-era, and so connected with
the Latin nube- ' cloud/ the verb nub-ere ' to veil
oneself ; ' while nubi-la-re and nubil-um bring us
directly to the forms vefaX-r) and German nebel
' mist/ If inf ula signify really a veil, and so stand
for enefula, we have a case thoroughly parallel to
that of inf-ra. Again, o^aXo-, if it represent, as it
well may, a fuller owcpaX-o, and the Latin umbil-
ico- 9 standing for onubil-ico-, bring us to Germ, nabel,
Eng. navel; and ungui- for onugui-, by the side of
ovvx~, to Germ, nag-el, Eng. nail.
Following these analogies then, we may conclude
that inferi stands for en-eferi, a comparatival form
which should have been preceded by a positive enefus
or nefus. This has a somewhat strange appearance,
but is in reality identical with the Greek vefos and
Latin novus, for the interchange of the sounds f and
w is no way rare, and indeed our own language sup-
plies an apposite example in two varieties for the name
of the same reptile, a newt and an eft. Similarly the
Greek avros Evpnriftrjs are now by modern Greeks (and
as regards the v were perhaps in ancient times also)
pronounced aftos Evripethes.
I next consider the forms in which the vowel eon
being dropped, the liquid v occupies the initial position.
Ne/3(9e, veprepos are coexistent with the Greek adverb
and adjective already quoted : but besides these there
exists a superlative ve-aros, which at any rate by its
AND RELATED WORDS. 67
ordinary signification of ' lowest' seems in a very
decided manner to claim kindred with the root before
us ; and the use of the feminine uearrj or vtjtt} for the
'lowest string of a musical instrument' (lowest in
position, but highest in note) confirms this view. But
I have here to contend with what appears to be a rival
etymology, for vearos bears to the adjective veos ' novus,'
precisely the same relation that fxeaaros does to peaos ;
and this argument receives much encouragement from
the fact that vearos, like the Latin novissimus, also
signifies the ' last or most recent.' I shall presently
give reasons for the belief that this new notion is not
at variance with the idea of ' lowest.'
But it will first be convenient to look in other lan-
guages for the representatives of our root. Now the
Sanskrit has a particle ni, used as a prefix to verbs
with the sense of ' down,' as from ni + dhd, ni-dhd
' deponere ;' and from ni + as, ny-as ' dejicere.' Here
again the two notions of 'in' or 'on' and 'down'
belong to the preposition ni, so that from ni + gam we
have ni-gam, ' to go into,' ' inire.' The Ossetic of the
Caucasus, a language of the greater interest because
it is one of the most outlying members of the Indo-
European family, has also, according to Sjogren, a
prefix ny of the same power, as ny-fyssyn, 'to write
down,' ny-vceryn 'to lay down.' Of the Slavonic
languages it will be sufficient to take examples
from the Russian, where we find niz' an inseparable
preposition, denoting ' down,' as niz-lozhit' ' to lay
down,' from loz/iit' ' to lay ;' niz-padat' ' to fall down,'
from padat' ' to fall,' &c. ; besides the verb nizit'
' to lower.'
Again, the Lithuanian has a prefix nil ' down,' of
f 2
68 ON THE PREPOSITIONS evt, in,
very frequent occurrence, as nu-degu ' burn down,'
nu-tekli 'flow down' (see Nesselmanns Lexicon passim,
and especially under the word nu). But this nu is a
shortened form of an older nug l down/
But it is not merely in the humble character of a
prefix or particle that this root occurs. Thus, to the
Kussian niz-it' we may add the Chinese ni ' to sink, de-
scend / while in the Greek vev-o and Latin nu-o we have
verbs still carrying with them the notion of downward
movement. In practice these two words are pretty
well limited to the motion of the head ; but in the
Greek phrase vevevKws ttjv K€(pa\r)v ' holding the head
down/ ' clemisso ccqjite,' the very fact that /cecjyakrjv is
expressed proves that the verb itself did not imply
this idea ; which is as much as to say that the verbs
vevecv and naere meant merely ' to lower/
The Teutonic languages also abound in examples
which contain the root under discussion. Here we
usually find a dental consonant attaching itself to
the particle. Thus the Danish has ned ' down,' used
commonly as a prefix to verbs, e.g. ned-skryve ' write
down,' ned-blcese 'blow down/ besides an adverb
nede ' below/ The English language possesses still, at
least in poetry, the simple neath, whence on the one
hand the preposition be-neath, and on the other the de-
rived words nether, nethermost. But the forms with
the suffix containing the letter r (no doubt compara-
tival in origin) are of most frequent occurrence in the
Teutonic dialects. Thus the German has nieder and
the Icelandic nidr ' down/ This latter language has
also a substantive nid, to denote the time when there
is no visible moon, although the idea of ( down' is all
that the word strictly denotes. (See Holmboe's Ord-
AND EELATED WORDS. 69
forraad.) On the same principle no doubt the Latin
noct- Greek wkt- and wx~ (as seen in z>u%a, i>v%£oy, &c.),
originally meant ' sun-down.' It was natural for a
Koman to think more of the sun ; but an Icelander,
less happily placed, owes a very large part of his com-
fort to the light of the moon.
Thus we have seen the simple en or in taking to
itself a suffix or suffixes with a varying consonant,
as — 1. A guttural in the Lithuanian nug, the Greek
w% of w^a ; 2. a dental in the Danish ned, Icelandic
nid, German nied-er, English neath, neth-er, Eussian
niz ; 3. a labial in the Latin inf-ra, &c. for enef-era ;
while 4. no consonant shows itself in the Chinese and
Sanskrit ni, the Ossetic ny, the Italian ne, the Lithu-
anian nit or nit, and the Latin nu-, Greek vev-.
I have just used the words suffix or suffixes ; but I
am satisfied in my own mind that all these suffixes
are of one origin, and I believe that the Lithuanian
nug and Greek wx, standing for on-ug and ov-vx, have
preserved the suffix in its purest form. But I am here
influenced by considerations which will be stated more
fully in the subsequent paper on re and pro. Our
own preposition on can no way be separated from the
Latin in, Greek ev ; but I do not pretend to decide
between the claims of these three forms, and should
be equally pleased to find a variety en-ek, en-eg, or
en-ech. This suffix, ug i% &c, I believe to be of
diminutival power. Just as Dr. Johnson speaks of
the suffix le of our verbs sparkle, trickle, as diminu-
tival in origin, yet bringing with it to these verbs the
notion of iteration, so I think that nn-ere and vev-ew
have in the same way obtained the power of denoting
a repetition of small acts.
70 ON THE PREPOSITIONS evi, in,
But the liquid n habitually throws out an excrescent
t or d, e.g. in tegument-um, from tegwnen (tegmen),
avSp-09 for avep-os. Such a d T find in the Greek evS-
ov (Dor. evBos), in the Latin indu-perator, and our
own und-er (from on). On the other hand a £ presents
itself in the Latin int-us, 1 int-er, 1 int-ro, and the
German unt-er. But here again the notion of ' down'
is felt, most clearly indeed in the prepositions under,
unter ; but also in the phrase evSov yeypairrau ' it is
written below/ and the adverb evBorepco similarly used ;
as also in the Latin interula (sc. vestis) ' an under-
garment/ and the phrase aqua intercus (i.e. ' under
the skin').
Inde is another instance of an excrescent d. But
here caution is necessary, as scholars seem to have
confounded together two independent words. Inde
' from this/ or ' hence/ is of course connected with the
pronoun is, ea, id, of which, however, in rather than i is
the base, as shown by the old nominative * Is' of an
Inscription (Rhein. Mus. n. f. xiv. 380, note), for the
tall ' I' of this form goes far to confirm the doctrine I
have contended for elsewhere (Philolog. Soc. Proc. III.
57), that all demonstrative pronouns once had a
final n. Thus the derived ind-e is one with the Greek
evO-ev, the d and 6 being alike excrescent.
But the preposition in also formed a similar ind-e =
Greek evBov, or evSos, with the notion of down. I
refer to the familiar phrases iam inde ah initio, &c,
in which the usual practice is to ignore the inde ; but
' down from the beginning' is so thoroughly intelligible
1 In my paper on Excrescent Consonants (see below), I have
given my reasons for so placing the hyphen.
AND RELATED WORDS. 71
that I hope it will be accepted as a more precise
translation.
But this inde also enters into the formation of sub-
inde, which must on no account be classed with de-
lude, pro-inde, &c, for in these the inde is the genitival
inde ' from this/ corresponding to the Greek evOev.
The literal translation of subinde is 'up and down 7
(i.e. ' ever and anon'). The non-appearance of a par-
ticle to denote ' and' is in agreement with the habit of
the Latin language, which preferred hine illinc, pedibus
manibus, to hinc et illinc, pedibus et manibus. Then
as regards meaning we have what is very similar in our
own combination ' off and on/ This subinde has of
course led to the Italian sovente and the French souvent.
I now venture to claim theoretic varieties, ond-uk
and end-ek, as standing by the theoretic on-uh, en-ec ;
and then by decapitation the Greek verb Sv-, which
under this view may well unite the two meanings com-
monly assigned to it of 'go in' and ' go down/ as used
of sun-down, of diving, or in the phrase ecs AiSao
hvaaaOai. Our own ' duck/ used often like ' dive' in
reference to water, but also in the sense of ' ducking'
or lowering the head, as in passing under a gateway, is
truer as to form than Bv- and nu-, both of which it
represents ; while our ' dive ' is another variety of the
same word, the guttural and labial interchanging as in
nix, nivis. The Greek Bvirrw has also substituted a
labial, as is usual in that language, for a guttural.
On the other hand, by a similar decapitation endek
leads to de, the long vowel of the latter corresponding
to that of the preposition e for ek. That our own
down is of the same stock can scarcely be doubted.
Perhaps as our preposition ab-ove led to a secondarv
72 ON THE PREPOSITIONS €Vi, in,
form abov-en or abow-en, which afterwards was con-
tracted to aboon (see Jamieson's Dictionary), so down
may be for doiv-en.
I now go back to the adjective veos. That this word
must at one time have signified ' low' follows at once
from the use of the superlative vearos as * lowest ;'
and the sense of 'low' is more likely to have been
original in the word than that of ' new/ A relation
of place is often found to coexist in the same word
with a relation of time, but few will hesitate to give
to the locative idea the priority of title. Thus ubi
and ibi denoted ' where' and * there' before they were
used for ' when' and ' then.' Again, in the familiar
phrase interea loci, the latter word appears in a sense
which is not primitive. Still the question remains,
how we are to connect the ideas of 'low' and 'new.'
The explanation I wbuld suggest is that a consider-
able duration of time is commonly expressed by the
simile of a river. Thus we ascend the stream of time
to the past, and on the other hand we come down to
recent times. But there is also another view that
may be taken. Youth and lowness of stature are
coincident, and every inch of growth is an evidence
of increasing age. Thus veos might pass through
the meanings 'low, young, new.'
Perhaps on the same principle we may be permitted
to explain the German adjective alt, which is repre-
sented among ourselves by old. This German word
bears a tempting resemblance to the Latin alius, but
a resemblance not nearer than that of the German
adjective neu to the Greek vef-os. Is it possible, then,
that ' high' may have been the original sense of the
German alt f
AND RELATED WORDS. 73
And if this be true, we are brought to the Latin
al-ere ' to raise/ and the Greek aip-eiv of like power,
the root-syllable of which I assume to be ap, for the
fuller form aetp-eiv seems to be the result of redupli-
cation. The Latin adjective ard-uus differs on]y in
having an excrescent cl. Possibly, too, the preposition
ava may be an offspring of the same root ; and if so,
both ava and eve will be deduced from verbs.
74
III.
ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS re AND pro.
I begin this inquiry by once more quoting from
the "Deutsche Grammatik" (ii. 865), the following
passage : —
'The doctrine which holds true generally of par-
ticles, that they become obscure in signification and
disguised in form, is specially applicable to the in-
separable particles/
The little word re of the Latin language belongs
to this class, as it is never found doing duty as an
independent preposition, but occurs only in compound
verbs or adjectives, and words deduced from them. It
further deserves attention, in that it is difficult in the
sister languages to find its representative. But it is
precisely in short forms of this kind that the destruc-
tive habit of language is found to have been most
violently at work. Already the longer form red (red-
eo, red-do, red-igo) exhibits a final consonant that
once belonged to the particle. We must also claim
ret as a variety, for ret-ro is a more trustworthy
division of this adverb than re-tro. This appears from
the corresponding adverb por-ro, the first syllable of
which exhibits the simpler form of the Latin preposi-
tion which led to the derived preposition pro, i.e.
por-o. Indeed the simple preposition por has been
►:«
ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS re AND pro. 75
preserved in tlie verb por-rig-o, afterwards compressed
to porgo and per go ; and virtually in polliceor and
polling o ' I lay out (a corpse).' But to this preposition
pro I shall have to recur again.
But even ret is not the oldest form of the particle.
The dental is in all probability a corruption from a
guttural. Such a change is common to the last degree
in language, and especially in the Latin language. In
our own, for example, the diminutival suffix et has
grown out of an older icJc : thus, emmet and gimlet
are known to have superseded emmick and gemlick,
So again the Latin abiet- stands in place of abiec-
(witness abieg-no-) ; and as I have elsewhere noted,
the frequentative verbs, vell-ic-are, fod-ic-are, mors-
ic-are, have the suffix in a purer form than ag-it-are,
quaer-it-are, clam-it-are. It is true that this latter
variety outnumbers the former in the proportion of
about a hundred to one ; but it is not by numbers
that such questions should be decided. The change
from a guttural to a dental is a far more familiar
matter than the converse ; and in the case of Latin
frequentative verbs this particular change was en-
couraged in a large number of instances by the prece-
dence of a guttural in the simple verb, as for instance
in the three verbs just quoted. But in the instance
of ret, we have a confirmation in the fact that rec
has been preserved in recu-pera-re, ' get back,' a com-
pound of parare, and in the adjective ^reci-proco-,
'backward and forward.' The verb recu-perare has
met with much ill-treatment among pliilologers. It
was once the practice to regard it as a derivative from
recip-ere, and even Varro (L. L. vii. 5, p. 358) sanctions
this view ; but this leaves the era without explanation ;
76 ON THE LATIN PEEPOSITIONS
for volnerare, onerare, derive the syllable er from the
nouns volnus volner-is, onus oner-is. Again for many
years there was to be found in the " Gradus ad Par-
nassum " and similar works a statement that the u of
recuperare was a long vowel, and a line ascribed to
Plautus used to be quoted in support of the assertion.
But the said line did not come from Plautus, whose
writings on the contrary contain many passages to
prove the reverse, the metres of this poet invariably
demanding a short pronunciation, such as recuperare,
recitperdtor. Of reciproco-, more presently.
But still further evidence in favour of the guttural
presents itself in some of the allied languages. In
the Greek pa^s pa^rpov ' back or spine,' we have
evidently words of the same stock. So again in the
German prefix ruck {rihckwarts, &c), and the sub-
stantive rucJcen ' the back/ These again bring us to
the Anglo-Saxon lirig 'back,' the Scotch and Old
English rig, and the Modern English ridge.
On this evidence then I claim rec as an older form
than ret or red or re.
But the particle has suffered more or less on the
other side too. With myself the appearance of an
initial r always raises the suspicion of a decapitation,
and the Anglo-Saxon hrig is a witness in this par-
ticular case to the same effect ; but I shall not be
satisfied with claiming some initial consonant. A
vowel also is missing ; and in the selection of a par-
ticular vowel I am guided here, as in other similar
instances, by the law of vowel-assimilation. As in
the case of the Latin pro I was led to claim a vowel
o as lost, the word standing for por-o, so for re I
would suggest a preceding e, making ere, or rather
re and pro. 77
er-ec. Still closer is the parallelism when for pro
itself I find fuller forms, — first, prod {prod-ire, prod-
esse) ; secondly, prot in the Greek irpor-epo- (my
reasons for denying the t to the suffix have been
given elsewhere) ; and thirdly, a still older proc in
the very adjective already quoted, reci-proco-. For
the letter-change it may be useful to compare the
varieties re, red, ret, and rec, as well as pro, prod,
prot, and proc, with the negative particle hau, haud,
haut, representing the Greek ovk and ov. Thus re and
pro appear to me to be corruptions from disyllabic
forms er-ec and por-oc. If I am asked what this
guttural suffix denoted, what its power was, I answer
that it is the diminutival suffix which, in my view,
plays so important a part in language ; and I point
to a parallel case in the Teutonic family. The Old
German durah, written also duruh and duroh (Grimm,
D. G. ii. 770), corresponding to our own through, seems
to claim connexion in its first syllable with the sub-
stantive, which we write door, and a German thilr,
while the second syllable has all the appearance of
being the suffix of diminution. I might perhaps put
forward as examples of the simple preposition the
adjectives dur-liuhtic, dur-nehtic, dur-sihtic, quoted
by Grimm from the Middle German. Of course in
our tongue the word through is but an abbreviation
of thorough. Thus the Anglo-Saxon thurh-fare be-
comes, in Chaucer, thurg-fare, and in Shakspere
(Merchant of Venice, ii. 8) through-fare, where we
write thoroughfare. Again Shakspere in the same
play (iv. 1) has throughly in the sense of our
thoroughly; and in the Midsummer Night's Dream
we find : " Thorough the distemperature we see the
78 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
seasons alter ; " and " Over hill over dale, thorough
hush thorough briar, over park over pale, thorough
flood thorough fire."
But if ec of the theoretic erec be a suffix, we have
for the base of the word er, — that is, a prefix well-
known in German. In the examination of this prefix,
a first duty is to consult the " Deutsche Grammatik."
Accordingly I have read with some care what is con-
tained in the article on the subject in the second
volume of Grimm's work (pp. 818-832). What he
says on the Gothic vocabulary I have checked with
the lexicon of this language attached by Massmann
to his edition of Ulphilas. But though all linguistic
inquiries should include an examination of the oldest
forms of language, this should not be to the exclusion
of later varieties, and this for two reasons, that remains
of the oldest forms of a language are for the most
part very fragmentary, and not unfrequently difficult
of interpretation. With a language still spoken these
two evils are less to be feared. Thus I should deem
it most unwise to throw out of view what lies before
us in Modern German. Under this impression T have
tabulated to a great extent the German verbs com-
pounded with er according to the meanings assigned
to them in Meissner s Worterbuch, taking this work
because it happens to be at hand. The result of my
examination has been to assign to the preposition the
following meanings : —
1. Up. — In support of this, I might quote nearly
forty examples, including both physical notions, and
those of a secondary or metaphorical character ; but
am satisfied with erstehen ' stand up/ erhalten ' sus-
tain/ erspriessen ' shoot up/ ersteigen ' climb up/
f re and pro. 79
erheben 'lieave up,' erschivellen 'swell up/ erbauen
' build up/ erbrausen ' surge up/ ertragen ' support/
erdulden 'suffer/ erndhren ' nourish/ erziehen 'bring
up/ to which should be added the adjective, or rather
participle, erhaben ' elevated/
2. Back. — This sense naturally grows out of the
preceding, inasmuch as the downward movement of
substantial bodies, through the action of gravity, is
more conspicuous, and thus apparently more natural,
than the corresponding ascent of what is often in-
visible, and so the upward action is regarded as a
reversal of the first. Examples are — erlassen 'remit/
erkaufen 'ransom/ erschccllen 1 'resound/ erhallen
'resound/ ertonen ' resound/ erhlingen ' resound/
3. Again is a meaning which flows from, or rather
is scarcely separable from, the preceding. This mean-
ing occurs in erkennen 'recognise/ erneiien 'renew/
ersetzen ' replace/ erquicken ' revive/ evfrischen
'refresh/ erinnern 'remind/ erlosen 'release/ er-
laben ' refresh/ erholen ' respire/ and ersinnen (sich)
' remember/
4. Reversal of the act expressed in the simple verb.
—In p. 830, sub-section 8, Grimm deals with instances
that fall under this head. In the Gothic indeed he
finds no example, but gives not a few from the Old
German : as ur-erb-an ' exheredare/ ir-hals-an ' de-
collare/ ir-him-an ' excerebrare/ ir-kez-an ' oblivisci '
(where the root-syllable corresponds to our get in
Jor-get), ar-meiiisam-on ' excommunicare/ nr-ivir-an
1 In this verb erschallen and those following, the notion of loud-
ness expressed by the idea of ' up ' may perhaps be preferable. See
remarks below on the Latin verb recita-.
80 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
'castrare/ Again for the Middle German lie quotes
cr-Txirn-en 'enucleare/ but for the Modern German
he expressly says there is no example. We may per-
haps venture to doubt the correctness of the writer
both as regards the Gothic and the existing language
of Germany, when we find uslukan ' unlock,' and
usluhicm ' open oneself,' in Massmann's Gothic Voca-
bulary, as also erlosen 'unloose,' and erschliessen
'unshut' (to borrow a good Old English word), in
Modern German, a verb the more interesting as corre-
sponding most precisely to the Latin recludere.
5. Reaching. — The effort to reach an object may
be exercised in all directions, as downward, to get at
water in a well, or horizontally, as in one of Hood's
comic poems, where a child, shut in by the bar of its
little chair, stretches out its arms to get at some fruit,
and, unable to effect its purpose, adopts the ordinary
revenge of crying, so as to justify the witticism written
below the picture : ' Squall at Long Keach.' But in
ordinary life the difficulty is more commonly to reach
what is above us, as with the Fox and Grapes. Thus
the combination ' up to ' readily expresses the idea of
reaching, and the to is virtually expressed in the
accusatival form of the accompanying noun. Thus
we have ereilen ' overtake, fetch up,' erfahren ' over-
take by driving, come up with,' erfassen 'lay hold
on (suddenly),' erjinden 'find out' (literally, let me
add, by feeling), ergehen ' overtake, reach,' erlangen
6 reach,' erlaufen ' overtake by running,' erleben
' live to see,' erpacJcen ' seize,' erraffen ' snatch/
erreichen 'reach,' erreiteM 'overtake on horseback/
errudern 'reach by paddling or rowing/ errvfen
' reach with calling,' erschleudern 'reach with a
re and pro. 81
sling-stone/ erschnappen 'catch with open mouth/
erschreien ' reach with crying/ erschreiten ' reach
with a step/ erschweben 'reach by flying/ er-
schivimmen ' reach by swimming/ erschivingen ' soar
up to/ erspannen 'reach by the span/ erspringen
'reach in leaping/ erstrecken {sick) 'reach/ ertappen
'overtake/ ertasten 'reach by feeling/ Note in the
translations the repeated use of our two prepositions,
up and over (over-take).
6. Up to in daring. — There may be added, as a
sort of corollary to the preceding section, the reflec-
tive verbs, erdreisten ' to be bold enough/ erfrechen,
erkecken, erJciihnen ' to dare, presume/
7. Getting, by the act of the verb. — A meaning
closely allied to those of § § 5, 6, but containing less
of the physical action. It would be idle to enumerate
instances, when in Meissner's Lexicon I find over one
hundred examples. But the construction will be per-
haps better understood if it be first pointed out that
with compound verbs the accusative may be dependent
either on the verb or on the preposition. The best
proof of this is seen in such Latin sentences as Iberum
copias traiecit, where we have Iberum attaching itself
to the preposition, copias to the simple verb iecit. In
the preceding sections (5 and 6) the accusative be-
longs to the preposition. Indeed in many of the
examples the verb itself is clearly of an intransitive
character.
8. Making (a) and becoming (b). — Where the pre-
position is compounded with adjectives to constitute
a verb. The idea is closely akin to the preceding
sections 5 and 7 and the two immediately following.
Examples of this sense are tolerably numerous : (a) er-
a
82 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
bitten, erf reuen, erhitzen, erniedern,erschiveren ; (b) er-
blassen, erbleichen, erblinden, ergrauen, erlahmen.
9. Opening. — This at first may appear strange, but
the close connexion of the idea is evident from the
very etymology of open, which in its root-syllable op
is one with the preposition up. The examples seem
but few : erbrechen 'break open/ erbeissen ' bite open/
eroffnen ' open/
10. Beginning. — This grows easily out of the last,
or it might perhaps as easily be deduced from the
sections headed ' up to/ and ' making/ for these are
substantially one with the idea of commencement.
For examples may be taken : erbrausen ' begin roar-
ing (of the storm)/ erdonnern ' begin to thunder/
erdrohnen 'begin to sound/ ereifern (sich) 'fall into
a passion/ ergldnzen ' begin to shine/ erglimmen
' begin to glow/ ergrausen ' shudder/ erkdlten ' catch
cold/ erhracken \ begin to crack/ erhranken ' be taken
ill/ errothen 'blush/ ersehaudem 'shudder, be seized
with horror/ erschreeken 'be struck with fear/ er-
staunen 'be astonished/ ertosen 'begin to roar/ er-
zittern 'begin to tremble/
11. Thoroughly or up to the sources (in a search),
as : erforsehen ' investigate/ erkunden ' explore/ er-
kundigen ' inquire after/ erproben ' test/
12. Removal, disappearance. — This meaning may
be explained in two ways. In removing a thing the
first act is to lift it up. Again a thing in vanishing
generally rises, vanescit in auras. It is especially in
reference to disappearance by death that the German
compounds with er are so used. Thus — erbeissen
' bite to death/ erbleichen ' turn pale and so die/
erdriicken ' press to death/ erdrosseln ' strangle/ er-
re and pro. 83
dursten (prov.) ' die with thirst,' erfrieren 'be frozen
to death,' erhdngen (sich) ' hang oneself/ erlegen ' slay,'
erloschen 'go out as a fire/ ermorden 'murder/ er-
saufen 'be drowned/ erchiessen 'shoot (to death)/
erschlagen 'slay, kill/ erschopfen 'drain, exhaust,'
erspiessen ' kill with a spear,' erstecken ' run through
with a sword/ ersterben ' die (out), become extinct/
ersticken 'smother, suffocate/ ertbdten 'kill/ ertran-
hen 'drown,' ertrelen 'trample to death/ erwiirgen
' strangle.'
It has been assumed above that the Gothic prefix
us and the German er are one. This is generally
admitted ; and in truth as the Gothic habitually has
a sibilant, where an r appears in German, it is no
matter for surprise that the Gothic form of our par-
ticle should be us, which then only takes the form of
ur, when an r commences the simple verb.
Thus in the very limited vocabulary of the Gothic
we find eight examples where Massmann translates
the Gothic by the corresponding German verb with a
prefix er,viz. : usfullian ' erfullen/ ushafjan 'erheben,'
ushahan (sik) 'sich erhangen/ ushauhjan ' erhohen/
usldubjan ' erlauben,' usldusjcm ' erlosen/ ussteigan
' ersteigen/ usvakjan ' erwecken ; ' while eighteen
other verbs which in Gothic began with us or ur, are
represented in the same book by German verbs com-
pounded with er, auf, or ivieder. Hence no one need
hesitate in identifying the Gothic us and German er.
In Old German the vowel varies so that we have ur,
ar, ir, and er. As regards the u it is perhaps safe to
assume that this vowel or an o had precedence over
the weaker vowels, because a change from a strong
vowel to a weaker is more in accordance with the
G 2
84 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
habit of language. Add to this that the German
ruck 'a jolt/ and ruck 'back/ give support to the
view that the vowel before the liquid was either u or
o. My reason for including the sb. ruck will appear
presently.
If we may rely upon Grimm, yet another corruption
of our particle is found in the Old-Saxon and Anglo-
Saxon, where according to him it takes the simple
shape a, as a corruption of as (ii. 8 1 9). But his view
may be doubted, as this prefix, at any rate in Anglo-
Saxon, seems better explained as a representative of
the Greek ava. Indeed in the Greek language itself,
as has been already noticed, the iEolic and Doric
dialects, ordinarily employing the shorter form av in
place of ava, under certain circumstances cut this
down to a. Then as regards the Anglo-Saxon, although
on is the ordinary representative of the Greek ava,
there was a marked tendency in this language to
exchange on for a, seeing that the ordinary preposi-
tion on got reduced to a, as still seen in our own
aboard for on board, afoot for on foot, &c. I feel the
more at liberty to question Grimm's theory that the
prefix a is a corruption of as or us, because, in a few
pages before (699), when he first puts forth the idea,
he implies a doubt in his own mind by affixing a
query.
The mention of the Greek preposition ava reminds
me that in my paper on that little word I was led by
a similar investigation to assign to it the successive
meanings : — 1, up ; 2, back ; 3, again ; 4, reversal ;
5. 6, loosening, opening ; 7, commencing ; 8, 9, re-
moval ; 10, 11, 12, thorough, thoroughly, including
the special idea of searching up to the sources. And,
re and pro. 85
as I have already said, the meanings so assigned by
me to ava have since received the sanction of Pott
in his recent work on Prepositions, who expressly
refers to, and so far adopts, what I had written. I
would beg then inquirers to contrast the meanings
now assigned to the German er with the meanings
assigned to ava, the parallelism being complete. Nay,
I was at first led to the belief that ava and ere were
but varieties of the same word, knowing, as I did,
that a German, like our countrymen in Kent (a word
which itself represents Cantium), habitually has e
where others have a — as Albis 'Elbe/ Amisia 'Ems/
Catti 'Hesse' — and further knowing that an interchange
between the liquids n and r, when not initial, is of com-
mon occurrence. But I was checked in this view by
two considerations : one that the sibilant of the Gothic
us seems entitled to precedence over the r of er, and
secondly by the fact that in the ' Oberdeutsch' dialects,
as Grimm informs us (p. 819, line 15), the prefix appears
with an initial d, as der-warp, der-beizte, der-liaben.
The loss of an initial d is not very rare ; and in the
present case the authenticity of the d is confirmed by
the Latin dorsum ' back/ with which there must have
been a co-existing variety dossum, as shown by Varro's
adjective in aselli dossuarii and iumenta dossuaria,
to say nothing of the Italian dosso and French dos.
Moreover, the Latin dorsum, like our ridge, is often
applied to a continuous mountain elevation, just as
we have our ' Hog's-back' in Surrey. It may as well
be observed that the combination rs, as seen in dorsum,
is liable to several changes. At times an r in such a
position vanishes altogether in the Latin language.
Thus it is now a familiar fact that the Latin adverbs
86 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
rursum, sursum, prorsum, deorsum, took severally the
forms rusum, susum,prosum 9 iusum ; the last of which,
found in the pages of St. Augustine, accounts for the
modern Italian giuso, ' down/ Another change is that
of rs into rr. This is most common in Greek, as in
Xepaos xeppos, apo-rjv apprjv. But the Latin language
has many half concealed instances of the same. Thus
the nom. pater had previously passed through the
changes, paters, paterr, pater, the last of which is
justified by the use not only of Plautus and the older
poets, but also of Virgil. This premised, I may safely
assume as equivalent varieties, dossum, dorsum, dosum,
dorrum, and dorum. Then, as regards the final letters
am, I have long ago given my reasons for the belief
that the neuter suffix am of the second declension lias
grown out of an older form ug or iw, corresponding to
our own suffix ock ; and this when I had not arrived
at any idea of a connexion between the Latin dorsum
and the German ruck, or ruck. I am therefore now
prepared to give my full consent to the doctrine that
dorsum and ruck are substantially one, the intermediate
links being dorug, dome, and druc, or oruc.
I now return to the preposition in its Latin form,
to deal with a question which naturally suggests itself.
It has been seen in the examination of the German
inseparable er, that it has its meanings best explained
on the theory that the first meaning is ( up/ Shall I
be justified in assigning this as the first meaning of
the Latin re ? My answer is in the affirmative ; but,
though in my view it is the original meaning, it must
readily be confessed that the instances are few com-
pared with the other meanings. Still this is no way
fatal to the argument ; nay, it is to be expected in
re and pro. 87
the constant changes to which words are subjected in
both form and meaning, that the older a meaning be,
the fewer are the examples preserved. In the first
place I find what I am looking for in the adjective
recitrvo-. Our lexicographers are satisfied to translate
this word as well as incurvo- without much attention
to the prefixes. Now it has already been pointed out
that incurvo- is not fully translated by any phrase
short of ' bent down/ as when speaking of a branch
weighed down by fruit, or a man bent down by age.
In like manner the full power of recitrvo- is only
given by 'turned up,' — that is, it speaks of bending
where the concavity is upward. It is thus well
applied to the back of the dolphin, which Arion must
have found to be so far a more comfortable, or at any
rate a safer seat amid the troubled waves. Ovid was
right then in his choice of an epithet when he wrote,
Tergo clelfina recitrvo Se memo-rant oneri sitppositisse
novo (Fast. ii. 113). Even when the crow goes off
with the gilt bowl, in its flight it would carry its feet
behind it, and thus there is still a propriety of language
when the same poet writes : Corvus inauratum pedi-
bus cratera recurvis Tollit (ii. 251) ; for the bird's
claws, in their natural position incurvi, in this altered
state of things would have the concavity upwards.
Both Virgil and Pliny use this epithet of the bucina,
where again the eye has before it a concavity with an
upward presentation. Repando- is another available
witness in my favour. Here Forcellini speaks with
some accuracy when he gives as its equivalent, ' retro
et sursum reflexus ; in which, however, he would have
done better to drop the retro et. He adds, too, the
expressive words, 'qualia sunt dorsa et ora delphinum/
88 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
Indeed the word is most commonly used of the dol-
phin, and the compound repandirostro- of Pacuvius
was correct in form, though laughed at as an un-
wieldy superfluity by Quinctilian. Again, when
Cicero describes the attire of Juno Sospita in one of
the Italian temples, we are at no loss to understand
the phrase cum calceolis repandis. The verb recuba-re,
as distinguished from the simple cuba-re, is intelli-
gible, if we translate it ' lying with the head and back
raised/ Such a position is well suited for Tityrus
when playing on his oaten pipe ; and indeed recum-
bere (like the Greek avaKeiaOai) with all accuracy
denotes the attitude at meals. Accordingly, it seems
to have been preferred for this sense in the later
writers, as in Phaedrus, the younger Pliny, and Justin,
to accumbere ; perhaps because the Komans of that
day had lost the perception of the true meaning of
the prefix in the latter verb, connecting it with ad,
1 to,' rather than with an, ' up/ Just as recubare
means ' to lie with the back raised/ so Celsus,
speaking of a bedridden patient (ii. 4), uses the term
residere, ' to sit up with the back raised/ or as we
have it, ' to sit up in bed/ His words are : c Contra
gravis morbi periculum est, ubi supinus iacet porrectis
manibus et cruribus, ubi residere vult in ipso acuti
morbi impetu praecipueque pulmonibus laborantibus/
The Latin verb recitare, ' to read aloud/ finds no
satisfactory explanation in the meanings commonly
assigned to re. Now in discussing the powers of
the Greek ava, I had occasion to refer to some thirty
or forty examples in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon,
where verbs of more or less noise, when compounded
with this preposition, denote a loud noise : for example,
re and 'pro. 89
ava-/3oa-a) and ava-Kpa^-co ; and I quoted three phrases
of our own where the idea of ' up ' is expressive of
loudness : speak up, raise your voice, you speak too low
to he heard. An application of the same principle
accounts for the peculiar meaning of recita-. In Horace's
Dissolve frigas ligna super foco large reponens, the
best way, it seems to me, of giving due force to the re
is by translating the participle ' piling up/
Another word which invites consideration is the
so-called adjective recenti-, which has at least the
external appearance of a participle, and contains in
what is clearly its first syllable precisely the form
which I have been led to assign to the prefix re as
once belonging to it. Nor am I startled at finding
the syllable performing the office of a verb. I have
long thought that prepositions are many of them verbs
in origin ; and some years ago, when one of the
most valued members of the Philological Society of
London, Mr. Garnet, opposed to the doctrine that all
words are in origin verbs, the argument that not a few
verbs themselves were deduced from prepositions, as
to utter from out, to intimate from in, I was led to
think that he had not gone to the bottom of the
matter. Again it is under the feeling that so-called
prepositions originally were expressive of change of
place or motion, that I have claimed for the Latin in
(and Greek ev) the active idea of ' down/ as preceding
the resulting position of on, and of into, as preceding
that of in. So again with sub, I placed first among
its meanings ' up/ and regarded the resulting position
* under' as secondary. That prepositions are actually
used with the power of verbs is clearly seen in the
well-known phrase, * Up, Guards, and at them.' I
90 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
find then no difficulty in connecting a participial form
recenti- with our so-called preposition rec as to form.
But how as to meaning ? Here also a fairly satis-
factory solution presents itself when we look at such
phrases as recens a lecto, a somno, a cena, 'only
just risen from bed/ &c. I say, ' only just risen/
rather than ' rising/ on the authority of such a con-
struction as : Romam veniens comitia edixit (Liv.
xxiv. 7), e immediately on his arrival he/ &c. A still
stronger argument is found in the phrase of Persius,
sub sole recenti, to represent Eastern climes, for 'under
the rising sun' is exactly what we want, and is in
accordance with most, if not all, the terms employed
to designate the East, as Orient of the French, and
the familiar geographical names of Anatolia and
Levant.
But there stands in the way of my argument the
adjective reeiproeo-} which I have already translated
as ' backward and forward ; ' yet even this word will
turn out to be not altogether refractory, for it cannot
be separated from the compound rig and fur of the
Scotch or from the ridge and furrow of our own
Southern dialect. Rig and ridge I have already
claimed as representatives of rec, and it is no less
certain that the Latin porea (= poroca) is one in
meaning and substantially in form with our furrow.
Thus Festus interprets porcae by the phrase "rari
sulci." It is true that Varro (K. E. i. 29, and L. L.
1 My origin of this adjective, if indeed it need any support,
receives it in an unmistakable manner from the line in
Ennius : —
" rusus prosus reciprocat nuctus feram."
re and pro. 91
iv. 4) makes porca the ' elevation ' in a ploughed field,
damaging his authority however by a foolish etymo-
logy. In the nature of things ridges and depressions
go together, and so have a tendency to confound the
words that denote them. Not unlike this change of
meaning is that which has befallen the Latin versu-,
for here also the ploughed field is the origin, but
the word originally meant the i turning ' of the oxen
between the end of one furrow and the commence-
ment of another, yet after a time it came to denote
the line of ploughing, for every new turn marked
one line finished ami another to begin. A far more
pertinent example occurs in the Latin noun lira,
which by one writer is used in the sense of 'ridge/
by another in that of 'furrow' (see Forcellini).
Again, in our own language the words dyke and
ditch, which in origin are the same word, are used at
one time to denote the hollow made by the removal
of earth, and at another the bank made by the earth
removed. Thus an Irishman talks of hiding behind
a ditch, which to the English ear sounds somewhat
strange. Nay, the German furche itself has suffered
from this confusion. Thus Campe, in his Lexicon,
says : " Die von der Pjiugschar aufgeworfene Erde
die eine eben so lange Erhohung ausmacht, als die
Furche einer Vertiefung ist, wird von Einigen auch
die Furche genannt."
Again, when we look at the idea expressed by
' back/ we come across what confirms the view. It
is true that the human back generally presents only
a vertical direction, but in nearly all other animals
we see what is elevated, and more or less horizontal.
A ridge of lulls has the same character, and so also
92 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
a hay -rick. In the German noun ruck, 'a jolt/ we
also find a short upward movement. Similarly in the
roof of the Crystal Palace with its ' ridge and furrow '
of glass we clearly denote the elevation by ' ridge/ the
depression by ' furrow.'
Still the ground is not clear unless I can establish
in favour of the Latin preposition pro the notion of
'down.' Here again I cannot dispute the ordinary
doctrine that forward movement very generally be-
longs to this word ; but, as I have already said, first
meanings are apt to disappear ; and I shall think it
enough to produce some clear examples in support
of my views. Now the adjective prono- is the precise
opposite in power of the adjective supino-, the two
meaning respectively 'looking downward' and 'look-
ing upward.' Thus Cicero (Div. i. 53) speaks of the
three directions of motion, under the terms prono-,
obliquo-, supino-, that is, straight down, oblique, and
straight up ; and with this authority in our favour
we need not be stopped by the fact that for Caesar
the word had already attained in part to the notion
of forward, so as to be used in the sense of ' obliquity '
or ' slanting/ as is clearly the case in the passage
(B. G. iv. 1 7) ; Tigna non derecta ad perpendiculum,
sed prona ac fastigiata. The idea of ' downward ' is
also seen in Sallust (Jug. 98), Ilex paulum modo
prona, dein jiexa atque aucta in altitudinem. The
adjective proclivi- is habitually translated 'downhill.'
The adverbs prorsum and prorsus seem not to obtain
their full sense until represented by our English ' down-
right.' It has been long taught that in treating pre-
positions we should start from the relations to the
earth. Now what is thrown perpendicularly downward
re and pro. 93
strikes the horizontal plane with all its momentum,
whereas in an oblique blow a portion is of course
wasted. But the first idea being so fixed by reference
to the earth, the word is afterwards applied to a
movement perpendicular on any plane, and there
results what we may express by ' completely/ ' abso-
lutely/ Among verbs I find no inconsiderable number
where the motion of ' clown ' predominates, as procel-
lere, pr voider "e, procumbere, proclinare, procidcare,
profligare, proicere, prolabi, proruere, prosternere
(prostrato-), proterere ; nor is it unknown to promit-
tere, witness the phrases p. capillum, barbam, comas,
sues ventre promisso, pcdearibus ad genua promissis.
In the common phrase promere vinum, and Horace's
depromere Caecubum, the idea is seen to prevail when
we call to mind the Koman habit of storing wine in
the uppermost part of a house. To explain the sub-
stantive propagon-, and verb propagare, Forcellini
employs the phrase 'depresso ramo.' Propendere is
a word more than once used by Cicero for the descent
of the heavier scale in a balance. The verbs pro-
scindere, provolvi, proturbare, and the participle pro-
pexo- } seem often to require the translation ' down /
and lastly prodere in two of its uses involves the
same idea : first, in prodere memoria or memoriae, ' to
hand clown a tradition / and secondly, when it denotes
'betrayal or abandonment/ This will be seen when
we compare it with the verbs deserere, destituere, used
in a similar sense. He who is about to abandon
what has been entrusted to his care (say an infant)
sets it down in some exposed place and then goes
away. Where language has to speak of a series of
acts, it often expresses the first and leaves the others
94 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
to be inferred, as, for example, in the military phrase
colligere va&a, the first of many acts in abandoning
a camp.
But it will no doubt be objected to much that I
have here said that the notion of ' down ' is so closely
allied to the notion of 'forward' that it is readily
derived from it. When a person throws a stone, for
instance, the forward motion is soon followed by
descent. This is quite true, but the argument is
applicable in both directions. When I want to throw
a thing down, I naturally give it something of a for-
ward impetus, rather than drop it on my own toes.
But I pass to another pair of words in which what
we find in our dictionaries is not altogether satisfactory,
pvofano- and prof undo-. As fa-num seems to be the
neuter of au adjective, and to signify ' consecrated '
(ground), so we have a negative notion in the prefix
of pvofano-. Again, prof undo- should, I think, be
translated ' without bottom/ so that Cicero's mare
profundum et immensum contains something of ex-
aggeration in both epithets. Now if the original
meaning of pro be ' down,' we have a use of the
prefix parallel to what is felt in demens, dedecorus,
decolor.
There remains for me to say a few words on the
verbs which I would connect with the particles re and
pro. Calling to mind that re according to the theory
is a corruption of a disyllabic form er-ec or or-uc, I
am disposed to connect with it the verb ori-, which
stands for or-ig-, as shown I think by the noun orig-
on-. The meaning of course suits. I am also dis-
posed to claim as of the same kin the Greek opey-
eaOai, 'to reach,' when I call to mind the German
re and pro. 95
verbs, which obtained this idea through the prefix er.
But from the Greek opey-eaOat I think it impossible to
separate the Latin verb regere, to which the sense of
' rule' is generally without reason ascribed, in the
belief no doubt that it is connected with the noun
reg-, ' sl king/ whereas this word is probably of a dis-
tinct origin and represents the Eastern raj or rajah,
while reg- means simply i stretch/ and so ' make
straight ;' nor indeed would I object to the transla-
tion ' rule/ if the idea were limited to ruling straight
lines. The Latin noun regio (regionis), which of
course comes from it, is correctly translated ' direc-
tion/ A Latin g, by Rask's law, is commonly repre-
sented in English by a k sound ; but the law needs
so far modification that in the south of England at
least the k is supplanted by the palatal ch. Thus
/rang- of the Latin corresponds to our words break and
breach, broke or broken and broach. We must there-
fore include in our family both the English verb reach
and the English noun reach used in speaking of so
much of a river as retains the same direction. But I
would also claim the verbs arise and arouse, if it be
true, as is thought by some of our best English philo-
logers, that these do not contain any preposition, but
have passed into rise and rouse by decapitation. To
these I add the Greek op~w, op-w/M, and op6-os, with
an excrescent 6.
I next take the particle pro, and with it the sub-
stantive porca. The latter seems to point to the idea
of digging ; but this in its primary form is no more
than scratching, which as applied to the earth is rather
a horizontal than a vertical movement. This however
is of no moment, as downward action soon becomes the
96 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
prominent idea. The verbs of digging accordingly
seem to have been originally imitations of the sound
that accompanies scratching. Hence yap-ava-to, -(o,
i.e. yap-acp-Q), a-Kap-i(j>a-co, g(a)r-aben of the German,
s-c(a)r-atch and s-c(a)r-ape of our own language, and
then with the loss of the initial guttural ap-o-co, and
ar(-a)-o of the Latin, together with the Greek op-vaa-a.
But the rough liquid r is often superseded by the soft I.
Thus we have y(o)\-v(j)-co, and s-cal-p-o, and in a
simpler form col-o, in which the title of ' digging ' to
the first place in meanings is established, not only by
Latin usage, but by the fact that its Scotch analogue,
holl, had no other meaning. But let us ask what
shape would col- of Eome take in the mouth of
rustics. The answer is that por might well be the
prevalent form, it being the provincial habit of the
country outside of Eome to present a p where the
polished dialect had a c. Thus pitpit is the Oscan
form of quicquid ; palumbe-, ' the wild pigeon/ corre-
sponds to columba-, ' the tame dove/ and the country
people coming to Borne gave the cookshop which they
frequented the name popina, when the city dialect
would have preferred coquina. The doctrine that
digging was the first idea represented by the Latin
particles por and pro accounts for the power of the
preposition per, ' through/ and at the same time for
the fact that the Boman ear cared little for the dis-
tinction between per and por, writing at one time
porgere, at another pergere, perinde as well as
proinde. The Greek language too, in its verb ireip-a),
' I pierce/ and iropo-s, c a passage/ presents us with
words of the digging family, which have the precise
form we should desire. I conclude then that reci-
re and pro. 97
proco- may well be translated by ' up and down/ and
so correspond precisely to the Scotch phrase 'rig
and fur/
In this paper I have not dwelt at any great length
on the various secondary meanings of the Latin re ;
but there is little difficulty here. Besides the primary
notion of up, and the ordinary meanings of back and
again, there is of course the not unfrequent meaning
of reversing an act, which, strange to say, Professor
Eitschl seems to deny in the Prolegomena to his
Trinummus (p. lxxv.), where, in reference to the line
" Prom tu te, itidem ut Charmidatus es, rursum recharmida,"
he ventures, in defiance of the MSS., to substitute
decharmida on the ground that such a compound with
re can only mean ' rursus indue Charmidis personam/
As his authority is deservedly high, I deem it right to
place the matter beyond dispute by a liberal quotation
of examples to the contrary, viz. red-argu- ' disprove,
refute/ re-calcea-=excalcea-, re-can- (Plin. xxviii. 19),
and re-cin- (App.) 'reverse a charm, disenchant/ re-
canta- (Ov.) the same, re-cid-, implied in the adjective
recidiuo- ' getting up again after a fall/ re-cing- ' un-
gird/ re-clud- ' unshut ' (so to say), re-cuti- implied
in recutito-, re-fell" ' undeceive, refute/ re-feru- (Cic.
Brut. 91) 'become cool again/ re-fibula- 'unbuckle/
re-Jig- ' unfix/ re-fod- ' dig up again what has been
buried/ re-frena- ' unbridle/ re-gela- ' thaw again
what has been frozen/ re-glutina- ' unglue/ re-laxa-
' unloose,' re-liga- (Catul. Lucan.) 'unbind,' re-
lin- 'unwax' (so to say), re-ne- ' unspin/ re-nuda-
' unbare,' red-ordi-(r.) 'unweave/ re-pect- ' un-
comb (so to say), dishevel,' re-pignera- ' take out of
pawn/ re-plumba- ' unsolder/ re-secra- ' undo what is
H
98 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS
expressed by obseera-,' re-sera- ' unbolt/ re-signa-
' unseal/ re-solu- ' unloose,' re-string- (Plaut.) ' open/
re-su- ' unsew/ re-teg- ' uncover/' re-tend- (arcum)
' unstring/ re-tex- ' unweave/ re-torque- as in 'mentem
laetata retorsit' (Juno in Verg.) ' smoothed again a
soul so long by passion wrung/ re-tura- (compared
with obtura-) ' uncork/ re-uela- 'unveil/ re-uinci-
(Colum.) 'unbind/ rc-uolu- 'unroll/ re-uorr- 'un-
sweep (so to say) what has been swept/ Here are
already over forty examples ; and I have yet to add
another, which cannot be dealt with in so summary
a manner, for both editors and dictionary-compilers
have done their best either to destroy it altogether or
to falsify its meaning. I refer to the substantive
recubitu-. This appears to be an aira^ Xeyopevov. It
is found in Pliny (xxiv. 13, 7), and to make the matter
clear I must quote part of the passage : — ' Baculum
ex ea' (he is speaking of the aquifolia or holly)
'factum, in quoduis animal emissum, etiamsi citra
ceciderit defectu mittentis, ipsum per se recubitu
propius adlabi/ Unhappily Sillig, abandoning the
Paris MS. a, which he assigns to the eighth or ninth
century, for a reading of the Paris MS. d of the
thirteenth, gives, what is altogether senseless, per sese
cubitu in place of per se reeubitu. He probably did
not know that reeubitu would signify ' by ricochet/
On the other hand our current dictionaries are utterly
false guides. Thus we find the word translated by
Freund ' das Niederf alien ' and by his copyists of
course 'falling down/ One of these indeed assures
us that while he took Dr. Andrews' (American) Dic-
tionary as ' the basis ' of his labours, ' each article
was compared with the corresponding word in For-
re and pro. 99
eellini / but it is difficult to reconcile this statement
with what is to be seen under recubitus in the great
Italian work, for here the true translation is distinctly
given. After the general remark that recubitus means
' actus recumbendi * Forcellini adds the definite inter-
pretation, ' subsultus Me quern faciunt corpora in
solum durum incidentia/ that is, what in shorter
language we call ' ricochet/ This word has of course
come to us from the French ; but that it was pre-
viously imported into France from Italy may perhaps
be inferred from the form of the prefix, ri in place of
re. A genuine French noun would probably have
been recouchet. But over and above identity of
meaning, there is a close connexion in form between
the Latin recubitu- and the modern ricochet. But a
friend suggests that I must here assume a secondary
verb recubica-re from which a substantive recubicatu-
would readily flow, and then from a contracted
recuVcatu- we should be led to a French re-couch-et ;
and this view is confirmed by a similar series cubare,
cubicare, coucher. Thus, while the obsolete cumb-ere
meant ' to fall/ the compound recumbere, reversing
the meaning of the simple verb, must have come to
signify ' to get up again/ ' rise again/ before the
derived substantive recubitu- could bear the interpre-
tation * ricochet ;' much as from cadere, ' to fall/ we
obtain first redder e, ' to rebound/ and then the adjec-
tive recidiuo-, ' rising again/ Of course after what I
have said above (p. 75) on Latin frequentatives, I am
very ready to give admission to such theoretic forms as
cubicare, and the very idea of ricochet is thoroughly
consistent with repeated action, whether we have in
view the movement of an oyster-shell on the surface
H 2
100 ON THE LATIN PREPOSITIONS re AND pro.
of a pond, or of a cannon-ball on the surface of
the sea.
One word more in apology for the wide space I
have given to the consideration of the German er. I
have long thought that insufficient attention is paid
both in grammars and dictionaries to the power which
such little words bring with them to the composition
of verbs ; and the want is nowhere more felt than
in dealing with the German prefixes ent and er. I
discussed the former in my paper on ava. I have now
spent not a few lines on the corresponding problem
for er.
i
101
IV.
ON THE GEEMAN PKEFIX ver AND
ALLIED EOEMS.
In the paper on ava and its analogues I had to dwell
upon the fact that inseparable prefixes are apt, as
Grimm says, to undergo violent changes both as to
form and power ; and upon the further fact, that in
consequence of this liability, particles of totally dif-
ferent origin not unfrequently pass into an identity of
form, thus bringing about a confusion, which ends in
the disuse of both prefixes, and the employment of
fresh forms of speech to make up the consequent
deficiency. It is probably in this way that our own
language has pretty well ceased to employ prefixes
in the formation of compound verbs, finding it more
convenient to take the simple verb and place after it
an independent preposition ; as, ' he put upon me, he
put me quite out, he put me up to something, he put
this bad practice down, he put off the meeting, he put
the door to, he put his hat on, he would not put in
more than sixpence/ Similarly we have take up, take
off, take in, take to, with peculiar meanings, which
give much trouble to the foreigner, as they are often
left unexplained in our dictionaries. We have now
no verbs compounded with a prefix to, although the
Anglo-Saxon had many such, including both those in
which to was an equivalent for the Latin ad, and
102 ON THE GERMAN PREFIX V6V
others with to = Greek ha, dis of the Latin, tor of
Old Norse, and zer of German, as to-brek, to-brest, to-
heiv, to-race, to-rend, to-shred, to-skatir, to-swink, of
Chaucer ; to-cleve, to-dele, to-drag, to-part, of the
'Ayenbite of Inwyt' (a.d. 1340). Even the Bible
(Judges ix. 53) has the words, 'A certain woman cast
a piece of millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all
tobrake his scull ; ' — and so also in Shakspere we
find:—
" Where (i.e. whereas) these two Christian armies might combine
The blood of malice in a vein of league,
And not tospend it so unmannerly."
King John, v. 2,
" Then let them all encircle him about,.
And, fairy-like, topinch the unclean knight."
Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4.
A similar case of the accidental confluence of pre-
fixes originally distinct, and a consequent disappear-
ance, is to be seen in the particle of. Here three
independent words have fallen into an identity of
shape. Thus in the older forms of our language,
whether called Anglo-Saxon or Old English, we have
this little word representing in turn what appears in
Latin and Greek as ah airo, ob eiri, sub viro. Examples
of the first abound in Gothic in the form af, and also
in Anglo-Saxon, both in the form ofa, as ofa-drifa?i y
f to drive off/ ofa-heawan, ' to cut off/ and of-ferian,
' to carry off/ of-iman, ' to run off/ The Danish and
Swedish also have numberless instances ; but here, a&
in Gothic, the original vowel was preserved, af, not of
With the word ein, I have already claimed to con-
nect our own aft, the t being excrescent ; as it is also
in aft-ana of the same language, compared with ut-ana,
AND ALLIED FORMS. 103
our own aft-er, and the old superlative aft-uma. But
ewe has yet another representative in the prefix of
the Anglo-Saxon of-axian ' ask after/ ofridan, ' ride
after/ of -spy ran 'search after/ and ofsitan, 'besiege'
(obsidere) ; as also of the Old English of-seche ' seek
for/ of-sende ' send for' (' Ayenbite of Inwyt/ Mr.
Morris's Preface, p. lxvi.), and perhaps of the Anglo-
Saxon of-licgan ' to lie upon/
Taking sub and vwo next, I quote from the paper
on ava, p. 41, the forms in our northern dialects which
I hold to represent these ; viz. Goth. uf Old and
Mid. Germ, uf Mod. Germ, auf, Old Fris. op or up,
Dutch op, Norse and Swed. upp, Dan. up, Eng. up,
but Old Eng. also of. Now in the examination of
the German auf, I find much that reminds me of what
I came across in the study both of ava and its repre-
sentatives and of the Latin re. Thus for German,
leaving out of view the numberless instances where
the idea of up is distinctly retained, I find (1) above
sixty where the idea of ' opening' appears ; (2) some
eight of 'beginning,' auf-bluhen, aufbrausen, auf-
jammern, aufkrahen, auf-kreischen, auf-lachen, auf
seufzen, auf-toben ; (3) of 'loud noise/ six : auf-lachen,
auf-rocheln, auf-sagen = recitare, auf-snarchen, auf-
schnauben, aufstohen; (4) full fifty where ' completion'
is denoted ; (5) with the notion of 'back :' aufbelialten,
or auf-beioaliren 'reserve/ aufhalten 'hinder' (= inhi-
bere), aaf-krdmpeln, auf-streifeln ; (6) not less than
fifty meaning ' again / and (7), what is of much in-
terest, nearly fifty in which the idea expressed by our
English prefix un, i.e. the reversal of a former act,
shows itself, viz. : — auf-binden, auf-decken, auf-drehen,
auf-dricseln, auf-cisen, auf-fiidcln, auf-falten, auf-fasen,
104 ON THE GERMAN PREFIX Ver
auf-fitzen, auf-flechten, auf-gurten, auf-hakeln, auf-
haken, auf-hefteln, auf-heften, auf-hullen, auf-klinken,
auf-knebeln, auf-knopfen, auf-knupfen, auf-koppeln,
auf-kiinden, auf-lassen, auf-leimen, auf-losen, auf-
lothen, auf-nesteln, auf-packen, auf-rebbeln, auf-riegeln,
auf-ringeln, auf-rollen, auf-sagen, auf-schliessen, auf-
schn alien, auf-schnuren, auf-schnurren, auf-schrauben,
auf-schiirzen, auf-spunden, auf-thauen, auf-weben,
auf-weichen, auf-wickeln, auf-winden, auf-wirken, auf-
wirren, auf-zaubern.
To these I add two corresponding Swedish verbs,
upp-tdcka = auf-decken and upp-losa — auflosen.
The Anglo-Saxon, besides its many verbs compounded
with of = 'off' (Latin ab), retained a few, as we have
seen, where of = ob or eirt, ; and again it has a small
group in which of = the Germ, auf as ofstandan =
auf-stehen, of-gifan = aufgeben, ofdelfan ' dig-up/
offrettan = auffressen, ofhcebban, ' retain/ like auf
halten ; with which we should no doubt include of
blindan 'make blind/ of-munan 'remember/ of-lician
' dislike,' ofthinean ' repent/ of-unnan ' refuse/ from
unnan ' give/ And I further quote again from Mr.
Morris's Preface to his edition of the 'Ayenbite of
Inwyt/ or from the body of the work : of-thincJce =
'forthink,' ' repent/ of-guo ' forgo/ of-healde ' with-
hold/ of take ' overtake/ of serve 'deserve/ The last
two verbs seem to call for a little explanation. If of
take and over-take mean, as by etymology they should
mean, ' catch up,' we have what is still a familiar
phrase for the same idea. Then of serve may well
mean, like the Latin emeritus, 'serve out one's full time/
The same old English work which supplied these ex-
amples has also ofacksed for 'thoroughly questioned,'
AND ALLIED FOEMS. 105
of-dret for ' thoroughly frightened/ and of-tyened
for ' thoroughly enraged/ Of-guo and of-guoinge also
occur in the index of the same book, with the trans-
lation ' meriting or deserving/ but how this meaning
is to be assigned to them I do not see. ' Overgoing/
like the Latin c transgredi/ might mean transgression,
passing the border of what is right, and so correspond
to the German vergehen ; but we cannot assign to the
simple of ' up/ the notion of the comparative over.
But as the words with, hind, as has been just noticed,
lead to secondary forms, wid-er, hint-er (hinder), and
the simple preposition in to int-er in Latin, und-er
Eng., unt-er Germ., so two at least of our prepositions
also assume a comparatival suffix. Thus, to take first
the forms allied to ein, we have, as has been already
said, aft and after in English, together with the Gothic
afar without the excrescent t ; and in the Ang.-Sax.
overnoon (I take it from Bosworth's Dictionary) we
have probably a variety of our afternoon and no com-
pound from the more familiar preposition over.
Whether far and farther stand in the relation of
comparatives to airo ah and the Ang-Sax. af 'off' I
will leave for future consideration. But on the other
hand, as the Latin has alongside of sub both super
and subt-er with an excrescent t (pronounced supt-er
and frequently so spelt in good MSS.), and as the
Greek too has virep from vir of viro, so we find both
upper and over in English and ilber in German.
But when a preposition has given birth to derived
forms, it is very common for the initial vowel in
such derivatives to disappear. This is a matter which
has been considered at some length in the second
paper on evi ; and in accordance with what was there
106 ON THE GERMAN PREFIX Ver
said I now venture to claim the familiar Germ, prefix
ver as a corrupted comparative of auf, in other words,
as a decapitated variety of iiber ' over/ The corre-
sponding Ang.-Sax. prefix of-er has in its f the very-
sound which is heard in the initial consonant of ver.
But the best proof of the substantial identity of the
two forms will be found in the meanings, as seen, first
in the following individual words : ver-brilcken ' to
bridge over/ Ang.-Sax. ofer-bryegean ; ver-jdhren and
ver-alten ' to become superannuated/ compared with
Ang.-Sax. ofer-geare ' antiquated/ and ofer-eald the
same ; ver-kehren ' overturn/ ver-fahren and ver-
fiihren ' transport ;' ver-sehlafen (sich) ' oversleep '
oneself, ver-schiessen ' overshoot/ ver-schlagen ' strike
(a ball) out of bounds/ ver-sprengen ' strike a billiard
ball off the table ;' ver-walten ' administer/ and ver-
weser ' manager/ i.e. ' one set over others;' ver-lesen
' call (names) over :' ver-hehlen ' cover over' (conceal)
= Ang.-Sax. ofer-helan ; ver-sehen ' over-look/ i.e.
' neglect/ ver-achten i overlook/ i.e. treat with con-
tempt, ver-dunkeln ' darken over/ Ver-nehmen I
would place alongside of the Lat. intellegere, and as I
assign to this for its literal translation ' pick up (know-
ledge)/ so ver-nehmen may well mean ' to take up/
like the Scotch uptake. (See paper on ava, p. 28.)
Secondly, I set down a whole class of words in
which the notion of ' over' (' covering') in its physical
sense is undeniable : verblechen, verbleien, verdachen,
verdielen, vereisen, vergittern, verglasen, vergolden,
verkleiden, verlacken, verlarven, verlatten, verledern,
vermanteln, vermoosen, vermorteln, verpanzern, ver-
pichen, verquecken, verrasen, verreisern, verrinden,
versanden, verschalen, verschalmen, verschienen, ver-
AND ALLIED FORMS. 107
sehilfen, verschindeln, verschlaminen, verschleiern, ver-
schmutzen, verschneien, versilbern (Comp. Ang.-Sax.
ofer-sylfrian), versteinen, verstobern, vertafeln, ver-
zaunen, verzinken, verzinnen, verzuckern, together
with verdeeken, verhullen, vermalen.
Thirdly, a class of words with the meaning of ' over-
much, excess / verbluten ' bleed to exhaustion/ ver-
fiiegen ' fly too far/ verhitzen ■ overheat/ verklettern
' climb too high/ verkochen ' overboil/ verpfeffern
' pepper too much/ verrennen (sich) ' run too far/ ver-
salzen ' oversalt/ versauern ' make too sour/ verschnei-
dern ' cut too short/ verschwdrmen ' swarm too much/
verspaten (sich) ' come too late/ versteigen (sich)
' climb too high/ versussen ' oversweeten/ verwilrzen
' spice too much/ verzarteln ' spoil (a child) by too
much tenderness' (with auf-zarteln the same), ver-
zuckern ' sugar too much/
Fourthly, with the notion of transferring, and so
changing, bartering, selling, paying : verandern, ver-
deutschen (comp. the general term ubersetzen), vergrie-
chen, verfahren ; vertauschen, verkaufen, verwechseln.
Fifthly, the notion of ' passing over/ ' getting to the
end of/ and so * consuming all/ of which the examples
are too numerous to quote.
Sixthly, the notion of excess is akin to that of mis-
doing, as verdeuten 'misinterpret/ verdrehen 'dis-
tort,' verdrucken ' misprint/ verheben ' lift in the wrong
way/ verkcdben and verlammen (cf. our miscarry),
verkennen ' mistake/ verleiten ' mislead/ verrathen
' betray/ verrechnen ' misreckon/ verrilcken ' derange/
verchieben 'misplace/ verschleppen 'misplace/ ver-
wiegen (sich) ' make a mistake in weighing/ verwohnen
' spoil (a child)/ verzahlen ' misreckon/ verziehen ' draw
108 ON THE GERMAN PREFIX ver
wrong/ verzielen (sich) 'miss one's aim/ And with
these may be included the notion of destruction or
negation in the words verbieten ' forbid/ vergessen
' forget' = Ang.-Sax. ofer-gitan), verhoren (= ilber-
h'oren ' not to hear/ and Ang.-Sax. ofer-herran or
ofer-hyran) ; verlernen ' unlearn/ verthun (Ang.-Sax.
ofer-don, our fordo) ; versehworen ' forswear/ with
which compare the Ang.-Sax. ofer-cymn.
So far only the fuller forms (in ofer) of the Ang.-
Sax. have been quoted ; but of course this language
has for as the ordinary form of the prefix, like the
Danish for and the Swedish for. And the fact that
Ang.-Sax. possessed both forms adds greatly to the
argument which treats the German ver as the result
of decapitation.
It must no doubt be admitted that it is difficult at
times to find in the prefix an explanation of the mean-
ing which it conveys to a verb. But the verb ver-
dienen may well mean ' serve all one's time/ and so
correspond to the old English of-serve above-men-
tioned, as having the meaning of ' deserve/ But the
best proof that the prefix ver is but a decapitated
ilber is found in the German vocabulary itself, as will
at once be seen by prefixing first ver and then ilber to
the following, and so testing their substantial identity ;
-blechen, -bleien, -brticken, -dachen, -decken, -dunkeln,
-fahren, -gattern, -glasen, -golden, -heben (sich), -horen,
-kochen, -lassen, -ledern, -moosen, -olen, -pfeffern,
-pichen, -salzen, -schiessen, -schleien, -schneien,
-schntiren, -sehen, -springen, -tafeln, -zinnen.
In Latin it has been for a long time the habit of
scholars to identify with our own for of forswear,
fordo, forlorn, forget, forgive, the per of periurus^
AND ALLIED FORMS. 109
perdo, pereo, perimo, perjidus ; and no doubt with
reason : and to these may be added peruideo, as found
in Horace's
" Quom tua pemideas oculis male lippus inunctis,
Cur in amicorum uitiis tam cernis acutum ? "
for it seems to have been an unnecessary proceeding
on the part of Bentley to give up the reading of all
the other MSS. in favour of one. It is scarcely a
grave difficulty that the Latin language also used
peruidere in another sense, seeing that we give two
different meanings to our overlook, and the Germans
to their versehen and iibersehen. But the Latin seems
to have examples where the prefix per has the original
meaning of iiber, over — viz. per cell- ' knock over/
1 upset/ as seen in the use of this word in the very
oldest writers, e.g. with plaustrum in Cato, que reus in
Ennius, to say nothing of Plautus and Terence, both
of whom have the word in its true physical sense.
Peruert- again means ' overturn/ ' upset/ as with
pinus proceras (Enn.), aidas and turrim (Plaut.), and
especially in 'si rex obstabit obviam, regem ipsum
prius peruortito ' (Stic. ii. 1, 14). The meaning k over*
gives the best interpretation to the compounds per-
fund-, perlin-, and perung-. A further claim must
be put in for the intensive per of adjectives, like
permagnus, permultus, especially when we compare
this with vTrep as a prefix to the adjectives -aaOevqs,
-cltottos, -e\apos, -kclXos, -Xainrpos, -iriKpos, -iroXvs,
-ao(f)09. The assumption here made is that super was
cut down to per, and the loss of two letters may
offend ; but such loss may well have been gradual,
first one letter disappearing, and then the other. Thus
110 ON THE GERMAN PREFIX VCT
the Lat. sub (pronounced sup) seems to have lost its
sibilant in one derivative, viz. : aperio apertus, the
root syllable of which is the same as op of our op-en
and our preposition up. This will be more readily
accepted if contrasted with op-erio op-ertus. That
ap-eri- and op-eri- (with their participles ap-er-to-
op-er-to-) have their origin in prepositions is a matter
on which I have little doubt, the eri of these words
corresponding to the eli of sep-eli (sep-ul-to-), the root
of which is one with 6air of Oairr-co ; and indeed a
suffix er or el is wel] known in our own language as
in quiver, shiver from quake, shake, gambol and
gamble from game. But as to the root-syllables ap
and op, my first thought was directed towards ab
1 from ' and ob ' to/ for ' opening ' is separation and
' shutting ' is re -union, and indeed we ourselves have
the phrase e put to/ in the sense of ' shut/ The other
alternative was to look out for prepositions signifying
' up ' and ' down/ which would correspond to our
phrases ' put the window up ' and ' put it down/
Now our own verbs ope and open, the Germ, off en
and bffnen, the Dutch open and openen connect them-
selves beyond a doubt with the several prepositions
up, auf, and op, to say nothing of such a word as the
German aufmaehen 'to open/ But where am I to
find op 'down' for c op-eri- '? I answer, in the ob
of occid- ' fall down/ ' die/ • set as the sun/ occid-
6 cut down/ oppet- and obi- ' go down/ i.e. ' die/
oceuba- ' lie dead/ obter- e tread down/ opprim-
6 press down/ The Sanskrit gives this prefix in the
shape ava ' down/ and the Latin also has it in the
ab ' down' of abici- (abiecto-) ' throw down/ ab-sorbe-
1 suck down/ afflig- ' dash down/ appos- (appon-)
AND ALLIED FORMS." Ill
' set down/ The German too has this very form with
the sense of down in several words, especially in
her-ab, hin-ab, and ab-warts ' downward/ I am not
blind to the fact that on this theory op-eri might as
well have signified ' to open/ and aperi- f to shut/
But language is somewhat arbitrary and uncertain in
such matters.
The adverb perendie is sometimes spoken of as a
hybrid word, made up of the Latin die and the
Greek irepav, or Sansk. param ; but here again, with-
out denying the identity of the three words, irepav,
param, and peren, I would claim the last as a
native and a corruption of superen, whence the
adverb supern-e ' from above ; (with a suffix like ind-e,
und-e, and the Greek oiriaO-e, Sec.) so that peren-
die shall correspond in its first element to the ilber
in iiber-morgen of precisely the same meaning. This
theoretic peren or peran exists, though a little dis-
guised, in the contracted form tran. Before an r the
Latin language was much given to a change of con-
sonant. Thus trem-ere, as has been often noticed,
is a corruption of cremere (Fr. craindre and Old Fr.
cremir). A thoroughly parallel example to our theory
about trans is seen in the adjective tranquility for
planquillus, a double dim. of planeus, as that again
is a dim. of planus. The verbs trddo, trdduco, trdieio
seem formed from tran rather than trans; and the
co-existence of two forms, one with, one without an s,
is seen in many of the prepositions, as ab, sub, ob, ec,
di. It may be noticed too that this theory brings the
French particle tres ' very/ so commonly used with
adjectives, into immediate connexion with the Latin
per and Greek virep of the same habit. Even within
112 ON THE GERMAN PREFIX Ver
the limits of the Latin language we have what is
really identity in the two forms trans-fuga and per-
fuga ' deserter/ or more literally in German, iiber-
laufer.
In the Greek language I would first observe that
certain compounds with the full form virep present
peculiar meanings which go far to support the doc-
trine that ver is a shorter form of uber, viz. virepopaco
virepihevv ' overlook/ and virepoTrros ' slighted ' compared
with versehen, overlook, and verachten. Indeed, the
simple verb achten ' to look ' is probably the analogue of
the Greek o7TT-ofiai, for the ir of this word appears as a
c in the Latin oc-ulus, while ac itself is seen in the
Lith. ak-i-s, as also in ae-tutu-m ' in the twinkling
of .an eye/ ' in einem augenblicke,' to adopt Dr. Ebel's
explanation of the word (Kuhns Zeitschrift, iv. 320) ;
and then a c in Latin should be represented by eh in
German, while the o again should give place to an a.
In both acht and oirr the t I regard as excrescent.
Again, in v7repajcovi^ofjbac, v7T€pfJLa%ofjLcu, u7T€pa\ye^), and ox<>- ' a vehicle/
But a sail is the chief instrument in the movement of
a ship. Hence uelum, i.e. uek-el-um (cf. for the guttural
uexillum, and pauci, paulum, pauxillum), the German
seg-el and the theoretic aex-iov will be all diminutives
from a common root. The appearance of a a- by the
side of a u is not to be explained by any interchange
AND ALLIED FORMS. 115
between two sounds so utterly unlike. We should
rather start from a base os and afer.
As regards the assumed pos, I first pointed to the
old dactylic inscription (Mommsens cil. 1454) : 'Qiir
petis postempus 1 consilium ; quod rogas ndn est ; ' to
another inscription (Orelli-Henzen, 6561) '...lib.
libertabus posrisq. ( = posterisque) eorum ; ' to the
Umbrian pustertiu of the Iguvian Table (1 b. 40,
Huschke) ; and to the phrase pus-ueres of the same
1 In the instances postempus, pustertiu, postevganeus, postu, pos-
teinplum, the t might have been supposed to be performing double
duty but for the abundant examples where the word following pos
begins with other letters.
118 Post and after the same word.
(la. lines 7, 14, and 24), opposed to pre-ueres (lines
11 and 20), which are respectively translated 'post
portas or mures' and 'ante p. or m. ;' to the adjec-
tive posterganeus of late writers; to what Velius
Longus (2237, 13 P.) quotes from Cicero's Orator (43):
' posmeridianas quoque quadrigas libentius dixerim
quam postmeridianas' (for which last word Ritschl, I
now find, suggests the substitution of pomeridianas) ;
to pomerium and pomeridianus, as naturally growing
out of posmerium and posmeridianus, just as remus
stands for resmus, and Camena for Casmena ; to
posquam, as given by one of the most trustworthy
MSS. of Catullus (xi. 23), and adopted by Bergk ;
to pos legem and pos te, said by Diez (Gr. iii. 215) to
occur in the Agrimensores ; and lastly, to pone, as
standing for pos-ne, and so receiving its best expla-
nation. Cf. pono for posno, the root pos alone appearing
in posui, positus, while the n of the imperfect tenses
performs the same office as in sterno, eemo, sperno ;
for I unhesitatingly reject the theory which would
make pono a compound of sino. The old form posiui
seems at first to support this view ; but compare
quaero quaesiui, peto petiui. In fact it is common
for consonant- verbs and i. -verbs to coexist, and then
interchange their tenses, as in uenio ueni, farcio far si.
To this evidence I now add from the MSS. of
Plautus, as pointed out by Ritschl {I. c), 1, posquam,
Grlor. 124, CDa; 2, posquam, Bac. 277, Ba; 3, pes-
quam (for posquam), Poen. Pr. 104, BCD; 4, poshae,
Poen. i. 2, 66 ; 5, postu (= post tu), Trin. 975, BC;
and then in abbreviated form with the symbol p',
which he with reason interprets as = pos (or perhaps
pusV) ; 6, p'quam, Glor. 121, B ; 7, p'id (for pos id),
Post and after the same word. 119
Trin. 529, D ; 8, p'hunc, Men. i. 2, 3, C ; 9, p'qui
(where other MSS. have postquam), Glor. 1331, Da ;
10, Pquam (with the mark ' accidentally omitted, he
thinks), Pseud. 1,269, C ; 11, p . . ilia (with two letters
erased), Men. v. 9, 58, Ba (pilla c Bb) ; and then from
other sources, for which also I am indebted to Kitschl,
12, postemplum, and 13, poscolu[_mnam~], Iscr. Marini
Atti, &c, 182 and 258; 14, pusmeridianae, Cic.
Att. xii. 53, Med. MS.; 15, posquam res Asiae, ap.
Marium Victorinum, 2,467, Putsch.
That pos rather than post is the older form is
further confirmed by the Sanskrit pap-cat ' post/ and
the S. adj. pap-cha ' after-coming/ with its superl. pap-
ch-ima ; as also by the Lith. pas-huy ■ postea,' and
Old Prus. pans-dau of like meaning (Pott. E. F. i. 88,
and Bopp s GL). Part of this I take from Curtius (I c).
Hence I confidently assume that the t of post is
excrescent, as in the Germ, morast, our morass, Fr.
marais, Geim.jialast, Fr. palms; or, to draw examples
from the classical languages, ost-ium by the side of
os oris, and oar-eov by the side of os ossis.
Our preposition after, and the Gothic aftra, Bopp
(V. G. § 295, vol. ii. p. 28 of the second edition) would
divide so as to attach the t to the suffix, as af-ter ; and
on the same principle he places the hyphen before the
dental in the Old Germ, prepositions or adverbs, ivi-dar,
ni-dar, hin-lar, sun-dar, for-dar. But that such a
proceeding is erroneous is proved by the form of our
simpler words aft (ctb-aft), with, neath (be-neaih), hind
(be-hind), and forth. Had our adjective yonder fallen
under his view, he would no doubt in all consistency
have divided it yon-der ; but here again we once had
a simple yond as well as yon, and still have be-yond.
120 Post and after the same wokd.
Of course he is thus driven to erroneous results. For
example, his division of the Gothic wi-dar, Germ.
wi-der, calls for some explanation of the first syllable ;
and accordingly he finds this in the Sanskrit particle
vi, which denotes, he says, ' separation ' (' trennung ') .
Had he thought of the identity of the English verb
withstand, and the German ivider-stehen, wider stand,
he would probably have admitted that wid, Eng. with,
is the root-syllable, with the meaning of ' union' instead
of ' separation \ for though union often includes the
idea of peace and friendship, a meeting may also be
preparatory to hostile proceedings. Tecum coniungi
generally implies an amicable union, but then we have
also tecum pugnare as well as congredi, and conferre
signa. A thoroughly parallel case is seen in the Latin
contra and its primitive con or cum, two words which
render it impossible to doubt the connexion of wider
with our with ; and though contra very often carries
with it the idea of hostility, yet such is certainly not
the case with the Fr. contre-danse, and our English
equivalent but misspelt country -dance, where the
parties are brought indeed face to face, but not
for war.
The Gothic aft-ana, too, compared with ut-ana, &c.
goes far to prove that the t belongs to the first syllable.
Accordingly, as Bopp himself remarks, Grimm gave
a preference to the division aft-uma for the Gothic
superlative. In a subsequent paper I hope to show
that generally er rather than ter or ther is the suffix
of comparatives, thus giving a preference to what is
seen in ep-epoi, sup-eri, inf-eri, and making the division
aoo)T-€pos, fte\T-epo9 ; er-epos, alt-er, Oth-er ; iroT-epos,
ut-er, wheth-er.
Post and after the same word. 121
For the present purpose I have still more valuable
evidence : first, in the Gothic forms afar and afara;
secondly, in the Sanskrit apara 'posterior/ and the
Vedic apama 'postremus/
But I am also called upon to justify the assumption
that an f in our Teutonic family has a tendency to
throw out a t ; and I give as examples, left by the side
of the Latin laeuus, the Germ, saft compared with our
sap, the English sift in connexion with the noun sieve,
and our adverbial aloft and the Germ, noun heft, so
closely allied to the nautical verb luff or loof The
adverb often also is so commonly pronounced without
any regard to the t, that one is tempted to conclude
that an earlier form was of en. As s of the Latin
sub is lost in our up, so subinde (see p. 71), or rather
supinde, may be one with our often, as it is one with
the Fr. souvent.
It was from a belief in the excrescent character of
the t in aft that I was led to identify the root-syllable
af with the Latin ob, and the Greek eiri. The b of ob,
as of sub and ab, is proved to have supplanted a p by
the Greek equivalents, and also by such derived forms
as superi, supra. Thus the f in aft obeys Kask's law,
while the vowel change between ob and af corresponds
with what is seen in domare and our tame, Germ.
zdhm-en ; in rogare and Germ, frag en ; collum and
hals ; rota and rad ; folles and balgen.
I next revert to the doctrine so often put forward
already (p. 57, &c), that prepositions which begin
with a consonant have often attained this form by the
loss of a preceding vowel, and that such lost vowel is
either one with or akin to that which follows the said
consonant. On this principle p>°* suggests the form
122 Post and after the same word.
opos ; and we have a parallel case in the noun pomum
as having grown out of an older opomum. (See paper
on ' a privative/) This assumption of an initial o
seems fully justified by the form ottkko (oiriaaco) with
the very meaning one would desire ; the more so that
the opposed word 7rpoaa) (wpoaaco), i.e. TTOp-ocr-co, tells
us that o7r alone belongs to the root, while av-eo and
kclt-cd also compel us to mark off the o» of oiria-co and
irpo<7-a), as in itself a suffix.
Now the form op-os thus placed beyond doubt bears so
strong a likeness to our English theoretic af-er, allow-
ing for the usual letter-changes, that it may well raise
the suspicion that they are virtually the same word.
The ordinary suffix of the Latin comparative is of
course ior, but this we know grew out of an older ios,
the neuter, as melius, and the diminutive, as melius-
eulus, still retaining the original s. But of this suffix
ios one or other vowel is apt to disappear (cf. Bopp's
V. G. § 303). In minor, minus (for minior, &c), and
secus (for secius ' other'), the weak vowel is lost, but
the o in mxigis and iieyiaros (for fxeyioaros), in nimis
and satis, and in pris of pristinus. In this last word
we have again an excrescent t, just as we have in crast-
inus from eras ; and the pris stands for prius, being
one with the Greek irplv (of Homer) for irpiov. Looking
then from this point of view, we find a comparative
which has lost the weak vowel in our theoretic op-os
of the Latin, and one which has lost the strong vowel
in 07T-LO- of the Greek. Nay, the preposition irpos
itself, i.e. irop-os, must also be of comparatival form.
The doctrine that the os of pos (op-os) is of com-
paratival character seems confirmed by the old Prussian
pans-dau, for ans is so far nearer to the Sanskrit suffix
Post and after the same word. 123
yans of comparatives. It is also to be observed that
the o of the form pos is long, as in a comparatival
form it is entitled to be. This appears from two of
the passages to which Eitschl refers, viz. —
'Hanc equidem Venerem uenerabor, me [ut] amet poshac
propitia.' — Poen. i. 2, 66.
And the line of Cretics : —
1 Praeterhac si mihi tale pos hunc diem.' — Men. i. 2, 3.
And I venture to add yet a third from among those
he brings forward, viz. : —
1 Neque patrem umquam posilla (usquam ?) uidi. M. Quid
uos turn patri,' &c.
Here the first four words (posilla or postilla) are given
in the order of all the MSS., and hence we may safely
infer that the metrical accent fell on pos. I have in-
serted usquam on conjecture, as the lost word must
have begun with a vowel. Kitschl's correction is more
violent when he transfers umquam to the fourth place,
and changes postilla into postillac.
The appearance of a short vowel in the Greek form
Hoarovfiios for Postumius, which seems to have influ-
enced Eitschl in his view that pos has a short o, de-
serves, I think, to have no more weight than Plutarch's
transliteration of the Latin decies (deciens) by Se/cie?.
But the appearance sometimes of is, sometimes of
os, in the Latin comparative, has its counterpart in
the Teutonic family. Thus the Gothic has compara-
tives ald-iz-a ' older/ minn-iz-a ' less/ &c, and also
frum-oz-a ' former/ frod-oz-a ' prudentior/ &c. So
again in Old German we find in abundance such forms
as alt-ir-o or alt-er-o, menn-ir-o or menn-er-o ; and
on the other hand jung-or-o ' younger/ and frot-or-o
corresponding to the Gothic frod-oz-a, &c. And, to
124 Post and after the same word.
complete the resemblance to the Latin forms, the com-
paratives in i (e) have a short vowel, while the o is
always long. Of course the er of the Modern German,
as cilt-er, must be of the same origin of the corre-
sponding syllable in alt-ir-o or alt-er-o. Hence if we
apply to the Teutonic family what has been said of
Latin, the iz and oz of ald-iz-a frum-oz-a have in all
probability grown out of an older ioz ; but the form iz
is substantially the same as the ir or er of Old German
and the er of Modern German. Consequently the er
of after is not merely of the same power, but also one
in origin with the os of pos (op-os).
Thus the proposition with which I started, I venture
to say has been established. But a few more last words
may be permitted.
It may be as well to note once more the habit of
prepositions to take a comparatival suffix, in which
case the secondary form not unfrequently supplants
the original simpler word. Thus with ourselves near
(for nigh-er) is in more frequent use than nigh. In
this way I would account for the fact that ob lost the
signification of ' after,' which its Greek representative
67™ long retained, as for example in eirtyovos.
I gather from G. Curtius (1. e.) that Aufrecht con-
siders the Sanskrit pas 'post' as decapitated from
apas, to which I so far of course assent ; but when
they connect this assumed apas with the Sanskrit apa
and Greek airo I cannot but differ from them ; and I
am no way surprised that Curtius, holding this view,
hesitates to connect with this family of words the
Lithuanian pas 'prope.' But all difficulty on this
head disappears when eiu and ob are substituted for
airo and ab.
Post and after the same word. 125
It may be observed as not improbable that the Fr.
puis, It. poi, Span, pues, together with the compounds
depuis, dopo, despues, owe the non-appearance of the
t, not to any aphaeresis of that letter, but to the fact
that they came directly from the true form pos. The
Italian has also the compound forms poscloniani, pos-
porre, _postergare, posve&eice.
I would further remark that Eitschl's theory which
treats post as a curtailment of poste, and which regards
the d of postidea and antidea as inserted for the pur-
pose of avoiding hiatus (hiatus- tilgende) as in both
respects questionable. I should rather be disposed to
look upon post-id and ant-id as derivatives from
simpler prepositions, which passed ultimately into
the forms poste and ante. This suffix id may perhaps
be one with the ed of red (for er-ed), of which I spoke
in the paper on re and pro. Thus post-id would
correspond to r-ed, post-e to re (er-e). Of course in
this view post is no longer a curtailed poste.
In speaking above of the law of letter-change which
holds between the mute consonants of the classical and
Teutonic languages, I have thought it right to use
the name of Eask rather than that of Grimm, having
before me Bopps note (§ 87, or vol. i. p. 119 of the
ed. 1857), which it will be well to translate at length,
as the whole credit of the discovery is still for the
most part unduly assigned to Grimm. Bopp's words
run thus : —
'In my former treatment of this matter (1st ed.
p. 78, fol.) it had escaped my notice that Eask, in his
prize essay, " Undersogelse om det gamle Nordiske
eller Islandske Sprogs Oprindelse" (Kopenhagen, 1818),
had clearly and conclusively put forward the law here
126 Post and after the same word.
given, which indeed it would have been difficult to
overlook. A translation of the most interesting por-
tion of Eask's paper was also given by Vater in his
" Comparative Tables of the European Family of Lan-
guages." Eask's discovery, however, must be so far
qualified that he deals only with the relation between
the northern and classical languages, so as to take no
notice of the second law of interchange as exhibited
in German, which was first demonstrated by Grimm.
Eask's law (p. 12 of Vater s work) is that among the
mute consonants the following changes are especially
common : —
* 7r to f, as : iraTrjp, fadir.
c t to th, as : jpels, thrir; tego, eg thek ; tv, tu, thu.
' k to h, as : Kp'eas, hrce (a corpse) ; cornu, horn ;
cutis, hud.
' ft is often retained : pXao-rdva) (sprout), blad ; fipvc*
(well), brannr (a spring of water) ; bullare, at bulla.
1 8 to t : Sa/xdo), tamr (tame).
' y to k : ywrj, Jcona ; yevos, kyn or kin ; gena,
kinn ; dypos, akr.
' 4> to b : cjirjyos, bog (beech), fiber bifr ; epay, fero,
eg ber.
' to d : Ovpr), dyr.
c X to 9 : X™> 9V der (g usn ) > *X et "> e 9 a > X^ T P a > 9 r !J ta >*
X o\v, gali:
127
VI.
OX THE SO-CALLED a PBIVATIVE.
The old doctrine which treats a mere vowel a as the
original form of this prefix, the v being an epen-
thetic consonant, still maintains itself in some quarters.
Thus in a Sanskrit Grammar published at Oxford not
long ago, the form a is assigned to the prefix with the
qualifying remark that ' when a word begins with a
vowel, an is usually substituted.' Perhaps it is to such
words as aet^s ' unseemly/ avirvos ' sleepless/ acopos
' untimely/ that the false explanation owes its vitality ;
but the lost initial digamma or a, or asperate, accounts
for these anomalies, the older forms having been aFuK^s,
aa-virvos, a-wpos (see Proc. Philolog. Soc. iiio 52, &c).
Again, the original av accounts satisfactorily for the
long vowel of a-davaros, and for the //- of afx-ftpoTos.
But the strongest argument in favour of av, as against
the claim of a mere a, is seen in the prevalence for the
most part of a nasal in the corresponding prefixes of
allied languages ; as —
Lat. Sansk. Gael. Welsh. Gothic, &c. Dutch. Old Norse. Swed. Dan.
in an ana, an, am an un on o o n
It may be as well to add that the ' &c/ attached to
the heading ' Gothic ' must be interpreted as including
128 ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE.
German of all ages, Old Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, and of
course our own language.
So much for the final letter of the prefix. The
question whether the word once possessed a still fuller
form will be considered presently. The next question
is as to the meaning of the little particle. Our Greek
lexicons assign to it not a few meanings. But no one
probably will claim as of one origin the prefix with
negative power, and that which signifies unity, or some-
thing like it. AXo^os, clkoitls, aa/ceXTjs = caoaKeXijs,
&c. have in all probability a common prefix with
airXovs ; in other words, have lost an initial asperate.
Those, then, may be thrown aside. Then again, it is
perhaps nearer the truth to regard the forms ao-TepoTrv,
aara^iSy aaraxvs, as more genuine than the familiar
o-TepoTrr), o-rafa?, araxvs, instead of giving precedence
to the shorter form, and calling the a a euphonic
addition. But in either case, the a of such words
has no connexion with the prefix which is under
consideration.
I have next before me the claim of the so-called a
67riTariKov, or intensive alpha. It has often been said
that the Greek grammarians gave an undue extension
to this particle, and indeed it has been objected to
them that some of the examples which they quote are
but inventions of their own. That they were guilty
of such a deliberate offence is altogether unlikely. I
hope presently to show that a prefix with the sense of
intensity, one in form with the negative particle, and,
as I believe, one in origin with it, was in extensive
use in some members of the Indo-European family
of languages ; and if this be admitted, then it will be
rather matter of surprise that the Greek language has
ON TIJE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE. 129
so few claimants for the meaning. No doubt it was
found to be a serious inconvenience that a language
should have compounds with the same prefix bearing
two meanings at first sight so inconsistent as negation
and intensity. An ambiguity of this kind is pretty
certain to be got rid of by the disappearance of one
or both meanings. Still I must contend that in the
Homeric forms aaiceXes and avrrepxes the a may well
have added to the words the notion of intensity. Not
so however with the adjective arev-qs, which maintains
its position down to a late period in Grecian literature.
This word seems to me to be only a variety of evTevqs,
and so immediately connected with the familiar verb
evTeiva ; and I would justify the change of form by
the tendency of the Greek tongue to drop an v, espe-
cially before a dental, at the same time changing a
preceding e to a. Thus the very verb reiva (rev)
exhibits the change in its tenses eradrjv, rera/ca, rera^ac,
so (SevOos, irevOos coexist with fiaOos, iraOos ; and gene-
rally men, the termination of Latin substantives, is
represented in the Greek vocabulary by par or fia.
As it was in the Gaelic language that I was first
led to the conclusions which will appear in this paper,
and as that language still furnishes, I believe, the
most abundant as well as the most decisive evidence
in the matter, I propose to give in some detail what is
there found bearing on the subject. But before doing
so, it will be convenient that I should state the theory
by which the two apparently irreconcilable ideas of
negation and intensity are brought into harmony. J
would assign then male as the primitive idea of the pre-
fix, the influence of which is most opposite, according
as it is attached to an idea desirable or not desirable.
K
130 ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE.
While male sanus can only mean ' unsound/ male
turpis is an equivalent to turpissimus. This latter
use of male has been well noted by Orelli (Hor. Carm.
i. 17, 25), in the phrase, Ne male dispari incon-
tinentes iniciat manus, where he quotes the parallel
cases, male laxus calceus, Hor. Ep. i. 3, 31 ; oculis
male lippus inunctis, Sat. i. 3, 25 ; insulsa male et
molesta, Catul. x. 33 ; male inepta, Tibul. iv. 10, 2 ;
adding the just qualification, Homonymum est vv.
' valde, admoduin cum vocabulo ingratae qualitatis.
There are of course words which in themselves are
neither eulogistic nor dyslogistic. These however take
their colour from the context. Thus, as Orelli again
writes, male pertinax has the negative power in the
digito male pertinaei of Horace (Carm. i. 9, 24), be-
cause firmness was then to have been desired, but not
so in Prudentius (Catliem. Praef. 14), Male pertinax
Vincendi studium subiacuit casibus asperis.
The fact that the so-called privative particle some-
times implied blame has of course attracted notice ;
but the explanation commonly given, though in itself
thoroughly intelligible, seems to me to be ill founded ;
1 KfiovXla = SvcrfiovXla, l7Z-COUnsel, and airpoaajiros, ill-
faced, ugly,' say Liddell and Scott, are 'strictly a
hyperbole, counsel that is no counsel, i.e. bad, a face
no better than none, i.e. ugly/ The issue, I think,
will be that this explanation is untenable.
I now proceed to the quotation of examples from
the Gaelic Dictionary of the Highland Society of
Scotland, omitting for brevity those words where the
negative notion prevails. It should be noticed, how-
ever, that in the words now to be given the editor
sometimes gives to the prefix the epithet ' intensive ; '
ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE. 131
sometimes, pursuing a course which he finds more con-
venient, omits all epithets, and confines himself to the
safe phrase, ' a prefix/ The compound words then, in
the order in which the dictionary presents them, are —
* aimfheoil 'proud flesh' (fedil ' flesh').
aimhreit ' discord' (reit ' harmony').
aimhriochcl ' disguise ' (riochd ' form') ; also
dinriochd 'pitiful, or unseemly appearance.'
* airibheus ' immorality' (bens 'habit'),
t ainbhfheirg 'rage' (fearg ' anger').
aincheist 'doubt' (ceist 'anxiety').
aindealbh 'unseemly figure' (dealbh 'form').
aindlighe 'unjust law, trespass' (dlighe 'law').
* aineachd ' misapplied prowess' (eiichd ' feat').
10 t aineogail 'astonishment' (eagal ' fear').
t ainghean 'excessive love' (gean 'love').
ainghearrahd ' a short cut' (gearradh ' a cut'),
t ainiarmartach ' most furious' (iarmartach 'fu-
rious').
t ainiomad 'too much' (iomad 'much').
ainlean ' to persecute' (lean ' to follow').
ainmlieas 'ostentation' (meets 'valuation'),
t ainneart 'violence' (neart 'strength').
ainnis ' poverty ' (Sis ' want').
* ainsgean 'bad temper' (gean 'mood').
20 ainteann ' constrictus' (teann ' tense, stiff').
* ainteist ' false witness, bad character ' (teist
' testimony, character'),
t ainteas ' excessive heat' (teas ' heat').
* aintiglieam ' tyrant' (tigheam ' lord').
t aintreun 'ungovernable' (treun ' brave').
* amhfhortan 'misfortune' (fortan ' fortune')
K 2
.132 ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE.
■amhsgaoileadh ' diarrhoea' (sgaoileadh ' scatter-
ing').
amlubach c curling' (lub ' curve').
anabarr ' excess' (&&rr ' excess').
anabeachdail ' haughty' (beachdail ' observant').
30 * anablas ' bad taste' (bias ' taste').
anabraise ' immoderate keenness' (brais ' keen-
ness').
anabuirt ' madness' (Zmr£ 'ridicule').
* anacainnt 'ill language' (cainnt ' speech').
* anacaith 'misspend' (caith 'spend').
anaceist 'difficulty' (ceist 'anxiety'). Another
variety of this word occurs below.
* cmacleachdadh ' bad custom' (cleachdadh 'cus-
tom').
* anacleas ' a bad deed' (cleas ' a deed').
* anacradh 'object of pity' (crddh 'pity').
* anacriosd 'antichrist' (Criosd 'Christ').
40 t anacruas 'avarice' (cruas 'hardness').
anacuibheas 'immensity' (cuibheas 'enough').
anacuimse 'immensity' (cuimse 'measure'),
t anacitram ' excessive care' (curam ' care').
anaghlas ' milk and water' (glas ' grey'),
t anaghlaodh 'loud shout' (glaodh 'call').
anaghhus ' disorder' (gleus ' order').
* anaghldir 'ill language' (gldir 'speech').
anaghlonnach ' renowned for valour ' (glonn
' deed of valour').
* anaghndth ' an ill habit' (gndth ' custom').
50 * anagrach 'litigious' (agarrach 'claiming').
t anagrddh 'doating love' (grddh 'love').
anaimsir 'unmeet time' (aimsir 'time'),
anairc ' necessity' (aire ' want').
ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE. 133
andm ' unseasonable time' (dm ' time').
* anamharus 'wrong suspicion ' (amharus ' doubt').
* anamhiann ' lust' (miann ' desire').
andrd ' very high' (drd 'high').
anbhas ' & sudden death' (bds ' death').
anbhdthadh ' a deluge' {bdthadh ' drowning').
60 t anbhorb ' furious' (borb ' fierce').
anbhroid ' tyranny' (bruid ' a thorn').
* anddn 'foolhardy' (dan 'bold').
andeistinn ' squeamishness' (deistinn ' disgust').
t andochasach 'presumptuous' (dochasach 'hope-
ful').
* anddigh 'bad state' (ddigh 'condition').
t andolas ' excessive sadness' (dolas 'woe').
anduine ' wicked man' (duine ' man').
aneanraisd 'a storm' (aonrais 'tempest'),
t anfhad ' too long' (fada ' long').
70 anfhann 'weak, feeble' (fann 'weak').
* anfhlath ' tyrant' (flath ' prince').
* anfhocal ' reproach' (focal ' word').
anfhosgladh ' chasm' (fosgladh ' opening').
t anfhuachd 'excessive cold' (fiiachd 'cold').
* amarrtus ' wrong desire' (iarrttis ' petition').
aniiil ' bad guidance' (iicl ' guidance').
anlaoch 'exasperated warrior' (laoch 'hero').
t anluchdaich ' overload' (luchd ' load').
anmhurrach 'valiant' (murrach 'able').
80 * annspioradh ' a devil' (spiorad 'spirit').
anobair ' idle work' (obair ' work'),
t anrachd 'violent weeping' (rachd ' tears').
* anriadh ' usury' (riadh ' interest').
* anriar 'a wrong gratification' (riar 'pleasure').
* ansannt 'avarice' (sannt ' desire').
134 ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE.
ansaoghalta 'worldly' (saoghalta ' worldly ').
ansgdineadh ' chasm ' (sgdineadh ' bursting').
ansgairt ' loud cry' (sgairt ' loud cry').
antarruing 'strife' (tarruing 'drawing').
90 * antogradh ' criminal propensity' (togradh ' de-
sire').
antoil ' self- will' (toil ' will').
antrdth ' wrong season' (trdth 'season')
t antrom 'grievous' (trom 'heavy').
* anuair ' evil hour, bad weather' (uair l hour').
If we look to the meaning of these words, it readily
appears that in those which are marked with an
asterisk, neither negation nor mere intensity supplies
what is required. It is true, that anaghleus ' disorder,'
may be considered as the negation of gleus ' order,'
and aimhreit 'discord,' as the negation of reit 'har-
mony.' But no such interpretation will account for
ainbheus 'immorality,' beside beus 'habit/ or for
andoigh ' bad state,' beside doigh ' condition,' or
anfhocal 'reproach,' beside focal 'word.' On the
other hand, intensity seems rarely if ever to' charac-
terise the compounds, except where that intensity is
in fact excess, in other words an evil, as in an/had
e too long,' from fada ' long,' anfhuachd ' excessive
cold,' from fuachd ' cold,' and generally in those
examples to which f has been prefixed. There are
indeed among the quoted examples some in which the
assigned translation does not bring out the notion of
badness, but these exceptions are probably to be re-
ferred to the inaccuracy of the translator, as ainckeist
doubt,' from ceist 'anxiety,' ainnis 'poverty,' from
' want,' anaghlonnach ' renowned for valour,' from
ON THE SO-CALLED a PEIVATIVE. 135
glonn c deed of valour/ As regards the last, a repu-
tation for valorous deeds, though acceptable enough to
those in whose behalf those deeds are exhibited, excites
a very different feeling in the sufferers. Thus, the
Hindoo and Mahratta had more fear than love for
one whom in the last century they designated the
* Daring in war.' Again, anard ' very high/ from
drd 'high/ is not easy of interpretation to a member
of the Alpine Club. But the Highlander was not of
so romantic a disposition. He thought rather of the
labour of ascent, and so to him every addition to the
height of a place was an evil. Tn the same way, a
mere fissure in the ground was of little moment, so
long as an easy leap would clear it ; but when it was
both wide and deep, it was either dangerous to cross
directly, or required a somewhat laborious circuit to
turn it. Hence probably the suffix seen in anfhosgladh
and ansgdineadJi, both translated ' a chasm/ On the
whole, then, it may perhaps be safely affirmed that few
will read through the list of ninety -four words without
coming to the conclusion that the notion of badness is
distinctly marked in a large proportion, and that the
same notion gives a thoroughly satisfactory solution
of the cases where intensity is the favoured explana-
tion ; and thirdly, that even in the few cases where
the idea of negation would also supply a reasonable
explanation, the idea of badness is, to say the least,
no less applicable. This being so, the only sound con-
clusion is, that the one idea which will explain all the
cases is to be preferred ; in other words, that the prefix
an carries with it the notion of malus.
Hence we must invert the order of the meanings
which, under the heading 'An, ]>i\fix,' the Gaelic Die-
136 ON THE SO-CALLED a PPJVAT1VE.
tionary above mentioned puts forward, viz. : ' 1. Priva-
tive. ... 2. Intensive 3. It is frequently found ' (says
the lexicographer) ' having the same acceptation as the
adjective " olc " or " droch," placed before its adjunct :
pravitatem nonnunquam designat/ We have here
indeed an error, not uncommon in lexicons, and in
one view pardonable. No doubt ultimately the priva-
tive notion was the prevalent one ; and what is most
common seems at first sight to have the best claim to
precedence. It is in this way that our Latin Grammars
place the secondary verbs in are at the head of the
series of conjugations, in disregard of the claims of the
simpler conjugation called the third. The spirit of
modern philology however requires that the order of
time should be observed here as much as in geology.
On the varying forms of the prefix in the Gaelic
tongue some notice will be taken below. It may be
observed however that among them is amh, which also
occurs as an adjective in the same language, and one
of the meanings assigned to it is ' bad, naughty, pravus/
This meaning is given on the authority of the well
known Gaelic scholar, Shaw. Now the Latin malus
is at present, I believe, an isolated word. It begins
too with a letter which always incurs my suspicion, as
occupying an initial place to which a liquid is not
entitled. Thus, if I also assume the law of similar
vowels for this adjective, an older form would be
am-alus, of which am alone would be radical, a lus
being a suffix just as in the Greek jj,eya\r}, ofx-aXos,
xOafi-aXos, air-a\o9. This view I first threw out as a
loose conjecture; but it seemed even then to receive
some confirmation from our own adjective evil, Germ.
ilbel t which may well represent a Latin amal.
ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE. 137
But what was so far doubtful I regard as transferred
to the region of certainty, when it appears that an
adjective avol, in the sense of ' bad/ was once known to
the Provencal, Catalonian, Spanish, and Portuguese
languages. It is to Diez's Dictionary of the Eomance
languages that I owe the knowledge of this. But, as
my explanation of the word differs wholly from his, T
think it due to him to state in English what he says :
'Avol, Prov.(adj. of one termination) "bad, wretched,"
sb. avoleza. The word also occurs in Old Catal. Span.
and Port. ; but is so rare that the statements as to its
meaning fluctuate. Sanchez translates avol ome, in
Berceo, by ' laclron/ but this with hesitation ; Moraes
translates the Port, word in Nobiliario (where more-
over he exhibits a various reading civil) by " mao," i.e.
"bad." In Prov. it is of very common occurrence,
though now, as in the other languages, obsolete, and
signifies the opposite of pros, Fr. preux. That the
first syllable has the accent is shown by the contracted
form did, which stands to dvol just asfreul to f rev ol:
Seckendorf therefore is wrong when he writes avol.
As regards derivation, a guess has been made at the
Gr. afiovXrjs, " disagreeable," but this does not satisfy
the meaning. Ducange, on the authority of a docu-
ment of the year 1411, notices a form advolus = ad-
vena, which is literally the Eomance word. As the
Span, cuerdo is abbreviated from cordatus, and the
Prov. clin from clinatus, so advolus, avol might be
abbreviated from advolatus, avole. The fundamental
notion was " hergeflogen," i.e. "homeless, foreign," and
the complete word was often so used : Ceux qui es-
toient ainsi bannis . . . les appelloit-on avolez (Du-
cange, v. advoli) ; garce avolee, Theatr. Fr. p.p. Michel
138 ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE.
449. From this notion that above mentioned might
easily proceed, just as in our elend 1, " peregrinus," 2,
"miser." It is true that in this way an adj. of two
terminations was to have been expected ; but the
word met with the same fate as frevol = frivolus,
frivola!
This far-fetched etymology I think Diez himself
would have been the first to reject, had it occurred
to him that malus was a decapitated variety of an
obsolete a/malus, especially as the change from amol
to avol agrees with the law which he himself lays
down (G-r. i. p. 200), that a Prov. v corresponds to a
Latin m. The same change is seen in evil, which in
this respect stands to amal just as amn-is to Avon,
as Damn-onii to Devon. Even the difference in the
two vowels of evil is accounted for as soon as we call
to mind that, as a\ of peyaXr) is a suffix of diminution,
so the same office is performed in English by syllables
which have a weak vowel attached to the I, viz. le, as
in mick-le, litt-le ; and of course a weak vowel in a
suffix generally produces an 'umlaut' in a strong
vowel of a root-syllable, evil rather than avil or avle.
A further argument for connecting the two words is
that, as in Prov. dvol is reduced to did, so our evil
takes the form ill.
It may be objected to this view, as to the connexion
of the prefix av or amh with the theoretic amalus, that
the more common form of the prefix is an, rather than
am. This is true, but it is a special characteristic of
the Latin language that it prefers the labial to the
dental nasal. Still, in many roots which exhibit an
interchange of m and n, it is difficult to say which
form has the better claim to originality, as when we find
ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE. 139
yQov- of the Greek standing beside %a^ai and %0aixa\os,
and the Latin humus, humilis, and again the Greek
fav-ep- (avrjp) with Latin hom-on-, and Italian uomo.
Mem-or indeed of the Latin has in its first or root
syllable what seems to have been originally men, as in
the Greek fxev-os, fie-fiv-r^ai. So again an n seems to
have the better claim as between om of om-it- (omit to)
and av of avirjfJLL.
The examples so abundantly quoted from the Gaelic
might be supported by no little evidence from the
other members of the Keltic stock ; but I will confine
myself to a few instances drawn from the Welsh,
anngivres ' full of heat/ from gwres ' heat/ anngwyth
' wrathful/ from givyth ' wrath/ where the intensive
power seems to predominate ; and anhap ' mischance,
mishap/ from hap 'chance/ anlliw 'a stain/ from
lliw ' colour/ anfod ' ailment/ from bod ' being/
Here the notion of badness is beyond doubt, and in
the first of the three, the English representative by
the prefix mis confirms the theory. From the
Cornish I take one example, for which I am indebted
to Pott (E. F. i. 382), ananhel 'procella/ from anhel
' aura/
In the Teutonic family, to take first the German, as
the most familiar member of it, I find unart 'bad
behaviour/ unbild (provincial) ' disgusting figure/
unbot (prov.) 'improper bidding/ undienst 'bad ser-
vice/ unding ' monster/ unfall ' mischance/ unjing
' misdemeanor/ ungeld (prov.) ' a tax/ ungemach
'trouble/ ungethier 'monster, hobgoblin/ ungewitter
'thunderstorm/ ungezogen 'ill-bred/ ungluck 'mis-
chance/ ungott (obsol.) 'idol/ unkraut 'a weed' (Lat.
mala herba), unmensch 'inhuman being, monster/
140 ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE.
unmuth ' bad spirits/ unrath ' dirt/ unsitte ' bad
liabit/ unthat ' misdeed/ unthier 'wild beast/ unweg
' bad road/ unwetter ' stormy weather/ unzeug
1 nuisance/
The German untiefe I must deal with apart from
the rest, as I find the most opposite translations as-
signed to it. In dictionaries, among which I include
those of Sanders, Adelung, and Campe, as well as
Meissner, the only meaning is that of shallow water,
and this in Sanders on the authority of passages
quoted from Humboldt and Niebuhr. On the other
hand, I am assured by two German friends, who are
enabled to speak with the highest authority on such
matters, that in society they only know the word as
signifying very great depth of water. But Pott
(E. F. i. 387) speaks of the twofold meaning of the
word, and to myself this ambiguity is most acceptable,
for the doctrine that the German un = male in power
explains alike the negative and intensive meaning of
the word. To the mariner shoal water is the gravest
of dangers ; and I may observe that it is in connexion
with the sea that this notion is found to prevail, as
for example in the passage from Niebuhr, to which
reference has been made. On the other hand, with
the landsman, or at any rate with the bad swimmer,
it is deep water that is to be avoided. In the same
page of his book, Pott quotes from Swiss dialects, the
forms ungross (== sehr gross), Unkuh, Unmaul, as
' positive Steigerungen des BegrifFes/
In the Norse our prefix drops the nasal, and takes
o in place of the German u. Here we find the fol-
lowing examples bearing testimony in favour of the
power male ; —
ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE. 141
oar ' annonae diificultates ' (dr ' annus)/
obcen ' exsecratio ' (been ' precatio)/
oddd 'nefas' (ddd 'virtus;' or perhaps ' factum').
oddmr 'foetor' (ddmr 'sapor').
odaun 'odor foedus' (daun 'odor').
ohapp ' infortunium ' (happ ' bona sors v. fortuna
inopinata ')
okynd 'monstrum' (kynd 'genus').
okor (n. pi.) ' sors adversa ' (kor ' sors ').
oland ' terra infelix ' (land ' terra continens ').
olestr ' mala fama ' (lestr ' calumnia ').
dlund ' indoles prava ' (land ' indoles ').
omadr 'nequam, nebulo' (madr 'homo').
ordd 'imprudens consilium' (rdd 'consilium').
6\efr 'foetor, odor ingratus ' (]>efr 'odor').
Lastly, Haldorson, from whose work the above are
selected, has a general article : ' 0, litera praefixa
plurimis dictionibus, vim habet negandi et sensum
invertendi, item interdum in malam partem trahendi,'
where, as usual, the primary meaning is made to give
place to that which is more common.
I turn next to the Dutch, not so much to find
parallel examples in ondaad, ondier, onding, onkruid,
corresponding to the German unthat, unthier, unding,
unkraut, as to point to another variety of the prefix,
viz. the form ivan so often found in the Dutch
vocabulary with a power the same as that we claim
for the German nn and Greek av. It will be con-
venient to give the meanings in German, as the power
of the prefix will be then self-evident.
ivandaad ' missethat, un- wandank ' undank.'
that' wangchruick 'missbrauch.'
142 ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE.
wangedrocht 'missgeburt/ wcmraad ' schlechte wirth-
wangelaat ' iible mine.' schaft, unrath.'
wangeloof '' missglaube/ wanschapen ' missgestal-
wangeluid ' misslaut/ tig/
ivangesckikt ' ungeschickt.' wanschepsel 'missge-
wangevoelen ' falsclie schopf/
meimino;/ wanshik ' unschichlichkeit.'
wangevolg ' irrschluss/ wansmaak ' iibelgesch-
wangunnen i missgonnen/ mack/
wangunst l missgunst/ ivanspraak l falsche
wanhebbelijk ' unreinlich/ sprache.'
wanhoop ' verzweiflung/ wanstal l missstand/
wanhout ' verdorbenes ivansijdig ' ungleichseitig/
holz/ wantaal ' sprachfehler/
wanhleurig f missfarbig/ wantroostig ' untrostlich/
wanlust e verkehrte lust/ ivantrouw ' misstrauen.'
wanorde 'unordnung/ wanvrucht ' missgeburt/
The Scandinavian branch, too, is familiar with a
prefix wm of the same power. The High German
also employs wahn in much the same way. So also
in Old English we have not merely unlust, untyme,
unthank, untrust, unrest, unfaiih ; but also wanhope,
wantrust, and wanton, i.e. loan-towen = un-gezogen.
But in spite of the oneness of meaning in the two
prefixes un {on, &c.) and wan {van, &c), the question
of their identity involves matter for controversy. It
is true that words beginning with u and o are precisely
those in which the loss of a digamma is to be sus-
pected, as in the Danish uld, ulv, under, urt, and ol,
ord, orm, compared with our own wool, wolf, wonder,
wort, and wall, word, worm. On the other hand, the
prefix van {wan, wahn) has been referred with mucl
ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE. 143
reason to the family of words which denote emptiness
or defect, as the Norse adj. van-r ' empty ;' and the
Gothic vans ' wanting/ — to say nothing of our own
verb ivane, and the sb. want. These again claim kin
with the Latin nanus ; but if so, the nasal is no longer
radical, seeing that uac of uac-are, uac-iuus, or rather
uoc of uocare, uoc-iuus, exhibits the root from which
nanus is deduced, much as planus from the obsolete
ple-re {explere, &c).
Leaving this point open, I would next draw atten-
tion to the prefix ue, uae or perhaps rather ueh, which
presents itself in a small number of Latin adjectives.
Here we have the very same difficulty which we had
with the prefix an. In uepallidus the ue is said to
have an intensive power, whereas it seems to represent
a negative in uesanus, uegrandis, uehemens. I pro-
pose then the same solution, viz. that the word really
meant male, so that uepallidus might well be equiva-
lent to misere pallidas and uegrandis to male grandis ;
and I put this forward with the more confidence when
I call to mind the vidian —
' uegrandia farra colonae
Quae male creuerunt,' &c.
That grandis in the best writers is especially used
Df growth will be admitted ; and indeed it is probably
of the same stock with our word grow, so that quae
male ereuerunt seems to be an absolutely literal trans-
lation of uegrandis ; and such probably was Ovid's
meaning when he added these words.
That male is the more precise power of this prefix
seems confirmed by the use of the so-called interjec-
tion uae in uae tibi 'ill betide you;' and then we
144 ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE.
have the same word in the German substantive well,
and in our own woe. In the Latin uehemens we find
the asperate preserved ; and indeed in the passage just
quoted from Ovid (Fast. iii. 445), many good MSS.
give uehegrandia.
One of my colleagues at University College, when
I communicated to him in words the substance of this
paper, pointed out to me that the theory gave a satis-
factory explanation of the name of the god Veiouis as
'the bad Jupiter/ Aulus Gellius (v. 12) includes this
god among the laeua numina, as one in laedendo magis
quam in iuuando potentem. In the same chapter he
tells us that he had a temple at Rome between the
Arx and the Capitolium, and further that the statue
ia that temple was armed with arrows, Sagittas tenet
quae sunt uidelicet paratae ad nocendum. The old
form of the name appears to have been Vediouis. So
Vediouei patrei, Mommsens cil 1. 807 ; but the MSS.
of Ovid, in the Fasti iii. 430 and 447, have Veiouis.
Still in either case Ve is the prefixed syllable, not Ved,
for Iouis is connected with dies, and had at first an
initial d. Hence also the d in the Greek oblique cases
Aios, &c.
It will be no violent assumption that this ue is but
a curtailed variety of uan. A parallel case is to
be seen in the root uan 'blow/ whence the Latin
nouns uannus, uent-us, &c. In Sanskrit we find this
root taking the two forms va ' blow/ and an ' blow ; '
and the Greek ar^u, exhibits the root, first as Fa and
then as a mere vowel a or 77, thus again coinciding with
the short form of a privative.
In the preceding investigation I have passed over
the Latin language. Let me now briefly supply the
ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE. 145
omission. The Latin informis, which corresponds
precisely to the Germ, ungestaltet, I claim to be an
equivalent of male formata, and this on the direct
authority of Priscian (1, iii. 10, Krehl) : Informis
dicitur mulier, non quae caret forma, sed quae male
est formata; and this he says without any theory
to bias him, for he is not dealing with etymology.
Infamis again agrees with the notion ' having a bad
character ;' and intemperies corresponds with the
German unwetter. Ignominia also implies an adj.
ignomin-i-s corresponding to the adj. eognomin-i-s ; and
the prefix (in) of i-gnomin-i-s must have carried with
it the notion of ' bad/ The word impotens is usually
interpreted by scholars as an abbreviation of impotens
sui ' unable to restrain oneself, ungovernable ' — a theory
somewhat too violent. But a scholiast on the phrase
Aquilo impotens in Horace makes the adjective an
equivalent of ualde potens. This view leads me to
suggest that the full meaning of the word is brought
out by the phrase male potens 'using power badly;'
so that ' furious' is a tolerably satisfactory translation
of the adjective.
But a still more decisive instance is seen in the
adjective inuidus, which is very unduly considered to
be a derivative from inuideo. The stream runs the
other way, for it is contrary to the habit of the lan-
guage to deduce adjectives in o- (inuido-) from com-
pound verbs. Rather then let us treat inuidus as an
equivalent to a theoretic maliuidus ' having the evil
eye ;' and from inuidus let us deduce inuide-re. This
verb cannot have been formed from the ordinary pre-
position in, as it means far more than ' to look at/
I should have been prepared to regard it as a com-
L
146 ON THE SO-CALLED a PEIVATIVE.
pound with in = male, if the Latin language had so
compounded verbs. We ourselves indeed have no
difficulty in creating compounds, such as mistake, mis-
spend, misunderstand ; and the Gaelic, as seen above,
gives us ain-lean ' to persecute,' from lean ' to follow/
and ana-caith ' misspend/ from caith ' spend/ Hence
it is very possible that the Latin insequi ' to pursue as
an enemy/ may have the in = male. The adjective
ins ignis stands apart from the other adjectives com-
mencing with in. We have here probably the ordinary
preposition, so that the word corresponds to the Greek
eiTl(J7)lJL0S.
There is a question of form which has been passed
over. It was probably noticed that some twenty of the
Gaelic compounds had ana as the prefix rather than an.
Here we have a parallelism with the Greek avaeXirros.
I might also have quoted avaeBvos, but that the better
form seems to be ave^eSvos (cf. e^ehva of the Odyssey).
I go back to the forms uan and amalus, to point
out that these suggest a fuller uam-alus ' bad' of which
nam alone belongs to the root, and this in English
should take the form wav, the comparative of which
should be ivav-er, 1 which is all but one with our pro-
vincial ivaur ' worse/ It is here assumed that the
suffix al of the positive has no right to enter into the
formation of the comparatives and superlatives, and
this is a point which has long been established (see
Bopp's Y. G. § 298 a). Thus in Sanskrit kship-ra
' quick/ leads to kshSp-iyas ' quicker/ kshep-ishtha
6 quickest ;' aia^-po- to aicrfoiov-, aia^-Laro-) /juey-aX-rj to
ixet^ov- (for /juey-Lov-), fiey-taro- ; mag-no- to maior (i.e.
1 So Wavertree near Liverpool is called Wa'rtree,
ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE. 147
mag-ior) ; litt-le to less-er (for lett-er, cf. Germ, besser,
Eng. better), and least (for let-est, cf. 6es£ for bet-est,
last for lat-est).
In order to strengthen the argument that mains is a
corruption of arnalus, let me point to the fact that
mains ' an apple tree/ seems also to have supplanted a
fuller amalus, seeing that the Welsh write the word
as afal, which is of course one with the German apfel,
and our apple. In some parts of England (Mr. Morris,
in the ' Ayenbite of Inwyt/ Introd. p. 4, says AVilt-
shire, Gloucestershire, and Somersetshire) the form
opple prevails, and this opens a new vista. A German
friend to whom I had communicated these ideas writes
to me as follows : ' That before the a of (a)mdlus " an
apple tree," an original consonant, not unlikely a
digamma, has been lost, I should venture to conclude,
on the evidence of the Eussian word jabloko and the
Bohemian gablko. Grimm recognises in apf-el the
same root as in ob-st, and indeed evidence might be
given that the a in this word is by no means original.
Even in the modern dialects we hear sometimes the
plural opfel, comp. Lith. obolys. Obst again, or as the
original form is opaz, obez, seems to be the same as
Ang.-Sax. of at. May we compare the Greek oir-dpa
i.e. the season when " obst" is ripe V
In giving an affirmative answer to this query, I may
notice that the Latin opes ' wealth, power,' may well
have had for its primitive meaning the fruits of the
earth, and that Ops, as the Goddess of Fertility, con-
tains the same idea. Then again as malum in this
view stands for amdlum, so pomum is probably a
shortened form of op-omum. Lastly, this interchange
of p and m seems also to explain the appearance of
l 2
148 ON THE SO-CALLED a PRIVATIVE.
the p in peior and pessimus by the side of malus.
Possibly malus first exchanged its I for a d (cf. our
had), and then pedior pedsimus would easily have
passed into peior pessimus.
I ought perhaps to add that Pott (E. F. of 1859,
i. 174) gives a very different origin both to the av
privative and to the ue of uesanus. His words are :
' Insanus (in-, Gr. av-, Sskr. an- eig. das. Pron. ana,
jener) und vesanus (Sskr. vi-vom Zahlw. dvi ; jedoch
nach Anderen aus vahis, aus)/ From the same work
(p. 386) I borrow also a passage of Simplicius, in
which he speaks of the view which Chrysippus took
of the prefix av. After showing that the use of the
particle exhibits much confusion, he says : av^aivei
TTore puev rats aTrofyaaevi (negationibus) , Trore Be 701s
evavTiois avfupvpeadai ; and soon after, Kai to KaKov
Be BrfkovTai, iroWaicis, 009 atywvov ekeyofiev rpaywBov top
KaKo^covov. Thus we have a direct confirmation of the
chief points contended for in the present paper.
P,S. A friend draws my attention to the following
note of Davis on Cic. Tusc. ii. 8 : ' Yecors Oenei partu
edita] quae Ciceroni uecors, ea Sophocli Trach. 1061
est BoXcottis. Apposite Festus : " uecors est turbati et
mah cordis." Vide et eundem in uegrande. Non
priuationem, sed malitiam seu prauitatem particula
(ue) denotat, quemadmodum etiam in Veioue ; licet
earn uocem aliter interpretetur A. Gell. N. A. v. 12/
149
VII.
THE LATIN et, que, atque (ac), AND THE GREEK
teat,, re, ALL OF ONE OKIGIN.
It has probably struck many philologers as somewhat
strange, that the Latin language possesses three par-
ticles to express the idea of 'and/ Such a super-
abundance is at any rate an unusual phenomenon ; but
it has conferred on Latin writers an advantage of
which they have not been slow to avail themselves.
I refer to the power it gives of grouping the parts of
a complicated sentence, so as to enable the mind to
take in all the subordinate clauses without confusing
them. This is a point to which I drew attention many
years ago in a review of Mr. Henry E. Allen's valuable
treatise entitled ' Doctrina copularum linguae Latinae/
in the ' Quarterly Journal of Education/ of the Useful
Knowledge Society (vol. iv. p. 135). Thus in the
passage (Cic. in Cat. iii. 8, 19), — 'Caedes atque
incendia, et legum interitum, et bellum civile ac
domesticum, et totius urbis atque imperi occasum —
appropinquare dixerunt' — it will at once be perceived
that et is employed to unite the longer clauses,
while atque (ac), filling a more subordinate office,
connects words within each clause. But if we
translate both et and atque alike by our ordinary
conjunction ' and/ the repetition at once offends the
ear and confuses the mind. A better course is simply
150 the latin et, que, atque (ac), and
to leave the et untranslated and to supply the loss
by a pause. Thus : —
'Massacres and conflagrations, the annihilation of
law, civil and domestic war, the downfall of the
city and the empire — all these were approaching,
they said/
The insertion of the words ' all these ' serves in fact
as a compensation for the several omissions of et.
We see a similar fitness in the use of the conjunc-
tions in such a phrase as (Liv. xxvii. 18) : 'Equites
Numidas, leviumque armorum Baliares et Afros de-
misit/ where troops of the same class are united by
et, those of different classes by que.
So far but two conjunctions are called upon to
serve. In the following, all three are turned to
account (Caes. B. G. vii. 79) : — 'Itaque productis
copiis ante oppidum considunt ; et proximam fossam
cratibus integunt atque aggere explent, seque ad erup-
tionem atque omnis casus comparant/
In this sentence we have first the taking a position,
and secondly the active measures that ensued. These
general ideas are connected by the particle et. But
the active measures are again subdivided. On the
one side we have a step towards action on the offensive
in the dealings with the ditch ; on the other, what is
for the purpose of defence, in the precautions against
a surprise of any kind. To mark this distinction que
is employed. But these two ideas also admit of
bifurcation. The obstruction of the ditch to an
advance may be got over in two ways, by bridging
it with hurdles, or by filling it up. So too of the
threatened dangers, the most prominent, that of a
Bally, may well be selected for special notice. In
THE GREEK kcli, re, ALL OF ONE ORIGIN. 151
these subordinate divisions atque is available. Thus
in Latin the particles et, que, and atque are employed
to mark those distinctions, which in English we can
often only denote for the eye by a variety of stops.
No doubt at times et alone is employed throughout
a long period to connect all the single words and
phrases and clauses ; especially when the object is
rather to deluge a hearer s mind with a torrent of
ideas than to place them in due subordination before
him, confusion for once being preferable to distinctness.
But if the Eomans, having the three conjunctions
at their disposal, made an intelligent use of their
wealth, it still remains to account for the existence
of that wealth. Now of the three particles, the one
most open to suspicion is atque, and that on account
of its greater length ; for it is the habit of language
to use for such an inferior ofKce only short words.
Some years ago I had placed before me an interpre-
tation of a Lycian inscription, in which the interpreter
had assumed that a certain repeated word of not less
than four syllables meant ' and/ a suggestion against
which my mind revolted. But even a disyllabic word
has in it what is slightly suspicious ; and this feeling
is encouraged by the very form of the word, which
may well be looked upon as made up of the ordinary
preposition ad and que. Such at any rate was the
view of Scaliger ; and if this view be right, then the
translation ought to be, not 'and,' but 'and what is
more/ With this idea before me, I have been led of
late, while reading any Latin author, to feel my way
whether such a translation accords with the use of the
word ; and I am strongly inclined to answer the query
in the affirmative, so far as a very large proportion of
152 the latin et, que, atque (ac), and
the examples is concerned, at the same time readily
admitting that there are instances where the word
seems to have been used with the power of a simple
et or que. Of course the non-translation of the ad of
at que will still leave an intelligible sentence in which
but little is lost through the omission. Thus a reader
is apt to be satisfied with the ordinary translation of
atque as a mere ' and/ But my own conviction has
been strengthened by what recently occurred to me.
Having made known my feeling on this subject to an
accomplished scholar, who happened at the moment
to have the 'De Amicitia' in his hand, I found that
he entertained a strong doubt on the subject, and, in
support of this, pointed to two passages in the last
chapter of that treatise ; viz. : ' Nemo unquam animo
aut spe maiora suscipiet, qui non sibi illius (Scipionis)
memoriam atque imaginem proponendam putet ; ' and
soon after : ' Nam quid ego de studiis dicam cogno-
scendi semper aliquid atque discendi ? ' In these cases
he was disposed to regard memoriam and imaginem,
cognoscendi and discendi, as practically synonyms.
But I could not help feeling that in the first passage
the more complete translation would tell us that the
aspirant after glorious thoughts and deeds would think
it a duty to place before himself the memory of the
great Scipio, ay, and if possible, to have his bodily
form in his mental view, for his statue or bust must
have been familiar to the citizens of Eome. Again, in
the second passage cognoscere, set any rate in the im-
perfect tenses, means strictly only ' to look thoroughly
into/ 'to study with all care ;' but after all such study
may be profitless ; discere, however, is ' to learn/
denoting successful study. It is true that the Latin
THE GREEK kcli, re, ALL OF ONE ORIGIN. 153
Nosce teipsum, and the Greek ry V(0 6i o-eavrov are
usually translated 'know thyself/ yet a more exact
rendering would be, ' study thyself/ I hope then still
to win over my friend to my opinion. At any rate,
I have to thank him for drawing my attention to the
use of irpos Se in Homer and Herodotus, and of kcli
irpos in many Greek writers, where irpos like ad of
at que is used without a substantive, or, as the phrase
is, 'absolutely/ so that we have a precise equivalent
to atque as understood by me.
Let ? me notice, too, that in such constructions as
Est id quidem magnum atque hau scio an maxi-
mum (Cic. Fam. ix. 15, 1) the atque fully supports the
part I would assign to it, and to substitute et or que
would be wholly inadmissible. Again, in Horace's
Vocatus atque non uocatus audit, how incomparably
more forcible is the atque than a mere et?
I am not sorry to find some confirmation of my
view in what Wagner has written in his e Quaestiones
Vergilianae/ as first (q. xxxv. p. 563) : ' Haec quoque
exempla confirmant, id quod supra indicavi, ae gravius
esse copula et;' and again (567): 'Singularem huic
particulae (atque) esse gravitatem, quum alia mihi
indicare videntur, turn haec/ &c. where he goes on
to quote a number of passages in proof, to which I can
only refer.
In the case of the familiar phrase atque adeo, 'and
what is more/ we have what may be used alike for
and against the present theory. On the one hand,
the use of atque rather than et is consistent with the
power here claimed for atque ; but it may be urged,
that, as the second particle already contains the pre-
position ad, we have a tautology that has no justifica-
154 the latin et, que, atque (ac), and
tion. It may perhaps be enough to reply that in the
Latin as in other languages such tautologies are of
frequent occurrence. Thus phrases like ad Caesarem
accedere, incurrere in columnas, with a repeated pre-
position, are met with everywhere ; and, what is more
to the point, tautology is one of the means employed
in language to mark emphasis. Thus a verb of the
first person ending in o has already in that final letter
a compression of ego, and yet whenever the idea is to
be made specially prominent, another uncompressed
ego is attached : ego seribo in preference to seribo. In
Spanish again, although tigo, migo are already full
representatives of tecum, mecum, it is found more
intelligible to say contigo, commigo ; no doubt because
the go had ceased to carry with it its proper meaning.
In the two formulae atque utinam and ac ueluti
there seems to be some reason for suspecting that the
atque (ac) is but a deceitful imitation of our con-
junction. To some extent this view receives support
from two of the most distinguished scholars of Ger-
many. Thus Lachmann, speaking of atque utinam
in a line of Propertius (iii. 15, 51), says that in this
construction ' delitescere copulativam ac particulae sig-
nificationem. 5 So Haupt again tells us : ' In optandi
formula atque utinam prior particula nonnunquam
non connectit orationem, sed cum altera artissime
cohaeret/ (See Haupt's ' Observations Criticae/ of
the year 1841, p. 38.) In the same pamphlet (pp.
46, 47), four passages are quoted where atque utinam
occurs in a position which seems at variance with the
usual habit and meaning of the conjunction atque.
First from Caesar, in the verses where he addresses
Terence : —
THE GREEK /ecu, re, ALL OF ONE ORIGIN. 155
* Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adiuncta foret uis,
Comica ut aequato uirtus polleret honore
Cum Graecis, neque in hac despectus parte iaceres.'
Then from Valerius Cato :
' Istius atque utinam facti mea culpa magistra Prima foret.'
Thirdly, from Valerius Flaccus (vi. 599) :
1 Eat atque utinam superetque labores.'
And lastly, a passage from Appuleius (lib. vii. p. 199,
Elm.), where atque commences a sentence in such a
manner that the idea of connexion, commonly belong-
ing to the particle, seems out of place, viz. : —
'Atque utinam ipse asinus, inquit, quern nunquam profecto
uidissem, uocem quiret humanam dare meaeque testimonium inno-
centiae perhibere posset.'
I have quoted the passages at length because the
treatise of Haupt, like most of those occasional ad-
dresses which are published in Germany, is not very
accessible to English scholars.
In the case of atque utinam, what appears to me
to be a satisfactory explanation may be given. That
utinam stands to quisnam in the same relation as uti
to quis, will I think, be readily admitted ; but in our
own language the particle ' that' needs a preceding
'oh/ before the idea of a wish or prayer is fully
expressed. Now, the interjection ah is well suited
for introducing a wish, as in the Fasti (iv. 240) :
' Ah pereant partes quae nocuere mini/ But this
interjection on the best authority should be written
as a simple vowel a. Thus Wagner in his ' Ortho-
graphia Vergiliana' has: 'a interjectio ubique in
Mediceo Eomano aliisque optimis libris sine aspi-
ratione scribitur . '. . . Idem volunt veteres gram*
156 the latin et % que, atque (ac), and
niatici/ In the second place, as ubi, uncle, uter are
now admitted to have had originally an initial c, as
cubiy cuncle, cater, so for ut we may claim an older
variety cut, making it in fact a mere neuter of the
relative, — that is, an equivalent to quod ; and so for
utinam we are bound to insist on an older variety,
cutinam. Now it is precisely where a combination
with a previous vowel-ending word occurs that the
guttural might be expected to maintain its ground.
It is thus that in an inscription of the Augustan age,
we find ne-cuter, which afterwards gave way to neuter.
So again in si-cut and hu-cusque the c may well be-
long to the second element, for si 'so' is older than
the compound si-c (for si-ce) : witness the phrase si
dis 'placet 'such is the pleasure of heaven/ Thus
Mommsen in his interpretation of his Inscription
1447 unnecessarily assumes the loss of a c, where
the recorded letters run sei sifecerit, which may well
represent si sic fecerit of the later language. So
again, ho * hither/ as seen in horsum (for ho-vorsum),
is older than hoc or hue, which arose from a compound
ho-ce. This theoretic ho would correspond to isto
{= istuc), illo (= illuc), for the forms isto illo are
of far more frequent occurrence than our editions of
Latin writers would lead us to believe.
Putting then the two points together, that a is
more correct than ah, and that cutinam must have
been an older form of utinam, we have in a cutinam
a good phrase for the expression of the idea ' oh that ;'
and, as the words are closely combined in pronun-
ciation, they readily pass first into ac utinam, and
then, under the ordinary doctrine that atque rather
than ac should be preferred before a vowel, into atque
THE GREEK icai, T€, ALL OF ONE ORIGIN. 157
utinam, which in sound would still be identical with
ac utinam.
As regards ac ueluti it is not easy to find so satis-
factory a solution ; but still as the adverb sem-el is
admitted to have for its first syllable what denotes
'one/ as also sim-plici-, sim-plo-, sing-ulo-, &c, we
can scarcely refuse to treat the second syllable of
semel as that suffix of diminution which is so fami-
liar in the Latin language, but is commonly con-
verted into ul. Thus we have oc-ul-o- and ocello-,
the latter standing for oc-el-el-o-. Similarly, semel,
semol, and simul are now regarded as equivalents in
form. Again, proc-ul may well be formed from proc
as an older form of pro (see p. 77), by addition of the
same suffix. Following these clues, I would suggest
as a possible adverb from the same stock as the
adjective aequo- a form aequel ; and then the com-
bined formula aequel uti 'just as/ would readily
slip into ac ueluti. Be this as it may, I venture to
deny that in the phrase ac ueluti we have any repre-
sentative of the ordinary conjunction at que.
I next proceed to the main purpose of the paper,
the identification of the particles et, que, feat, and re.
That re is really one with que has, I believe, been
long an admitted truth. The use and power of the
two little words are in all respects identical ; just as
the pronouns tls of Greek and quis of Latin are the
same. But of the two forms we cannot hesitate to
regard the guttural as the earlier occupant of the
ground, for the passage of a guttural to a dental is
of familiar occurrence. But if re has supplanted an
earlier «e, we have in the two forms /cat and zee no
great difference. Indeed in some alphabets the com-
158 the latin et, que, atque (ac), and
bination ai is the only mode of designating an e.
Still there remains, or seems to remain, a difference
of quantity. I say ' seems/ because the Homeric
hexameter abounds in examples of a lengthened re,
as (II. ii. 495),
ApKtaiXaog re U.poQor]Vb)p re KXovloq te.
It is true that the Homeric examples generally have
two initial consonants or the suspicion of two initial
consonants in the word which follows re ; for not a
few words commencing with a liquid have lost a pre-
ceding consonant, and such derived forms as eao-eva,
€(To-v/j,evo$, imply that aevco itself has undergone some
such change. Thus we cannot altogether rely on such
a case as
Ey^et t uopi te /JLeyciXoKTi te ^pfxa^tuiaty,
although Mr. Brandreth/s form F^ey dXoio-i, seems un-
satisfactory, if only because it is unpronounceable.
Nay, even the tenth line of II. xi. affords no sure
ground —
Ey0a orai\e
becomes for the time long before the combination erf
of the following word.
In the Latin language, however, the examples of
a lengthened que before a single initial consonant are
more indisputable, for already Attius (Fest. p. 146)
has
1 Calones fanmlique raetallique caciilaeque.'
In Virgil indeed, as in Homer, the examples have for
the most part two consonants, as
1 Aestusque pluuiasque et agentis frigora uentos.
Terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum ; '
or else a liquid, as
' Liminaque laumsque dei totusque moueri.'
But as the I of laurus is but a substitute for a d,
as shown by its jnalogue the Greek Sacfrisr], we have no
ground for suspecting the loss of a consonant before
the I. Yet even Virgil has (xii. 363)
'Chloreaque Sybarimque Daretaque Thersilochumque.'
Ovid again, who is generally more strict in metrical
matters than Virgil, was not afraid to write :
Taunique Satyrique et monticolae Siluani' (Met. i. 193).
160 the latin et, que, atque (etc), and
'Telasque calathosque infectaque pensa reponunt' (iv. 10).
'Sideraque uentique nocent auidaeque uolucres' (v. 484).
'Othrysque Pindusque et Pindo maior Olympus' (vii. 225).
1 Liliaque pictasque pilas et a"b arbore lapsas' (x. 262).
1 Peleusque comitesque rogant ; quibus ille profatur' (xi. 290).
While later writers, who were much more scrupulous
in these respects than is commonly thought, have
occasional instances of a similar liberty, as : —
'Taxique pinusque Altinatesque genestae' (Grat. 130).
'Eleetra Alcinoeque Celaenoque Meropeque' (German. 262).
'Laeuaque dextraque acies astare uideres' (Corip. Laud. Just. iii.
177). 1
On the whole then we must not reject the theory
that t€ and que had once a long vowe], though of
course the short vowel in the end thoroughly estab-
lished its position, and this was to be expected when
we consider the enclitic character of the words.
I have not stopped to discuss the favourite and con-
venient doctrine that the quantity of re and que in
such lines is to be ascribed to the influence of what is
called caesura or arsis, because I believe this doctrine
to be merely a screen for the concealment of ignorance.
I hold it to be a more just explanation that the two
little words have lost a final consonant, a former
possession of which would remove all the difficulties.
For this theory I find a parallel in the case of uel ' or/
which as an enclitic takes the shorter form of ue, as
uel mater, or else materue.
This uel is in origin probably an abbreviation of
uele, i.e. an old imperative of the verb uol- 'wish,'
1 These three examples, together with that quoted from Attius,
were suggested to me by Lucian Muller's elaborate work on Latin
metres.
THE GREEK teat, re, ALL OF ONE ORIGIN. 161
where the root vowel has passed from 6 to e, under
the influence of the final e, in accordance with the
law of ' umlaut/ Another example of such a modified
vowel is to be seen in heus 'harkee/ an abridgment
of an imperative heuse, from a theoretic verb haus-
' hear/ a verb which would stand to the Latin sb. ausi-
or auri- much as our own vb. hear to our sb. ear.
Again, the assumed loss of an e in uele would be in
accordance with the formation of the imperatives es,
fer, die, due, and indeed ama, doee, audi also. Again,
from an obsolete verb gon-, or con- 'look' (the parent
of the secondary gn-ose-, i.e. gon-ose- 'learn'), I assume
an imperative gene, or cene (kene in sound), which first
cut down to cen prepares us for two other varieties,
viz. by decapitation, en 'look/ 'behold/ and, by loss
of the final, ce, the familiar suffix of demonstratives,
and demonstratives alone, as hie, istic, illic, sic, nunc.
Here, too, let it be noted that it is only when doing
duty as an enclitic that it discards the final n. Nay,
con and cen themselves are perhaps truncated words,
for o7TT-ofiaL and okko- of the Greek, and oc-ulo- of the
Latin point to a stem ok (oir) or okk, whence ecce
would be a good imperative ; so that the verb con
would be a truncated derivative for oc-on. It may be
noted, too, that the original symbol for the vowel o
was a picture of an eye, and the Hebrew name for the
letter meant ' an eye/ This view accounts also for the
e of 6/ceivo-. Another instance of a word losing a final
consonant when employed enclitically is seen in the
family of words icev, jce, Dor. Kd i and the more familiar
av. Why the degraded form *e should be selected as
that under which Lexicons deal with these particles,
it is difficult to say. The more legitimate course
M
162 the latin et, que, atque, (ac), and
would be to start from Kev, for few will now defend
the doctrine of a paragogic v. Still the error is a
common one. Our English grammars, for example,
still speak of an indefinite article a, which assumes,
they say, an n before vowels ; and in the same way
Greek grammars persist in the folly of talking of
a privativum, when the more genuine form is av.
What however is important for our present purpose is
admitted, that the form ice is only used as an enclitic.
But I may also call attention to the Doric ica as show-
ing that here too a long vowel was once known, and
secondly to the disappearance of the initial guttural
in av, for this also is a matter which will throw light
upon what is about to be said. It will be well how-
ever to note that, as the several forms of Kev, xe, kcl,
and av may be well deduced from a form icav, it is
highly probable that our own language still possesses
the verb from which all may have been deduced, I
mean the verb can, which by its meaning is thoroughly
fitted to supply the root of a 'potential' word ; and
further, the verb was known to the Latin language in
the form que-o, for here also a final n once existed, as
is proved by the archaic ne-quin-ont.
But the connexion between /cat and que may next
receive illustration. First of all the u in Latin words,
which divides a preceding q from a vowel, must, as
still in French, have been silent. This is shown by
the shortness of the preceding vowel in such words as
aliquis, neque, aqua, loquor.
It still remains to consider the passage of the diph-
thong ai first into e and then into e. Now a parallel
case presents itself, as it seems to me, in a comparison
of a certain class of Greek infinitives and the ordinary
THE GREEK Kai, T€, ALL OF ONE ORIGIN. 163
Latin infinitive. In Greek, as in Welsh, we find a
great variety of forms for the infinitive, as Tvirrev, twtt-
T€/j,ev, whence with the loss of the ft, tvttt€lv for Tvirreev ;
also Tvirrevat, and TV7TTe/jLevai, to take these as types,
rather than as all representing actual forms. With the
disyllabic suffix of rvm-evai I compare the suffix of
the Latin scrib-ere. That a Greek v should be repre-
sented in the first place by a Latin s, and then by a
Latin r, 1 is always to be expected. Thus the plural
Tvirronev ' we strike/ goes with a Doric rvn-rofjues and a
Latin tundimus. Again the comparatival suffix iov of
the Greek has for its Latin analogue an archaic ios,
melios, and a later ior, melior ; and even the change
in the quantity of the vowel of the Latin comparative
follows the law, which gives us seriptores in Latin by
the side of the Greek prjropes. In the Latin infinitive
esse, and the archaic passive dasi, for dari, we have
the earlier sibilant retained. There remain then for
comparison the final diphthong ai of rvn-Tevat and the
final e of scribere. Now a final at in Greek soon
lost much of its diphthongal power. Even Buttmann,
a most zealous advocate of the prevalent accentual
theory, lays it down, with others, that a final at, or 01,
though long for metrical purposes, must for the most
part be considered as short in the rules of accentuation
(Ausfuhrl. Gr. Gr. Spr. § 11, 7). ' Thus,' says he, < the
plural nominatives rplatvac, &c, the passives in at, as
TV7TTo/u,ai, &c, and the infinitives 7rot,rjcrai, &c, are all
accentuated in a manner that is inconsistent with the
usual law for words with a long final ;' and he adds
the remark, 'It is therefore clear that in these very
1 We have already an example in the Greek cacjivr\, Latin lauru-.
M 2
164 the latin et, que, atque (etc), and
common suffixes these diphthongs had been- so far worn
away that in the ordinary language they sounded to
the ear as short, and that it was only in the sustained
language of poetry that the long quantity was main-
tained/ So much for the Greek at. Much the same
occurred in the final e of the Latin infinitive, for this
also was once long in the old language. Some in-
stances of this occur in Plautus, as :
'Atque argento comparando fingere fallaciam.' (Asin. ii. 1, 2.)
'Quid braccium? Illut dicere uoluf femur.' (Glor. i. 1, 27.)
4 Nunquam ^depol uidi prdmere. Yerum h(5c erat.' (Glor. iii. 2, 34.)
1 Te salutem me" iusserunt dicere. Saluae sient.' (Glor. iv. 8, 6.)
And also in Terence, as :
1 Potiu £s mihi verum dicere 1 Nil facilius.' (Andr. ii. 6, 6.)
'Ausculta. Pergin credere? Quid ego 6bsecro.' (Phorm. v. 9, 7.)
In the 'Kheinisches Museum' (xxii. 118) Dr. W.
Wagner has added to this list, from Plautus :
'Eg6 scelestus nunc argentum prdmere possum domo.' (Pseud.
355.)
4 Nam c^rtumst sine dote hau dare. Quin tu i modo.' (Trin. 584.)
' Eum opdrtet amnem quaerere comit^m sibi.' (Poen. iii 3, 15.)
'Non audes aliquod 1 mihi dare munusculum.' (True. ii. 4, 74.)
And from Terence :
f Male dicere, male facta ne nosc&nt sua.' (Andr. Prol. 23.)
To say nothing of the cases where the e in question
closes the first dimeter, as in Plautus :
' Absc^de ac sine me pe>dere qui semper me ira incendit.' (As.
420.)
' Quid relicuom 1 aibat r^ddere quom extemplo redditiim esset. 5
(As. 442.) 2
1 Or 'aliquid . . munuseuli,' 3 Add fore (Most. i. 3, 67.)
THE GREEK /cat, re, ALL OF ONE ORIGIN. 165
* Vix h6c uidemur credere : magis qui credatis dicam.' (Poen. v.
4, 94.)
'At eccum e fano r^cipere uided se Suncerastum.' (Poen. iv. 1, 5.)
These from septenarii, or comic metre. Instances from
complete tetrameters are :
'Studeo hiinc leonem p^rdere qui m6um erum misere macerat.'
(Poen. 4, 1, 2.)
' Perii, animam nequeo uortere : nimis nili tibic^n siem.' (Merc.
125.)
1 Qui sum pollicitus ducere 1 qua audacia id facere audeam.' (Ter.
Andr. 613.)
The passage quoted from the Gloriosus (i. 1, 27),
though it has the full sanction of the MSS., Ritschl
already condemned in his Prolegomena (p.ccxxix.), and
again in his text of the play. In the Rh. Mus. (vii.
312) he discusses the question at some length, arguing,
on the authority of what he deems parallel cases, that
the order of words, illut dicer e uolui femur, is against
the habit of Plautus. But in fact the cases he quotes
are not parallel ; and I venture to assert that when
illut is used, as here, to draw attention to a coming
word or words, in opposition to what precedes, it is
a law of the language that the word or words so
referred to should lie at a distance from the pronoun,
as seen in the examples which I have quoted in my
Grammar (§ 1106).
All this, then, tends to justify the doctrine that a
Greek kcli may well have for its analogue in Latin
both que and que.
But if Kai, re, and que be admitted to be one in
origin, there still remains the Latin et. This some
have thought to explain as only a metathesis of Te.
Such a doctrine I of course put aside as untenable.
166 the latin et, que, atque (ac), and
My view is that as the Latin particles en 'behold,'
and ce ' look/ are corrupted varieties of a fuller ken,
so kcli, re, and que have all lost a final consonant,
while et has lost an initial, viz. a guttural, or &-sound.
This theory, that et and que grew out of a fuller quet,
is confirmed by the fact that que of the Latin quando-
que uterque is pid in Oscan and pe or pei in Umbrian
(Corssen's Aussprache, i. 337). But I am not wedded
to a t as the original final. I think it not unlikely that
the earlier letter was an n. Indeed a Greek particle
could not have ended in a t. I am led to a preference
of an n over a t by the form of our own and and the
German und, for these virtually end with an n, a final
d after an n being a common outgrowth in these two
languages ; and indeed in not a few combinations we
ourselves practically drop the d, as for example in the
phrase, ' four an twenty blackbirds,' &c. ; and this not
merely when a consonant follows, for we also habitually
say, ' five an eight make thirteen/ dropping the d of
and. I am the more tempted to identify the Latin et
and English and, when I find the Greek erepos taking
in German the form ander; and it may also be observed
that the syllable h of eTepo? represents the kv of the
numeral kis, thus furnishing an instructive example of
the interchange of v and t. But if et belongs to the
same stock with /cat, and que, it must have lost an
initial guttural. Of the loss of an initial consonant
numerous examples have already been noticed in this
paper, and the loss of a final v in Greek is the great
characteristic of forms in that language, a fact which
has commonly been concealed under the theory of the
v 6<$>ekKv and que, as well as re and
que, with long finals.
I was first led to the train of thoughts out of which
this paper has grown by the consideration that kcli and
re, on the one hand, could not well have been cor-
relative particles unless they had been one in origin.
But que and et also serve together ; at any rate
in short phrases. Thus, Livy has seque et cohortem
(xxv. 14), et singulis universisqve (iv. 2) ; and Sallust,
168 the latin et, que, atque (ac), and
seque et oppidum (Jug. 26), seque et exercitum (ib.
55).
It was of course reasonable that the Greek language
should use in correlation a repeated re, and the Latin
in like manner both a repeated et and a repeated que.
Thus in exactly the same way the latter language has
aut . . aut . . , vel . . vel . . , sive . . sive . . , simul . .
simul . . , qua . . qua . . , turn . . turn . . , nunc . .
nunc . . , modo . . mocfo . . So in English we at times
use or . . or . . , wor . . wor . . But here the more
prevalent forms are neither . . nor . . , either . . or . . ,
in which the principle seems to be violated The ex-
planation however is not far to seek Our either, so
used, of course corresponds to the Germ, entiveder, Old
Germ, ein-weder (Grimm, D. G. iii. 38), where the
ein is the mere numeral and weder a comparative of
the relative. Hence it is virtually the same with the
Latin alter-uter ' one of the two (no matter which) ' ;
and this has for its positive ali-quis c any one of any
number/ In the same way neither seems to have
grown out of a form ne-whether, corresponding to the
old Latin ne-cuter, aft. neuter. Hence the just ex-
planation of the combinations above quoted, is that
originally a pause occurred after the words either and
neither, as : ' either (of them), A. or B./ ' neither (of
them), A. nor B/ In the second of these cases the
omission of the negative before A. has its parallel in
the old construction, still admissible for poetry, which
is seen in Shakespere, as (Antony and Cleopatra) : ' For
Antony, I have no ears to his request. The queen of
audience nor desire shall fail ;' and again in Gray :
1 Helm nor hauberk's twisted mail, nor e'en thy virtues,
tyrant, shall avail/ Indeed we find the same in Greek
THE GREEK /ecu, T6, ALL OF ONE ORIGIN. 1 69
poetry also, as (Aesch. Agam. 532) : Hap is yap ovre
crvvTekrjs ttoXls E^ev^eTat to Spafia tov iraOovs irXeov.
Nor is there any real difficulty or ambiguity in such
phrases. The negative which precedes the second
member makes its appearance in time to affect the
following verb, and through this to influence the first
of the two members. The same principle is at work
in those Latin sentences where non modo was once
said to stand for non modo non. Thus in such a
sentence as : * Assentatio non modo amico sed ne libero
quidem dignast/ the ne of ne libero quidem converts
digna into indigna, and so acts upon the preceding
amieo. I may add that this explanation of neither
and either is also applicable in such constructions as :
* both (of them), A. and B./ 'whether (of them), A. or
B/ A strong confirmation of this argument is seen in
the occasional use of two interrogative particles after
the Latin utrum, as in Ter. (Ad. iii. 3, 28), * Utrum,
studione id sibi habet an laudi putat fore, si/ &c.
' Which of the two is the just explanation — does he
look upon it as an amusement, or does he think it will
be a credit to him, if ' &c. ? Thus the particles which
really correlate with each other are ne and an; and
these may well be of the same origin, the two being
connected by the disyllabic anne, which instead of
being a compound I believe to be the original word
whence both an and ne proceed. 1 Thus, as already
noticed, ev of Greek, and ni of Sanskrit, find them-
selves co-existing in the Greek evi ; av of Greek, and
the Sclavonic na in the Greek ava ; to say nothing of
the other cases quoted above.
1 See the following paper.
170
VIII.
ON THE LATIN PARTICLES aut, an, ne.
As I have been led to connect these little words
with the adjectives alio- and alter o-, Sanskrit anya-
and antara-, I must commence by considering the
origin of the latter ; and in doing so my first duty
is to put aside some derivations to which others have
lent their sanction. Thus Bopp (V. G. § 19, vol. i.
p. 33), and Pott (E. F. of 1859, pp. 301,' 381, 393),
are disposed to treat alius as a derivative of the San-
skrit ana, Latin ille ; and the former connects ullus
with ille and ultra. Dr. Donaldson in his Latin
Grammar is so enamoured with the first of these
two views, that he puts it forward three times, as
p. 45, * alius (like ille " that other," of which it is a
by-form)/ &c; p. 74, 'alius "another," is in constant
use as a by-form of ille;' p. 386, 'alius, which is
merely another form of ille = ollus! That ille and
ultra are of one stock is past doubt : but ullus is of
course the diminutive of unus, as uillum is of uinum,
as bellus of bonus (cf. bene).
Again, the doctrine of the Indian grammarians that
the Sanskrit antara- (alter o-) is formed from anta 'end/
and a verb ra 'reach or attain/ may be accepted as
an example of the way in which native Sanskritists,
ON THE LATIN particles aut, an, ne. 171
satisfied with external similarity, deem it superfluous
to consider the meaning of words ; and the same one-
sided examination of etymological problems is not
unknown among European Sanskritists.
That n of the Sanskrit anya-, antara- is more
genuine than the I of alio-, altero- is rendered pro-
bable by the prevalence of the n in the Teutonic
family, as Germ, and-er, Norse ann-ar ; as also by
the fact that the Latin language had a special love
for the soft liquid, which often led it to substitute an
I for other consonants. But besides alio- the Latin
also possessed a short form all- (whence alls, olid of
Lucretius, and aliter). The ratio then of alio- to ali-
suggests for the Sanskrit an equal ratio, any a- to any- ;
and this theoretic any is for Englishmen an actual
word. But our any is one with the German einig,
two words which are in fact diminutives of the
numeral an Eng., ein German ; just as ullo- ' any' is a
diminutive of uno-. Hence, reserving for the moment
all question as to the connexion of ideas, the an of
the Sanskrit an-ya-, ant-ara- seems to be identical with
our numeral an, and consequently with our one and
the Latin uno-. But the g of einig also claims at-
tention, and this suggests the idea that alio- is only
a variety of unico-, the guttural having disappeared.
This explanation seems preferable to Bopp's explanation
(§ 292) that the ya of any a- is the stem of the relative,
for the two Latin forms ali- (alis) and alio- (alias)
bear evidence that the y and a of anya- are two
independent suffixes.
Some support to the doctrine that al of alius, &c.
originally carried with it the notion of ' one/ is to be
found in the identity as to meaning of the Greek
172 ON THE LATIN PARTICLES Ctut, an, n$.
aWrjXoc (evidently consisting of a repeated a\\o-) and
the German ein-ander and our own one another.
In alio- and altero- it is commonly held that ' dif-
ference* is the primary meaning of the first element ;
but this in no way suits the compound forms aliqui-,
aliquot, aliquanto-, aliquando ; nor indeed all the
uses of alio- and altero- themselves. The doubled
alter and the doubled alius render it necessary to
give to the adjective on its first occurrence the trans-
lation ' one' (pi. * some') ; and even the following clause
makes no objection to the same translation, though the
word 'other 7 is then admissible. Thus aliud est
maledicere, aliud aecusare, ' it is one thing to abuse,
one to accuse/ So again alter exercitum perdidit,
alter vendidit, 'one of the two lost, one sold an
army/
Although it seems at first a strange result that a
word formed from one, itself so often employed to
denote identity, should eventually attain to the sense
of difference, cases nearly parallel may be adduced.
Thus when Ovid, describing the half-military character
of the farmer in his place of exile, says, 'Hac arat
infelix, hac tenet arma manu/ the repeated pronoun
evidently refers to different objects ; and so we may,
in place of the literal translation ■ this/ substitute the
words 'the one/ 'the other/ This repetition of hie
has its counterpart in a similar repetition of Me, as
(Ter. Ph. iii. 2, 16) :
'G. Qui istuc? Ph. Quia non rete accipitri tenditur, neque miluo,
Qui male faciunt n6bis : illis qui nihil faciunt tenditur ;
Quia enim in illis friictus est, in illis opera luditur.'
We may quote, too, as an illustration what Bopp says
ON THE LATIN PARTICLES ailt, an, 1l8. 173
in his V. G. (§ 371) : * That which in Sanskrit signifies
"this" means also for the most part "that," the miner
(he should have said the finger) ' supplying the place
whether near or remote/ Hence there is nothing very-
strange when we find in our oldest writers such a line
as that which occurs in the Life of St. Edmund the
King (Trans. Philolog. Soc. 1858), v. 9 :
' Hubba was poper ihote : & poper het Hyngar.'
Just as the finger serves to distinguish 'this' and
1 this' when they are to be referred to different objects,
so no real confusion occurs when Davus in the Andria
(ii. 2, 12) addresses first Pamphilus and then Cha-
rinus as a tu —
1 Id paves ne diicas tu illam ; tu autem ut ducas.'
Again in Ovid's Fasti (ii. 676) a consideration of
this simple kind would have led to the correction in
the easiest way of what in the received texts, even that
of Merkel, is mere nonsense.
The passage is one in which the poet addresses the
god Terminus ; and, as both Merkel and Paley give
it, runs —
1 Et seu uomeribus, sen tu pulsabere rastris,
Clamato, suus est hie ager, ille tuus,'
while others have, ' Meus est hie ager, ille suus'
Now mens and suus are clearly wrong, because with
mens Terminus would be claiming the land as his
own ; while suus would mean that the land belongs
to itself, that is, if the phrase has any meaning at all,
that the land is without an owner. Common sense
requires * tuus est hie ager, ille tuus/ the god ad-
dressing first one person, and then another. Strangely
enough, ' tuus est hie ager' is the reading of nearly all
174 on the latin particles aut, an, ne.
the MSS. ; and thus the substitute of metis or suus in
place of tuus is, on the score of authority and on the
score of meaning alike, utterly indefensible.
In the compounds aliqui- aliquot &c. the notion of
'some' or 'any' prevails; but this is a meaning that
constantly connects itself with words of numerical
origin, as for instance in our own an-y, Germ, ein-ig,
Lat. ullo- already quoted, and this with reason ; for a
diminutive of 'one' still leaves the idea of 'some.'
But our own term oth-er is itself only a compara-
tival form of one, standing for on-er. I was first led
to this view by the recollection that our language,
while it shares with the Greek and the Norse a strong
love for the asperate th, also habitually interchanges this
letter with an n. Thus the 6 of ^ey-e6-os, ei/c-a0-ew,
corresponds to the v of re/n-ev-os, mag-n-us, pig-n-us,
Xa/jL/S-av-eiv, sper-n-ere ; the of ira6-os to* the v of
Trev-o/jLcu ; J and of course if 6 be convertible with v,
a fortiori with v6 : so that the forms itipvvOwv,
ajJuirvvvOr^v, from iSpva, avairvecd, and irevO-09, /3ev0-O9, by
the side of iraOos, fiaOos, have nothing in them that is
very strange.
In Anglo-Saxon again, the plural of the indicative
present ends in as, but that of the subjunctive present
has on or an, and the past tenses also prefer on.
Similarly a Norse nom. ann-ar (= alter) forms a
fern. ac. W$ra, a dat s. c$ru, a dat. pi. 6®rum, &c. ;
and a nom. ma$-r ' man' stands by a gen. mann-s.
But it is not only in the Norse that our ' other' is
represented by two forms, one with a liquid, annar,
1 L. and S. deny the connexion of these two words, holding that
Trad-oQ belongs to rraax^- But why may not all three be of one
stock ?
ON THE LATIN PARTICLES Cllit, an, ne. 175
the other with an asperate, awa or o$ru, &c. In the
provincial utterance of Lincolnshire the original n has
been preserved. Thus a friend from that part of the
country supplies me with the following phrases, which
may be heard, he says, any day : —
'Was it A. or B. who told you?' Ans. ' J don't
hioiv ivhich, but it was toner.'
(Speaking of two pigs.) ' Toner a mun (I must) sell,
but which on 'em a hardlins know!
'It ivas toner (= either) Mrs. P. that I met, or
toner (else) Mrs. 0.'
Let me add, what it is not beneath the dignity
of philology to record, that a youngster, F. S., aged
two, seeing one day on the dinner-table a second
pudding to his delight, exclaimed in my hearing, ' Oh,
'nunner pooin ! ' while his elder brother, H. S., at the
same age had given a preference to another intelligible
variety, 'nudder. It may further be noted that the
theory which finds in the ali of aliqui-, &c. an equiva-
lent of ' an' or ' one/ has its proof in the Norse form
ein-hver, which Grimm himself (D. G. iii. 38) trans-
lates by the very word aliquis ; and of course the
Sw. en-hvar and Dan. en-hver, though now signifying
1 quisque/ are the same word. The neuter form of
the pronouns, ett-hvart, et-hvert, prepares us for the
German et-was, which again = ali-quid.
This brings me almost to the Greek er-epo-, which
however stands apart from all its congeners, as having
an asperate. But this very peculiarity furnishes the
strongest confirmation of the present theory, for among
the various forms of the first numeral the Greek iv
stands alone in this particular. I thus at any rate
escape from the difficulty which Grimm meets by
176 ON THE LATIN PARTICLES CLUt, an, 71%.
simply cutting the knot, telling us that erepos had
originally in all probability no asperate (iii. 636). That
the asperate in these two words very possibly super-
seded a digamma I readily admit, seeing that the
archaic Latin oeno-, the Lith. wiena-, and our own one
virtually begin with this sound. It should also be
noticed that both erepo- and ev- agree in a common
vowel, and that the interchange of a dental liquid and
a dental tenuis is of the most ordinary occurrence.
One result of this derivation is that epo- alone, not
repo-, constitutes the comparatival suffix ; but this is
what I gladly accept. 1 If my explanation of erepo-
be correct, the leading sense of the word is ' one of
the two/ which in our Greek lexicons is given indeed,
but is commonly relegated to the last place. To test
this little matter I run my eye over our best lexicon,
and find that in twenty-three adjectives compounded
with erepo- the word ' one' is essential to their trans-
lation : erep-aXfeeo--, -a^Oea-, -tf/juepo-, -j3apeo~- 9 -yXav/co-,
-jva0o- y -%7]\o- } -OaXecr-, -Orj/cro-, -/cXiveo--, -Kcoo- t -fiaWo-,
-fiao-^aXo-f -fiepeo~-, -/zo\io-, -7r\oo-, -7rop7ro-, -ppoiro-, -o-klo-,
-oarofio-, -ovar- one-eared, ->6aX/jLo- one-eyed ;
and I might add erepo-7ro8- ( one-footed/ erepo-o-fceXea-
' one-legged/ for a person who has an imperfect leg or
foot may well be so called. Of course in all these adjec-
tives the notion expressed, viz. ' one/ is ' one of two/
The Latin iterum seems to claim a place among the
words which have been under discussion, and this
claim is perhaps confirmed by the form of the German
wieder. At any rate those who would derive iterum
from the pronoun i- ' this' (Dr. Donaldson for one),
1 See the eleventh of these papers.
ON THE LATIN PARTICLES CLUt, an, ne. 177
have overlooked the fact that the signification of the
words repudiates the theory. A derivative from such
a pronoun would signify ' hither, citerior/ The logical
connexion of iterum with erepov, Sansk. itara, is satis-
factory, as well as that of form. Still a doubt hangs
over the question when we find, devoid of all com-
paratival suffix, the Old Germ, ita ' again/ the Anglo-
Sax, prefix ed- ' again/ the Welsh prefix ad-, and the
ad- of like power in the Latin ad-mone- • re-mind/
a-gnosc- ' re-cognise/ as well as the English a-cknow-
ledge and archaic a-cknow, for here we come across
representatives of the Greek ava. The Danish atter
and Swedish dter are simply corruptions of an older
achter, a variety of our after.
I conclude this part of the subject by collecting,
chiefly from the D. G., the various forms that repre-
sent the Latin altero- : — Sanskrit antara- and itara-,
Old Prus. antar-s, Lith. antra-s, Lett, ohtr-s, Old
Slav, utoryi, Greek erepo-, Latin altero-, Goth. an\ar,
Old Fris. oilier, Old Sax. other, omr, odar, Ang.-Sax.
o$er, Saterl. ar, or, Eng. other, Old Germ, andar, Mod.
Germ, ander, Dutch ander, Norse annar, Swed. annan,
Danish anden.
But the form tother must not be passed over. When
it means ' the other' it is not difficult to account for
the passage of th into a mere t, as such change is
only in harmony with the law in Greek, which writes
0/uf and Tptxos, but not dpcx 09 - This tother (also
)>o]>er in Old English, as quoted above) is exactly one
with the Greek Oarepov for to drepov. But for the
most part the form tother (Scot, tither) has an article
preceding it ; and then the t is due to what Mr.
Whitley Stokes calls Provection, having been trans-
N
178 on the latin particles out, an, ne.
ferred from the end of the preceding word, just as in
for the nonce, in place of for then once. In other
words, the tother would be more correctly divided thet
other, precisely as the tone should give way to thet
one. In fact, in the older writers tother is rarely
found, I believe, except with a prefixed ' the/ In this
form, for example, Jamieson gives one quotation from
P. Plowman, two from E. Brunne, and four from
Scotch authorities. I have noted fourteen occurrences
of the phrases that oon, that othur, one or both to-
gether, in the metrical parts of the Canterbury Tales.
Thus in the Knightes Tale, v. 477 : —
' Of whiche two Arcita higte that oon,
And he that othur highte Palamon.'
And, again, the Life of St. Edmund the Confessor
(Trans. Philolog. Soc. 1858) has in v. 477 : —
' Ms pat on Kper youn^ : pe^ heo ne lore pat oper also.'
In Greek too to Oarepov probably originated in to6
arepov, the 6 before the asperated vowel representing
the final dental of the original pronoun. I feel the
more entitled to defend the division to0 arepov, 1 be-
cause Greek MSS., like Latin MSS. in similar cases,
write such words as the article in immediate con-
nexion with their nouns ; the division, which is seen iu
our printed books, being due to editors alone.
I here assume that thet or that is an older form
than the, and so discard the common doctrine that
we have in the final t of that a neuter suffix. Indeed
1 So Bopp (§ 155) : ' Aus dem Zeugniss der verwandten
Sprachen erkennt man dass to urspriinglieh tot oder toS gelautet
habe.' (See also note 13 to § 349.)
ON THE LATIN PARTICLES CLUt, an, Tie. 179
such a theory is inconsistent with the fact that the
pronoun that (like what) is capable of being used in
connexion with words which are distinctly not neuters,
e.g. that man, that woman. The original form I
believe to be rather then} or than, the n having sub-
sequently passed, as it so often does, into a t. Thus
in then-ce, when-ce, &c, or, as they were once written,
thenn-es, whenn-es, the es is a genitival suffix signifying
' from/ precisely as in iroO-ev, for so I divide the word,
just as I wrote roO-arepov above. The idea of any
neuter suffix is, I think, to be rejected, among other
reasons, because suffixes to imply negation are in them-
selves improbable ; and again in ut-ero-, ' which of the
two/ TroT-epo-, the root-syllable has a claim to the
dental. The v of ayaOov and m of bonum, as I have
elsewhere explained, are no exceptions to the general
law which rejects suffixes of mere negation.
With this preface I next proceed to the adverbial
forms which signify ' or/ taking first those of the Teu-
tonic family, as exhibited by Grimm (D. G. iii. 274, § c).
But here I would suggest a caution against a prevalent
error, that of attaching too much weight to antique
as compared with later forms. A safer course is to
give a preference to fuller forms over shorter, so long
as one is sure that the greater length is not due to the
addition of a new element. Thus while the Gothic
di\\du, Old Germ, edo, ecldo, erdo, odo, &c, and Ang.-
Sax. o®se, Norse em, and Latin aut exhibit no final r,
we are justified in regarding, as so far purer forms, the
Modern Germ, oder, and the Swecl. and Dan. eller.
The greater fulness alone is an argument in favour of
o o
1 See my paper on Pronouns of the third person.
N 2
180 ON THE LATIN PARTICLES CLUt, an, n%.
this view, but the question is at once decided by the
necessity for a comparatival suffix in order to express
the required idea. Similarly when we compare the
varieties edo, eddo, erdo, we are bound to give a pre-
ference to the last ; and of the Middle Germ, varieties
ode, oder, aide, alder, while oder and aide have each
their own superiority over ode, the highest claim
belongs to alder, which differs but slightly from the
Modern Germ, adjective ander. That aut is an abbre-
viation of alter (Fr. autre), seems to be commonly
admitted; nor need we be surprised at the abbreviation,
when we find such abundant evidence of the gradual
absorption of the comparatival suffix in general in all
the Teutonic branches (D. G. iii. 589 — 596), whenever
the irregularity, so-called, of the formation prevents
any resulting confusion with the positive. Grimm
indeed seems to limit this truncation to the adverbial
comparatives, but our old English writers extend it to
adjectives. Thus Shakspere (Othello, iv. 3) talks of
' mo women/ ' mo men/ and Chaucer abounds in such
phrases as (C. T. 9,293) 'Bet is quod he a pyke than
a pikerell ;' and we still use less in place of lesser. 1
So the Latin, besides aut, exhibits an abbreviated com-
parative in the first part of ma-velle, ma! lie, which
corresponds to our Ang-Sax. md, and in sat for satis.
The Keltic family takes the same liberty in its irregular
comparatives, as for example the Breton in mad ' good/
gwelloch or rather gwell ' better ;' drouk ' bad/ givasoeh
1 In the old language other instances are found, as leng in place
of the fuller lenger (for longer) ; for example in St. Edmund the
Confessor (published in the Society's volume for 1858), v. 366 :
4 ]?er hit gan dasche adoun : hit nolde no leng abide ; ' and again,
v. 510 ; 'He answerede him ]>e leng ]>e wors.
ON THE LATIN PARTICLES ailt, an, 11%. 181
or rather gwas 'worse/ So too in Welsh the cor-
responding forms are gwell and givaeth rather than
givellach and givaethach, and in this language indeed
there are some twelve other comparatives that have
undergone the like curtailment. 1
The etymology of the Gothic di\\du, which Grimm
places at the head of the series of words representing
1 or/ had been the subject of a previous discussion in
p. 60 of the same volume, but the writer with good
reason seems to attach no great value to his own solu-
tion of the problem. The view taken in the present
paper of course requires that the numeral ' one' shall
constitute the first element, and accordingly it agrees
closely with the Gothic form of this numeral, din,
making allowance for the passage from the dental n
to the dental th, which we have already seen in this
word. The final du of ditydu corresponds no doubt
to the final vowel of the old German ecldo : and, as
this appears to have lost an r belonging to the com-
paratival suffix, so the Gothic may be presumed, like
ovtco for ovtcos, to have lost an s, which in that dialect
represents the German r; and 6s is the very form
which Grimm assigns to the comparative of Gothic
adverbs (D. G. iii. 585, and with two examples
596 B. L).
Our own particle or, as proved by its German
equivalent oder, has suffered the same compression
as gaf-fer for grandfather, as gam-mer for grand-
mother, as where (== quo) from ivhither, as where
in Somersetshire for whether, as Scotch smure for
smother, as the Danish far-br oder (i.e. 'patruus/ or
1 Sec also Grimm, D. G.
182 ON THE LATIN PARTICLES CLUt, an, ne.
fathers brother). But better evidence cannot be found
than that which the Old Frisian forms offer, where the
ordinary adjective other, besides the fuller forms, has
a gen. or-a, a dat. or-em, an ace. or-ne (Eichthofen's
Altfriesisches Worterbuch, v. other), and again or-half
as well as other-half, corresponding to the German
anderthalb ' 1 J/ The word eith-er, so much used as
the correlative of or, one is tempted at first to regard as
a mere variety of other, especially as the first syllable
eith coincides, as nearly as is to be desired, with the
German ein ' one.' But the German entweder, which
in use corresponds to our particle either, is no doubt,
as Grimm suggests, deduced from ein-weder, the n of
which, in my view, has thrown out an excrescent t. 1
If so, we have what is nearly an equivalent of the
Latin alter-uter, the sole difference being that, while
the Latin attaches a suffix of comparison to both
elements, the German with a wise frugality is satisfied
with the presence of a single suffix of this nature.
Care however should be taken not to confound the
English either which corresponds to the Latin alteruter
with that other either of our language which had the
power of uterque, and in Anglo-Saxon was written
ceghvader (Grimm's D. G. iii. 55, § c), or in shorter
form cegder. From Modern English this latter form
has disappeared ; and the German jeder which repre-
sents it has given up its legitimate sense uterque for
the more general quisque. An early example of our
either = 'both/ occurs in the Life of St. Kenelm, as
published by the Philological Society (v. 355) : —
* For ri^t as heo )>e vers radde : out berste aipere hire e^e.'
1 See the Tenth of these Papers.
ON THE LATIN PARTICLES aut, OJl, ne. 183
The forms an and ne remain. Already Grimm
claims an as a word which belongs to the class of
alter, influenced no doubt by the forms of the Germ.
ander and Norse annar. But if this be right, and
for one I have no doubt about it, the process probably
was this : starting from a form anner, out of which
alter grew, first the r was lost, in accordance with
the law which governs irregular comparatives, which
gave anne, a form actually in use in interrogative
clauses to denote ( or ;' and then this anne by the
loss of its tail became an, and by decapitation ne,
whereas the received doctrine has been that anne is
compounded of an and ne. The only awkwardness in
these results is that we are making out, an, and ne the
same word, whereas in use they must not be altogether
confounded. Neither an nor ne can ever be allowed
to act as substitutes for aut, nor the reverse. On the
other hand, though an and ne may at times be inter-
changed, there are idioms in which this licence would
not be admitted. This theory, by which an and ne
are regarded as corruptions of a fuller anne, has its
parallel in the theory (see above) which deduces both
que and et from a fuller quet.
I feel that what I have here written will scarcely
find acceptance with one class of philologers, — I mean
those purists who expect roots and the derivatives from
roots to take one and one only form, whereas in truth
no language is so strictly homogeneous. Practically
one finds every language surrounded by a cluster
of what are called dialects, out of which the written
language has borrowed no small number of elements.
Thus our own language exhibits root-words sometimes
in a triple variety, as bay, bay, and boiv, — words in
184 ON THE LATIN PARTICLES aut, an, 71%.
origin all one, yet in use far from interchangeable, for
it would require an interpreter if one came across such
a statement as : * He put a few clothes into his carpet
bay, made a bag to his friends, and started for a voyage
across the Bow of Biscay/ It is matter for less won-
der then, if, starting from a twofold numeral, an (a)
and one, we find a variety in the root-syllable of its
derivatives, as any, other {or), else (A.S. ell-es), eleven,
{el-leven), either ; while the German has ein-ig, and-er,
od-er, et-was, ei-lf ; and the Old Norse goes so far as
in the same noun to give us a nom. sing, ann-ar and
a dat. pi. bth-r-um.
Still I find myself supported by the authority of
Bopp as more than once expressed, as § 19, vol. i.
p. 33 : ' Die Spaltung einer Form in verschiedene mit
grosserem oder geringerem Unterschied in der Bedeu-
tung, ist in der Sprachgeschichte nichts Seltenes;' and
again in § 516, vol. ii. p. 389 : 'Hierbei hatte man zu
berucksichtigen, dass in der Sprachgeschichte der Fall
nicht selten vorkommt, dass eine und dieselbe Form
sich im Laufe der Zeit in verschiedene zerspaltet,
und dann die verschiedenen Formen vom Geist der
Sprache zu verschiedenen Zwecken benutzt werden/
185
IX.
ON PLUKAL EOKMS IN LATIN WITH A SINGULAR
MEANING, AND ESPECIALLY ON YIEGIL'S USE
OF menta.
One of the most serious hindrances to a right under-
standing of the Latin vocabulary is the doctrine,
often propounded, that the poets by some strange
licence might use a plural for a singular. But, when-
ever such an assertion is made, the only safe con-
clusion is, that the true meaning of the singular has
been misunderstood. Castra occupies a prominent
place among such words, but it is not an easy matter
to decide what was that meaning of castrum which
justifies the translation of castra as 'a camp/ Tra-
dition supplies no evidence to guide us, and so we are
driven to etymology. Now castrum in its final letters
agrees closely with rostrum, rostrum, claustrum,
pious trum ; and there can be no doubt that of these
the first three are derivatives from the verbs rad-ere,
rod-ere, claudere. Plaustrum as to form stands in
the same relation to plaudere, but the connexion
of meaning is somewhat obscure. Perhaps the ex-
planation is this. We know that the old roads of
Italy were narrow ; and hence it was important that
a large and heavy vehicle should so far as practicable
give early evidence of its approach. Thus in the
present day when a carriage of any kind enters a
186 ON PLURAL FORMS IN LATIN
long lane, too narrow for the passage of another
vehicle in the opposite direction, it is found a useful
practice on entering the lane to blow a horn ; and
thus it becomes a sort of law of the road, that the
giving such a signal carries with it for the time a
right to the sole use of the passage. Again, especially
at night time, it is found expedient for a waggon to
be provided with a set of bells. Now a clapper or
two boards incessantly striking against each other is
a cheaper way of effecting the same object ; and
plaustrum ought etymologically to signify ' a clapper/
It is true that even then the clapper is not the waggon.
Still the sound of the clapper would be good evidence
of the approach of the waggon, and thus there is no
wide jump from the one idea to the other. The
vallum or palisade of a rampart, for example, is only
part of the rampart, which includes the mound and
the ditch ; but, to an advancing army, the vallum from
its superior height was the first object seen, and so at
last came to signify the whole of the rampart.
If then we apply the preceding evidence to castrum
we are brought to a syllable cad as the root; and
here we come across what are too commonly regarded
as independent words, cadere and caedere ; but these
are in fact as closely allied as our rise and raise, our
lie and lay, or, what is nearer to the purpose, out fall
and fell. In fact, fal, the root-syllable of these two
English verbs, is the analogue of the Latin cad, for a
Latin c has often supplanted a labial ; and indeed the
corresponding irer of irnr™ has preserved the original
consonant ; but a classical p under Bask's law should
be represented in our language by an f Other ex-
amples of a Greek it, a Latin h (q), and an English f
WITH A SINGULAR MEANING. 187
corresponding to one another, are seen in nroavpes,
quattuor (Go. fiduor), Eng. four, and doubly so in
TrefjbiTTos, quin(c)tus, with the proper name Quinctius,
fifth. Again, a d in Latin, Greek, and even English,
is often interchangeable with an I. Thus to take
what in form is precisely parallel, the familiar noun
ccdamitas was written, we are told, by Pompey, as
kadamitas. I have said that this word thus quoted
in illustration is identical in form. I may go farther,
for it is also of the same stock, as calamitas speaks of
a something supposed to issue from the stars, a blight
falling upon a crop.
Nay, the change from cad to fal is also to be traced
in Greek and Latin in this very root, for aQaWetv and
filler e mean strictly ' to cause to fall, to trip up : '
hence the frequency of the oomhm&tion fatter e pedes.
And again, in our own language, although the ortho-
dox course is to make fall an intransitive verb, in
country life ' to fall a tree' is at least as common as
' to fell a tree.'
My belief then is that in military language, and
among the Komans military language was familiar to
everyone, castra meant generally ' trenching tools/ the
ordinary axe, and besides these the pickaxe, spade, &c.
This view is confirmed by the fact that the verb
castrare ' to cut/ has not merely the notion of emas-
cidare, like our own verb as applied to horses, but is
applicable in the general sense of the verb cutting,
and so is used in connexion with such accusatives as
arundineta, uites, arbusta, caudas catulorum.
One advantage that results from this theory is that
the phrases mouere castra and ponere castra receive
an intelligible explanation, whereas with the transla-
188 ON PLURAL FORMS IN LATIN
tion castra ' sl camp/ we are reduced to an absurdity,
for even the trees of an abattis, after serving the pur-
poses of one camp, are never carried on to the next
station to perform the same duty. The tools, how-
ever, form an important part of a soldier's plant, so
to say ; and when an army arrived at the close of a
day's march, they would be the first things to be
taken from the impedimenta. Yet after all there is
a gap in the theory ; for although trenching tools are
essential to the making of a camp, and although the
phrases mouere castra and ponere castra already ob-
tain in this way thoroughly satisfactory translations,
yet there is a wide difference between the tools em-
ployed and the resulting camp. This gap I propose
to bridge over by the suggestion that the castrorum
metator, in laying out the proposed form of a camp,
marked the outline by having the tools themselves
deposited as he went along where they would presently
be needed. On the completion of this duty, the figure
would be duly represented to the eye by the series
of tools.
But the use of a plural form to denote a singular
idea is so inconvenient, that when the use of the word
in the singular with its original meaning has passed
away, there is an irresistible tendency to call the
singular again into service with the new meaning
hitherto limited to the plural. Hence castrum ' a
fort/ at last established itself, and still more the
diminutival castellum ' a little fort/ It should be
noted, however, that in the connexions castrum Inui
(Verg. iEn. vi. 766), castrum Mineruae (Apulorum) of
the Itineraries, and castrum Mineruae (Brutiorum)
of Varro (ap. Probum ad Verg. Eel. 6), the word is of
WITH A SINGULAR MEANING. 189
a totally different origin and meaning. We have now
a noun belonging to the same family with the so-called
adjective but rather participle castus 'pure/ and the
sb. castu- ' purifying/ These evidently point to a
verb, and the verb really exists in cdrere (lanam) ' to
card wool/ that is, ' purify' it, for Varro is no doubt
right when he explains the term (L. L. vii. 92, p. 339,
Spengel's ed.) by purgare, and connects it with cdrere.
In Greek the root is represented in the adjectives /cad-
apo- and Kev-o-. In this view castrum is ' sl place of
purification/ ' sl shrine/ and so identical in power with
delubrum from lau-ere. Again this second castrum
has also its derived verb castrare 'to purify/ whence
castrare uina saccis 'to strain' wine, of Pliny, and
perhaps castrare libellos of Martial (i. 36). In the
latter passage there may possibly be a double
entendre.
Nay, that plaustrum itself did not in origin mean
'a waggon' is shown by its use as a plural in not a
few passages, where evidently a single waggon was
before the writer's mind, as : Modo longa coruscat
Sarraco ueniente abies atque altera pinurn plaustra
uehunt (Juv. iii. 256) ; Ipse uides onerata ferox ut
ducat Iazyxper medias Histri plaustra bubulcus aquas
(Ov. Pont. iv. 7, 9) ; Tardus in occasum sequitur sua
plaustra Bootes (Germ. Arat. 139). In other passages
the notion of a single waggon seems, if not decided,
yet preferable, as in : Tardaque Eleusiniae onatris
uoluentia plaustra (Virg. Georg. i. 163) ; Dicilur
et plaustris uexisse poemata Thespis qui canerent
agerentque (Hor. Ep. ii. 3, 275) ; Hurts opes paruae,
pecus et stridentia plaustra (Ov. Tris. iii. 10, 59). Thus
plaustra itself belongs to the class of words here under
190 ON PLURAL FORMS IN LATIN
consideration. Yet already in Plautus, Cato, and
Cicero the singular plaustrum was in use with the
meaning of a single waggon.
Another word in which the true meaning of the
singular is commonly missed is furca. This word is
in fact a compression of a trisyllabic for-ic-a, the
first syllable of which is seen in the verb for-a-re,
and virtually in fod-ere, for the r and d are inter-
changeable in these words, just as in auri- sb. ' the
ear/ and audi- vb. 'hear.' Our own language also
shares the interchange, for the root, in obedience to
Rask's law, appears with a b in bore and bod- of
bodkin, whether we use this noun with Shakspere in
the sense of 'a dagger/ or in reference to the little
instrument which belongs to a lady's workbox. Then
as regards the meaning of furca, there can be little
doubt that we should translate it ' a prong/ seeing
that bi-furco- and tri-furco- mean ' two-pronged ' and
' three-pronged/ It was at first then only as a plural
that it could be employed to denote ' a fork/ Some
of our dictionaries indeed venture to give as the
original meaning of furca ' a two -pronged fork/
quoting in proof Virgil's furcasque bicornes, which
however rather points the other way ; for if the noun
already denoted a two-pronged instrument, the epithet
bicornes would be superfluous. However, the phrases
Furcae and Furculae Caudinae for the fork in the
road near Caudium were established at a time when
it was still necessary to use a plural to denote ' a fork/
So Plautus (Persa, ad fin) has, 'et post dabis (manus)
sub furcis,' where later writers would have said sub
furca. It is true that in the Casina (ii. 6, 37) we
find, e ut quidem tu hodie canem et furcam feras ;
WITH A SINGULAR MEANING. 191
but here we may well suspect that the poet wrote
furcas, and that the singular was an adaptation to
later usage introduced in after-time. Such changes
may be proved to have taken place in the text of both
Plautus and Terence, just as has happened to the plays
of Shakspere.
The nouns forceps, forpex, and/or/ex have suffered
much in the hands of our modern lexicographers, who
have followed the guidance of the author of the book
entitled ' Varronianus.' The writer of that work
thought he saw in the first part of these words the
adverb foris, and he was disposed to deduce the final
syllable from the several verbs cap-io, pect-o, and
fac-io. But in truth the three forms are only dialectic
varieties of the same word. From fore- of furc-a it
was thought desirable to form a derivative by the
addition of the diminutival suffix ec. I say diminu-
tival, because Pott has clearly shown that the suffix
a/c of Greek substantives adds the notion of little ;
while the identity of the Greek a/c and Lat. ec is
proved by the forms murex, sorex, pellex, poclex,
corresponding to ftvat;, vpa%, iraXka^ irvvha%. But the
power of the suffix is also sufficiently determined by
the three words cimex, pulex, culex. Now in the case
of furea, the addition of a suffix ec would have led to
an unpleasing form, forc-ec-, and hence, to soften the
sound, a labial was substituted for one of the offensive
gutturals ; and so arose the three varieties, forc-ep-,
forp-ec-, forf-ec-. But as forcep-, standing for forcec-,
could only mean ' a small prong/ it required a plural
to denote the more complex instrument consisting of
two claws. Thus forcipes, as ' a pair of pinchers' for
the extraction of teeth, is used by Lucilius : uncis
*
192 ON PLURAL FORMS IN LATIN
forcipibus denies euellere (ap. Charis. i. 74) ; but the
later writer Celsus in the same sense habitually uses
the singular. The word is also used as a plural for
the ' blacksmith's pinchers' in Cato ; but here again
both Virgil (Geo. iv. 175, and Mr. xii. 404) and
Ovid (Met. xii. 277) have tenaci forcipe ferrum or
ferrum forcipe curua. It was from the consideration
of this special use of the pinchers that some etymo-
logists would derive the word from the adj. formus
'hot' and cap-ere. But the connexion with furca is
confirmed by the fact that while Pliny (ix. 31, 51)
ascribes to the crab brachia denticulatis foreipibus
(al. forficibus), Apuleius (Apol. p. 297, 4) speaks of
the furcae cancrorum.
The plural uolsellae is used of a pair of tweezers by
Varro in the proverbial phrase, e pugnant uolsellis non
gladio / and also by Martial; but for Celsus the singular
has supplanted the plural, so that the word follows the
example of forceps, and is used in the same sense.
Again the familiar noun r astro- (m. or n.) I may
safely assume to have meant originally ' a single
tooth of a rake/ or ' a scraper with but a single point
or edge/ Hence Terence, Virgil, and Ovid agree in
the need of a plural to express the more complicated
rake with many teeth. Still, as these were perma-
nently combined in one instrument, it was found in
the end convenient to use the word in the singular, and
as such it occurs in the later writers, Pliny and Seneca.
Another example is bigae, which is of course a con-
traction of biiugae, and so being an adjective requires
a noun equae to complete the meaning, 'two mares
yoked together for the purpose of drawing a chariot f
and in this form it is employed by Varro, Catullus,
WITH A SINGULAR MEANING. 193
and Virgil ; but again the unity of the combination
becoming fixed, eventually later writers, Tacitus
Pliny Suetonius and Statius, exhibit biga as a
singular. Precisely the same fate attended the use
of quadrigae, ' four mares yoked together for drawing
a carriage/ for the word is a plural in Cicero and
Virgil, but is exchanged for a singular quadriga in
Propertius Pliny Martial and Ulpian. If it be here
objected, that Virgil and Propertius being contem-
porary might have been expected to use both of them
either the singular or the plural, a legitimate answer
seems to be found in the consideration, that the higher
style of Virgil's poetry would justify, if not require,
the use of the older form.
An eighth example is cassi-, the plural of which
denotes ' a net/ in Virgil (speaking of a spider's web)
and Ovid generally ; but the singular with the same
meaning is found in Ovid (A. A. iii. 554) and Seneca.
Hence it seems reasonable to suppose that the singular
word originally meant ' a single mesh of a net,' At
the same time it must be admitted that many little
nets are at times united to form one large net.
Ninthly, folles as a plural, like our own equivalent
in form and meaning bellows, is the only shape known
to Cicero Virgil and Horace, and this agrees with the
fact that the instrument consists of two flaps ; but
Livy (xxxviii. 7) Persius and Juvenal have in the
same sense the mere singular.
As lit era originally meant but a single character of
the alphabet, a plural was necessary to denote 'words
or writings;' yet Ovid and Martial have the word in
the singular with the sense of a letter or epistle.
It was once the fashion in school books to say that
o
194 ON PLUPwAL FORMS IN LATIN
limina was used poetically for the singular, meaning
' a threshold/ This error however has long been
thrust aside, as it is known that a door has two
limina, the I. superius or ' lintel/ the I. inferius or
' threshold/ the word signifying what carpenters call
* a tie/ and being derived, not indeed from liga-re,
which would have given ligamen, but from a lost
lig-erc which has also produced a noun lictor (not
ligator). Still in not a few instances the singular is
used to denote a gate or entrance.
Currus is another word as to which our lexicons
are unsatisfactory. It is clear that in not a few pas-
sages the plural of this noun is used in speaking of a
single carriage, as in Virgil (Mb. x. 574), 'Effundunt-
que ducem rapiuntque ad litora currus / and Ovid
(Met. ii. 6), of the chariot of the sun : ' Vasti quoque
rector Olympi non regat hos currus/ Again the same
poet (Trist. iii. 8, 1) has: 'Nunc ego Triptolemi
cuperem conscendere currus/ So in Lucan (vii. 570) :
' Mauors agitans si uerbere saeuo Palladia stimulet
turbatos aegide currus/ Further, that currus did not
in itself mean a carriage, is shown by Virgil's use of
the word in speaking of the plough (Georg. i. 174) :
■ Stiuaque, quae currus a tergo torqueat imos/ Now
the phrase regere currus has a special fitness, if currus
means strictly * a wheel/ for it is the wheel which a
driver has to look to. Further, it is probable that mere
rollers came into use before carriages. Moreover, the
word roll is but a variety of whirl and hurl ; and the
last word in Scotch is a synonym for wheel in the term
hurl-barrow (Jamieson). Nay in Scotch hurler by itself
means ' one who drives a wheelbarrow ; ? and the
simple verb hurl is applicable alike to the driving a
WITH A SINGULAK MEANING. 195
wheelbarrow and to a ride in a carriage (lb. supple-
ment). For the latter use I quote from the same;
' If a frien hire a chaise and give me a hurl, am I to
pay the hire ? I never heard of sic extortion/ Even
when hurl has the sense of the Latin torquere
(hast am), we have the notion of the circular move-
ment which with the sling and Eoman jaculum pre-
ceded the casting forward ; but cur of curro is the
equivalent of the hur or hir of our hurry, hurl, and
the Dorsetshire hir-n (A. S. yrn-an). Hence I do not
hesitate to claim for the Latin curro the original
notion of revolving rather than that of running.
Such will well suit the repeated phrase in Catullus
(64, 327, &c.) : * Currite ducentes subtegmina, currite
fusi;' and Virgil's similar use of the verb (Eel. iv.
46) : 'Talia saecla suis dixerunt Currite fusis . . .
Parcae/ So also in those passages which speak of the
potter s wheel, as Horace's (Ep. ii. 3, 22) : * Currente
rota cur urceus exit \ ' No doubt the mere notion
of running or quick forward movement is far more
common ; but it is most unphilosophical to decide
the question of priority by mere number. Nay, it is
generally to be suspected that the older the meaning
of a word the fewer should be the examples. From all
this I conclude that mere circular movement was first
denoted by the root, and secondly that the onward
circular movement as of a rolling stone was the idea
which preceded that of simple running; so that we
have here a mimetic word, an imitation of the sound
heard in rapid whirling.
The word scptentriones at the outset could only
have been used as a plural ; and such was still the
form in favour with Cicero and Caesar; but Virgil
19(> ON PLURAL FORMS IN LATIN
Ovid Pliny and Vitruvius have the singular ; and
this variety was only the more requisite, when names
were required alike for the Ursa major and Ursa
minor, where Vitruvius employs the terms major and
minor septentvio. It seems indeed a somewhat violent
proceeding for Virgil to have retained the singular
form, when by tmesis, as it is called, he gives an
independent position to the numeral in Talis Hyper-
boreo septem subiecta trioni Gens (G-. iii. 381). As to
the etymology of the word, two different accounts are
recorded by Festus. That which would deduce it ' a
septem bobus iunctis quos triones a terra rustici appel-
lant/ has little internal evidence to support it. I
cannot but give a preference to his second statement,
* Quiclam a septem stellis/ for tara is the Sanskrit for
a star, and indeed is still preserved in several of
the vernacular languages of India. For the Latin I
would assume a form ler-iones with that masculine
diminutival suffix ion, which is well known in
matell-ion-, senec-ion-. An e rather than an a is sup-
ported by the familiar stella, i.e. ster-ula, or rather
ster-el-a.
I have thus dealt with castra, plaustra, furcae,
forcipes, forpices, forjices, uolsellae, bigae, quadrigae,
casses, folles, literae, limina, currus, septentriones ;
and these examples are sufficient to establish the prin-
ciple that, when an object consists of two or more
like parts, a word, in itself denoting one of these
parts, is first employed as a plural to denote the com-
pound, but eventually is supplanted by the singular,
which then also denotes the compound.
"With this premised, I call attention to the use of a
plural menta in the iEneid : Nosco crines incanaque
WITH A SINGULAR MEANING. 197
menta Regis Romani primdm qui legibus arbemfun-
dabit, &c. (iEn. vi. 810). Now the ordinary meaning
of mentum, ' a chin/ will not avail here, for we need
not stop at the English phrase ' a double chin/ My
own conviction is that the first meaning of mentum is
' a jaw/ and thus the plural menta would denote ' both
the jaws/ that is 'the mouth/ or rather in the present
passage those parts on which the beard grows, both
above and below the opening expressed by the word
mouth.
How readily words of the same stock are employed
to denote 'the jaw/ whether upper or lower, the mouth
made up of both jaws, the chin, the beard, the cheeks,
the gums, is well seen in those which begin with the
syllable yev or gen. Thus in Greek we have (1) and maneo, as also with our
own manner and Fr. manoir, &c.
But to return to the word menturn, I find a little
difficulty in three words, which by meaning and partly
by form seem to claim connexion with the family of
mol or mal ' crush, grind/ &c. viz. : fiaaa-ofiac ' chew/
fiao-cr-co ' knead' (with its derivatives fiasco, /j,ayfj,a), and
maxilla 'the jaw/ Thus while mala serves beyond all
dispute to connect mand-ere on the one side with
maxilla on the other; maxilla and fiaa-a-co imply a form
fiay rather than fia\. Yet X and y seem to be sounds
utterly inconvertible, unless indeed we may say that
the y sound forms an intermediate link between them.
Such was my contention in a late paper read before
the Philological Society, which compared Ovyar-ep- and
filia- ; and the argument derives strength from the
parallelism seen in the Greek jnoyis- and fio\ts.
At any rate, the Latin nouns, which having a long
vowel before an I, form diminutives in xillo (or sillo),
seem to owe the long vowel of the simple noun and
the x of the diminutive to an original guttural in
WITH A SINGULAR MEANING. 203
the syllable which precedes the I. Thus dla for ahala,
paulo- for paueulo-, tdlo- beside aarpayaXo-, polo- be-
side pango, and tela beside tex-ere, seem all to claim a
lost guttural, which would account for the forms axilla,
pauxillum, taxillus, paxillus. The loss of the guttural
would be exactly parallel to what we see in our own
words, nail, hail, rail, sail, wain {waggon), rain, beside
the German nag el 9 hagel, regel, segel, wagen, regen ;
and indeed the Latin velum, whence uexillum, may
have grown out of an older suegelum, and so be one
with the German segel. See also the remarks on the
Greek noun irapaaeiov ' upper sail/ in the paper on the
German prefix ver.
204
X.
EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS.
Although generally averse to the introduction of new
grammatical terms, I have thought it desirable to ask
admission for one on the present occasion, because the
ordinary term f epenthesis' seems to have been formed
upon a false theory, and so to have misled, as it ap-
pears to me, not a few philologers ; and among these
several who hold a place in the front rank, I especially
refer to the three German scholars, Grimm Bopp and
Diez. Thus the words ' einschiebung,' ( eingeschoben/
' einschaltung,' are with them in constant requisition ;
and in my mind this assumption of an ' msn-oving'
always raises a presumption that some error lies con-
cealed beneath them. For example, in speaking of
certain diminutives (iii. 668), Grimm has to deal with
a syllable in, which, not seen in the nominative, ap-
pears in the oblique cases, and so he is led to regard
the n as intrusive, viz. in prentili ( a small brand/ g.
prentilin-es, d. prentilin-e, Sec. ; where however it
seems more reasonable to suppose that the nom. has
lost an n, as is admittedly the case with the Latin
ordo ordin-is, ratio ration-is, caro cam-is. The same
doctrine is repeated by him twice in p. 672 and again
in p. 678.
In my paper entitled ' Quaeritur' (see below), I
refer to Bopp's dealings with the Sanskrit genitives
EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS. 205
plural, dsvd-n-dm, tri-n-dm, sun4-n-dm, the n of which
he regards as euphonic, while it appears to me to be
the genitival suffix, as in our own Frier-n Barnet,
contrasted with Abbot's Langley and King's Langley,
as also in Buck-en-ham (Norfolk), and, what is sub-
stantially the same, the county town Buck-ing-ham,
which originally was nothing more than ( Mr. Buck's
home or house/ for the largest town had its begin-
ning, and this often in the residence of a single family.
Again in Weinhold's Alemannische Gr. (Berlin, 1863),
I find (§§409, 411) that the nouns fater, Karl, Hem-
rich had two forms of the genitive, fateres fater en,
Karles Karlen, Heinriches Heinrichen, &c. Besides,
if the n of dsvd-n-dm &c. be not a genitival suffix, there
is nothing whatever to represent the idea of genitivity
(excuse the word), since am, like the corresponding cov
of Greek nouns, is a mere symbol of plurality.
Diez too (Gr. ii. 201) assigns to the old French
perfect of dire a form deimes (= diximus) or 'init
eingeschobenem s, deismes.' But in my paper on the
Latin perfect (Philolog. Trans. 1860-1, p. 185), I was
led to a very different view, viz. that deismes is the
more genuine form, seeing that the Latin diximus
itself grew out of a fuller dix-ismus, corresponding to
dix-istis.
Again it was probably an impression that a conso-
nant was required to prevent hiatus which led the
French to sanction the division aime-t-il, as though
the t were a foreign element ; but of course we have
here what represents the Latin aniat ille. In il est
the t is silent ; but in the inverted form est-il ? coming
before a vowel, it is pronounced ; and the same applies
to aimet-il, as it should have been written.
206 EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS.
Those who would insert consonants ' hiatus vitandi
caussa/ never stop to explain to us why one consonant
rather than another is selected for this ignoble office.
But in truth it may be doubted whether any real in-
stance can be found, unless we are to accept such as
1 Maria Ramie ' or * the Law ran the Prophets' of
London speech. At any rate in a large majority of
the instances usually adduced it will be found that the
so-called epenthetic consonant is no foreign matter, but
either an original part of the word, or else a simple
outgrowth from the consonant immediately preceding.
In a paper by Mr. Weymouth (Philolog. Trans.
1856, p. 21), and in Bindseil's valuable, even though
unfinished work, ' Abhandlungen zur Allgem. verg.
Sprachlehre' (Hamburg, 1838), the true theory, as it
seems to me, is given as regards the difference in the
position of the organs of speech for the production on
the one hand of the nasals m, n, ng, and on the other
of the mutes b, d, g. As those writers point out, it
depends solely on the position of the velum palati
whether the one set of sounds or the other is heard.
When the velum is so placed as to leave a free passage
for the air through the nose, we have the nasal ; but the
moment this passage is closed, the sound passes at once
to the allied mute ; so that what began as an m may
end as b, what began as ng may end as g (goose, bag),
what began as n may end as d. Such secondary con-
sonants then must be regarded as natural outgrowths,
or, to use my new term, as excrescent, rather than
intrusive, as intrinsic, not extrinsic.
But it is not with the nasals alone that there is
this tendency to pass from one consonant to another.
Whenever the organs of speech which are employed
EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS. 207
in the production of two consonants lie near one
another, a passage from one to the other is apt to
occur. But it is especially from the dental series that
excrescent consonants proceed ; and this was perhaps
to be expected, as this class of consonants occupy a
middle place, and so have an affinity for the labials on
the one side, and gutturals on the other. Precisely as,
when we throw great force into the sound of an n at
the close of a syllable, — for instance, to take a vulgar
example, but not the less valuable on that account, in
pronouncing the words gown or drown-ed, — there is a
strong tendency to produce what would be written as
goivnd or drownd-ed ; so if we lay a stress upon an s
there naturally results a following t, and hence a
Eoman intending to say pos found that he unin-
tentionally uttered post.
I propose then to take into successive consideration
all the following combinations, in which for convenience
the alphabetical order is preferred : ct,ft, ht (cht), It,
nt, pt, rt, st ; bd, gd, Id, nd, rd ; \0, v6, p0, ad, rius ; rust-ico- from rus ; Ligust-ico- from Ligus ;
Libyst-ico-, Libyst-ino-, and Libyst-id, from Libys ;
o . So too one must, I think,
assume a masculine alfio-9 to explain such forms as
al/jLoPa(j>r}$ and ai/j,Q-co, rather than, as is usually done,
refer them to the neuter alfiar-.
Add to the preceding list first arbust-um from arbos.
The common doctrine that this is an abbreviation from
arboretum is clearly an error, for arboretum itself is
for arbor- ect-um, and so contains the diminutival
suffix ec, of which there is no trace in arbust-um.
It is under the same wrong view that some hold
frutectum to stand for fruticetum, salictum for salic-
etum. Such a doctrine would lead us into an endless
series ; for if salictum is for salicetum, then, as salic-
etum must have grown out of a form salicectum, we
EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS. 215
must again assume a fuller salic-icetum, and then a
salic-icectum, and so ad infinitum.
The names of female agents, tonstrix, defenstrix,
persuastrix, and the noun tonstrina, come from mas-
culine nouns in or, tonsor, defensor, and persuasor,
though the last is no longer to be found. The dis-
appearance of the long o of tonsor -oris might have
beeu a difficulty, had we not the undoubted case of
doctr-ina from doctor. Our sister, Germ, scluvest-er,
has the same suffix, er, as pater, mater, f rater, and
that probably a diminutival suffix of affection ; while
or has obtained a preference in sor-or (for sos-or) and
ux-or, solely through the influence of the vowel in the
preceding syllable, o and u. The pronoun ist-o- I
would divide so as to leave o alone to the suffix, as in
ill-o- and e-o- (eum, earn, &c.) ; but my reasons I must
reserve for a more convenient occasion, as the argu-
ment would run to a great length. Vest-i- comes
from a root uen or aes, as seen better in the Greek
fev-vvfjbi, r)fjL(f)L-Fe(7-/jcu ; but i alone belongs to the
suffix, as also in part-i-, where it is a corruption of
ic, as seen in part-ic-ula-.
Cust-od- I also claim as one belonging to this class,
giving to it for its original meaning 'door-keeper/
The first syllable I believe to be an earlier and truer
form of os (oris), except that, like ost-ium, it has
thrown out a t. The disappearance of the initial
guttural is what is already familiar in ubi, wide, uter 9
from cubi, cunde, cuter. The second element bd I
compare with the corresponding part of 6vp-wp-o- ttv\-
cop-o-, which Buttmann deduces from 6pa-(o, and I
think with reason, so as to make them signify ' door-
watcher, or door-warden. 7 But a p is at times repre-
216 EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS.
sented by a Latin d, as in caduceo- by the side of the
Doric Kapviceio-. Even opa-co itself is of the same
stock with the Latin uide-o, as proved by its aorist
FetSov, FiSeiv. Nay, I must also claim as one with
the root of opaco, and so with that of ei&ov, uideo,
our own ware, wavy, and with an excrescent d, ward,
ivard-en, and the French guard-er, &c. together
with our own regard ' look back/ The etymology of
c us tod- here proposed corresponds to that of aedi-
t limits or aedituus, from tu-eor, or, as I am inclined
to assume, an older tum-zor.
In French we have also instances that belong to this
class, in estre, now etre, by the side of the Ital. essere,
in naitre for nascere, &c. ; as well as in the old French
perfect distrent, by the side of disrent, now dirent.
Possibly we owe to this principle the personal ending
of our verbs, as lovest, where an s alone seems justified
by the older branches of the Indo-European family.
So in German we find morast, palast, axt, einst (see
* German for the English/ by Sonnenschein, &c), as
also obst supplanting an older opaz.
9. Bd : fio\vfi8-o-, which in this respect stands half-
way between the Latin plumbo- and our own lead.
The Latin uerber- I believe to be a compression of an
older uer-eb-er-, and again the Greek pa(3So- to have
come by decapitation from a form Fap-a/38-o, 1 so that
the root-syllables are virtually the same, and the suffix
which immediately follows it. 'Pcxp-e-co (for aop-o^-e-co)
is of course one with the Latin sorbeo (for sor-ob-eo) ;
1 Tliose who are alarmed at this theory of decapitation are in-
vited to compare the Greek pal (pay-) with the Latin f(a)rag-um
i a (straw-) berry ; ' and indeed with our own berry, in which two
weak vowels, e i, have superseded the strong vowels, a a.
EXCEESCENT CONSONANTS. 217
but in Greek by the side of the compound avappoaco
we find also avappoifih-ew. 'EfiBofio- when contrasted
with the Germ, siebente seems to have an excrescent 8.
The Latin verb peel- might well appear in Greek as
/3e\- or fiev- ; but we find pBev-wfii, /38e\-vacra) f and an
adj. /38e\-vpo- (see Ed below). The Fr. coude was
written in the sixteenth century as coubde, and so
establishes its identity with the Latin cubito-.
10. Gd : /xiy&a by the side of fjucya ; and it seems
likely that Tr^rjjTjp passed through TBrj/MrjTrjp on its
way to Arj/jL7}T7]p.
11. Ld : here Diez (i. 194) supplies most of the
following examples : Span, valdre; Prov. folelre (=old
Fr. foiddre) ; toldre = toller e ; Old Fr. moiddre, re-
souldre, pouldre, now moudre, resoitdre, poudre. The
Latin corulus passed first into colurus (r being sup-
planted by an I, and in the following syllable the
converse) ; then colurus produced coiddre, which is
now coudre, a word which is therefore the genuine
analogue of our hazel ; Germ, baldrian = ualeriana ;
Du. helcler = Germ, heller. Add to these our own
ald-er = \jdX. al-nus, where the English r represents
the Latin n, just as is the case with order (Fr. ordre)
compared with ordon-. So our old alder-first and
aller-first correspond to such German compounds as
aller-beste. Lastly, a\B of a\B-acvco } aXB-7](7Kco some
scholars identify with the Latin al-o.
12. Nd : avB-pos for avep-os ; evh-ov and evh-os by
the side of ev ; in Latin mand-are, pre-hend-ere, both
from man of man-u ' hand/ for the m and h m in these
words represent each other, much as in Greek do fiev
(whether the particle or the root of /jlov-os) and ev-
(nom. els) ; tend-cre by the side of tene-re ; in, the
218 - EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS.
Lat. prep, leads to ind-e ' down ' (see p. 70), and also
appears with a d in ind-igeo, indu-perator, endoter-
cisus, &c. The pronoun is, ea, id had for its base in
(see p. 70), and hence ind-e, of which e alone belongs
to the suffix with the notion ' from ' (see the following
paper) ; so, ken or kun being the base of the relative,
we have und-e (orig. cund-e), 'whence/ The Latin
gerund scribend-um I hold to be in its first part one
with the form scriben already spoken of (p. 212) as equi-
valent to the Germ, schreiben. In the French language
instances abound, as cendre, tendre, Vendredi, vien-
drai, tiendrai, moindre, gendre. So the Spanish has
pondre, tendre, vendre; the German, niemand, abend,
and-er, mind-er, hund, Mailand for Milan, &c. ; Eng-
lish, yond, beyond, mind, sound (sb. and adj.), ihund-er,
gand-er, kind, as well as kin (—gen of genus), com-
pound ; while our Henry (Henricus) appears in Scotch
as Hendrick ; and conversely bind, mind, find appear
without a d in the Dorsetshire bin, min, fin. The
Latin words cale-,palam and pafona, &c. polle- ' weigh/
praepolle- ' outweigh,' exhibit an I in the root-syllable,
and an I is often interchanged with an n ; but iu Latin
there is a tendency not to be satisfied with an n, but to
add to it an excrescent d, the more so perhaps as the
Latin is also fond of an interchange between I and d.
Be this as it may, we find by the side of the words
just mentioned cando, at least in compounds (ac-
cend-o, &c.) and derivatives as candela, pando, pendo,
with pondus. Again, m and n being freely convertible,
the Latin gemere, tremere, and an obsolete abemere
' to take down/ have led to the French geindre as well
as gemir, craindre as well as cremir, and aveindre.
As regards the Latin verbs which end in ngere, it is
EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS. 219
not altogether certain that the n is non-radical. Al-
though the Latin iugum, coniugium, the German joeh,
and English yoke plead strongly in behalf of a mere
guttural as ending the root-syllable, yet the Sanskrit
gives us a form yun-aj-mi as the equivalent of the
Latin iungo, which seems to imply that yun was one
form of the root. This view seems to be confirmed by
the fact that the French writes joind-re where the
Latin has iung-ere ; and similarly astreind-re, feind-re,
peind-re, ceind-re, oind-re. As a d interchanges alike
with n and I, it is no strange matter that we find the
Latin uad-ere leading on the one hand to the French
all-er, and on the other to the South Italian an-are ;
but here again the ordinary dialect prefers and-are.
13. Ed : an r and a d are often convertible, as is
shown abundantly in Sanskrit and occasionally in Latin,
for example, as was just observed, in caduceo- (m.) from
the Doric tcapviceio- (n.), in eust-od- (see above) com-
pared with irv\-(0p-o, Sec. Hence we should be the less
surprised at a d growing out of an r, as in cor cord-is
and KapB-ca by the side of fceap K?]p- ; ord-ior by or-ior ;
Latin mordeo- by the side of rnol- ' grind/ Lith. rncd- ;
burd-en from bear ; murd-er from a root = Lat. mor-
and Sanskrit mar or mri ; gird by the side of the
Latin giro- (written commonly gyro-) ; French tord-re
by the side of Latin ter- ' turn ' and torque- ; our
haggard = German hager. The Latin verb ped- may
well have had jped- for its base, just as scrib-, die-,
nub- are lengthened from the simpler forms senb-
(cf. conscrlb-illo, Catul. xxv. 10, and ypa(f>-), die- (mali-
dteo-) nub- (pronuba, eontibio-, ve(f>e\rj) ; and then this
ped- might have for its Greek analogue 7rep-, but we
find irepS-. Again, I and r being convertible we have
220 EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS.
the equivalent forms al-ere and atpew (ap-) ; but from
alere come ard-uus and ard-ere. So also obsordesc-
and obsolesc-. (See the following paper.)
1 4. A0 : dkO-co, aXO-rjaco, akO-eacrcd are said to be of
the same stock with the Latin al-o ; but should
perhaps be connected with our heal. In either case
the 6 is excrescent.
15. N0 : av6-ea- from an old root av- 'blow' (cf.
a-7)-/jbt), which the Sanskrit retains ; evO-ev, of which
the first ev alone belongs to the root, and the second eu
alone to the suffix (see the following paper). As v
and 6 are readily interchanged, for example, in e-fia6-ov
compared with fiev-eo-, fMe-fiv-rj/juai, ; in our oth-er, the
compar. of one, in the Norse ann-ar and its pi. dat.
oth-rum ; in the Old English plurals loveth and loven,
and the Old English adverbs henn-en and heth-en, I
hold that the right way of explaining such forms as
[MivOavay by the side of epaOov, fievO-ea- by that of
I3a0-eor-, repe^LvOo- by that of Tpe^iOo-, is to consider
that v before the 6 in fiavOavco, &c. corresponds to the
6 of eiiaOov, &c. ; and that the which follows the v is
excrescent. What I here say of v$ I say also, mutatis
mutandis, of Xa^avco, irephto, &c. compared with eXafiov,
ped-o, &c.
16. Y6 : op6-o- and op6-po- 'dawn' from op of opco
opw/M ; hap6-av(o by the side of dor-mio, our dr-eam
and dr-ow-sy ; wopO-po- root irop- as seen in irop-o-,
irop-L^o), corresponding to our fare; ap6-po- (n.) and
apd-jjLo- form ap- 'join/ afcapO-fio- from a nap- of (TKacp-co
' skip ;' repd-po- (n.) ' an end' compared with rep-fiaT- ;
evepd-ev from evepo-.
17. 20 : eo-0-\o- = Doric eo--\o- ; feo-O-Tjr = Latin
uest-i- from a root e*/ or ec- ; oinad-ev compared with
EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS. 221
o7riar-co ; evToo-6-i with evTos. Again, as and o- are
convertible, rvmofieOa has substituted a for the a-
of the Doric rvirTo^es, while rvrrTOfjueoOa has preserved
the a-, out of which a has grown. So i0-/iar- 'a
road ' and tad-po- co-exist ; fiaO-aWiS- ' sl sort of cup '
and fjLaad-aXiB- ; eo-0-ico by the side of esse es-ca. The
Greek adev-eo- too is probably of the same stock with
our sin-ew, as also with the Greek noun iv- (nom. is)
of the same meaning, or rather ^iv-, for this noun and
uir- of the Latin uires seem to owe their digamma to
an old form afiv-.
18. <&0: the of (pOeyyco, (f)0eip, (j>6ivco, (f>0avc0, fyOovcs,
as compared with ittoKis, irroXe/nos, can scarcely be other
than excrescent. In the adj. ekevOepo- we virtually
have e\e6epo, which there can be little doubt is one
with the Latin libero-, the b of which represents the
ax®' ^ 1 ^Y
ax~eo-- and the Sanskrit sah. The g of the Latin vb.
rug-io, as in leones rugiunt, should have for its Greek
analogue a %; and accordingly we have j3pvx~(o and
l3pvx-aop.au ; but we also find poxO-o- c roaring;' and
again by the side of opey-m there stands ope%0-e<«>. In
txOv- and exO-po- the 6 is probably excrescent.
20. Cs, Sc, Gs, Sg: the sibilant being often inter-
changeable with a guttural, we find that the guttural
on the one hand often throws out a sibilant, and con-
versely a sibilant a guttural. Hence cum %uv and
crw ; kolvos and f wos ; \iiywp>i pao-yco, misceo, mis-tus,
and our mix; augeo and av^avoa with our wax; eic
and e£ in both Greek and Latin ; fypos and GKippos ;
i%os and uiscum. Thus the second of the two
consonants in the four combinations seems to be
excrescent.
21. Ns : by the side of xvv the German has gans
and the Latin has ans-er, which, like our own gand-er
and the German gans-er-ich, was in strictness ap-
plicable only to the male bird, er being a male suffix,
as in the German Jcat-er a * tom-cat/ The prep, ecs
for evs has probably only an excrescent a attached to
the ordinary prep. ev.
22. Kz, Lz, Tz: as in German herz= cor; hurz=
our short ; schmerz = smart ; salz = salt ; malz = malt;
hatze = cat ; ratze = rat; hitze = heat ; zu = to and too ;
zwei == two.
23. Pf: in German, as pfad = path ; pfahl = pale;
EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS. 223
pfand =paivn, &c; apfel = apple ; stopfel = stopper ;
tropf-en = to drop.
24. Mb : pear) fji/3 pea for fiearjfiepLa ; /jL€fjL/3\a)tea, for
fjie/jLoka/ca; French chambre from camera-; humble from
humili-; nombre from numero-; combler from eumu-
lare ; Spanish nombre from nomine ; hombre from
homine ; hembra from femina. Again, as ^ and m
interchange, we have in Greek aj/Seu- = Latin imbu ;
Italian and-are with Latin amb-id-are, and with Ger-
man ivand-el-n and wand-er-n ; Greek yaaT-ep~, Latin
uent-er-, but English ivomb, Scotch wemb, the last
used of the belly generally ; English loins, German
lende, but Latin lumbi. Acid with a silent 6, which
however was probably once pronounced, our lamb =
German lamm, our thumb = German daum.
25. Mp : Latin templum and extemplo with extem-
pulo by the side of refieveo--, all from a root Teja- ' cut/
whence re^v-a ; temp-os-, temp-era-re, &c. from the
same root. Other familiar examples from Latin are
sumpsi, sumptus, ademptus, contempsi, hiemps ; while
in English we have the equally familiar Thompson,
Simpson, Hampton. To these add the English hump
with a dim. humm-ock ; stump by the side of the Ger-
man stumpf and a dim. stumm-el. Again, as m ancl^
interchange, we have Latin tund- = our thump ; as m
and the guttural n (ng) interchange, our stamp =
stingu-, better known in ex-stingu- ' stamp out ' (fire),
di-stingu- c stamp differently/ M seems to have a
stronger affinity for b than for p. Thus if we find an
excrescent p making its appearance in the middle of
words, the preference given to it over a b seems in
some measure due to the influence of a following s or
t. At any rate, it is for the most part in such com-
224 EXCRESCENT CONSONANTS.
pany that the p presents itself. At the end of words
a p is the less strange, since medials in this position
are habitually pronounced as tenues.
26. Ng : in the simple strong, long, the final is but
a nasal n, but takes to itself a distinct guttural sound
in strong-er, strength, longer, length.
27. En: if the n of the German fern 'far' had
been a suffix, it would not have passed into the comp.
jern-er. I am disposed then to regard the n of stern
also as excrescent. In the cases of mourn, burn vb.,
burn sb., turn, it is of course clear that the n is no
part of the root, seeing that we have the Latin rnaere-,
bur- of com-bur, and bustum, our dim. br-ooJc, and
ter- in Latin ; but whether it be excrescent or the
remnant of a suffix it is difficult to decide. In
the case of the vb. burn, the German brenn-en and
our own brand seem to be evidence that the n is
referable to a suffix.
In putting together these examples I have omitted
some c] asses of words which might well have been
inserted, because the question involved some matters
which required a full discussion. Many of these will
appear in the next paper. On the other hand some
apology may perhaps be thought due for inserting
examples of processes so familiar as what is seen
in avhpos and fiearjfifipia. The purpose was com-
pleteness.
225
XL
on false division of suffixes.
The number of suffixes in verbs, nouns, and particles
has been unduly multiplied, as it seems to me, through
various errors, which I propose to consider under
several heads. First of all many of those which are
supposed to be independent of each other are simply
varieties of the same. Thus there is no substantial
distinction between the neuter substantives of the
Latin and Greek languages which take for their con-
sonant an s, r, n, or t with various vowels, as
rep-aa- repcir-os, ovofjuar- ovofxar-os, cr6ev-ea- crdev-e-os,
rjir-ap- qTraros, vS-cop, vBut-os ; opes- -eris, frigos- -oris,
ub-er- -eris, rob-ur- -oris, fuly-ur- -uris, ungu-en-
-inis, nom-en- -inis. Whether such a form as ovofiaT-
grew out of an older ovofiavr-, itself deduced from an
earlier ovo^av- by the outgrowth of a t, is of little
moment for the present question. The free interchange
of the four consonants just enumerated appears partly
from the words themselves, and is further confirmed
by the appearance of ovo^aivco by the side of ovojjmit-, as
also by such changes as appear in aafypov- and acofaoa-
wy, and the Latin pi. femina by the side o£ femur.
In the same manner there is no substantial difference
in the liquid suffixes of the German fess-el (f), deg-en
(m), aiid mess-er (n.), for these liquids arc apt to inter-
Q
226 ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES.
change, bo that we ourselves have as equivalents for
two of them fetter and dagger.
A second cause through which the number of suffixes
is unreasonably increased is the confusion by which a
compound suffix is taken for a simple one. Thus in
T6fA,-€v-eo--, fac-in-os-, and the oblique cases it-in-er-is,
iec-in-or-is, two distinct suffixes have been united. The
ev or in of these words may have been due to a
secondary verb, as seems probable in the case of the
first, since the form Tepv-co is in common use. The
same is possible in the case of fac-in-os-, for the Latin
language also has many secondary verbs in in, as
spern-o, po{s)'n-o, &c. ; corresponding to our own
reck-on, op-en, and the Greek fiavO-av-co, Xa/jufi-av-co. On
the other hand, the nouns ungu-en-, fem-en-, nomen-
also possess such a suffix. But this is a matter which
may be left open. When the vowel before the n dis-
appears, as in uol-n-es- (from uello), pig-n-os- (from
pango), there is a still greater tendency to consider nes
(nos) as a simple suffix. So also I believe that the ion
of opinion-, &c. is one with the ig-on of vertigon-,
origon-, and so the analogue as regards suffix of such
German nouns as ver-ein-ig-ung, a word which might
have been represented by a Latin per-un-i-on. Indeed
the Latin actually possesses the simple un-ion- ' a little
one/ sometimes applied to a single one in a necklace
of pearls, sometimes to a single one in a rope of onions.
Our own language too abounds in cases where a com-
pound suffix is not seen to be a compound. Thus
English grammars speak of ling, lock, let, kin as
though they were simple, when in fact they are all
shortened forms, standing severally for el-ing, el-ock,
el-et or rather el-ick, and ick-in. That el is itself a
ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES. 227
suffix of diminution is abundantly proved by such
substantives as nozzle, speckle, thimble, as well as the
adjectives litt-le, mick-le ; while ing alone is seen in
farth-ing ' a little fourth/ tith-ing, lord-ing ; ock or
ick in butt-ock, rudcl-ock, or ridd-icJc (Jennings) ' a red-
breast/ f.st-ock ' a little fist/ as once used, ma/mm-ock,
and no end of words in the Scotch dialect. I have
purposely passed by hillock and bullock, because here
an I might have been by some claimed for the suffix.
The suffix et is seen in not a few words, as cygn-et,
sign-et, giml-et, emm-et ; but this suffix is probably a
corruption of an older ock or ick.
It is not however denied that nowadays let and
ling are often added to a word per saltum.
Another fertile source of error lies in the habit of
what Mr. Whitley Stokes calls ' Provection/ a word
which may well take a place in the nomenclature of
Philology. He applies this term to what occurs in
such a phrase as for the nonce, where the n has been
unduly transferred from the preceding word, the more
correct form being for then once ' for this once/
Similarly the tone, the tother grew out of that one,
that other. What is seen here in distinct words also
applies to the prevalent error of treating /mar in Greek
and men in Latin as simple suffixes, for ovopar-, nomen,
tegumen, and tegumentum should be divided ov-a/A-ar-
or ov-v/jl-clt-, g(p)n-om-en, teg-um-en, teg-um- ent-um.
That ar in the Greek noun and en in the Latin are in
themselves suffixes is shown by the words already
given, rjir-aT-os and ungu-en-. On the other hand, um
is sufficiently familiar in bell- am, &c. and virtually in
the Greek epy-ov, &c. Again, that /x. does not belong
to the suffix of alfMaT- seems to be proved by its appear-
Q2
228 ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES.
ance in alfxo-w, which implies a sb. alfxo- (m.). I have
elsewhere (Philolog. Trans. 1856, p. 341) given some of
my reasons for believing that the suffix um of Latin
neuters had in, origin a guttural rather than an m. In
our own language the guttural asperate ough is often
pronounced as a labial asperate, as rough, cough, &c.
So in different parts of England we have at the pre-
sent day the three terms shock, shoof, and sheaf applied
to the same object. On this view there is nothing-
strange in the fact that helium, apium, and Ilium
should lead to adjectives bellic-us, apiac-us, Iliac-us ;
or that apium and allium should in German take the
forms eppich and lauch, in English leek; and con-
versely that the Greek ttvvSclk- and Latin podec- 1
should in English be represented by bott-om as well
as butt-ock
It is strange to find Madvig in his ' Bemerkungen'
(Brunswick, 1844) putting forward the doctrine that
an accusative case in Latin has no true suffix, the final
m being, he says, a mere euphonic addition, while the
v of Greek accusatives he disposes of in the most
summary manner by calling it i^eX/cvariKov. Thus he
says, ' The accusative is only the theme " euphoniously
modified."' In this way he accounts for the identity of
such forms as nom. lignum and ace. lignum. My own
conviction, as I have said, is that bellum has grown
out of an older bell-ogh, which eventually passed
also into bello, so as to enter the second declension.
1 More strictly fundo-, but this I hold to stand for a fuller fund-
oc-. How readily a suffix oc may pass into a mere o is seen in the
Scotch winnock and our more corrupt windrow, haddock the fish,
also called haddow. Indeed the suffix ow of our language, which to
the ear is but an o, has perhaps always grown out of a guttural.
ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES. 229
If what I have said be true, the adjective bellic-us
was in origin a mere genitive, ' of war/ though in the
end compelled to undergo inflection, precisely as hap-
pened to the genitive cuius of the relative, which at
one time the Komans had the courage to decline as
cuius a um.
I proceed to other cases of what I regard as Pro-
vection, in which the letter t plays a very important
part, while c and b also occur ; and in order to suggest
a doubt as to the propriety of the division usually put
forward, I place by the side of each suffix examples
which exhibit no t, c, or b. Thus to tion of lectio,
aratio, I oppose ion of legio ; to tat of bonitat-, at of
sat-iat- and uolunt-at-; to tela of tutela,ela of querela;
to itia of auaritia, ia of miseria ; to itie of canitie-,
ie of desidie- ; to tudon of midtitudon-, udon of liebet-
udon-, and edon of dulcedon-; to ti of morti-, i of tor-
qui- ; to tut of seruitut-, iuuentut-, ut of salut- ; to
itio of seruitio-, io of remigio- ; to tro of claustro-,
aratro-, to of fulc-ro- ; to £a of nauita, a of incola ;
to ^ of partu-, conuentu-, u of man-u-, ac-u-, portic-u-.
These for substantives ; and then for verbs : to ta or
ita of ducta-, clamita-, a of sona-, tona- ; to fo'ta of
lectita-, ita of clamita- ; to fo^a of ustida-, ula of
ambula- ; to fa'Ka of cantilla-, ilia of sorbilla-. So for
adjectives : to £erwo of sempiterno-, emo of hiberno- ;
to Zwr?io of diuturno-, umo of diurno- ; to fa'K of
aquatili-, uolatili-, and fo7i of amabili-, flebili-, utibili-,
nobili-, uolubili-, Hi of riuali-, facili- ; to bundo of
saltabundo-, querebundo-, nitibundo-, and to cundo
of iracundo-, uerecundo-, rubicundo-, the mere imc/o
of sec-undo-, regundo-, oriundo- ; to too of captiuo-,
iuo of uociuo-; to ^'co of aquatico-, ico of ciuico- ; to
230 ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES.
ceo of rosaceo-, eo of aureo- ; to cio or tio of tribu-
nicio-, io of regio- ; to ceri of alaceri-, uoluceri-, to
6m of luguberi-, and to teW of compesteri-, the
simpler eW of ac-eri- ; to cero of ludicero-, ero of
pig-ero-, rub-ero- ; to £ero of dextero-, crotycorepo-, ero
of supero-, evepo- ; to ^'mo and raro of superlatives,
imo and aro of minimo-, fieaaro-. So also for diminu-
tives, whether substantives or adjectives : to cuius a
um of sermunculus, soivrcula, corpusciduyn, breui-
cidus, idus a um of regulus, barbula, scutulum,
hilarulus.
Now in all these the error called Provection has
been at work. In other words the c, b, t, assigned to
the suffix, belongs properly to the preceding syllable.
The foundation of my argument is of so extensive a
character that here I can do little more than refer to
the two papers * On the Eepresentatives of the Keltic
Suffix Agh or Ach "little/' in the Latin Vocabulary/ in
the Transactions of the Philological Society for 1856,
pp. 295 — 354, and to the preceding paper, ' On English
Diminutives/ pp. 219 — 250. Of the former of these
a summary was also given in the second appendix of
my Latin Grammar. The result will be found to be,
that, while I find the suffix ag in its full form in plag
of plango, in frag of frango, in strag of strag-es,
strctgidus, whence straui, stratum, in uorag of uorag-
on, &c, and but little changed in trail of traho traxi,
the vowel is modified in frug- of fruges by the side
of fruor and fructus, in fug- (for jlug, cf. the Germ.
flieh-en, jlucht). On the other hand the medial g is
exchanged for a tenuis in orac-ulum, lauac-rum,
verec-undus, ridic-ulus, uoluc-ris, inuoluc-rum ; or
retained, but with the loss of its vowel, in sparg-,
ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES. 231
terg-, merg-, uerg-. A second change I assume is
the passage of
has generally for its Latin analogue a b. Hence
scrib-o ; and indeed the Greek language itself at
times exhibits a 0, as in 0opvj3os by the side of
rapaxr), and also in rpi^co from a root rep. Indeed,
the Latin also must once have had a secondary verb,
ter-ib- or ter-eb-, by the side of ter-, for so only can
we account for the nouns trib-ulum and tereb'ra, as
also for the forms tri'ui, trVtus. In this way I would
explain the Latin mir-ab-ili-, dol-ab-ra-, fl-eb-ili- y ten-
eb-ra-, illec-eb-ra-, cr-ib-ro-, (g)n-ob-ili-, uol-ub-ili-,
sol-ub-ili-, and the vb. gl-ub-.
The assumptions I am making may appear to be
over-bold, as I claim not merely a change of the con-
sonant, but a change without limit for the vowel.
But it should be observed that the change of vowel
obeys something like a law, inasmuch as the assumed
vowel is, in a large majority of instances, that which
is one with, or if not so, still in keeping with, the
root-vowel ; and this doctrine of vowel-assimilation
demands attention for perhaps all languages. As an
instructive example, I point to a family of substan-
tives in some of the chief Indo-European languages,
where the leading idea is that of a living creature
small or young, viz. 7rai\o$ ' a young horse/ pull us
' a young horse or a chicken/ TraXka% ' a young man/
pelfrx literally 'a young woman/ but employed as a
232 ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES.
euphemism for *a concubine,' fillie 'a young mare/
pollock a Scotch term for c a young fish or crab/
So far I have taken into consideration the use of
the suffix ag, &c. in Latin and Greek verbs only. But
it also plays its part in the formation of nouns, both
substantives and adjectives ; and here I was en-
couraged in the outset of the inquiry by finding
that Pott had demonstrated by a large induction that
a/c is a Greek suffix of nouns signifying * little/ while
I also found ec performing the same duty in Latin
and the Slavonic language, and our own too has clear
representatives of the same suffix, which take a great
variety of forms, but all proceeding, I think, from an
original ock, as bullock The Latin nouns cim-ec- ' a
bug/ pul-ec- ' a flea/ cul-ec- ' a gnat/ are unmistakeable
diminutives, although the primitives have ceased to
exist. But with us, as with the Greeks and Eomans,
the guttural passes into other sounds. As they gave
admission to ypacpco and scribo, so the German has
grab-en, and we both grub and grave. Hence I
cannot but treat the f of calf, half, turf (for which
the Scotch has a simple toor) as standing for af or oof
and so a diminutival suffix.
But not unfrequently with us a final guttural dis-
appears altogether, though at times it leaves for the
eye its ghost, in the shape of a silent y or w. Thus
we have shad-ow for ' a bit of shade/ haddow, window,
by the side of haddock, and the Scotch winnock, way,
day, say, any, honey, corresponding to the German
weg, tag, sagen, einig, honig.
With this evidence from our own island, I venture
to put forward the startling doctrine, for those at least
who now hear it for the first time, that all the vowel
ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES. 233
conjugations of the Greek and Latin verbs, and all
the vowel declensions of their nouns, have grown out
of older forms, with the guttural suffix ac or ag more
or less modified. Hence I account for the eighteen
Latin neuters in aculo- or aero-, as sub-lig-ac-ulo-,
lau-ac-ro-, for the ah in the four hundred adjectives
(I give this number after duly counting them) in
ab-ili-, as mirab-ili- ; also for the frequentative parti-
ciples, over sixty in number, such as plorab-undo-,
contionab-undo-, gemeb-itndo-. Here the suffix is
fitly employed, since we also, as Dr. Johnson points
out in his ' Grammar of the English Language/ employ
our diminutival el or le in the formation of iterative
verbs, as sparkle, gamble, or gambol.
On the principle here put forward, the vowel verbs
of Latin should exhibit some traces of the same
meaning ; and I see such traces first in such verbs as
frica-re, laua-re, tona-re, all of which deal with
actions which are commonly repetitive, while the
simple verbs lauere and tonere are not unknown to
the older language, and frietus fricui again implies
a consonant verb fric-. Moreover, as in the Slavonic
languages verbs fall into two classes, which their
grammars call ' momentary ; and ' continuative,' so
the Latin vowel verbs, where they fail to mark
iteration, are distinctly employed for what is akin to
this idea, that of continuity, as in stare (for set-a-re,
as opposed to the simple set, seen in si-s(e)t-o, which
denotes the momentary act of stopping) ; in sedc-, iace-,
pende-, as opposed to sid-, iac-, pend- ; in aide- ' see ;'
in s(e)c-i- 'know,' from a lost sec-, corresponding to
seh of the German sehen ' to look at/ Here, how-
ever, the original meaning was probably of a physical
234 ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES.
character ; and, if so, we should identify the root
with sec of sec-are ' cut/ in which case we should
have what is parallel to cerno ' I sift or separate/ and
to uideo as compared with diuid-o ' I separate/ But
both Greeks and Romans, though without the simple
verb sec (veic), have deduced from it, by the addition
of the very suffix we are discussing, a secondary sek-
ek ; which, offensive by its repeated guttural, led to
the substitution of a labial for one of them, and so
supplied the Greek language with its a 'fce-ir-, and the
Latin with its s'pec-.
As to nouns, the adjective rosac-eo-, to take this
as representing a class, when compared with aureo-,
receives its explanation so soon as we look upon
ros-a- as having grown out of a fuller ros-ac-, which
is nearly identical with the Greek diminutive poh-atc-.
Similarly tribunic-io- may well have been deduced
from an older tribun-oc-, or tribun-ic-. In the ad-
jective aprug-no- from apero-, the guttural happens to
have been preserved. Similarly ciuic-us and bellic-us
have, in the us alone, the suffix which constitutes
them adjectives ; this suffix being probably, as I have
already hinted, one with the ordinary suffix of the
genitive as seen in the Greek acofjuaT-os, &c.
I have not so far appealed to an argument which
seems to me of much weight, that, in all languages,
diminutives have the habit of supplanting the primi-
tives from which they sprang. Thus fratello, sorella,
in Italian, soleil, abeille, in French, sparr-ow in
English, and sper-ling in German, though evidently
in origin diminutives, stand now alone in their re-
spective languages ; and again the primitive stare, of
which star-ling is the diminutive, is almost obsolete.
ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES. 235
What has been said of Latin substantives is equally
applicable to Latin adjectives; and strangely enough
the whole Latin vocabulary fails to present us with a
single 1 original adjective of monosyllabic form, all such
simple adjectives having been superseded by words
which have assumed a diminutival suffix. Conse-
quently all are disyllabic, or still longer. There is
one apparent exception to this assertion in trux
trucis ; but this is only a compression of tor-uc- with
the guttural suffix in unusual purity, and even this
had by its side the double diminutive tor-u-o- for
tor-uc-o-. This general formation of diminutival
adjectives seems to be the result of something like a
feeling of modesty, a desire to keep within due bounds.
The Romans would not say without qualification
that a thing was absolutely long. It was ' somewhat
long,' ' rather long than not/ or, as in familiar English
we say, 'long-ish/ Thus in Latin breuic-ido- is the
more correct division, breui- itself being but a cur-
tailment of breu-ic-. So we also have adjectives in
our yell-oiv, shall-oiv, holl-ow, call-oiv.
But it is common for a c to give place to a t, as has
been more than once noticed in these pages (see pp.
75, 227) ; and this especially in the case of diminutives.
Hence in breuit-er, er alone is strictly speaking the suf-
fix, which probably grew out of an older es, if we may
argue from the general habit of the language. Now,
when Plautus wished to give to the Greek adverb
avevaxv/J*™? 2 a Latin dress, he wrote ineusceme. Bui
the Greek ovtws had also the shortened form ovtco, so
1 Except perhaps par, which however has a \>\. par i-a.
2 Trin. iii. 1, 24- (see my paper on Hitachi's Plautus, Philolog.
Trans. 1860-1, \\ 178).
236 ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES.
that the loss of the s was no violent proceeding ; and
I venture to suggest that as the Greek suffix cos was
reduced to o>, so my assumed Latin suffix es was to e,
as seen in ineusceme, docte, &c. Nay, we may go one
step farther, and identify the assumed suffix es with cos,
the e with the co, since the Latin had certo, uero, Sec.
as adverbs by the side of certe, uere ; and the same
interchange of these long vowels is seen in airarcop and
7raT7)p, oLK7]Ttop and oiK7]Trjp, Anio and Anienis. Thus
I am disposed to contend for the identity of the three
adverbial suffixes, er (for es) of breuiter, e of docte,
o of vero, both with each other, and with the Greek
COS and O) Of OVTCOS, OVTCO.
The cases of canit-ie-, auarit-ia- are also cases where
a t has superseded a c, and indeed the forms in ie,
canicie-, auaricia-, have good manuscript authority,
though not the best, and they are to the present day
preserved in the Spanish vocabulary. Nay, the com-
paratives tristic-ior, iustic-ior, laetic-ior so frequently
present themselves in manuscripts of the second order
in place of the orthodox tristior, iuslior, laetior, that
it seems to be a safe conclusion that such forms were
in provincial use. (See the paper already referred to,
p. 346.) Thus we have direct evidence in favour of
the forms tristic-, iustic-, luetic-, from which tristic-ia,
iustic-ia, laetic-ia would be duly formed.
What has been said of these words applies of course
to the classes represented by bonil-at-, multit-udon-,
seruit-io-, nciuit-a-. So also as regards the frequenta-
tives in ita, as clam-ita-, it may justly be contended
that it-a is a double suffix of diminution standing for
ic-a. Indeed the verbs uell-ic-a-, fod-ic-a-, mors-
ic-a- have preserved the guttural. No doubt the fre-
ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES. 237
quentatives in ita form a very large majority ; but
these are mtters, as I have said before, not to be
decided by numbers ; and further, there was a special
reason why many of them should prefer to substitute
ita for tea, as having already a preceding guttural, as
clamita- for instance, agita-, and quaerita- ; I say
'many/ after counting over three hundred so con-
stituted, and a combination of three hundred might
well lead to something like a law for the others.
The same applies to the so-called supines, or nouns
of the %i declension, which have a short vowel before
the t, as fremitu-, gemitu-, crepitu- ; as also to such
nouns as position-, exposition-. Indeed in ration- we
know, from our own verbs reck and reck-on, that a
guttural is the more genuine letter. So again with
the noun sation- a guttural may be claimed as having
preceded the t on the strength of our verb soiv with
its final w. For condition- and dition- the case is clear,
as the older forms are now known to have been con-
dicion- and dicion-. Lastly in red-it-u-, ad-it-u-, &c.
the t is an original part of the root, as shown by the
forms it-er, ex-it -io-(n.), in-it-io-, corn-it-, ped-it-, &c. ;
and the old verb per-bit-ere, &c.
In many cases, however, the appearance of a t, no
way belonging to the suffix, seems to admit of its true
explanation in the theory that it is excrescent. I refer
to such forms as lect-ion-, cant-ion-, capt-ion-, assert-
ion-, ust-ion-, gent-i-, mort-i-, uest-i ; cant-u-, iact-u-,
quest-u-, part-u, salt-u-; iuuent-ut-, uirt-ut-, senect-ut-;
and the verbs lect-ita-, ust-ida-, cant-illa-. But not
so in capt-iuo-, &c. for such an adjective denotes the
belonging to the class of men capti or things capta,
so that a perfect participle is called for, which is not
238 ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES.
the case with the nouns in ion and u, for these speak
only of an act in progress, not of an act completed.
But there remain for consideration the cases in
which a t is preceded by a long vowel, as aration-,
uolatili-, aquatili-, aquatico-. All these I would
explain on the same principle which was applied (p.
208) to otio-y diiitius, setius, viz. that the older forms
had a c before the t, and that the t itself was an out-
growth from this c, the several words being deduced
from ar-ac-, uol-ac- (cf. uokic-ri-), and aqu-ac-.
Again, I am disposed to transfer from the suffix to
the verb the t which precedes or in the names of
agents, as arat-or, act-or, duct-or, rapt-or, past-or,
cant-or, sart-or, the or itself being only a variety
of uir, just as the Welsh has barf ' beard/ barf-ivr
' barber ;' mor ' sea/ mor-wr ' sailor / pryn-u 'to buy/
pryn-ivr ' a buyer;' pechod ' sin/ pechad-wr 'sinner'
(one of course with the Lat. peccat-or). And these
Welsh forms are, I believe, generally regarded as con-
taining the word gwr 'man/ But if I thus treat t
of the above Latin words as excrescent, what is to be
done with the Greek names of agents, such as oifcrjTwp,
ovKTjTTjp % My answer is simply this, that they should
be dealt with in precisely the same way, the t being
attached to what precedes. One advantageous result
of this view is that the French forms such as taill-eur,
hrass-eur become intelligible ; and further that the
Teutonic branches fall into agreement with the classical
languages as regards nouns in or, er> like our sail-or,
dealer, and the Germ, hiif-er, geb-er, &c.
I have yet to deal with comparatives and superla-
tives, and to justify the division aocjxor-epo-, SewoT-epo-,
alt-ero-, sinist-ero- P iror-epo, ao^coT-aro-, BeivoT-aTo-, ult-
ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES. 239
imo- 9 int-imo-, &c. (p. 120), as contrasted with the pre-
vailing habit of assigning the t to what follows. What
I subsequently said in the same paper will more than
prepare the way for my defence. It may be remembered
that, starting from the suffix lov of Greek, ior (ios) of
Latin comparatives, I called in aid the doctrine of
Bopp, that these two suffixes were apt to lose one of
the two vowels, an { being lost for minor and minus,
and secus as superseding secius (cf. p. 122), to which I
might have added the Latin prim-ores (for prim-iores)
and the Greek ifke-ov for ifKe-Lov, the pie-ores of the
Carmen Arvale, and plus or rather pious itself, as a
contraction of pleos, and lastly the theoretic op-os,
afterwards post, of the same paper. On the other
hand, we have but the i in magis, nimis, satis, prist-
ino-i probably also in on-ia-co, more certainly in irp-iv,
which, though short in later writers, has often a long
vowel in Homer. It has been said indeed that the
vowel is * properly' short ; but surely the authority of
Homer is for the present question more weighty than
that of any number of later poets ; and indeed gene-
rally it may be asserted that the passage from long to
short vowels is more in accordance with reason and
with the history of language. Thus irpiv may well
have grown out of irp-iov, i. e. irop-uov.
In the same paper I pointed to the fact that both in
Gothic and the younger German languages the same
appearance, sometimes of i (e), sometimes of o, is the
universal characteristic of comparatives, as ald-iz-a,
minn-iz-a, together with frum-oz-a,frod-oz-a in Gothic,
alt-ir-o (alt-er-o), menn-ir-o (menn-er-o), with jung*
or-o, frot-or-o in Old German ; and from this I drew
what I deemed a reasonable inference, that these
240 ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES.
Teutonic suffixes grew out of an older suffix ios or
■ioz (ior). The Greek and Latin suffixes differ indeed
in the one having a v, the other an s (■?•) ; but this
is a distinction which must not be regarded as affect-
ing their identity, seeing that it is in obedience to a
law which subsists between the two languages (see p.
163) ; and indeed the Sanskrit serves as a connecting
link with its fuller suffix tydns (Bopp, V. G. ii. pp. 32,
35), which at the same time accounts for the long i
in the Greek com-parative.
But, as I said in the former paper, no one can for a
moment separate the suffix of Modern German 'and
our English comparatives, as in dlt-er, old-er, wis-er,
from the er of the Old German alt-er-o, &c. ; nor this
again from the classical ev-ep-oi, sup-er-i, inf-er-i. The
word W-ep-o- ' one of two,' proclaims its intimate con-
nexion with the numeral ev- ' one/ both by its meaning
and by its asperate, for the Greek language stands
apart from all its congeners in giving an asperate
to these two words. Then as to the change of con-
sonant we have the same in our old bet-est from a
root ben, and, what is still more to the purpose, the
Danish has alongside of each other en as m. and £,
et as neuter for the indefinite article, which of course
is but the numeral one. We are taught indeed that
the t in this and other words is a neuter suffix ;
but in fact such a thing as a neuter suffix has no
existence, all that characterises a neuter being the
loss of some final consonant, and not any addition.
A change of n and t is seen not merely in the Norse
participle m. haldinn (for haldins), f. haldin, n. hold-
it, but also in our own hold-en, elov-en, as compared
with the Scotch abas-it, English clef-t, and with the
ON FALSE DIVISION OF SUFFIXES. 241
Latin pos-it-o-. Of course a classical t according to
Kask's law should appear in our tongue as th, and
accordingly the comparative of our one is oth-er.
Again, so far as regards the Teutonic family, it is
the common doctrine, and one which I think cannot
be disputed, that superlatives are formed from the
comparative, and not directly from the positive. In
the French le meilleur too this is self-evident ; as also
in the Lapp dneh ' short,' dnekub ' shorter/ dneJcumus
' shortest/ which throw light upon the Latin superla-
tive. The same theory accounts for the forms peyiaros,
/3€\tl-oKT-aTo-, ao(j)-o- itself having super-
seded an older horto-, %op-o-, cor-o-na-, circ-o-. The
initial change between a Gr. %, Lat. /*>, and a g (y) in
German and English is in accordance with the usual
law, as seen in %0e?, heri, hesterno-, gestern, yesterday.
So much for the alleged deduction of substantives
from Sanskrit verbs signifying 'to go/ But in the
formation of secondary verbs also the roots i ' go/ and
yd ' go' are thought by Bopp well fitted to play im-
portant parts, as for example in furnishing suffixes by
which verbs are converted into passives (§ 739) and
causals (§ 740). As regards the former, if hord yai,
to take Bopp's own example from the Bengali, have
for a literal translation ' I am made' ('ich werde ge-
macht'), as given by himself, then gemacht is by itself
already a passive, just as verloren is in the Modern
German gehen verloren, literally ' to go lost/ We
too may say ' become detested' or 'become fascinating/
where the distinction between the passive and the
active idea turns upon the accompanying participle, not
upon the word ' become/ Again, Bopp's illustration
from the Latin amatum iri is surely not applicable.
If the principle for which he is contending be valid,
we ought already to have a passive in the indicatival
phrase amatum eo ' I am going to love/ but this is a
mere future of the active. The introduction of a pas-
sive of eo, whether in the indicative as amatum itur,
or in the infinitive as amatum iri, is only a convenient
mode of exhibiting an impersonal verb, equivalent to
the French on va aimer. The examples of ueneo and
262 QVAEHITVR.
pereo, quoted by Bopp, are at first sight more to the
purpose, and he would have done well to strengthen
his case by comparing them with uendo and perdo.
Yet after all uenire, standing for uenum ire, means
probably * to go into the window/ and so ' be exhibited
for sale/ which certainly is more truly the meaning of
the phrase than ' to be sold.' So also uenui est admits
of the literal translation ' it is in the window/ i.e. ' is
offered for sale/ Again, perire ' to come to an end/
like the English go to the dogs or the Greek eppe e$
Kopatcas, contains no doubt what is virtually a passive
idea ; but this arises from the combination with the
per and the es Kopcucas, &c. That ' go' does not carry
in itself the idea of a passive is clear from our own
phrases ' go to the Bar/ or ' into the Church,' or * into
business/ Curtius (Beitrage, p. 329) goes still far-
ther, and conjectures that the Or, which appears in the
aorist and future of Greek passives is connected with
the S. vb. yd ' go/ in which however all resemblance
seems limited to the long vowel. I pass then from
the passive.
The causal mood of the Sanskrit verb, as well as the
tenth conjugation in general, having for their distin-
guishing character the syllable ay, 1 Bopp's mind is
divided by a doubt whether this suffix should be re-
ferred to the verb i 'go' or i 'wish/ The latter one
would think is far better fitted for the formation of a
desiderative mood, which, it seems, is a general appen-
dage to the Sanskrit verb. Nor does i 'go* at first
sight appear a satisfactory element for the purpose of
1 Of causals some make ay the suffix, some ya. I believe the
former to be right.
QVAERITV& 263
constituting a causal verb ; but we are assured by
Bopp (§ 740) that several Sanskrit words which denote
'motion' at the same time denote 'making/ Whether
the particular verb i has this convenient privilege he
does not stop to tell us. Assuming however that it
has, we have before us a strange combination, that
roots expressive of 'going' are alike fitted to form
passives and to form actives.
But further, although the causative idea is declared
to be the character of the tenth conjugation, I find
little proof of this in the list of fifty-seven verbs quoted
by Professor "Wilson in his Grammar, for of all these
at the utmost one in five can be explained as contain-
ing the idea ' to make. 5 Thus the first ten in the
series are translated by the English verbs ' steal, dis-
respect, hurt, send, wink, speak, play, be feeble, be
able, sound.' I am not then surprised to find in § 772
such a sentence as, ' It deserves however notice that in
Sanskrit denominative verbs in ya 1 occasionally avail
themselves of the causal form without any causal
meaning.' My own feeling is that the original notion
paulatim resides in ay, and that it is the Sanskrit
variety of that suffix which I have discussed at length
in my paper on agh or ag, the passage of a g between
vowels (aydmi) into a y being a common occurrence.
On this theory the meaning may well pass into that
of frequentative or continuous. But leaving this
question open, if we accept that one of Bopp's two
explanations which finds in the suffix of the so-called
Sanskrit causals or tenth conjugation the root i ' go/
we shall have to assign to this use of the word a
1 See note on the preceding page.
264 QVAERITVR.
somewhat vast domain in the classical and German
languages, for Bopp connects with the same type all
the vowel-verbs of the Latin, at any rate the first,
second, and fourth conjugations of that language
(§ 745 c.) ; all the Greek verbs in eo>, aco, oo>, af&>, t£o)
(§§ 109 a. b. 749, and 762), together with the par-
ticular verbs /3a\\&>, o-reWa), laWoo, and lr]fii ; and lastly
all the weak verbs of the German stock (§ 109). A
few of these verbs specially noticed by Bopp himself
may claim a few words. We are assured that the
Latin facio = S. b'dv-dydmi, literally ' I make to be ;'
iacio = ydp-dydmi ' I make to go ;' cloceo — gridp-
dydmi ' I make to know ;' rapio = rdp-dydmi ' I
make to give' (§747). It seems somewhat damaging
to this theory that the suffixes i or e of the Latin,
which Bopp himself holds to be the representatives
of the S. ay, contribute but little to the formation of
the causative idea, seeing that ^ac-, iac-, doc-, rap- in
themselves already express the full notion of ' making,
throwing, teaching, robbing ;' as may be seen in the
forms fac-ere, iac-ere, rap-ere, and in fac-tus, iac-lus,
doc-tus, rap-tus. Yd-p-dydmi is thought to possess
a second suffix of causation in its p, so that yd ( go*
is the real base of the verb ; and if this case be doubt-
ful, a causal p is declared with greater certainty to be
an element in gnd-p-dydmi ' I make to know/ grid (or
in English characters jnd) being what Bopp is pleased
to call a root-verb, the equivalent of our know. But
of this jnd more hereafter. To place Bopp's doctrine
clearly before me, I throw aside the equivalent por-
tions eo and dydmi, and there results the equation,
Lat. doc = S. jndp. No doubt the palatal j of the
Sanskrit is with reason assumed to be a corruption of
QVAERITVR. 265
a medial guttural g or 7. The business then is to prove
that doc is equal to gndp. I make no difficulty about
the final consonants, for a Lat. c habitually corresponds
to a S. p. But there still remain three problems for
solution, — to identify the d with g, the short with the
long a, and to account for the appearance of n in the
Sanskrit or its disappearance from the Latin. For
the first Bopp simply quotes the instance Arj-fjLTjTrjp =
TTj-/jL7j7rjp ; on the difference of vowel he says nothing.
The difficulty as to the nasal is disposed of by the
assurance that for gnd-nd-mi ' I know' there occurs an
actual gd-nd-mi, and that in Persian there exists the
form dd-ne-m ' I know/ But surely the asserted loss
of an n from gnd-nd-mi, when followed so closely by a
second n } is but a poor justification for the disappear-
ance of an n in doc for dnoc. For one then I must
regard the doc of doceo as better explained within the
limits of the classical languages by dec of deico (==
dico) and Seifc-w/M, by Sax, the root of oVoW/co), 6V
hcucTos, and ScLKjvkos, by the die of di-dic-i and dig of
dig-itus. But if I must look to the Sanskrit, here too
I find a thoroughly admissible representative in the
vb. dis ' show/ with that palatal s which regularly cor-
responds to a western &-sound ; and indeed Bopp him-
self I find, in his ' Glossary/ regards this root dis as
one with the root of Sclkw^i and the Lat. dico. 1
1 As some friends well acquainted with Sanskrit were slow to
believe that a writer like Eopp could have published such ' extrava-
gancies,' I quote his very words (§ 747) : 'Kan ich aber das c der
genannten Form (facio) nicht mit dem skr. causalen p. vermittelii,
so glaube ich doch dem Lateinischen noch ein anderes Causale
nachweisen zu kbnnen, worin c die Stelle eines skr. p vertritt,
namlich doceo, welches ich im Sinne von ich mache wissen auffasse
und fur verwandt mit disco (eigentlich ich wiinsche zu wissen)
266 QVAERITVK.
The p of rap- or rapi-, as also that of the S. rdp-
aydnii, is again treated by Bopp as of causal power,
and he finds in his root rd 'give' only a variety of dd
'give/ Thus 'to give' and 'to cause to give or rob'
owe their marked difference of meaning to the causal
suffix ; not that this is an essential matter with him,
for this same root dd or rd is thought by him to be
identical with the S. vb. Id, to which simple form is
ascribed the double meaning of 'to give' and ' to take/
a mixture of ideas which, if carried out in life, might
lead to inconvenient results. 1
So much for the value to the Sanskritist of his roots
signifying 'to go' in the way of etymology; and the
stock is no small one. Taking of the ten conjugations
the first alone, and again limiting myself to the series
which Professor Wilson quotes in his Grammar as ' the
most useful verbs of this conjugation/ I find just twenty,
viz. 1. wj ' to go / 2. at 'to go / 3. i ' to go / 4. du
' to go / 5. iikh ' to go / 6. r ' to go/ ' to gain / 7. rj
* to be straight' or ' honest/ ' to gain/ ' to go/ ' to live /
8. hram ' to go/ ' to walk ;' 9. gam 'to go / 13, vichchh
' to go / 11. char ' to go / 12. dhauk ' to go ;' 13. pat
und dem gr. ZSdrjv, diSdano) halte. 1st das d dieser Formen aus g
entstanden (vgl. Arjfxyrrjp aus r^TJrrjp), so fiihrt doceo zum skr. gncvp-
dydmi, ichmachewissen ga-na-mi ich weiss fur gnd-nd-mi) und
zmupers. dd-ne-m ich weiss. Als ein Beispiel ernes lat. Causale,
worm das urspningliche p unverandert geblieben ware, erwiese
sieh. rapio, im Fall es dem. skr. rdpdydmi ich mache geben ent-
spricht, von der Wz. rd geben, die, wie mir schient, nichts anders
als eine Schwachung von dd ist. Auch kommt, sowie neben dd
eine erweiterte Form das besteht, neben rd im Veda-Dialekt rds
vor. Mit rd und dd scheint auch ihrem Ursprunge nach die Wz.
Id identisch, welcher die Bedeutungen geben und nehmen zuge-
schrieben werden.'
1 Ibid.
QVAERITVB,. 267
'to go/ 'to fall;' 14. sad 'to wither' or 'decay/ 'to
go' (with this appended : When the verb means 'to
go/ the causal retains the final, — sddayati 'he causes to
go/ or 'drives') ; 15. sad ' to decay,' ' to be sad/ 'to go ;'
16. sasj ' to go ;' 17. sidh ' to go ;' 18. sr ' to go ;' 19.
srp 'to go,' ' to creep' or ' glide ;' 20. skand 'to go' or
' approach.' I should have made some addition to this
list had 1 included those verbs which only express a
more special or limited form of motion, as 'pervade,
jump, hasten, run, gallop, approach, wander.'
With, such an abundance of verbs to draw from, a
philologer should the more hold himself bound to pro-
ceed with caution, and so take care that the logical
connexion between the root and the supposed deriva-
tive should be well-marked. Whether the examples I
have quoted exhibit such caution, I leave to others to
decide. Lastly, I think it right to repeat that, by con-
fining myself almost wholly to those instances of bold
etymology which deal with verbs signifying ' to go/ I
avoid the charge of selecting instances favourable to
my view. Indeed without some such limitation it
would be an easy matter to pick holes in any of the
most carefully elaborated philological works, for the
most cautious etymologer is apt to be carried away at
times by tempting theories. In the next section of
my paper I purpose more particularly to consider
Bopp's celebrated work, the ' Vergleichende Gran>
matik/ in its general system.
In the short discussion which followed the reading
of the above paper at the Philological Society it was
replied on one side that the idea of ' to go ' was pre-
268 QVAERITVE.
cisely that which was well adapted to denote an active
verb. To this I answer that a vb. ' to go' was equally-
claimed for the special formation of passives ; but in
truth the argument seems to me upset by its very
generality. What is fitted to denote every form of
action is for that reason unfitted to denote any form
of action. The very essence of language is distinction
or difference. Accordingly the other answer to the
difficulties I had raised was that although simple
' going' is commonly assigned as the meaning of the
verbs I have quoted, yet in truth each of them origi-
nally denoted some special form of going. Such seems
to be the feeling of Bopp also (V. G. § 515). I will
only reply to this that I took the verbs with the mean-
ing attached to them by the several authorities from
whom I was quoting. But over and above this, when
the discussion was brought to the individual substan-
tives, I found that the Sanskrit scholars who were pre-
sent employed in the defence of the Indian etymolo-
gies a vagueness as complete as that expressed in the
general term ' going/ Thus go and ild ' the cow/ and
go and ild ' the earth/ were said to be well entitled to
such derivation, as being in the Indian mind the centres
of activity most important to man.
I take the opportunity of making a slight addition
to the paper. As sr, according to Wilson's Grammar
(p. 200), at times signifies ' to go quickly' or ' run/ I
am the more justified in attributing to the suffixed p
of srp the power of paulatim. At any rate it has no
causal power here. Further, if the Sanskrit vocabu-
lary could deduce from a verb signifying 'to run' by
the addition of this suffix a secondary verb srp ' to
creep/ I am justified in connecting our own cr-ep
QVAERITVR. 269
(whence creep and crep-t), as regards its root, with the
base of the Dorsetshire hir-n = Ang.-Sax. yrn-an ' to
run ;' and that base, hir, corresponds of course to the
Lat. cur- of curro. Again, if the S. verb sal ' go'
is one with the verb sr ' go,' we have the analogue of
this sal in the Greek dWofiai and Latin salio, whence
sal tu-s ' a sheep or cattle run! I am the more
inclined to attach some value to this conjecture, be-
cause as fed of fallere ' to cause to fair seems to
furnish the only 1 root for fors fortis, so does sal- for
sors sortis ' that which leaps from the urn' (situla), a
noun from which has come the verb sortiri of the
Latin and the verb sortir (with a very different power,
more akin to the original root) of the French. Lastly,
le,t me observe that if the Sanskritists had been con-
tented to derive sarit ■ a river' from a root sr 'go' or
rather 'run,' there could have been little objection, our
own terms 'current' and 'watercourse,' Bull's ' Bun'
and ' runlet,' exhibiting a similar origin. Such terms
as saras ' marsh or marshland' and ap ' water' have
not the same justification.
1 I have been somewhat hasty in using the word ' only,' for I find
Mommsen (Inscr, p. 268) writing : * Eecte omnino sortem derivarunt
grammatici quidam a serie et serendo, utfors venit a ferendo. 1 But
I still adhere to what is stated above.
270
XIII.
QVAEEITVK.
Second Part.
It would be to shrink from the task I have undertaken
were I not to take into special consideration the great
work of Bopp, who appears with something like gene-
ral consent to be entitled the founder of Comparative
Grammar as a science ; and the claim upon my atten-
tion is only the stronger that his ' Vergleichende
Grammatik/ the first portion of which was published
in 1833, has been recently reprinted with some changes
and considerable additions (1857-60).
Here, as in what I have already said, I shall without
further apology for my temerity proceed to state unre-
servedly the objections that have presented themselves
to my mind, not expecting those objections to be ac-
cepted as valid, but desirous that they may attract the
notice of scholars whose more intimate acquaintance
with the subject will enable them to detect any errors
I may have committed. The contest is happily one
in which the victorious and the defeated must alike
be gainers, the one object of both parties being to
promote the cultivation of the science of language.
First of all then I find in the very title of the com-
mencing chapter ('Schrift- und Laut-System') what
appears to me unphilosophical, viz. the precedence
given to writing over sound. Over a large portion of
QVAERITVR, 271
our globe there exist whole races possessed of the faculty
of speech, but without any knowledge of written sym-
bols ; and indeed no small part of the population even
of this country is in this position. But I should have
passed over this matter if the error, so to call it, had
not told unfavourably on the arguments that follow.
The very first paragraph in the chapter gives to three
of the vowels a special character, which, as it appears
to me, is not due to them. Thus the title of original
vowels (Urvocale) is assigned to a, i, u ; and this, I
believe, on no other ground than that the Sanskrit
alphabet had special characters for these when the
sounds of e and o may have been denoted by combi-
nations of the first three, much as the French language
employs its dip thongs ai and au as simple vowels.
Had the school of philology founded by Bopp looked
upon the materials for oral language as belonging to
the domain of physical science, and wholly indepen-
dent of those other forms of language which are
addressed to the eye, such an error could not have
occurred. In particular I must repeat the regret, to,
which I had already given expression in the year 1852,
when I drew up the present paper (Proceedings, vol.
v. p. 192), that the valuable paper on vowel-sounds
which was read by Professor Willis before the Cam-
bridge Philosophical Society (November 28, 1828, and
March 16, 1829) seems to have been wholly unnoticed
by the leading scholars of Germany. At any rate,
when I entered upon the present inquiry, I had never 1
1 I subsequently found that I had not done justice to German
scholars in this remark. In Dr. Bindseil's 'Abhandlungen zur allge-
meinen vergleichenden Sprachlchre' (Hamburg, 1838), p. 84, refer-
ence is made to Professor Willis's paper, and from the appended
272 QVAERITVR.
come across the slightest allusion to tins paper, or to the
principles established in it, in any German writer ; yet
had read much from this quarter that would never
have been written by any one acquainted with the
results of Mr. Willis's experiments. Nay, I do not
recollect to have seen at that time in any of their
prominent works in the field of philology any refer-
ence to that physiological organ which may literally be
called the primum mobile of human speech, — I mean
the two chordae vocales. Now that Professor Czermak
of Prague by his simple apparatus has enabled the
inquirer to witness the action of these musical strings
in the living man, we may hope that the study of oral
language may be placed on its proper basis. It will
then be laid down as the first dogma that as vowel-
sounds constitute the substance of language (for brevity
I drop the word ' oral/ which is the only form here
under consideration), so the character of any vowel
depends almost wholly on the distance for the time
between the chordae vocales and the margin of the
lips, — in other words, on the length of the vocal pipe, —
the position of the tongue being of no moment so long
as it does not close the passage of air. So thoroughly
definite and mathematical is the character of the
physical experiments on which Professor Willis's
results are founded, that he has given numerical values
note I learn that the paper itself was reproduced in the German
language in Poggendorff 's 'Annalen der Physik und Chemie.' Stilt
Dr. Bindseil himself seems to have been satisfied with a bare refer-
ence, making little or no use of the principle, nor does his work
appear to have met with much notice among his countrymen. It
stopped abruptly with the first volume, although this contains only
a general introduction and a treatise on gender.
QVAEEITVE. 273
to the distances that belong to such of the vowels as
are most familiar to English ears. At the same time
as the number of points in a line is infinite, so the
vowel-sounds pass by imperceptible gradations from
the one extreme i (the sound in feet) to the other
extreme u (or oo in boot). Thus it is wholly owing to
the imperfection, yet necessary imperfection, of alpha-
bets, that there is but a limited set of symbols for
vowel-sound. The number itself is essentially infinite ;
and it was therefore a subject of amusement as well as
regret to hear some few years ago that a conclave of
learned philologers was then sitting in London to
determine, among other high matters, what was the
full number of vowels.
But the vowel-order % e, a, o, u (with the sounds
which prevail on the Continent), as resulting from
Professor Willis's experiments, would have supplied
the German philologers with a princijole capable of
solving pretty well all the problems that arise in
connexion with the vowels, not merely of the Indo-
European family, but of language in general. In the
paper already referred to (Proc. Philolog. Soc. vol. v.
pp. 191 — 204) I have shown in some detail that it
explains the umlaut and ruck-umlaut so-called of
German philology, the formation of plurals in Eng-
lish, &c. by what Grimm calls ' motion/ — that is, an
alteration of the root-vowel, as in geese from goose,
and generally the assimilation of adjoining vowels
so familiar in all the Tatar languages and prevalent
to a considerable extent in the Keltic, Teutonic, and
Classical languages, to say nothing of others. In
page 203 of the paper I gave, from my colleague,
Professor Maiden, a tabular view, showing the full
T
274 QVAERITVR.
development of the principle in the changes of Greek
vowels and diphthongs. And I have little doubt that
the mysterious Guna and Vriddhi of Sanskrit are
simply results of the same law.
No doubt Bopp has allusions to the principle of
vowel-assimilation, but these are altogether incidental.
Thus it is only when he passes from the Sanskrit
(§§ 41, 42) to deal with the Zend, that he notices some
cases where the presence of a y, i, or e affects the vowel
of an adjoining syllable, and in § 46 mention is made
of a similar euphonic influence belonging to a Zend
v (iv). But these are matters which should not be
treated as peculiarities of the Zend. The philologer
is bound to state the law of vowel-assimilation in its
broad simplicity.
But there is another point in which Sanskritists
seem to have been misled by the habit of looking at
language in its written aspect. They ascribe to the
Sanskrit, in accordance no doubt with Indian authority,
two vowels, r and Ir, which at any rate do not present
themselves in the vowel-series of the Cambridge Pro-
fessor. Moreover it is admitted that this vowel r is
closely related to the ordinary liquid r. May I pro-
pose as the probable solution of the whole difficulty
the following ? — It is well known that the two liquids
r and I often lead to the disappearance of an adjoining
vowel ; most persons would say to a metathesis of the
vowel, a doctrine which I hold to arise from an inac-
curate view of the matter, though this for the present
is not important. Our own thorough for example
appears in the two shapes through Eng. and durch
Germ. Again, in our provinces the form brid is at
times used, where the prevalent language prefers bird ;
QVAERTTVR. 275
so pretty and perty coexist. The Latin too has true-
and torU'O-, and the Greek Opaaos and Oapaos, with
but little distinction of meaning and no distinction of
origin. In such cases it is convenient to have a
notation which will readily adapt itself to the two
varieties of pronunciation ; and on this principle it
would not have been unwise to employ such a form
as brd, prty, to represent at once bird and brid, perty
and pretty. The Slavic languages are not less given
to such varieties than others ; and accordingly words
without any represented vowel occur in the Bohemian
vocabulary, as Jcrt ' mole/ krk ' neck/ bib ' blockhead/
ivlk ' wolf/ Yet Dobrowsky does not on this account
class r and I with the vowels of the language. Pos-
sibly the habit of virtually dropping the letters r and
I, as in the case of bird in the mouth of a Londoner
(bod), and talk, calm generally, as well as the Fr.
meilleur, may have had its counterpart in India, and
so have lent some encouragement to the doctrine that
they are vowels.
But to return to the ordinary vowels : if a language
is limited to three symbols for their representation, it
is a matter of course that a should have a first pre-
ference, because, lying in the middle of the series, it is
for that very reason the easiest to pronounce, and con-
sequently the most common ; and after a the vowels i
and u have the next claim, as occupying the two
extremities.
It has also been urged that the Sanskrit alphabet
has a special claim to our consideration in its philo-
sophic completeness. But this claim is open to grave
doubt, seeing that it appears to have been without
any character for the sound, if indeed it possessed the
x 2
276 QVAERITVR.
sound itself, that is heard in the initial consonants of
our English thin and thine, fat, vat, in the two con-
sonants of the Fr. juge and the final of the German
einfach. On the other hand, it appears superfluously
rich in its ten asperates, distributed through the
so-called gutturals, palatals, cerebrals, dentals, and
labials ; that is, if our informants be right in pro-
nouncing these asperates as we pronounce the italic
consonants of blocX7?ouse, loghouse, coacMouse, brieve -
Aouse, cartAouse, guarc/Aouse, chopAouse, clubhouse.
If such be the correct pronunciation, the non-asperate
character together with the simple h might surely
have sufficed. I have also assumed that cr (va of
German Sanskritists) corresponded to an English w.
But if it really be a v, then a w is wanting ; if it be
at one time a v, at another a w, then we have another
defect in the alphabet, two uses of a single symbol.
But these very difficulties about the pronunciation
seem to be valid reasons why Ave should select our
primary facts from the known sounds of living tongues,
rather than draw from alphabets of ancient date, no
matter how venerable, in which the problems of pro-
nunciation must to a considerable extent be full of
difficulty, if not insoluble.
The second main -heading in Bopp s work is ' On
Boots' (Yon den Wurzeln). As regards the pre-
liminary discussion which treats of the distribution
of languages into classes, I will confine myself to the
remark, that as in the preceding chapter, so here again
the author appears to have been led astray by the
consideration of written language. No doubt the
Chinese is to the eye monosyllabic. To the ear not so ;
for it is well known to those who have learnt to speak
QVAERITVE. 277
the language in China itself, that it abounds in disyl-
labic and polysyllabic words, whose unity, as with us,
is denoted by the possession of a single accent. Thus
Bopp is simply wrong in his statement of facts about
the Chinese language (§ 108, p. 201, note) ; and again
his definition of the Semitic family as one having
disyllabic roots is at variance with the doctrine, now
maintained by many of the first Hebrew scholars, that
these apparent roots are in truth secondary forms.
And indeed the Hindostani furnishes an instructive
parallel, for here too it seems the existing verbs cannot
be reduced to forms of less than two syllables, until
we pass from the limits of the Hindostani to the
parent Sanskrit.
I must also point to another instance of error simi-
larly caused. The peculiar notation employed for
Hebrew words, in which symbols for consonants play
the most important part, and the habit of denoting
variations of meaning to a great extent by mere varia-
tion of vowels, as katul 'killed' with a fern, ktul-ali,
and hotel 'killing' with a fern. Jcotl-ah (§107, p. 196),
have together led Bopp and his followers to call the
consonantal combination ktl the root of the verb in
question, although this combination is for the ear an
absolute nullity. Nor is he himself blind to this
inference, for he expressly says : " A Semitic root is
unpronounceable." As well might he, with the English
words bind, band, bond, bound, bundle before him, set
down as the root of this English verb the letters bud.
But I pass to a graver matter, and one that affects
the whole texture of the book. The German philo-
loger, departing from the course marked out by his
Indian authorities, refuses to accept the doctrine that
278 QVAERITVR.
all words are traceable back to verbs. Accordingly he
divides the roots of the Indo-European family into
two classes. 'The main principle of Word-building
in this class/ says he (§109 a, p. 203), 'appears to
me to lie in the union of verbal and pronominal roots,
which together constitute, as it were, the life and
souF (of the language). Poetical escapades of this
kind naturally excite a suspicion of weakness in a
theory. I propose then to examine this doctrine of
pronominal roots in some detail. It is one that is also
maintained by Prof. Max Muller in his ' Lectures on
Language' (p. 272, &c). His nomenclature indeed is
slightly different from that of Bopp's. To ' verbal' he
prefers the term ' predicative,' and instead of ' pro-
nominal' he talks of ' demonstrative' roots; but sub-
stantially the two writers agree. As Prof. Max Muller
is somewhat more definite than his fellow-countryman
in his statement on this subject, I will quote a few
lines from him. ' If they (our primitive ancestors),'
says he, ' wanted to express here and there, who, what,
this, that, thou, he, they would have found it impos-
sible to find any predicative root that could be applied
to this purpose.' And hence he says soon after : 'We
must admit a small class of independent radicals, not
predicative in the usual sense of the word, but simply
pointing, simply expressive of existence under certain
.... prescriptions.' I accept the challenge implied in
the first of these paragraphs, or rather accepted it
many years before it was given, for already, in 1847,
in the ' Proceedings of the Philolog. Soc.' (vol. iii.
p. 56) I put forward the theory that such a verb as
our own ' ken ' or ' look ' as an imperative would
supply what was wanted.
QVAEEITVR. 279
In the paper to which I refer the problem was
considered in considerable detail, alike from the
formal and logical points of view. Thus, as regards
the mere shape of the words, I showed that pro-
nouns of the third person exhibited an initial gut-
tural in pretty well all the languages of Europe and
Asia from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the
Mediterranean to the Arctic Sea. On the other
hand I produced similar evidence for the presence
of a final nasal, and so accounted for the form of
the Sanskrit him which is set down as the * dhatu'
of the relative, but by its final letter has been, I find,
a stumbling-block to Sanskritists. In short, I con-
sidered that a syllable hen, or something like it,
appeared to be the basis of pronominal words of the
third person, including in that term demonstratives,
relatives, and interrogatives, which I held to be of one
stock. On the other hand I regard this basis of pro-
nouns to be one with our English verb hen 'see.'
But of course I could not rely on our English language
alone, or even its German congeners. As hen, or if it
be preferred con, is the simple root whence comes our
derived verb h(e)n-ow or h(o)n-ow, in precise agreement
with the verbs bell and bellow, so the root in question
virtually exists in all those languages which possess
a representative of know, as Latin with its gnosco,
Greek with its ytyvayaKw, and Sanskrit with its jnd.
Nay, the Latin itself has traces of the simpler verb
gon. I refer first of all to the participles a-gn-itus,
co-gn-itus, which come from stems a-gon-, co-gon-.
From agnosc- and cognosc- we must have had
agnotus cognotus. Secondly, cdtus c shrewd' seems
to be a participle from a stem ccn, just as in Greek
280 QVAERITVR.
we find words ending in $aros from as the representative of
a Latin b, there can be little doubt that the Homeric
ovpavo-6i presents the suffix in a more accurate shape
than the ordinary Sanskrit locative. There is still
another letter to re-establish in its proper position, a
final n; and Bopp himself admits that ovpavotyv is
the older form whence ovpavofyi was derived. The
Latin nobis, vobis, by their long vowel, also betray
the loss of an n, and still more accurately defined is
the suffix in the Old Prussian dat. pi. in mans (§ 215,
p. 424). Nay, I cannot but suspect that the Sanskrit,
in its masc. loc. tas-min, has also in the last three
letters a satisfactory equivalent for the $iv or bin, for,
QVAERITVR. 291
on grounds independent of the present question (see
Proceedings, iii. p. 66, note §, and iv. p. 30), I should
claim tas, rather than ta, for the root-syllable of the
pronoun, and this view is confirmed by several other
cases of the pronoun. So too the Umbrian locative
appears to have had a suffix men or mem (§ 200, p.
400), and the Zend for the dative of the first personal
pronoun has mai-byd, the long a of which would have
a satisfactory explanation in the disappearance of a
nasal. But, to take a more general survey of the
question, I would object to the fragmentary manner
in which the school of Bopp pursue the inquiry into
the form of case-suffixes. Each case must originally
have had a common form of its own, no matter to
what declension a noun belonged, no matter what
its gender ; and again, it is easy to see in nearly
every case that the plural and the so-called dual
forms (which in fact are but varieties of plurals)
contain, in addition to the case-suffix of the singular,
a second suffix denoting plurality, either a nasal
syllable, as in our ox-en, or a sibilant, as in our coiu-s.
Hence in our search for the full forms of case-suffixes
we are entitled, and therefore bound, to include all the
forms belonging to a given case without distinction of
declension, or gender, or number.
Then again, on the other side, Bopp appears to be
unhappy in his dealings with his so-called pronominal
roots. These also he has robbed, as it seems to me, of
a final n, which readily interchanged as well with the
liquid m as with members of its own dental class,
t and s. Thus for the first syllable of the Latin is-to-
I find a more satisfactory explanation of the s than
Bopp's own theory (§343) that it results from ' a petri-
U 2
292 QVAERITVR.
faction ' of the nominatival s of tlie simple pronoun
is. But I go further. In his zeal for pronominal
roots he seems positively to invent them, as for
example ma (§ 368), u (§ 1,002), and above all his
favourite sma (§ 165, &c), of which he makes a most
abundant, but I fear most unsatisfactory, use.
But it is a special office of Bopp's pronominal roots
to supply a corps of prepositions, and accordingly he
lays himself out for at least an easy solution of the
problems likely to present themselves. The ideas of
'above' and 'below/ of 'before' and 'behind/ of 'in'
and ' out,' stand in the relation of opposite poles to
each other. The metaphor is Bopp's own. Hence
the demonstrative pronouns are admirably suited to
act as the needful symbols for these ideas, and so,
what is particularly convenient, as they signify at
once 'this' and 'that,' 'on this side' and 'on that
side,' from one and the same pronoun we may deduce
prepositions of directly opposite powers (§ 995). Thus
from the pronoun a, to take that first as exhibiting the
most wonderful fertility, with the aid of various suf-
fixes, whose meaning seems to be a matter of not the
slightest moment, for he never stops to explain them,
we have S. a-ti ' over,' S. a-dhas ' under ;' Lith. a-nt
' up,' Germ, ent, Lith. a-t ' to,' ' back / S. a-dhi ' over,'
'up' (§ 997), with Lat. ad 'to;' S. a-pi 'over,' 'up'
(§ 998), with ein; S. a-bhi 'to' (§ 999), with a^v,
Lat. amb or am 'round/ Germ, bei, and Lat. ob ;
S. a-pa 'from' (§ 998), with a-7ro, Lat. a-b, Eng. o-f
(the hyphens are Bopp's) ; and (§ 1,007) from a-pa
itself, through an intermediate apara-s 'the other/
cut down to para, we have no less than five S. pre-
positions, — viz. pra 'before/ prati 'towards/ pard
QVAERITVR. 293
' back,' ' away/ pur as, and pari. Of these again pra
(insepar.) 'before' has for its cognates irpo, Lat. pro,
Germ. ver. Then prati (§ 1,008) is represented by
irpoTi and irpos ; while pard 'back,' 'away' (§ 1,009),
gives us irapa ; and through a second aphaeresis a
prep, ra ' back' in some other language, which is one
with the Lat. re ' back/ So much for one extensive
family, all the progeny of the tiny pronoun a ' this'
or ' that,' including too at once airo and irapa, at once
pro and re.
To the S. pronoun u, if indeed such a pronoun exist,
are to be referred, it seems, S. u-pa ' to,' S. u-t ' up;' as
also the Gr. v-tto, Lat. sub, and the adj. v-a-repo-s,
together with Germ, aus, Eng. out. To meet the little
difficulty about the asperate of vwo and the s of sub,
Bopp proposes two theories : ' The s is either a simple
phonetic prefix or the remnant of a recently prefixed
pronoun sa,' which however, he adds, would be ' here
devoid of meaning.'
The S. pronoun cma gives birth to S. ami 'after/
Old Pruss. and Slav, na 'up/ and ava 'up;' also to
S. ni 'down,' Germ, nie-der ; also to S. ni-s 'out/ and
perhaps to the Slav, i-su ' out/ ' which may possibly
have lost an initial n! — The loss is the more to be
deplored, as we lose at the same time all resemblance
between i-su and its parent ana.
Thus Bopp has thoroughly fulfilled the promises he
held out, as we have from the same sources words
denoting 'above' and 'below/ 'to' and 'from,' 'back-
ward' and 'forward,' 'absence' and 'presence/ 'up'
and ' down/ And then how magical the changes.
With this wonderful manufacture by the Boj)p
school of prepositions and case-endings from pro-
294 QVAER1TVR.
nominal roots, it may be useful to contrast a few
specimens which may show the possibility at least of
deducing prepositions and case-endings from verbs.
Thus, to commence with a quotation from one of
Bopp's own followers, we find in the ' Lectures' (p.
221): 'The instrumental (in Chinese) is formed by
the preposition y, which preposition is an old root
i ne aning to use,' So in a little paper of my own
(Proceedings, vol. vi. p. 120) it is stated on Premare's
authority that the syllable commonly used in Chinese
to denote the genitival relation, tci, is at times em-
ployed as a verb equivalent to the Latin 'projicisci.
Again the Sanskrit inseparable preposition ni } Lith.
nit ' down/ is to be identified with the Lat. vb. nu-, Gr.
v€u-, ' lower, 1 ' hold down/ and the Chinese ni 'descend.'
In the French chez, Ital. casa, and in our own through,
Germ, durch and dur, we possibly have prepositions
formed from substantives, — viz. the Lat. casa 'house/
and Germ, thur, Eng. door, Gr. dvpa. So little is it
necessary to invent pronominal roots, as the source of
prepositions.
On Bopp's derivation of particles from pronominal
roots I must be brief. That words denoting 'yes'
should be derived from pronouns signifying 'this' can
surprise no one. Thus we assent at once to such a
derivation of the Lat. sic and ita and si of the
French, &c. But Bopp is bolder ; he hesitates not to
deduce the S. na 'not' and Lat. ne 'not' from his
pronominal stem na 'this or that ;' the Greek fir/ 'not'
from his stem ma; and the Greek 'a privativum'
from a 'this' (§ 372, 1, p. 180). And here again he
relies on his old doctrine that as such pronouns are
qualified to denote alike 'this' and 'that' ('dieses'
QVAERITVE. 295
und ' jenes'), in the second of these senses they may
well represent negation, for what is there is not here.
It is somewhat unfortunate that the pronoun a has on
his own showing, a marked tendency to express pre-
sence (§ 366), as a-tra 'here/ a-tas 'from here/ a-dya
' to-day/ Nor is this to be set down as a late inno-
vation in the life of Sanskrit, for its position must
have been already well established before the breaking
up of the primeval language, seeing that (to use his
own illustrations) it is found in the old Irish a-nochd
'to-night' of the far west, and in the Ossetic a-bon
' to-day' of the far east. But be this as it may, the same
pronominal a, once firmly possessed of negative power,
is deemed by Bopp a fitting symbol for past time.
' I hold the augment/ says he, ' the initial a in a-bhav-
am " I was" for example, and so corresponding to the
syllabic augment e of e-Tvirr-ov, &c, to be in its origin
identical with the a jirivativum, and look upon it as
expressing the negation of present time/ Nay even
in such forms as leg-e-bam (the division is Bopp's) he
once thought the long quantity of the middle vowel
was referable to a suffixed augment, but his confidence
in this theory was ultimately shaken (§ 527).
Even among the verbs he is inclined to think that
his pronouns play a part over and above their use in
the personal endings. Of the suffixed t in tvtt-t-g),
v in Sa/c-v-co and Setfc-v-v-fii, av in Xafifi-av-a), he speaks
with the greatest hesitation, yet still (§§ 494, 495) 'the
most probable explanation' is that they are one and all
of pronominal origin, their office being ' to convert the
abstract of the verbs in question into a concrete/ Nay
even the so-called connecting vowels, as in ^ep-o-jmev,
cf>€p-€-7€, must be ascribed, he thinks, to a similar origin
296 QVAERITVR.
(§ 500), and indeed to our old friend a, for the o and
e of the Greek verbs just quoted are represented in
Sanskrit by an a.
I now leave the pronominal roots with a strong im-
pression on my mind that Bopp has failed to derive
from his theory anything that adds to the value of his
book. Even in his other division of roots I cannot
divest myself of a fear that he has been wanting in
caution. In § 109 b he gives us a list of thirty-two
root-verbs. In looking over these I find at least
fourteen which I have little doubt are secondary, that
is, derivative verbs, and eight others that have been
shorn of their fair proportions, having lost an initial or
a final consonant, or both.. On the present occasion I
cannot deal with more than a few of them, but to>
avoid all suspicion of undue selection, I will take a
batch that follow one another, those which stand 3d,
4th, 5th, and 6th in his series. The verb gnd (or jnd)
is of course the Lat. gnosc-o, Eng. knoiv, but in these
verbs all that follows the liquid constitutes a suffix,,
while our obsolete English vb. ken, or rather con, ex-
hibits the simple verb ; and, as I have already noted,
the Latin participles a-gn-itus and co-gn-itus are
deduced from compounds, not of gnosc-o, but of a
primary verb gon, corresponding to our con. The
4th in the series, vd 'blow/ has suffered curtailment
of its final consonant, and is really one with the 1 7th,
an ' blow,' which has lost its initial consonant, the two
being truncated forms of a fuller van which appears
scarcely altered in the Germ, wann-en, and is the
parent of our winn-ow, wind, and fan, as also of the
Latin vannus and ventus. This double corruption of
van to vd and an would be exactly parallel to my
QVAERITVfl. 297
assumption that the Lat. ce and en come from ken.
The 5th sfd, Lat. sta, though very generally set down
as a root-verb, has a suffix, or rather the remnant of
a suffix, in the a. The proof of this I find in the
Latin sist-o as compared with gign-o, ytyv-ofiat, [xifiv-co,
iriTTT-to, for as these are admitted to be reduplicated
forms of yev, /mev, irer, so sist implies a primitive set, or
something like it. To this primitive I assign the idea
of ' stop/ a verb which is itself probably of the same
stock, st-op ; and I quote in support of this translation
the familiar siste viator or better still s. aquam of
Virgil, s. lacrimas of Ovid, s. alvom of Pliny : I say
better, because there is in these phrases no trace of the
upright position, which eventually attached itself to so
many of the derivative forms. I may be asked here
whether I propose to connect the assumed root set
with the sed of Lat. sed-ere, sld-ere (for seid-ere), &c.
and our own set, sit. My answer to this is at present
neither yes nor no ; but on the logical side I see no
difficulty, as Ave ourselves have the phrase ' to set up/
equivalent to the Lat. statuere. Again, if I am asked
to account for the fact that sta- and its derivatives
eventually possessed as an important part of their
meaning that of standing or the upright position, I
think I see two explanations. First the compound
a-sta- in Plautus has the simple notion of 'standing
up' rather than that of 'standing near/ so that the
preposition is an (= ava), as in an-Jiela-re 'to send
up a blast of air/ a-seend- ' climb up/ rather than the
familiar ad ' to or near/ It should be noted too that
it is precisely before an initial s that the Greek ava,
commonly reduced to av, or rather ov, in the Aeolic
dialect, becomes further reduced to a or o (Ahrens,
208 QVAERITVE.
De Dialectis, 28, 1). The assumption that astare was
in the end cut down to stare, has its parallel in our
own truncation of arise to rise, for arise is the
original form. This theory further explains in a
thoroughly satisfactory manner the prefixed vowel of
the Fr. etat, etais, etablir. But independently of this
argument, if the original notion of stopping be con-
sidered in connexion with man, and it is of man that
we commonly speak, the first result of stopping is
standing.
The 6th verb t ' go,' though found alike in Greek,
Latin, and Sanskrit, I believe to be doubly corrupted.
Already it-er, com-it-ium, in-it-ium, ex-it-ium, eomes
(them, corn-it-), pedes (them. ped-it-), claim a final t
for the root, and the forms so familiar in Plautus,
per-bit-ere, inter-blt-ere, red-bit-ere, praeter-bit-ere,
e-bit-ere (the last in Plaut. Stic. 608, according to the
palimpsest), exhibit an initial b. I have marked the i
as long on the uniform authority of Plautus, though
Forcellini hastily assigns a short i to these words.
Then as regards the simple verb, Ribbeck has done
well to follow the guidance of *Fleckeisen in exhibiting
baetere as the reading of Pacuvius in vv. 227 and 255.
Thus bat, the root of baetere (as cdd of caedere), is
the Latin analogue of ftav in ffaiv-co, and so only a
variety of u&d ' go/ whence the imperfect tenses udd-
ere, &c. We have here an explanation of the appa-
rent anomaly in the corresponding French verb,
which unites in the same conjugation a stem va
and a stem i, — these, although wholly different in
form, being in origin one, — as je vais, tu vas, il va,
with j'irai, &c. These two verbs sta- and i- may
indeed be pointed to as containing the best evidence
QVAERETVR. 299
of the close intimacy between the Greek, Latin, and
Sanskrit languages ; but it is in Greek and Latin, not
in the Sanskrit, that we find the truest forms of the
two roots.
If it be replied to what I have here urged, that the
Indian grammarians, when they put forward a so-
called ' dhatu/ do not claim for it the honour of being
an ultimate root, nay, that they apply this term to the
base of any verb, though it be doubly or even trebly
a derivative, I still contend that Bopp applies to his
words the very name 'roots' (Wurzelri), and that his
whole argument implies that the verbs so called are
ultimate forms.
It would not be right to be wholly silent on his
treatment of matters connected with the conjugation
of verbs, but I must limit myself to the use he makes
of the so-called verb substantive, whether as or bhtt
' be/ though I may refer also to similar proceedings
on the part of Professor M. Muller. That this verb
is employed in the processes of conjugation I of course
do not deny, for I have myself sought to explain many
forms by means of it. For example, I have contended
that such phrases as ' I am a-dining/ ' I am from
dining/ ' I am to dine/ are found in many languages
besides our own as formulae of presents, imperfect or
perfect, and of future verbs ; but then it is in the
prepositions a (Ang.-Sax. an), from, and to that I find
the essential part of the tense-idea, Indeed the very
fact of the verb ' to be' entering into all the three
phrases is the best proof that it contributes but little
to the notation. But Bopp and his pupil proceed with
far greater boldness. Thius the latter ('Lectures/ p. 174)
tells us: ' Bam in cantabam was originally an hide-
300 QVAERITVE.
pendent auxiliary verb, the same which exists in the
Sanskrit bhdvami and in the Ang.-Sax. beom " I am"/
Again (p. 234) he says: ' In the Latin bo of amabo we
have the old auxiliary bh a "to become/' and in the
Greek futures in aco, the old auxiliary as " to be".' (See
also Bopp, § 526 and §§ 648, 656.) This is to give
to the past imperfect and the future of the Latin the
very same origin, so that the Romans, it would seem,
thought it no inconvenience to confound the two oppo-
site ideas of time. Let me note too that the author of
the ' Lectures/ by quoting in the one case the first
person of the Sanskrit verb and in the other the
mere base or ' dhatu/ gives a deceptive plausibility
to his argument, for one sees some resemblance to
bam in bhavdmi and some resemblance to bo in bhti.
My own views on the formation of the Latin tenses
am-ab-a-m and am-ab-o are given elsewhere (Trans.
Philolog. Soc. 1856, pp. 308, 309). I will here merely
repeat that I find the symbol of past time, not in ba,
but solely in the final a of am-ab-a-m, just as I find it
in the corresponding vowel of the Latin er-a-m, Gr. rju
(= eav) or e-rcOe-a, and S. a-bhav-a-m. I have said
that the two German Professors explain the
as the substantive vb. ; but according to Bopp it is
equally applicable to the aorist eke%a (§ 542) and to
the perfect rereXe-a-fiai (§ 569). Nay even the k of
eSwfca and SeBco/ca is deduced from the same source
(ibid.), a change which will prepare us in some
measure for a still bolder doctrine, that the strange
k which appears in the Lithuanian imperative dicki
'give/ is also a variety of the s of the substantive
verb (§ 680). As to the office it performs in this
place, as in the others, not a word is vouchsafed.
QVAERLTVR. 301
As a final specimen of the sort of reasoning which is
allowed in the explanation of tense-forms, I may point
to a passage in the 'Lectures' (pp. 317, 318). From
such phrases as * I have loved/ ' amatum habeo/ it is
inferred that the notion of ' habeo ' is specially fitted
to denote the past or perfect, the fact being that the
essence of this idea lies in the dental suffixes of
ama-t-um and lov-ed. And then, as something
parallel, the writer quotes a Turkish phrase, which
he tells us is literally ' Paying belonging to me/ but
practically signifies ' I have paid/ I fear his know-
ledge of Turkish is not of the soundest, for at any
rate the Latin phrase e soluendum est mihi ' and the
English ' I have to pay' sound more like future than
past tenses.
I shall conclude my comments on the ' Vergleichende
Grammatik' with a brief notice of the free use made by
Bopp of grammatical figures as they are called, and
these too of the very class which the soberer philo-
logers of late years have been disposed to reject as
inadmissible, except in rare cases — I mean the figures
which imply an extension of words, whether at the
beginning or end or within the body. Bopp's
much-used terms vorschlag, einschiebung , and zusatz,
strengthened occasionally by the epithet unorgan-
ische, stand in the place of our old friends prosthesis
(or prothesis), epenthesis, and paragoge. To the
curtailment or compression of words no reasonable
objection can be made, as it is the general law of
language that forms should be abbreviated.
I propose to take the said figures in order.
Prothesis. The initial vowels of the words avep-
(V. G. 2d ed. vol. i. p. 550, note), ovofjuar- (ibid.
302 QVAEBITVR
1st ed. p. 311, note), opv- (ibid.), ow^- (ibid.), arc
declared to be inorganic additions. The first of the
set is further declared to represent the Sanskrit nr or
nam ; but unhappily for this doctrine the noun avep-
happens to be the example given by Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, when he is speaking of Greek words
that originally had the digamma ; and as this letter
w habitually interchanges with an m in many lan-
guages, there arises a strong suspicion that Fav-ep- has
its root in the first syllable, and so is identical with
our own man. This is further confirmed on the one
side by the English corruption of man to one (pro-
nounced with a digamma) in such forms as one says
and no one, compared with the German man sagt and
nie-mand, and on the other by the Greek compounds
iroL-fxavoip and Ava^i-fiavBpos compared with orvy-avcop
and AXe^-avBpos. 2. As ovopar- is always held to be
one with the Latin nomen, and as this, being a deriva-
tive from nosco, must originally have had an initial g
(cf. co-gnomen, a-gnomen), we are driven to an older
yov-ofiar-, of which yo v alone is radical. Indeed Bopp
himself in his Glossary (s. v.) deduces the Sanskrit
naman from jnd. 3. 0(j>pv- being compared with the
Sanskrit bhrti (gen. bhrav-as) is pronounced guilty of
having in its first vowel something to which it is not
entitled. But let us rather compare it with our own
eye-brow, to which eye contributes no small portion of
the meaning. Surely then if a reasonable explanation
can be given of the Greek word, such as shall include
the idea of ' eye/ we shall have what is more satis-
factory. Now the most familiar root-syllable for ' eye'
or ' seeing' is in Latin oc (oculus), and in Greek with
the usual letter-change oir (o7rrofiat). But before an
QVAERITVR. 303
asperated letter oir will of course become o<£, as in
o$-0a\[jLo?. I suggest then that o$pv- stands for
o(j)-(ppv-, or I should myself prefer to say ocf)-pv-, seeing
that the Greek language habitually drops an initial
labial when followed by p. Thus we have p^y-w/xc
rather than ^prjy-wfii, Eng. break, and pay- rather than
Fpay-, Eng. berry. 4. The noun ov-vx~ I have little
doubt is to be divided as here marked ; and I say so
partly on the evidence of the Latin unguis, ung-ula,
uncus, aod the Irish ionga, partly because vx is a well-
established Greek suffix, as seen in op-v^- c dig J (opvaaco),
the sb. St-cop-vx- ' a trench/ and virtually in op-{v)x~o-
' a trench' (especially for vine-planting), and so closely
related to the Lat. or-d-on-, which has precisely the
same for its first and original meaning. Compare too
for suffix fioarp-vx-, fioarp-vx-o-, /3orp-vx~o-, as well as
fioTp-v-. Indeed most nouns in u have lost a final
guttural, as the Latin genu-, metu-, arm-, contrasted
with genuc-ulum (Eng. knuck-le), metnc-ulosus, anic-
ula. I might also have included the suffixes vy and
vk, of irrep-vy-, koX-vic-, as of the same origin with vx-
I am myself too further moved by the long-established
belief in my own breast that words with an initial n
have generally suffered decapitation.
Epenthesis. This doctrine is called in aid by Bopp
not unfrequently, but especially when dealing with
the genitive plural of certain vowel-ending Sanskrit
nouns (§§ 246, 249), which he says ' insert a euphonic
n between the ending and the stem/ Among the
instances he gives of this 'inshoving' are asvd-n-dm
'equorum/ tri-n-dm 'trium/ sduu-n-dm 'filiorum/
And he notes it as something very remarkable that
the Zend, the Old German, Old Saxon, and Ang.-
304 QVAERITVR.
Saxon exhibit a similar peculiarity. Surely then he
ought to have asked himself whether this n may not
be the substantial part of a genitival suffix. Had he
done so he would have found, I think, abundant evi-
dence in his own and other cognate languages. I have
myself long been satisfied with this explanation of the
en of the German compounds mond-en-licht, has-en-
lage, and our own earth-en-ivare, Ox-en-ford, Buck-
en-ham and its equivalent Buck-ing-ham, as well as
the adjectives ivood-en, lin-en, silk-en, &c. And then
again we have in as a genitival suffix in Gaelic, as
bo-in from bo ' cow/ It is the more remarkable that
Bopp should have failed to hit this explanation, when
he himself interprets (§ 248) the sdm of the Sanskrit
tS-sdm 'horum/ td-sdm 'harum/ as containing a double
suffix, of which s represents the genitival element so
familiar in the singular. Secondly, in § 97 and again
in § 727, note, he further teaches that while a final n
in Greek has often originated in a final s, such inter-
change is confirmed by the Prakrit. On this view
te-s-dm and asvd-n-dm would go well together.
Again, as an n is ever apt to become silent before
an s (cf. eis, xapieis, rvcfrdeis, cosol, toties), it would have
been more prudent perhaps, when dealing with the
suffix of the dat. pi. in Old Prussian, mans, not to have
considered the n as inorganic, on the sole ground
that mas would agree better with the Sanskrit bhyas.
His illustration too from the Latin ensis and mensis
beside the Sanskrit asis and mdsis involves a similar
assumption.
But we need not hunt up particular instances,
when we find a wholesale manufacture of epenthetic
vowels established by A. KirchofF in the ' ZeitschrifV
QVAERITVR. 305
(i. 37) and K. Walter (ibid. xi. 428). Thus epefavOos
and opoftos and the Old German araiveiz of like mean-
ing are convicted of having stolen the vowel which
follows r on the sole evidence that the Lat. ervum
exhibits no such vowel. HXe/crpov cannot be entitled to
the vowel e, because forsooth the S. ark ' shine' proves
the original root to have been alk. Again, the Greek
having the two forms opoyvia and opyvia, the former is
declared to have a vowel that does not belong to it, in
spite of the evidence of opey-m. Nay, even the long
vowel of aX-co-Tre/c- is ( eingeschoben.' Walter's argument
turns chiefly on the assumption that forms ending in
rk, Ik, rg, &c. are ultimate roots. Thus, according to
him, coXa/c-, FcoXaK-, av\a/e-, a\o/c-, all varieties of the
same word, signifying ' furrow/ come from a root
valk = Fe\fc-. Now my own conviction, founded on
a long and wide examination, is that such verbs are
all of them secondary. I do not believe in his sug-
gestedde rivation of avXa/c- from feX/c- ; but if it were
true, the Latin uel- {uello-) exhibits the verb in a
simpler form. But it is enough to place beside each
other such pairs of words as talk and tale, hark and
hear, pluck and pull, sparg- and 0pv-, 302.
opinion-, 226.
07Tt7]iJU, 113.
7rapa(reiov, 114, 203.
7rapadepjJio-, 114.
Ttap-qXiK-, 113.
napopa-, 113.
Parry, 63, n. ; xiii.
parti-, 213.
passives, 261.
pater, l. 86.
paulo-, 202.
pect-, 207.
ped-, 217.
peior-, 148.
pellec-, 191, 231.
pend-, 218.
TCEvOecr-, 129.
per with adj. 109.
per with sb. 318.
perwithvb.l08,;319.
percell-, 109.
percurr-, 319.
perd-, 262.
peremni-, 61.
perendie, L. 111.
perfuga-, 112.
perfund-, 109.
perg-, 96.
perinde, l. 96.
perlin-, 109.
permagno-, 109.
persuastric-, 215.
peruert-, 109.
peruide-, 109.
perung-, 109.
petrifaction, 291.
pf, 223.
pfad, &c. g. 222, 223.
(f>epOJJL€V, 295.
cf>iv, suffix, 290.
' phonetic types,' 283.
<£0, 221.
Beyy-, &c. 221.
pignos-, 226.
pitpit, osc. 96.
plang-, 230.
plaustro-, 185, 189.
plect-, 207.
plorabundo-, 233.
plumho-, 216.
plural suffix, 291.
podec-, 191.
Poggendorff, 272.
poll-, 50.
pollice-, 75.
polling-, 75.
porno-, 122, 147.
pon-
118.
popina-, 96.
porca-, 90.
porro, l. 74.
TTOpdfJLO-, 220.
pos, l. 118,123,319.
poshac, l. 118.
posilla, l. 119, 123.
posmeridiano-, 118.
posquam, L. 118.
post, L. 117, 214.
poste, l. 125.
postempus, l. 117.
posterganeo-, 118.
postidea, l. 125.
Trorepo-, 242.
ttoOev, 245.
Pott, 9, 119, 140, 148,
257.
prehend-, 217.
prentili, G. 204.
Trpiv, 122.
Priscian, 145.
pristino-, 122, 213.
pro, l. 74, 92.
irpo, 293.
procell-, 93.
procul, l. 157.
prod, l. 77, 93.
profano-, 94.
profundo-, 94.
prom-, 93.
prono-, 92.
pronominal roots, 278,
291.
TToos, 122, 293.
7TpO(T0J, 122.
7rpoa0c, 167.
INDEX.
333
prosthesis, 301.
reside-, 88.
Scaliger, 151.
irporepo-j 77.
resoudre, f. 217.
-schaft, g. suff. 211
provection, 177, 227.
retorque-, 98.
schlange, g. 259.
pt, 213.
retro, l. 74.
Schweizer, 209.
7rroXe/io-, &c. 213.
Bheinisches Museum,
sci-, 233.
164.
scribendo-, 218.
Eibbeck, 298.
scribenti-, l. 212.
Quadriga-, 193.
ricochet, 99.
secus, l. 122, 209.
quaerita-, 75.
ridge, 76.
rig, 76, 90.
rise, 95.
segel, g. 203.
Quarterly Journal of
Education, 147.
sepeli-, 110.
septentrion-, 195.
quattuor, l. 187.
que, l. 149, 159, 167.
Eitschl, 97, 117, 118,
123, 125, 165.
serp-, 259.
serpenti-, 259.
questo, i. 243.
-ro-, n. suffix, 229.
sesqui-, 209.
quien, sp. 243.
quinque, 187.
roga-, compounds of,
ayres, 289.
50.
setius, l. 209.
roll, 194, 195.
sg, 222.
R, s. vowel, 274.
rostro-, 185.
si, l. 'so,' 156.
rapi-, 264.
rouse, 95.
si-cut, l. 156.
Rask,26, 31, 93,115,
rt, 213.
siluestri-, 214.
121, 125, 126, 186.
P 0, 220.
Simplicius, 148.
rastro-, 192.
ruck, g. 76.
sinistero-, 214.
rd, 219.
rz, 223.
sist-, 297.
re, l. 74, 97, 293.
sister, 215.
recenti, 89.
Sa, s. 289.
sitte, g. 202.
recidiuo-, 97, 99.
saeculo-, 260.
situ-, 201.
reciproco-, 75, 90.
saft, g. 121.
(TKUpOflO-, 221.
recita-, 88.
sale, f. 202.
07C€7T-, 234.
recuba-, 88.
sali-, 269.
(TKlppO-, 222.
recubitu-, 98.
salictum, l. 208, 214.
sluggard, 213.
recumb-, 99.
salt, 212.
slush, 201.
recupera-, 75.
salz, g. 223.
smure, sc. 181.
recuruo-, 87.
Sanders, 140.
soil, 201.
red, l. 74.
Sanskrit asperates,
sole-, 202.
refell-, 97.
276.
soleil, f. 234.
reg-, 95.
sap, 121.
solemni-, 61, 260.
reg-, 95.
sasmin, s. 289.
sorbe-, 216.
remane-, 38.
sat, l. 115.
sordi-, 200.
rep-, 259.
Saturday Keview,308.
sorec-, 191.
repando-, 87.
sc, 222.
po(TvpY), 225.
repon-, 89.
scala-, 198.
soror-, 215.
334
INDEX.
sorti-, 213, 269.
souiller, f. 201.
soul, 285.
sparrow, 234.
spec-, 234.
a\\-, 187.
spirit, 285.
spiritual words, 285.
sr, s. 259.
srp-, s. 259.
st, 213.
St. Edmund, 180.
St. Kenelm, 182.
sta-, 233, 297.
stamp, 223.
Stewart, Dugald, 282.
stern, g. 224.
o0, 221.
adevea-, 221.
stingu-, 223.
Stokes, W., 177.
(TTOjXCLT-, 213.
strag-, 230.
'Study of Words,'
284.
stump, 223.
sub, l. 38, 41, 42, 44.
submerg-, 45.
submitt-, 45.
subsist-, 46.
subter, l. 105.
subtus, l. 213.
sufTod-, 45.
sullage, 201.
sully, 201.
summo-, 42 n.
sumpsi, l. 223.
super, l. 43.
superlatives, 238.
supernS, L. Ill, 246.
supparo-, 114.
T of Eng. neuters, 242.
tailleur, 238.
talo-, 202.
tara, s. 196.
re, 149.
re, 158.
tegumentum, l. 212,
227.
TEIVU), 129.
tela-, 203.
TEfieveo--, 226.
temere, l. 310.
templo-, 223.
tempos-, 223.
tend-, 217.
Tepe(3ii>do-, 220.
terebra-, 231.
terion-, 196.
terrestri-, 214.
Ttpdpo-, 221.
rereXeo-jjiai, 300.
that, 179.
that oon, 178.
Oarepov, 177.
the tone, 227.
thence, 179.
thet, old form of 'the,'
178.
third person pro-
nouns, 179, 242.
thorough, 77.
Thorpe, 26.
Oopvfio-, 231.
through, 77, 274.
Ovyarep-, 202.
thumb, 221.
TLV-, 157.
tither, sc. 177.
tithing, 227.
to-, o. eng. prefix, 54,
102.
to, 57.
tobreak, 102.
toculion-, 213.
toll-, 7.
toner, 175.
tonstric-, 215.
tonstrina-, 215.
topinch, 102.
tordre, F. 219.
tospend, 102.
tother, 177.
tranquillo-, 111.
trans, 111.
Trench, 284.
trcs, f. 111.
tribunicio-, 234.
T P L X dci, 222.
tristicior-, 236.
true-, 235.
tuft, 211.
Tvirro/JLeaOa, 221.
TV7TTO}, 295.
turf, 232.
turn, 224.
turpi-, 200.
turpi ter, l. 321.
tyrant, 213.
tz, 223.
-U, l. suff. 229.
uad-, 219, 298.
uae, l. 143.
uallo-, 186.
uanno-, 144.
uano-, 143.
uber, l. 222.
liber, g. 43.
ue-, l. 143, 148.
uecord-, 148.
uegrandi-, 143.
uehement-, 143.
INDEX.
335
Ueiou-, 144.
uel, l. 160.
uellica-, 75.
uelo-, 114, 203.
uelum palati, 206.
uend-, 262.
ueni-, 261.
uento-, 296.
uepallido-, 143.
uerber-, 216.
uernii-, 259.
uersu-, 91.
uesano-, 143.
uespertino-, 213.
uesti-, 215.
uide-, 21, 216.
uirectum, l. 208,
321.
-ula- of l. vbs. 229.
uld, dan. 142.
ullo-, 170.
uls, l. 242.
ultra, l. 170, 212.
ulv, dan. 142.
urn, l. suff. 228.
um, G. 61.
umbilico-, 66.
umbra-, 66.
un, 26, 27, 53.
unart, G. 139.
unbild, g. 139.
undergitan, a.-s. 52.
undermine, 45.
undersecan, a.-s. 52.
understand, 37.
understanding, vbs. of,
29.
undertake, 36.
undertaking, vbs. of,
29.
undienst, g. 139.
unding, g. 139.
-undo-, l. suff. 229.
ungestaltet, G. 145.
ungethier, g. 139.
ungewitter, g. 139.
ungezogen, g. 139.
ungott, g. 139.
ungross, g. 140.
ungui-, 66.
un-ion-, 226.
unkraut, G. 139.
unkuh, g. 140.
unloose, 6.
unlust, 142.
unmensch, g. 139.
unrest, 142.
unter, g. 36, 38, 53.
unterarbeiten, G. 38.
unterbauen, G. 37.
unterbleiben, g. 38.
unterbrechen, g. 48.
unterdrUcken, g. 38.
untereitern, g. 38.
unterfangen, G. 37.
untergehen, a 49.
untergraben, g. 38, 45.
unterhalten, g. 36, 46.
unterhbhlen, g. 38.
unterjochen, g. 38.
unterkeilen, g. 37.
unterkiissen, G. 40.
unterlassen, g. 37, 48,
52.
untermauern, g. 37.
untermengen, g. 38.
unterminen, g. 38.
untermischen, g. 38.
unternehmen,G. 36, 46.
unterrichten, g. 37.
untersagen, g. 37, 47,
52.
unterschneiden, g. 49.
unterscbreiben, g. 38.
unterschwaren, g. 38.
untersiegeln, g. 38.
unterspiilen, g. 38.
unterstehen, g. 37.
unterstiitzen, G. 37.
untersuchen, g. 37.
unterwaschen, g. 38.
unterweisen, g. 37.
unterwerfen, g. 38.
unter wiihlen, g. 37.
unterzeicben, g. 38.
unterziehen, g. 36.
untbat, g. 140.
untbier, G. 140.
untiefe, g. 140.
untrust, 142.
untyme, 142.
-uo- of l. adj. 230.
uoca- = uaca-, 143,
208.
uociuo-, 208.
uolnes-, 226.
uolsella-, 192.
Upani shads, 250.
upper, 44.
upplosa, sw. 26.
upptacka, sw. 26.
uptake, sc. 28.
-urno- of L. adj. 229.
urt, dan. 142.
urvocale of Bopp, 271.
uslukan, go. 80.
ustula-, 214.
-ut- of l. sb. 229.
utero-, 179, 242.
utruni, l. 169.
uxor-, 215.
Va, f. 298.
336
INDEX.
va> S. 296.
van, 307.
Varro, 75.
ver, g. 101, 106, 293.
verachten, g. 1 1 2, 2 1 1 .
veralten, g. 106.
verbluten, g. 107.
verbriicken, g. 106.
verfechten, g. 112.
verhoren, g. 114.
verjahren, g. 106.
verkehren, g. 106.
vernehmen, g. 106.
versehen, g. 106.
vertheidigen, g. 112.
voila, f. 281.
von, g. 61.
vowel-assimilation,
273, 274.
vowels, infinite, 273.
Wagner, G., 153,155.
Wagner, W., 164.
wan-, o. eng. 142.
wanhope, 142.
wantrust, 142.
ward, 216.
waur, 146.
wax, vb. 222.
Westminster Eeview,
251.
Weymouth, 12, 206.
what, 179.
whence, 179, 245.
where = whether,
181.
where = whither,
181.
whether, 169, 242.
whirl, 194, 195.
whom, 244.
widar, o. g. 35, 119.
Willis, 271, 273.
Wilson, H. H., 263,
266, 268.
wind, 296.
winnow, 296.
wit, 21.
with, 35.
withstand, 120.
womb, 223.
wot, 21.
-wr-, w. suff. 238.
Hypo-, 222.
fry-, 222.
two-, 222.
Ya, s. suff. 262.
-yans, s. suff. comp.
122.
year, 260.
yellow, 235.
yonder, 119.
yrnan, a.-s. 195.
yun-aj-mi, s. 219.
Zend, 274.
zer, 102.
Zu, g. 57, 223
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