Note 949 — INDEX TO THE NOTES.

many a friend. ‘Many a’ is a peculiar idiom, which has been explained in different ways. One view is that ‘many’ is a corruption of the French mesnie, a train or company, and ‘a’ a corruption of the preposition ‘of,’ the singular noun being then substituted for the plural through confusion of the preposition with the article. A more correct view seems to be that ‘many’ is the A.S. manig, which was in old English used with a singular noun and without the article, e.g. manig mann = many men. In the thirteenth century the indefinite article began to be inserted; thus mony enne thing = many a thing, just as we say ‘what a thing,’ ‘such a thing.’ This would seem to show that ‘a’ is not a corruption of ‘of,’ and that there is no connection with the French word mesnie. Milton, in this passage, uses ‘many a friend’ with a plural verb. gratulate. The simple verb is now replaced by the compound congratulate (Lat. gratulari, to wish joy to a person).