1.

TWO SHAPES OF WORDS.

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first, while 'popular' is a direct transfer of a Latin vocable into our English glossary; 'enemy' is inimicus,' but it was first softened in the French, and had its Latin physiognomy to a great degree obliterated, while inimical' is Latin throughout; 'parish' is 'paroisse,' but 'parochial' is 'parochialis;' chapter' is chapitre,' but 'capitular' is capitularis.'

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Sometimes you will find a Latin word to have been twice adopted by us, and now making part of our vocabulary in two shapes; 'doppelgängers' the Germans would call such. There is first the older word, which the French has given us; but which, before it gave, it had fashioned and moulded, clipping, it may be, by a syllable or more, for the French devours letters and syllables; and there is the younger, borrowed immediately from the Latin. Thus 'secure' and 'sure' are both from 'securus,' but one directly, the other through the French; fidelity' and fealty,' both from 'fidelitas,' but one directly, the other at second hand; 'species' and 'spice,' both from 'species,' spices being properly only kinds of aromatic drugs; blaspheme' and 'blame,' both from 'blasphemare, but blame' immediately from 'blâmer.' Add to these granary' and 'garner;' 'captain' (capitaneus) and chieftain;' tradition' and treason ;' 'abyss' and 'abysm;'

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*

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* This particular instance of dimorphism' as Latham calls it, 'dittology' as Heyse, recurs in Italian, bestemmiare' and 'biasimare;' and in Spanish, blasfemar' and 'lastimar.'

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phantasm' and 'phantom;' 'coffin' and 'coffer;' regal' and 'royal;' 'legal' and 'loyal;' 'cadence' and 'chance;' balsam' and 'balm ;' 'hospital' and digit' and 'doit;'

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hotel;

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'pagan' and 'paynim;' captive' and 'caitiff;' 'persecute' and 'pursue;' superficies' and 'surface; faction' and 'fashion;' particle' and 'parcel;' 'redemption' and 'ransom;' 'probe' and ‘prove;'‘abbreviate' and 'abridge;' 'dormitory' and 'dortoir' or 'dorter' (this last now obsolete, but not uncommon in Jeremy Taylor); 'desiderate' and 'desire;' fact' and 'feat;' 'esteem and aim;' 'major' and 'mayor;' 'radius' and 'ray;' 'pauper' and 'poor;' 'potion' and 'poison;' 'ration' and 'reason;' ‘oration' and 'orison;' 'penitence' and 'penance;' 'zealous' and 'jealous;' 'respect' and 'respite;' fragile' and frail; tract,' treat,' and 'trait.'* I

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* Somewhat different from this, yet itself also curious, is the passing of an Anglo-Saxon word in two different forms into English, and now current in both; thus 'desk' and dish,' both the Anglo-Saxon 'disc,' the German 'tisch;' 'beech' and 'book,' both the Anglo-Saxon ‘boc,' our first books being beechen tablets (see Grimm, Wörterbuch, s. vv. 'buch,' 'buche'); 'girdle' and 'kirtle,' the German 'gürtel;' already in Anglo-Saxon a double spelling, 'gyrdel,' 'cyrtel,' had prepared for the double words; so too haunch' and 'hinge;' 'shell' and 'scale;' 'skiff' and ship; tenth and tithe;' shirt' and 'skirt;' 'swallow' and 'swill;' 'wine' and 'vine;' 'why' and 'how ;' ‘kill' and 'quell; 'beacon' and 'beckon;' 'flesh' and 'flitch;" ‘black' and 'bleak;' 'pond and 'pound;' 'whit' and 'wight;' 'deck' and 'thatch;' 'deal' and 'dole; weald' and 'wood;' 'dew' and thaw;' wayward' and 'awkward;' dune' and 'down;" 'hood' and 'hat;' 'ghost' and 'gust;' 'evil' and 'ill;' 'mouth' and 'moth; hedge' and 'hay.'

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I.

ASSIMILATION OF WORDS.

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have, in the instancing of these, named always the Latin form before the French; but the reverse I suppose in every instance is the order in which the words were adopted by us; we had 'pursue before 'persecute,' 'spice' before 'species,' 'royalty' before regality,' and so with the others.*

The explanation of this more thorough change which the earlier form has undergone, is not far to seek. Words introduced into a language at a period when as yet writing is rare, and books are few or none, when therefore orthography is unfixed, or being purely phonetic, cannot properly be said to exist at all, have for a long time no other life save that which they live orally on the lips of men. The checks therefore to alterations in the form of a word which a written, and still more which a printed, literature imposes are wanting, and thus we find words out of number altogether reshaped and remoulded by the people who have adopted them, so entirely assimilated to their language in form and termination, as in the end to be almost or quite undistinguishable from natives. On the other hand a most effectual check to this process, a process sometimes bar

* We have double adoptions from the Greek; one direct, one modified in passing through some other language; thus, 'adamant' and 'diamond;' monastery' and 'minster;' paralysis'. and 'palsy;' 'scandal' and 'slander;' theriac' and 'treacle;' 'asphodel' and 'daffodil;' 'presbyter' and 'priest;'' dactyl’ and 'date;' the fruit so called deriving its name from its likeness to a 'dactyl' or finger; 'cathedral' and 'chair.' 'Cypher' and 'zero,' I may add, are different adoptions of one and the same Arabic word.

barizing and defacing, however it may be the only one which will make the newly brought in entirely homogeneous with the old and already existing, is imposed by the existence of a much written language and a full-formed literature. The foreign word, being once adopted into these, can no longer undergo a thorough transformation. Generally the utmost which use and familiarity can do with it now, is to cause the gradual dropping of the foreign termination; not that this is unimportant; it often goes far to make a home for a word, and to hinder it from wearing the appearance of a stranger and intruder.*

The French itself has also a double adoption, or double formation, from the Latin, and such as quite bears out what has been said above: one popular and reaching back to the earliest times of the language, the other belonging to a later and more literary period, 'demotic' and 'scholastic' they have been severally called; on which subject see Génin, Récréations Philologiques, vol. i. pp. 162–166; Littré, Hist. de la Langue Française, vol.i. pp. 241-244; Fuchs, Die Roman. Sprachen, p. 125; Mahn, Etymol. Forschung. pp. 19, 46, and passim. Thus from 'separare' is derived 'sevrer,' to separate the child from its mother's breast, to wean, but also 'séparer,' without this special sense; from 'pastor,' 'pâtre,' a shepherd in the literal, and 'pasteur' the same in a tropical, sense; from 'catena,' 'chaîne' and 'cadène;' from 'fragilis,' 'frêle' and 'fragile;' from 'pensare,' 'peser' and 'penser;' from 'gehenna,'‘gêne' and 'géhenne;' from 'captivus,' 'chétif' and 'captif;' from 'nativus,' 'naïf' and 'natif;' from 'immutabilis,' 'immutable' and 'immuable;' from 'designare,' 'dessiner' and 'désigner;' from 'decimare,' 'dîmer' and 'dècimer;' from 'consumere,' 'consommer' and 'consumer;' from 'simulare,' 'sembler' and 'simuler;' from 'sollicitare,' 'soucier' and 'solliciter;' from 'adamas,' 'adamant' and 'aimant' (lodestone); from the low Latin, 'disjejunare,' 'dîner' and 'déjeûner;' from 'acceptare,' 'acheter' and 'accepter;' from

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But to return from this digression. I said just now that you would learn much from making an inventory of the words of one descent and those of another occurring in any passage which you analyse; and noting the proportion which they bear to one another. Thus examine the Lord's Prayer. Of the seventy words whereof it consists only the following six claim the rights of Latin citizenship'trespasses,' trespass,' 'temptation,' 'deliver,' 'power,' 'glory.' Nor would it be very difficult to substitute for any one of these a Saxon word. Thus for trespasses' might be substituted 'sins;' for deliver' 'free;' for 'power' 'might;' for 'glory' 'brightness;' which would only leave 'temptation,' about which there could be the slightest difficulty; and 'trials,' though now employed in a somewhat different sense, would exactly correspond to it. This is but a small percentage, six words in seventy, or less than ten in the hun

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'homo,' 'on' and 'homme;' from 'paganus,' 'payen' and 'paysan;' from 'obedientia,' 'obéissance' and 'obédience;' from 'strictus,' étroit' and 'strict;' from 'scintilla,' ' étincelle' and 'scintille;' from 'sacramentum,' 'serment' and 'sacrement;' from 'ministerium,' 'métier' and 'ministère;' from 'parabola,' 'parole' and 'parabole;' from ' peregrinus,' 'pélerin' and 'pérégrin;' from 'factio,' 'façon' and 'faction,' and it has now adopted 'factio' in a third shape, that is, in our English 'fashion;' from 'pietas,' ' pitié' and 'piété;' from 'paradisus,' 'paradis' and 'parvis;' from 'capitulum,' 'chapitre' and 'capitule,' a botanical term; from causa,' chose' and 'cause;' while 'attacher' and 'attaquer' only differ in pronunciation. So, too, in Italian we have manco,' maimed, and 'monco,' maimed of a hand; 'rifutáre,' to refute, and 'rifiutáre,' to refuse; 'dama' and 'donna,' both forms of domina.'

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