WORDS OF SPEECH-CRAFT, AND OTHERS, ENGLISHED. WITH SOME NOTES.

Ablative (fromness case). The case of the source of the time-taking.

Abnormal. Unshapely, queer of shape, odd.

Abrade. To forfray, forfret. For for- see For- hereafter.

Absist. Forbear.

Absorb. Forsoak.

Absolute. Checkless, freed or loosened from checks.

Absolve. To forfree-en, forloosen.

Abstract (in speech-craft). Unmatterly, not of matterly form.

Accelerate. To onquicken, quicken.

Accent. Word-strain, a strain of the voice, higher or lower, on a breath-sound.

Accessary. A bykeeper, deedmate.

Accidence. The forshapenings of words for case, tale, time, mood, or person.

Accusative (case). End-case, the case of a thing which is the end or aim of a time-taking.

Acephalous. Headless.

Acoustics. Sound-lore, hearing-lore.

Active. Sprack (Wessex), doingsome, doughty.

Active (time-taking). One that can reach from the time-taker to another thing; as, ‘to strike.’ John can strike another thing.

Acute. Sharp or high in sound.

Adjective. Thing-markword, mark-word.

Adulation. Flaundering, glavering.

Adverb. An under-markword.

Adversative. Thwartsome.

Aerology. Air-lore.

Aeronaut. Airfarer.

Affirmation. Foraying, or a foryeaing, not a fornaying; as, ‘Yes, he is.’

Agglutinate. To upcleam, to cleam up.

Aggregate. The main, whole.

Allative (case). A name given by some writers to that of a thing at which the time-taking is aimed (the aim case).

Alienate. To unfrienden.

Allegory. A forlikening.

Alliteration. Mate-pennings (i.e. Breath-pennings).

Alone. All-án, all-one:—‘Nen manniska buta God al ena.γράψον’—W. Friesic. ‘No man, but God all-one (alone.)’

Altercation. A brangle, brangling, brawling.

Ambiguous. Twy-sided, twy-meaning:—‘Alfred was struck as he was walking with a stout stick.’ Struck or walking with a stick? (twy-sided.) ‘Those shoes were made before the man that made them.’ Before in time, or before not behind?

Amicable. Friendly:—‘We have lived in amicable relations’ (friendly, in friendliness).

Amphibious. Twy-breath’d, twy-aired: by lungs and gills.

Amphibology. A twy-casting, a wording of two meanings.

Amphimacrum. Long sidelings, long end-sounds. A foot (in verse) of one short sound between two long ones, or of a low sound between two high ones; as, Tó and fró.

Amputate. Forcarve.

Anachronism. A mistiming.

Anagram. A letter-shuffling; as, out of ‘name’ to Anagram. A letter-shuffling; as, out of ‘1234 make ‘mane,’ or of ‘march’ to make ‘charm.’ make ‘3214

Analysis. A forloosening or unmaking of a word or wording, or any thing, into its sundry clear pieces.

Anastrophe. A word-shifting; as, ‘Fasten it up well,’ ‘Fasten it well up.’ ‘He brought back the horse,’ or ‘He brought the horse back.’ ‘There is none to dispute my right,’ or ‘My right there is none to dispute.’

Ancestor. Fore-elder, kin-elder.

Animate. To quicken.

Annals. Year-bookings.

Annihilate. To fornaughten.

Anniversary. Year-day.

Annuity. Year-dole.

Antanaclasis. Twy-hitting on a word:—‘If shape that was which had no shape.’ ‘It is the best art that conceals art.’

Anodyne. Pain-dunting, pain-dilling. (Dill, -n, to dunt, to soothe.)

Anomalous. Odd-shaped, oddly shapen.

Antepenultimate (breath-sound). Last but two.

Anticipate. To foreween, foretake.

Antique. Ancient, foreold, ereold. Old for things in being, foreold or ereold for things forgone.

Antithesis. An atsetting.

Antonomasia. Name-shunning, the marking of a man by other words than his name; as, ‘The honourable member for A.,’ instead of ‘Mr. B.’

Aphæresis. Foredocking of a word; as, pothecary for apothecary, nob for knob.

Aphorisms. Thought-cullings.

Apocope. End-lopping; as mortal for mortalis, send for send-an.

Apodosis. The hank time-taking to a hinge one (protasis):—‘If ye ask (hinge), ye shall receive (hank).’

Aposiopésis. A tongue-checking; as, ‘Do you think——but I reck not what you think.’

Apostrophe. An offturning.

Appellative (name). A call-name.

Appendix. Hank, hank-matter.

Apposition. A twy-naming, a putting of two names for one thing; as, ‘The dog Toby.’

Aptote. Casemarkless.

Aqueduct. Waterlode.

Arbitrator. Daysman (Job ix. 33).

Armistice. A weapon-staying, weapon-stay, war-pause.

Articulation. Breath-penning.

Aspirate. A breathing, hard breathing.

Assimilate. To make of the same sam (form of matter) or lic (bodily form of a thing). To assimilate food, to forselfen it, to make it into a man’s self.

Asylum has with us widely shifted its first meaning. An asylon was a sanctuary where a man was asylos, not to be pulled away (from a, sylao) by a foe. Now it often means a place whence a man cannot get away.

Asyndeton. Linklessness. The putting of words without link-words; as, ‘Faith, hope, charity,’ for ‘Faith and hope and charity.’

Atmosphere. Welkin-air.

Attraction. A fordrawing, a drawing of a word out of its true case or tale by another word to which it is nearer than to the one which it should match; as, ‘Neither of the men are (for is) come.’ Where the time-word would most likely have been drawn into the somely shape by its nearness to men.

Attraction may be misdrawing.

Augment. An eking, eking on or out.

Auxiliary. Outeking or helping.

Be- (a fore-eking, meaning by, to, about). Bebutton a coat, to put buttons to it; becloke school-children, give them clokes; becloud, obnubilate; beflood, inundate; behem, bebound or circumscribe; bereek, fumigate.

Belligerent. War-waging.

Bibulous. Soaksome.

Bicornous. Twy-horned.

Bidental. Two-teeth, two-teethed.

Bilateral. Two-sided:—‘These articles would be considered a public bilateral contract, and would form the subject of an agreement with the Powers having Catholic subjects.’ Bilateral contract is put for bipartite, a contract by or between two sides, or of men of two sides; but it would seem that the Romans did not call the two sides in a contract or cause latera, but partes—‘Parte utrâque auditâ.’—Plin. Jun.

Latera are the sides of a body or space.

Binocular. Two-sighted.

Bipennated (as an axe). Twy-bladed.

Botany. Wortlore.

Cardinal (numbers). Tale-numbers; as, one, two, three.

Catachresis. A misuse (of a word); as, an iron milestone; a parricide for one who has killed his mother; dilapidated for a ragged coat.

Chemistry. Matter-lore, the science of matter.

Chronology. Time-lore.

Cinereous. Ash-grey.

Circular (a trade-circular). A touting-sheet or -bill.

Circumference. Rim, rimreach.

Circumflex. A roundwinding, a winding of the voice up and down again.

Clause. A word-cluster in a thought-wording.

Cognate. Kin, akin. Cognate breath-pennings; as, T, D, both on the roof.

Collective (name). That of a cluster or a many or a body of single things; as, a club, a herd.

Colon. Gr. kōlon, a limb or member. A mark for a limb, or marked share of a thought-bewording.

Colophon. Book-end.

Comma. Gr. komma, a cut or share. A mark for the offcutting of small shares of a discourse.

Complement. An upfilling or outfilling in words.

Compound. Clustered or a cluster, a clustered word, as horseman, or a thought-wording of two or more smaller ones.

Concord. A matching.

Concrete. Matterly.

Conditional (mood). Hinge-mood (p. 34).

Conjugation (of a time-word). The forfitting of it, the fortrimming of it.

Conjunction. A link-word.

Conjunctive. Linked, byholding.

Consonant. A letter for any breath-penning.

Construction. A word-setting, speech-trimming (see p. 36).

Contraction. An updrawing:—I’ll for I will, sinn’d for sinnèd.

Co-ordinate. Rank-mate, row-mate.

Copula. A link or bond.

Correlative (words). Mate-words.

Crasis. Sound-blending, sound-welding.

Dactyl. Gr. daktylos. A foot (in verse) of one long and two short sounds, or of one high and two low sounds, as cheerily.

Dative. Giving.

Deciduous (plant). Fallsome. (Does it mean that only the leaves fall, or that the whole stem falls?) An elm is summer-green or leaved, and winter-sear. Holly is ever-green or winter-leaved. Parsley or the nettle is summer-stemm’d and winter-fallsome.

Decimate. To tithe:—‘Breech-loading rifles would so decimate columns.’ Decimate (decimo, from decem, ten, in Latin) was to take for death every tenth man of a body that had behaved very badly. The word decimate is now used very loosely, as meaning to cut up.

Defective. Wanting of something of its kind.

Defective (verb). Wanting of some time-shapes, as quoth, must, go. The foretime shape of go (gang) would be, as that of an unmoulded time-word, goed; and goed, a worn shape of the older ‘gaode,’ is found in northern folk-speech, with yowed (Saxon eode.) Gang makes ganged.

Deficiency. Underodds. Excess, overodds.

Define. L. de, off; finio, to mark. To offmark.

Demagogue. Folk-leader, folk’s-ringleader, folk’s-reder.

Democracy. Folkdom.

Dental. L. dentes, teeth. A dental breath-penning is one more or less on the teeth; as, eth, ef.

Dependency. Beholdingness:—‘As if one member would continue his wellbeing without beholdingness to the rest.’—Carew.

Depilatory. Hairbane.

Depletion. Unfullening.

Depopulate. Unfolk, forwaste.

Deport. Behave.

Deposit (of money). Earnest, pledge, bewaring.

Deprave. Forshrew, forwarp.

Depraved. Wicked.

Desecrate. Unhallow.

Desolate. Forloned.

Deter. Forfray.

Deteriorate. Worsen.

Develop. Unfold, unroll.

Diacritical. Offmarking, offskilling, sunder-clearing.

Diæresis. An outsundering or outopening, or foropening or forsundering, of a sound into two; as, L. sylva, syl-wa, into syl-u-a.

Diagram. A draught, offdrawing.

Dialect. A sunder-speech, a folk-speech, a fortongueing.

Diaphanous. Thoroughshining, thoroughshowing.

Dictionary. A word-book.

Didactic. Teaching, teachsome.

Disease. The Saxon-English had about fifty pure Teutonic names of diseases, to the main of which we now give Latin names. They were ranked under some few head-words.

Cwealm (qualm) meant mostly a deadly or many-killing epidemic, as the plague or cholera, which they would call a mancwealm (manqualm). Of this word we have left only qualm with qualmish.

Adl (our addle) was another main word for disease, as an unsoundness. From this word we have addle-headed and an addled egg.

Coða, coðe, was another main word for a disease. Hence (Dorset) a cothed sheep.

Weorc, werc (our wark), was a disease of pain or achingness, as the gout or colic.

Seoc, syc, meant any sickness in which a man sinks down on his bed or is off his legs.

Braec or breach was also given for some ailings.

To these words were set others of the parts of the body which they took, or of some other marks.

Stic-adl, stitch. Sid-adl (side-addle), pleurisy. Lengten-adl, lent-adl, typhus. Hip-werc (hip-wark), sciatica. Hrop-werc (bowel-wark, belly-wark (York)), colic. Fylle seoc, falling sickness. Lifer seoc, liver sickness. Lifer-adl (Aelfric), liver-addle. Milte-seoc (Aelfric), milt-sickness. Lenden-wyrc (Aelfric), loin-wark. Mete-afluing (Aelfric), atrophy. Wylde-fyr (wildfire) (Aelfric), erysipelas.

Dissipate. Forscatter.

Distribution (of prizes). Outdealing, fordealing, outgiving:—‘Uetdieling fen da pryzen.’—Frs. (outdealing of the prizes.)

-dom (an ending). It is our word doom, from deem, and means a state or outreach of free judgment or power; as, kingdom, freedom.

-dom. ‘The scoundreldom and the rascality of a great city.’ Scoundrelhood. Dom (from deman, to judge or rule) would be good for kingdom, popedom, sheriffdom, or mayordom. Scoundreldom would mean the might of scoundrels as ruling or judging.

Domicile. Abode, wonestead.

Ecthlipsis. An outcasting or outstriking, as of a sound; as, ‘Sing th’ Almighty’s praise’ for ‘the Almighty’s,’ or ‘I’ll go’ for ‘I will go.’

Elative (case). The fromward case; as, ‘He came from the house.’

Electricity. Matter-quickness; not speed, but liveliness. The word electricity means, as a word, only amberishness.

Ellipsis. An outleaving, as of a word understood; as, ‘I went to St. Paul’s’ (church).

-el (an ending). It means smallness or slightness:—Dazzle, to daze; fraze, frizzle; nose, nozzle (p. 18).

Embrasure. Gun-gap, cannon-gap.

Emphasis. Speech-loudening, speech-strain.

Emporium. Warestore.

Enallage. Case-shifting, an onchanging, as of a word or case into or for another; as, ‘He was father to (or of) the fatherless.’ ‘The child took the toy in (or with) her hand.’

-en-ing (an ending). It means a becoming such; as, blacken, to make or become black; blackening, the becoming black.

The ending -en-ing differs from -ness, -en-es, as in blackness, which means the having become such.

Enthesis. An insetting.

Epenthesis. An inputting or inthrusting or infoisting of a sound or clipping into a word.

Epithet. A mark-word put to a thing; as, ‘The far-shooting Apollo,’ ‘the white-blossom’d sloe.’

Equilibrium. Weight evenness.

Equivalent. Worth evenness.

-er-r (an ending). It means outeked in size or time:—Chatter, to chat much; clamber, to climb much; wander, to wind about (pp. 18, 59).

Esculent (plant). Meatwort.

Etymology. Word-building, word-making, word-shapening.

Euphemismus. A fair wording, or the putting of bad or unworthy things in a fairer light by words of less evil meanings; as, ‘I did time’ for ‘I was in prison.’ ‘A government man’ for ‘a convict.’

Euphony. Sound softness, sound sweetness.

Exalt. Forheighten:—‘Sa hwa him selma forheaget’ (whoever himself forheightens).—Friesic (Matt xxiii. 12).

Excrescence. Outgrowth.

Exegetical. Outclearening.

Exordium. Outsetting, outset.

Expansion. Outbroadening of wild or overwrought fullness readily becomes a bad kind of wordiness:—‘Farmer Stubbs drank beer,’ ‘The votary of Demeter, who rejoiced in the name of Stubbs, indulged in potations of the cereal liquor’; or ‘He received me with the most lively indications of amity’ for ‘He received me very kindly’; or for ‘He owes ten thousand pounds,’ ‘He is in a state of indebtedness to the extent of ten thousand pounds’; ‘He warned the hunters off his land,’ ‘He conveyed to the votaries of Diana a strong admonition that they would not be permitted to prosecute their sport within his domain.’

Faculty. Makingness.

Filiaceous. Threaden.

Flexible. Bendsome.

Fluctuate. Waver.

Foliate. Leafen.

For-. The fore-eking of forgive, forbear, is a most useful one. It is the Anglo-Saxon for, the German ver, and the Latin per, and means off or away.

For-go, per-eo, to go off or away.

Per-suadeo (L. suadeo, from suavis), to soften or sweeten off.

Foreshorten and forego should be forshorten and forgo.

Forceps. Tonglings, nipperlings.

Fore- (a fore-eking). Foredoom, predestinate; fore-token, portent, omen (p. 61).

Fossil. A forstonening.

Frangible. Breaksome.

Garrulity.[4] Wordiness, talksomeness.

Genealogy. Kin-lore, kinhood-lore.

Genitive (case). The offspring case (p. 30).

Genuflexion. Knee-bowing. Much has been said (in the law trials about posture in the administration of the Holy Communion) of genuflexion. A genuflexion is any knee-bowing, but all knee-bowing is not kneeling, which is knee-grounding.

Glossarist. A word-culler.

Glossary. Gr. glossa, tongue, speech. A word-list or word-list:—‘Mei en lyst vin oade spreckworden’ (with a list of old saws).—Friesic.

Grandiloquent. High-talking.

Gratuitous. Out of kindness. Gratia is good will, free kindness; and gratuitus is freely bestowed of gratia, without hire or reward. But a writer says that an attack of slander on a woman’s purity ‘was gratuitous,’ or of gratia or good will, without hire or reward, as if gratuitous meant without grounds of malice.

Hendiadys. One-in-twice. A wording of one thing at twice, or as two things; as, ‘I heard shouting and men’ for ‘shouting of men.’ ‘An arm and strength’ for ‘a strong arm.’ A fortwaining.

Hexameter. Gr. hex, six; metron, measure, metre. A metre in Greek and Latin verse, lines of six feet.

-hood (an ending). It means a state of being, rank, or standing among other things:—Childhood, manhood.

Horizon. Sky-sill, sky-line.

Hybrid (word). L. hybrida, a mongrel.

Hydrophobia. Water-awe.

Hyperbaton. Gr. hyper, over; baino, to fare, go. An overfaring, an overshifting of words out of their more wonted or better ranking; as, ‘What for,’ for ‘For what.’ A ‘speaking out’ for an ‘outspeaking.’

Hypallage. Word-shifting, case-shifting; as, ‘We gave wind to our sails’ for ‘our sails to the wind.’ ‘The men were put to the sword,’ though also ‘the sword was put to the men.’

Hyperbolē. An overcasting or overshooting of the truth; as, ‘The train went as swift as lightning.’

Hyphen. A tie-stroke.

Hysterologia. A foreafter wording, forebehind or hinderforemost wording; as, ‘He earned a florin, and worked all the day,’ whereas he worked first, and so earned the florin.

Iambus. Gr. A foot (in verse) of one short or low and one long or high sound; as, ago, a low-high twin.

Idiom. Gr. idioma, from idios, one’s own. A folk’s-wording, a set form of words of any one speech or set of men; as, ‘How do you do?’ Fr.: ‘Comment vous portez-vous?’ (How do you bear yourself?) ‘I have just dined.’ Fr.: ‘Je viens de dîner’ (I come from to dine).

Imperative (mood). The bidding mood.

Impersonal (verb). A time-word without a thing-name; as, ‘It lightens,’ ‘it thunders,’ ‘it freezes,’ ‘it thaws.’ A thingnameless or a deederless time-word.

Impertinence may be meddlesomeness in what non pertinet, does not belong to one, or meddlesomeness in a deed or speech which non pertinet, does not hold by the matter under thought, unbyholdingness.

Impertinent. Meddlesome, unbyholding.

Inarticulate. Unbreathpenned.

Incandescent. White-hot, heat-whitened.

Inceptive (verbs). Belonging to ontaking or beginning. Becomesome time-words; as, L. albesco, to become white; English whiten, to become or make white. In Greek the ending of the becomesome words is -iz or -z. Orphanízo, to make or become elderless, or an orphan.

Indefinite. L. in, un; finio, to offmark, outmark. Unoffmarked, unbounded.

Indicative (mood). The surehood mood.

Infinitive (mood). L. in, un; finitus, bounded, marked. The unboundsome thing-free mood of a time-word free of anything; as, to love, to see.

Initial. Word-head.

Injury. Injuria is a moral wrong (summum jus summa injuria). Do we not wrest its meaning in such wording as ‘The wind has done much injury to my house-roof’ or ‘injured my flowers’? How can the behaviour of the wind be made out to be a moral wrong, even if it be a hurt?

Instrumentive, instrumental (case). The tool-case or means-case, that of the tool or means of a deed; as, ‘He cut the wood with a knife.’

Interest (of money). Money-rent, loan-meed, loan-pay.

Interest. Care:—‘I do not take any interest in him or it.’ ‘I do not becare him or it.’ ‘Wha kara unsis?’ (what care to us) (Mœso-goth).—Matt. xxvii. 4.

What a word to be taken as a thing-name is interest, ‘it is of odds’! The folk-speech, ‘It is of no odds to me,’ gives the meaning of ‘meâ non interest.’

Intransitive. Not overgoing, as time-takings that do not reach forth to another thing; as, to sleep.

Inversion. L. inverto, to turn up. An end-shifting:—‘Thee at morn, and Thee I praise at night,’ for ‘I praise Thee at morn, and Thee at night.’ A shifting of the ends of a wording.

Irony. Gr. eirōneia, from eiron, a shammer. A good wording for a bad meaning, mock-praise; as, ‘That was a good shot,’ meaning a very bad one. ‘He is a nice man,’ meaning the reverse of nice. ‘How glorious was the king of Israel to-day!’ meaning how inglorious.

-ism. The stump -ism of the Greek -ismos seems to be used very loosely. -ismos is from the ending -izō of ontaking or inceptive time-words, and where there is no time-word ending in -izō there is not, I should think, any thing-name in -ismos; as, chloros, green; chlorizō, to become green; chlorismos, a becoming green. So, if liberalism is a becoming liberal, conservatism is a becoming conservat, which might seem to mean conservatus, one conserved, rather than a conserver. Is chartism a becoming a chart? and what is Londonism, a becoming London or a Londoning? and, if so, what is a Londoning?

We have for -ismos some English endings, as -ening, in blackening; besides -hood, -ship, and -ness, and many others of sundry kinds.

For -ism, taken in names bestowed with very slight praise, we may take -ishness; as, Hebraism, Hebrewishness; Grecism, Greekishness; Latinism, Latinishness; Londonism, Londonishness; solœcism, folkswording. (On ‘Solœcism,’ see Aul. Gell. v. 20.)

Iterative. Going over again and again. Iterative time-words, that mean to take many shorter times in time-takings of the same kind; as, to chatter, chat much; clamber, wander.

Labial (letter). L. labium, lip. A lip breath-penning.

Laxative. Loosensome.

Lecture. A lore-speech.

Lenis. L. soft. The soft breathing is an unaspirate one, such as a in and, not ha in hand.

Letter. L. litera; Sax. bóc-staf, a book-staff. It is bad that the same word letter should be used for a letter of the alphabet and an epistle, the old English word for which is a brief, as it is in German and West Friesic. It was also the name of the king’s letter for gathering of help-money in the church; though now it is the name only of a barrister’s letter of instruction.

Lingual. L. lingua, the tongue. Belonging to the tongue.

Literature. Book-lore.

Lithography. Stone-printing.

Locative (case). L. locus, stead, place. The stead or stow-case; as, ‘In London,’ ‘At church.’

Logic. Redelore.

-m, -om, -um. A word-ending, a form of the Greek one -ma, as in prag-ma, from prasso; and of the Latin -men, as in flu-men, from fluo. Words so ended meant mostly the outcome of the time-word, and were at first thing-names; and so as time-words they were, as most of them yet are, weak ones. From roots ending, I believe, in -ing came[5]

BlowBloom.

Cling (root)Clome (clay or clayen pottery), clam, climb.

Cring (root) (to bend)Crome (a dung-pick with bent prongs).

Dunt, ding(root)Dam, dim, dumb, damp (fire).

Go (with quick stirrings), —ging (root)Game.

GlowGleam, gloom.

GrowGroom (a growing or now full-grown youth?).

HollowHaulm, helm, helmet.

HarryHarm.

Lose, lithe, (ling r.)Limp, limb, lime, loam.

ShriekScream.

SewSeam.

Slack,—sling (root)Slam (a slackness or looseness in matter or going; slam of a gate; a slack swing, as unguided by a hand).

SlackSlime, slim.

Stiff or stoutStem.

Stray or Stretch onStream.[6]

Tang, ting (reach on)Team, time, and timer, timber (a very ontanging stick).

ThickThumb (the thick finger).

Machine. An old English word for a machine is ginny or jinny which seems to be a fellow-stem to gin, and to mean to go, not as in onfaring (locomotion), but as in the way of a machine.

Magnificent. High-deedy, high-doing.

Magniloquent. High-talking.

Mechanics. Matter-might.

Metalepsis. Gr. metalambano, to take over. A use-shifting of a word, a taking of a word over from its common to another meaning; as, ‘Seven harvests ago’ for ‘seven summers or years.’

Metaphor. Gr. metaphora, from metaphero to carry over. A figure of speech, the overcarrying of a name from a thing to which it belongs to another to which it does not belong; as, ‘The Shepherd of Israel’ for ‘the Lord.’ ‘The father of the people’ for ‘a good king.’ ‘Eos Cymru’ (the Welsh nightingale) for ‘a fine Welsh songstress.’ ‘A man burning with anger.’

Metathesis. Gr. meta, with or against; thesis, a putting. A penning-shift, as that of putting each of two pennings in the stead of the other; as, waps, wasp; haps; hasp; though the first of the two shapes is the older in English.

Meteor. Welkin-fire.

Metonymy. Gr. meta, off; onoma, a name. An offnaming, name-shifting, a wording that puts for a thing-name the name of some belonging—whether cause or effect or aught else—of the thing; as, ‘He reads Horace’ for ‘his works.’ ‘He lives by the sweat of his brow’ for ‘work.’ ‘Land holden by the Crown’ (Queen). ‘The power of the pen’ for ‘writers.’

Miosis. Gr. meiōsis, a forlessening. A wording by which a thing is lessened off; as, ‘Will you give me a crumb of bread and a drop of drink?’

Monitor. A warner. Ware-en-er, who makes ware.

Monosyllable. A breath-sound.

Multiloquous. Wordy, talksome.

Negative (word). L. nego, to deny. Fornaysome.

Nomenclature. Benaming, name-shapening.

Nominative. L. nomen, a, name. The name-case, speech-case.

Noun. L. nomen, a name; Fr. nom. A thing-name, thing-word, name-word.

Objective. Objective case. A name commonly given to the time-giving thing when it is not the speech-case.

Onomatopœia. A mocking name. The making of words from sounds; as, to hiss, a peewit or cuckoo from the sound it makes.

Optative (mood). The wish mood; as, ‘Oh! that I had wings.’ ‘May you be happy.’

Out- (a fore-eking). Outban, exile; outfaring, peregrination, exodus; outhue, outliken, depict or draw.

Over- (a fore-eking). Overbold, audacious; overhang, impend; overweigh, preponderate.

-p, -b, -f (endings). They mean small in kind or short in time:—Poke, pop, poke quickly; dip, a small dive; slip, a small slide; rip, to rive quickly.

Palindrome. Gr. palin, back; dromos, a running. A set of words which read the same backwards as forwards; as, ‘Lewd did I live, evil I did dwel,’ or ‘Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.’

Palpitate. Throb.

Panacea. Allheal.

Paradigm. Gr. paradeigma, an offshowing, outshowing, a plan. A table of word-shapes.

Paragogē. An outbringing or outlengthening of a word.

Paragraph. An offwriting, a wording-share; such a share of a piece of writing as, if it were offwritten, would not want anything of a full meaning.

Paraphrase. New bewording; a turning of a piece of writing into other words, often more if not clearer than those of the writer. A paraphrase, while it is meant to clearen, may falsen the paraphrased matter. The following paraphrase from an old written sermon of (as I believe) an old Dorset divine, may be a good sample of new bewording:—

‘God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican: I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.’

Expanded or paraphrased:—

‘With great gratitude, O God (said the Pharisee), I contemplate my own superior attainments. How free is my mind from a variety of black offences which invade the consciences of others! Extortion, injustice, and adultery are crimes (said he, striking his breast) which have no harbour here. Who can lay to my charge the neglect of any religious duty? Are not my tithes paid with cheerfulness, and my fasts observed with sanctity?’

‘And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.’

‘The Publican, on the other hand, with every mark of the deepest contrition, stood abashed in a corner of the temple. Conscious of his own demerits, he was afraid to raise his eyes to that Being who sees the least degree of impurity with offence. After many ineffectual struggles to form the sighing of a contrite heart into the language of prayer, his efforts ended in this one exclamation, God be merciful to me a sinner.’

Parenthesis. An inwedging of a sentence within another:—‘Thou sayest—but they are but vain words—I have strength for the war.’

Parody. A song-mocking.

Paronomasia. A kind of play on words of more or less like sound, though of sundry meaning; as, ‘Though last not least.’ ‘Non amissi sed præmissi’ (said of friends deceased), ‘Not forgone but foregone.’

Participle. A thing-marking shape of the time-word.

Particle. A wordling, a small shapefast word.

Patronymic. Gr. pater, father, and onoma, name. A surname or sirename of a man taken from the forename of his father; as, John Richardson, Dafydd Ap-hoel, Patrick Mac-Duff, Jeroboam Ben-Nebat.

Pedigree. Kin-stem, forekin-stem.

Penultimate. Last but one.

Perambulator (the child’s carriage). Push-wainling.

Perfect. Fordone, forended, full-ended.

Period, in rhetoric (redecraft) and speechcraft, is so called, as a speech-ring or speech-round, a full round of thought-wording, in which the speech-meaning is kept uphanging and more or less unclear, till the last word or word-cluster by which it is clearly fulfilled; as, ‘(1) That among the sundry changes of the world (2), (3) our hearts may surely there be fixed (4): (5) where true joys are to be found (6).’ The whole thought-wording is a period or speech-round. From (1) to (4) is a limb (called in Greek a kōlon) and has a meaning, though not a full one beyond which the mind awaits nothing more. The word-cluster from (1) to (2) yields no full meaning, and is called in Greek a komma (kopma), a cutting or shareling. Thence we see the source of the names and uses of the stops—the period (.), colon (:), comma (,). The period marked the end of the period; the colon that of the kolon; and the comma that of a comma, or cutting of a colon.

The word seems to be often misused. A period (Gr. periodos) of time or wording is rightly a running of it round again to its like beginning; as, a week—from Sunday round to Sunday; or a year—from January to January.

A straight stretch of time or words is not truly a period; as, a man’s life from birth to manhood is not a ring-gate, beginning anew at childhood.

Periphrasis. Gr. peri, round; phrasis, a speaking. A roundabout speaking of a thing instead of an outright naming of it, a name-hinting; as, ‘The gentleman at the head of Her Majesty’s Government’ for Lord B.

Personal (time-word); not an impersonal one; as, ‘It rains.’ ‘It snows;’ but one with a named time-taker, as ‘John rides.’

Perverse. Wayward, froward.

Pervious. Throughletting.

Petrify. To stonen, forstonen.

Philology. Speechlore.

Phonetic. Soundly.

Phonography, phonotypy. Sound-spelling. Surely a photograph should be a phototype. Graphō is to graze or grave along a body, but a photograph is given by a plumb downstriking of rays of light—a typē and not a graphē. With graphē and typē we may set a glyphē (from glyphō), an outsmoothing of a shape, as that of a figure from a block of stone. Glyphō is a fellow stem-word to glykys, smooth, soft, or sweet.

Phrase. Gr. phrazo, to speak, say. A word-cluster, a word-set, a cluster or set of byhanging words.

Pirate. Sea-robber, weeking, wyking, wicing (Gloss. 11 cent.). The wicings or weekings or vicings were so called as lurking about in the bays, wicas, weeks, wykes, or wiches.

Plagiary. A thought-pilferer.

Pleonasm. Gr. pleonazo, to fullen or overfullen. An overwording; as, ‘A great [thing of a] boar’ for ‘a great boar.’ ‘What [ever in the world] are you doing?’ ‘Never [in all my whole life] have I seen the like.’

Plocē. Gr. plokē, a twining or folding. A twining or folding of a foregiven name, of one meaning the same name, in another; as, ‘Then Edwin was Edwin (or himself) again.’ Worthy of himself. ‘Coal is now coal,’ i.e. scarce and costly.

Plural (number). The somely (number).

Polyptoton. Gr. poly, many; ptotos, case. The inbringing of fellow stem-words or root-words in sundry cases or ways:—‘He, friendless once, befriended friends.’

Posterity. Afterkin.

Postposition. A hinder case-word, a case-word put after the thing-name; as, in Hindustani, panee-main, water in; panee-sae, water from; panee-ko, water to. Showing the source of case-endings.

Potential (mood). L. potentia, might, power. Mayly.

Predicate. The wording of the time-taking; as, ‘John walked twenty miles.’

Prefix. A fore-eking, a forewordling; as, be-set, for-give, out-run.

Preposition. A case-word.

Preterite. Bygone, past.

Programme. A foredraught.

Pronoun (personal). A name-token, a stead-word. Pronoun Adjective, mark-word.

Proper name. A one-head name.

Prosopopœia. Gr. prosopon, face, person; poieo, to make. The putting of an unmatterly or impersonal thing as a person.

Protasis. The hinge time-taking.

Prototype. Foreshape, forepattern.

Punctuation. L. punctuatio, from puncta, points or stops. The skill of the putting of stops, or of the marking of voice-stoppings in speech. Bestopping. (See ‘Period.’)

Radicle. Rootling.

Reciprocal (verb). L. re, back, fro; ci, to this way. To and fro verbs; as, ‘They helped each other.’

Rectify. Righten.

Reflective. Back-turning, as a time-taking which comes back to the source of it; as, ‘John cut or hit himself.’

Regimen. Government, overwielding of a thing by another.

Religion. Faith-law.

Religious. On the true meaning of religiosus see Aul. Gell. Noct. Att. iv. 9. He makes it mean withholden, backbound from some uses. Religiosa delubra, a shrine hallowed from common use; religiosus dies, a day withholden, as unlucky, from great undertakings. A religious man is one who is withholden by his faith and conscience from bad deeds.

Restrain. Inhold, forhold.

Result. Outcome, outworking, backspring. Result (from resilio, to spring back) is neither in sound nor meaning a better word than outcome or outworking or froming, fromming.

Rhetoric. Rede-speech.

Rhythm. Gr. rhythmos, number, as number of clippings or sounds in a line of verse. Metre, which meant at first tale of sounds rather than sound matching, which we call rime. Rime is not come to us from the Greek, but is the Saxon rim or hrim, tale or number.

‘Manâ and misdædâ ungerím ealrâ’ (a tale, beyond telling, of all wickednesses and misdeeds).—Sermo Lupi ad Anglos.

‘Deer naet in da rime was’ (who was not in the number).—Old Friesic Law.

Salubrious. Healthy, halesome.

Satellite. Henchman.

Scintillate. Sparkle.

Semi-detached houses. Twin-houses, a house-twin.

Sentence. L. sentio, to think, deem, feel. In speech-craft, an uttering of a thought, one thought-wording.

Septuple. Sevenfold.

-sh (an ending). It means quickness and smartness; as, clang, clash; crack, crash; fly, flash; go, gush; hack, hash. In markwords it means somewhat such;—blackish, boyish.

-ship (an ending). It means a shape or form of being:—Friendship, mateship.

Solœcisms. Gr. soloikismos, from the bad Greek of the Soloikoi in Cilicia. A miswording, barbarism, or, as an old Saxon gives it, ‘a miscweðen word,’ or a misquothing, a misqueathing.

Solstice. Sunsted. A.S. Sunanstede.

-some. The ending -some in such words as aimsome, matchsome, yieldsome seems, as we look to its true first meaning, to be a fitting one. A sam or som (some) meant at first a body of mingled matter or things. In its stronger meaning lumps of suet melted up into a soft body would be a sam or som; and potatoes boiled and mashed up would be a sam; and dough, if not flour itself, is a sam or som.

In the wider meaning of the word an upgathering of things, and even men, into a body or set is a sam or som. Thence we have our word same as well as the ending -some and the markword some:—‘Some in rags, and some in jags, and some in silken gowns’ (a set or body in rags, a set or body in jags, &c.).

Aimsome, yieldsome would mean of the aim or yield or aiming or yielding set or body.

Sam or som gives our words same and so. ‘The same man’ means the very man in sam or body or being. ‘Are they Hebrews? so (same) am I.’ Of that sam (am I). The Latin se is most likely a word of the same root:—‘Lucius se amat’ (Lucius loves same or his sam); and this is the meaning of our word self.

The Latin similis would mean of the sam or same kind; and ‘to summon (samen) men’ is to call them up into a sam, ‘Suma êlanda thêr im likte’ (some islands that pleased him).—Oera Linda Book.

Sophist. Wordwise.

Sophistry. Rede-guile, rede-cunning.

Spell. Sax. spellian, to tell, utter forth a word or a set of words.

Spell. A message or bewording, as in Godspel (Gospel), ‘the good message.’

-st (an ending). It strengthens the meaning, as it does in blackest; blow, blast; brow, breast.

Stereography. Bulk-drawing.

Stereometry. Bulk-meting.

Stereotype. Block-type.

Subject. The speech-thing or thing under speech.

Subjunctive (mood). The hinge-mood; as, ‘If ye ask, ye shall receive.’

Suffix. A wordling put on at the end of a word; as, man-hood, good-ness, kind-ly. End-eking, an on-eking, a word-ending.

Superlative. The highest pitch.

Supposititious. Underfoisted, undersmuggled.

Syllepsis. Gr. syn, up, together; lēpsis, a taking. An uptaking, upmating, comprehension, as of a second or third person with a first; as, ‘I (1) and my brother (3) (we) learn Latin.’.

Synalœpha. Gr. syn, up; aleipho, to smear. Sound-welding. The welding up of two sounds into one, or the end of one word into the head of the following. In Latin verse—‘Conticuere omnes,’ ‘conticue͞r omnes,’ ‘conticuere‿omnes’—uttering the e and om in the time of one syllable. So in Italian—‘In prato‿in foresta,’ ‘Sia l’alba‿o la sera,’ ‘Se dorme‿il pastor’—the o i, and a o, and e i are uttered as one syllable. In English—‘Before the‿Almighty’s throne.’

Syncope. The cutting of a penning from within a word; as, ‘He ha-s’ for ‘he haves,’ ‘Gospel’ for ‘Godspel.’ The outcutting is truly an outwearing of the clipping.

Synecdoche. Gr. syn, up; ek, out; dochē, a taking. An outtaking or outculling, as of a share of a thing for the whole, or the matter for the thing; as, ‘a hundred heads’ for ‘a hundred men’; ‘twenty hands’ for ‘twenty workmen’; ‘a cricketer’s willow’ for his ‘bat.’

Synonym. Gr. syn, together; onyma a name. Synonyms are words or names of the same meaning, twin-words; as, rabbit and coney, volume and tome, yearly and annual, letter and epistle. Twains of words are, however, less often synonyms than they are so called.

Syntax. Speech-trimming. A trim is a fully right or good state of a thing, the state in which it ought to be; and ‘to trim’ a thing is to put it in trim, or fully as it ought to be. ‘To trim a boat,’ to set it as it ought to be—upright, not heeling. ‘To trim a bonnet or dress,’ to put it fully as it ought to be. And so ‘to trim a hedge’: a man may think that, because much of the trimming of a hedge is done by cutting, a trimming is therefore a cutting. ‘I am out of trim’; ‘to trim,’ as a man in politics, albeit it may not be to set himself morally as he ought to be, is to set himself as he thinks that he ought to be for the nonce.

Tautology. Word-sameness, a saying over again of the same thing or words.

Technical. Craftly.

Telegram. Wire-spell. (See Spell.)

Telegraph (the electric). Spell-wire.

Telescope. Spyglass.

Tense. Time.

Termination. A word-ending.

Tmesis. A word-cutting or splitting or outsundering; as, ‘The child has overthrown the flower-pot.’ By word-cutting or outsundering—‘The child has thrown the flower-pot over.’

Transitive is overfaresome; intransitive, unoverfaresome.

Triphthong. Gr. tri, three; phthongos, sound. A threefold sound.

Uncial. L. literæ unciales, text letters. Capital letters.

Under. Undersea, submarine; underspan, subtend; underslinking, subterfuge.

Up-. Upclashing, collision; upthrong, congregate.

Upmating. The upmating of the persons, called in Greek syllepsis, touches the use of the personal pronouns. A second or third person upmated with the first is reckoned as first, and a third upmated with the second is reckoned as second; as,

‘That boat belongs to my brother (3) and me (1). We (1) bought it.’

‘That is known only to you (2) and me (1). We know it.’

‘I saw you (2) and your brother (3). You (2) were there.’

But persons are upmated as well from kindliness or civility as from the calls of speech-craft. Thus a speaker will often upmate himself with a hearer or another, as a mother may upmate herself with her child by we, instead of thou or you; as,

though the going is only that of the child.

A young man may say to a girl friend, ‘How proud we are,’ meaning ‘you are’; or a man may say of others who might not be very brisk at work, ‘We are not very strong to-day’; or a footman may upmate himself with the heads of the house with such wording as ‘We do not treat our guests so unhandsomely.’

Vocabulary. L. vocabulum, a word. A word-list, word-book, word-store.

Vocative (case). L. voco, to call. The call-case.

-y, -ig (an ending). It means eked with something:—Snowy, with snow; dirty, with dirt.

Zeugma. Gr., a yoking. A yoking of two things as to one time-word which would fit only one of them, another being outleft; as, ‘The house which my own money, and not which my father bequeathed,’ supply bought after ‘money.’

The Power of the Word-endings.

Some of the small word-endings end themselves with a dead breath-penning, and others with a half-penning. The dead pennings seem to betoken, mostly, an ending, or shortening, or lessening, in time or shape; while the half-pennings do not seem to bound, or shorten, or lessen, the meaning of their body-words.

Dead Pennings.

-ock. Hill-ock.

-ed. I walk-ed (the time-taking ended).

-ig, now -y. Wind-ig, wind-y (an eking of wind).

-op, -p; -ob, -b. Flap, flip, a quick flying; heap, hop, hip, small highenings, or humps; pop out, to poke out quickly; clap the hands, to close them quickly; stub, a small stump; wallop, to wallow or well (roll) lightly, and so as water from a spring, or in boiling. We may think that we have two very fine words in envelope and develope, whereas they seem to be nothing better than the Teutonic inwallop and unwallop, to roll in and unroll. With wallow set the Latin volvo (walwo), to roll.

-t, -et. Forlessens.

Poke,pocket.

Ball,bullet.

Sock,socket.

Half-Pennings.

do not so strongly, if at all, betoken endingness, or shortness, or smallness.

-m. A stem is of any length, but stump is short.

-en, -n. Golden, eked wholly in gold; blacken, to eke on freely in blackness.

-ing, as in walking, does not betoken any ending or shortening of a time-taking.

-er, -r, betokens eking out much in shape or time, as:—

Chat,chatter.

Pat,patter.

Clate,clatter.

It so happens that while we have a dead penning, -ed, for the ended time-taking, as, ‘he walked,’ we have a half-penning for the ongoing time-taking, as, ‘he walketh.’ It is true that -en, a half-penning, is put for -ed, as an ending of some mark-time words, as brok-en, and that -el, -l, a half-penning, may seem to mean either much or small, as prate, prattle (prat-el). Time-words with these endings in full length are weak.

Bloss-om-ed,

Black-en-ed,

Wall-op-ed,

Chat-er-ed,

Flitt-er-ed,

Pock-et-ed,

Prat-el-ed

(prattled).

s strengthens the meaning of some root-heads, as:—

Melt,smelt.

Nip,snip.

Plunge,splunge.

Queeze,squeeze.

So, as an ending of the somely thing-name, it stretches its meaning from that of one to some ones, as a hand, hands—hands being more than a hand.

In the word-ending -st of black-est, the half-penning s freely forstrengthens black, and the dead-penning t seems to check its force, so that blackest means black strengthened, though not unboundedly so, but blackest of all the things taken with it.

-st has, I suppose, this meaning also as an ending of thing-names or time-words, as ‘to boast,’ the meaning of which is betokened by some other tongues to be to bow out much the breast or fore-body, the token of pride and boasting, as it is so often shown to our sight.

Bogan, to bow (Anglo-Saxon and Friesic), means ‘to boast.’

Friesic—‘Thi mâgy bogade uppa sinra snôdhed.’ (The mâgy boasted (bowed) on his cunning.)—Oera Linda Book.

‘Hia bogath ìmmer over geda êwa.’ (They boast (bow) ever over good laws.)—Oera Linda Book.

The old British bard, Llywarch Hên, had in mind the same token of pride:—

(It is common for a proud (or boasting) man to be bow- or bulge-breasted); and in the Holderness (Yorkshire) folkspeech they say ‘as bug (proud) as a dog wi’ two tails,’ and yet, to show that bug means a bow or bowedness, they say ‘as bug as a cheese.’

The Goodness of a Speech.

The goodness of a speech should be sought in its clearness to the hearing and mind, clearness of its breath-sounds, and clearness of meaning in its words; in its fulness of words for all the things and time-takings which come, with all their sundrinesses, under the minds of men of the speech, in their common life; in sound-sweetness to the ear, and glibness to the tongue. As to fulness, the speech of men who know thoroughly the making of its words may be fullened from its own roots and stems, quite as far as has been fullened Greek or German, so that they would seldom feel a stronger want of a foreign word than was felt by those men who, having the words rail and way, made the word railway instead of calling it chemin de fer, or, going to the Latin, via ferrea, or than Englishmen felt with steam and boat, to go to the Greeks for the name of the steamboat, for which Greek had no name at all. The fulness of English has not risen at the rate of the inbringing of words from other tongues, since many new words have only put out as many old ones, as:—

immediately,anon,

(no saving of time here),

ignite,kindle,

annual,yearly,

machine,jinny.

I have before me more than one hundred and fifty so taken English law-words which were brought into the English courts with the Norman French tongue; but English speech did not therefore become richer by so many words, because most of them thrust aside English ones. Judge took the stead of dema; cause of sác; bail of borh; and the lawyers said arson for forburning; burglary, for housebreach; and carrucate, for ploughland; and King Alfred gave to English minds the matter of Gregory’s Pastoral with a greater share (nearly all) of pure English words, than most English scholars could now find for it.

On clearness, it is to be feared that, notwithstanding the English may be clear in breath-sounds to the ear, there is often a want of clearness to the mind from the many pairs of words which have worn into the same sound, such as:—

Bow,bow,

Doe,dough,

Lea,lee,

Pale,pail,

Sow,sew,

and others; and from the use of Latin and Greek and other foreign words, which are used in other than their true first meanings, or the meanings of which the common folk do not understand.

Teleology is a word which I have just seen in a Dorset paper, as for the matter of a lately given lore-speech, ‘the examination or the discussion of the purposes for which things are created.’ Now, in English the word end means both a forending, or termination, and a purpose; but I do not think that telos (end) or teleosis, in Greek, means a purpose. Prothesis would most likely have been put for it by a Greek.

The Latinish and Greekish wording is a hindrance to the teaching of the homely poor, or at least the landfolk. It is not clear to them, and some of them say of a clergyman that his Latinised preaching is too high for them, and seldom seek the church.

Swan is a clue to the meaning of swanling but none of cygnet; and if a man knew that kyknos was the Greek for swan he might still be at a loss for the meaning of -et, which is not a Greek ending.

For sound-sweetness or glibness, we should shun, as far as we can, the meeting of hard dead breath-pennings of unlike kinds. We have in our true English too many of them, and some of them from the dropping of the e from the word-ending -ed, as in slep’t and pack’d (lip and roof, and throat and roof pennings, and in both cases hard dead pennings); and then, as if we had not enough of them, we have brought in a host more of such ones from the Latin, as in act, tract, inept, rapt.

Now, forbend is a softer-sounded word than deflect, since ct (kt) are hard throat and root pennings, very unhandy together, and the n of -nd is a mild half-penning, and d is a mild dead penning. So dapper is better sounded than adept, since p is a single hard penning between two free breathings, and pt are a hard lip and a hard roof breathing, unfollowed by any softer breathing.

It was against such harshness of hard unlike breath-pennings that Celtic speech took its markworthy word-moulding.

As a token of the readiness of two kindred breath-pennings to run into one, we may give the words of the Liturgy, ‘Make clean our hearts within us,’ for which a clergyman will hardly, without a pause and a strong pushing of the breath, help saying ‘Make lean our hearts within us.’

There came out in print some time ago a statement wonderful to me, that it had been found that the poor landfolk of one of our shires had only about two hundred words in their vocabulary, with a hint that Dorset rustics were not likely to be more fully worded. There can be shown to any writer two hundred thing-names, known to every man and woman of our own village, for things of the body and dress of a labourer, without any mark-words, or time-words, or others, and without leaving the man for his house, or garden, or the field, or his work.