Chat,chatter (to chatter much or long).Fret,fritter.Sway,swagger.
Shortorsmall time-takingsby endings such as
-ock,-ick.
Whine,whinnockwhinnick (to whine smally).
-el,-l.
Prate,prattle.Jog,joggle.Crack,crackle.
A time-taking, taken as a deed or being without any time-taking thing, is taken as athing, and its name is aThing-name, asto write.
As in Greek the Infinitive mood,tò gráphein, the ‘to write’; and in Italian,il scrivere, the ‘to write’ (the deed of writing or a writing), so the Infinitive mood-shape of the Saxon time-word was taken as a thing-name after the prepositionto, to or for, asto huntianne(to or for the deed to hunt or hunting), as ‘Why does Alfred keep those dogs?’ ‘To huntianne.’
Thence we have our wording—
which is all good English.
It is an evil to our speech that the thing-shape now ending in-ingshould be mistaken for the mark-word ending in-ing.
Unhappily two sundry endings of the old English have worn into one shape. They were-ungor-ingand-end.
Singungis the deed of singing, a thing.Singendis a mark-word, as in the wording ‘I have asingingbird.’
Sailingandhunting, in the foregiven thought-wordings, are thing-names, and not mark-words.Sailingissegling, as ‘ne midseglingene mid rownesse’ (neither with sailing nor rowing).—Bede 5, 1.
‘Wunigendeofer hyne’ (woning[mark-word] over him).—Matt iii. 16.
‘Sywunungheora on west’ (be theirwoning[thing-name] waste).—Ps. lxviii 30.
‘Ða genealaehton hym to Farisaer hynecostigende’ (then came near to him the Phariseestempting[mark-word] him).—Matt xix. 3.
‘Ne gelaede þu us oncostnunge’ (lead us not intotempting[thing-name]).—Lord’s Prayer.
So ‘haelende,’ Matt v. 23; ‘haeling’; ‘bodigende,’ Matt. x. 35; ‘bodung,’ Luke xi. 32.
‘Waere þu to-daeg, on huntunge?’ (nothuntende) (wert thou to-day on or in hunting?)—Aelfric’s Dialogue.
‘Hwaet dest þu be þinre huntunge?’ (nothuntende) (what dost thou by thy hunting?)—Aelfric.
‘TheCALLINGofassemblies I cannot away with.’—Isa. i. 13. Not ‘calling assemblies,’ which, ifcallingwere a mark-word, would mean assemblies that call.
The right speech-trimming with the thing-names in-ingis to trim them in the old English way as thing-names in their cases; as,
‘We are theoffscouringof all things unto this day.’—1 Cor. iv. 13. Not ‘We are the offscouring all things.’
‘For that righteous man,INseeingandhearing, vexed his righteous soul.’
‘BytheWASHINGofregeneration and (the)RENEWINGofthe Holy Ghost.’—Titus iii. 5. Not ‘He saved us by the washing regeneration and renewing the Holy Ghost.’
The ending-erof the time-taker (deeder, name-word) is, not unclearly, the Celtic, Welshgwr, or in word-welding-wr, the Latin-or; as,
Welsh,barn, doom;barnwr, a doom-man.Latin,canto, to sing;cantor, a sing-man.
Thence-erseems a far less fitting ending for a tool-name than the old Saxon-el; and a tool for the whetting of knives would be more fitly called awhettelthan a whetter.Choppel, chopper;clippels, clippers.
All new time-words now taken or shapen from other tongues must be unmoulded.
We sayshoot, shot (notshooted); butloot, looted (notlot),lootbeing the Hindustanilootna, to rob or plunder.
So time-words, which are known English words,of another kind, names or mark-words, are mostly unmoulded.
The shapening of the time-words hangs rather more on their endings than on their headings.
The oddest are those which end in the throat-pennings—NG,NK,K,G; and those ending in roof-pennings—T,D.
Because the-dof the roof-penning-edis so unlike a throat-penning, which cannot easily stand with it: and because theTandDare likedas roof-pennings, and (seeTable) they may run into them.
The wording of a time-taking (predicate) with its speech-thing (subject) is aThought-wording(proposition).
Strongormoulded time-wordsare such as, for a time-taking of foretime, are moulded (without any out-eking) into another shape or sound, as
I sing,I sang.It flies,it flew.
Theweakorunmoulded time-wordstake on, unmoulded, an ending such as-ed, as
He stones,hestoned.He canes,hecaned.
All time-words that are known names of things are unmoulded, as
ToPlaster,plastered.Bud,budded.Comb,combed.Cap,capped.Dust,dusted.Fish,fished.Gate,gated.Water,watered.Heap,heaped.Mind,minded.Name,named.Pen,penned.Stone,stoned.
Very many of our time-words are unmoulded from the same cause—that they are names of things; although such names of things, having become worn more or less out of shape, or having fallen out of use, may not show themselves to our minds what they are.
To huntmakeshunted; why? Fromhound, to hunt, meaning at first to seek with a hound.
It may, however, be said, ‘Is to hunt fromhound, or hound fromto hunt?’
Such a point is, in very many cases, cleared out by the Anglo-Saxon, in which ‘to hunt’ ishunt-i-an, nothunt-an; and thei, a worn shape ofig, shows thathuntianis fromhund, hound, and so hound is not from hunt.
The time-word from the thinghunt-ig-an,hunt-i-an, is tohoundy, to take time with a hound.
We say
Cling, clung.Fling, flung.Sling, slung.
But we should say ‘heringed(not rung) his pig’; ‘hestringedhis harp’;ringandstringbeingthings.
Thestrongormoulded time-wordsare nearly or quite all words ending in one single breath-penning, and of a close sound (1, 2, 3, or 4 of the Table), as
-ING,Cling,clung.-INK,Sink,sank.-K,Speak,spoke.-L,Steal,stole.-T,Smite,smote.-R,Tear,tore.-V,Weave,wove.
Other time-words, name-words, or stem-words, and broad-sounded ones (5, 6, 7, 8 of the Table), are nearly all weak or unmoulded.
The ending-NGin broad-sounded words—
Clang,clanged.Bung,bunged.Long,longed.
Bank,banked.Clank,clanked.Flank,flanked.
And in
Blink,blinked.Link,linked.Clink,clinked.
Bake,baked.Croak,croaked.Hawk,hawked.Rake,raked.
Makewas heretoforemaked:
‘For aevric rice man his castlesmakede.’—Sax. Chron.MCXXXVI.
Kwore out, whence
Maked, ma-ed, maed, made.
Back,backed.Clack,clacked.
Beg,begged.Clog,clogged.
All butdig, dug. What a pity to put it out of keeping with all of the others! It isdiggedin the Bible.
Bait,baited.Bate,bated.Bleat,bleated.Bloat,bloated.Clout,clouted.Float,floated.
Bat,batted.Bet,betted.Clot,clotted.
Breathe,breathed.
Cut,cut.Hit,hit.Let,let.Set,set.&c.
The wear of these words was thislike:
The mild penning,d, after a hard one,t, became hard,t. Whencelette, let, with the twott run into one. A pity!
So were shapenfeed,fedde,fed;lead,ledde,led;read,redde.
Crowd,crowded.Fade,faded.
Bed,bedded.Bud,budded.
Brawl,brawled.Call,called.
A few of them are shortened, asfeel,feeld,felt.
Clean,cleaned.Frown,frowned.
Din,dinned.Pin,pinned.Sin,sinned.
Blare,blared.Care,cared.
Darenow makesdurst; but in Friesic it is unmoulded—‘and nethuradonnâ wither forskina’ (anddarednot to show themselves again).
Bar,barred.Purr,purredStir,stirred.
Pose,posed.Praise,praised.Blaze,blazed.Close,closed.Daze,dazed.Raze,razed.
Bless,blessed.Guess,guessed.
Blush,blushed.Clash,clashed.
Heap,heaped.Peep,peeped.Reap,reaped.Gape,gaped.Cope,coped.Hope,hoped.Mope,moped.Stoop,stooped.
Weak.Shortened.Creep,crep’d.Keep,kep’d.Leap,lep’d.Sleep,slep’d.Weep,wep’d.Sweep,swep’d.
Weak.Shortened.Creep,crep’d.Keep,kep’d.Leap,lep’d.Sleep,slep’d.Weep,wep’d.Sweep,swep’d.
Cap,capped.Hap,happed.Hop,hopped.Stop,stopped.
Blab,blabbed.
Crave,craved.Grave,graved.Rave,raved.
Huff,huffed.Cough,coughed.
Blame,blamed.
All butcome, came.
Time-words ending in an open breathing. Most of them are weak:—
Bay,bayed.Bow,bowed.Brew,brewed.Claw,clawed.Say,said.Stew,stewed.
A few of them are moulded:—
Blow,blew.Crow,crew.Grow,grew.Slay,slew.
All those that end in two or three sundry breath-pennings are weak:—
-NCH,Pinch,pinched.-ND,Land,landed.-NGE,Lounge,lounged.-NT,Grant,granted.-PL,Cripple,crippled.-PT,Intercept,intercepted.-RB,Barb,barbed.-RC,Cork,corked.-RD,Hord,horded.-RG,Charge,charged.-RL,Hurl,hurled.-BL,Bubble,bubbled.-CL,Cackle,cackled.-DL,Huddle,huddled.-FL,Ruffle,ruffled.-FT,Heft,hefted.-GL,Naggle,naggled.-LP,Gulp,gulped.-LK,Chalk,chalked.-LD,Mould,moulded.-LP,Help,helped.-LV,Calve,calved.-MB,Climb,climbed.-MP,Pump,pumped.-MT,Tempt,tempted.-RM,Harm,harmed.-RN,Burn,burned.-RP,Carp,carped.-RT,Flirt,flirted.-RTH,Earth,earthed.-SS,Miss,missed.-SP,Clasp,clasped.-ST,Consist,consisted.(All butcast, formerlycasted.)-TCH,Hatch,hatched.-TL,Bottle,bottled.-RST,Burst,bursted.
A few time-words ending with a throat-penning mark the heretofore time by some oddness of shape; as,
Bring,brought.Think,thought.
They were opened in sound, and also took the endingode,od(oured), and then came into our shapes by sundry wonted changes:—
-ing(as ofbring) became-ong.-ing-edbecame(1)-ong-ed.-ong-ed„(2)-ong’d.-ong’d„(3)-onk’d.
Then thed, a mild penning after a hard penning (k), became hard,t:—
-onk’dbecame(4)-onk’t.-onk’t„(5)-ok’t.-ok’t„(6)-o’t,
askandtare harsh together. Whence—
Bringbro’t (brought).Buy (bycg, A.S.)bo’t.Seek (sec, A.S.)so’t.Teach (taec, A.S.)to’t.
Ourghas intaughtis the now unuttered (though still written) throat-penning.
Time-takings or time-givings may be taken as thing-marks, as ‘thehuntingdog’; ‘thehuntedhare.’
The sundry moods of time-takings are marked by sundry shapes of the time-word, or by bye-words or mark-words—shall,will,can,may,must.
The timings of time-takings are marked by sundry shapes of the time-word, and by bye-words or mark-words to it, as ‘the bird flies’ or does fly, or flew or did fly, or will fly.
Time-takings are of sundry kinds, under sundry names, asto be,to walk,to strike.
Under-time-markings may be by single words, as ‘to writewellorill,slowlyorquickly’; or by two or three words, as ‘he runnethvery swiftly’; or by clusters of words, as ‘he runswith most amazing speed’; or ‘he worksin a very skilful way.’
In this fitting the time-word is helped by sundry bye-words or under-mark-words.
Can, from the Saxoncun-n-an, to ken, know, to know how. ‘Icanwrite,’ I know how to write.
The heretofore time-shape ofIc canwasIc cuðe, for which we have nowI could, with anlwhich was never in the root of the word, and for which there is not any ground.
May.—Mag-an, the stem of maht,might, meansto strongen, to be or become strong (Lat.valere), as is shown by cases of its use in Saxon and other Teutonic tongues.
In an old Friesic good wish at the drinking to the health of a bride and bridegroom we find ‘Dat se lang lave en wel mage,’ that they long live and wellmay(strongen,bene valeant); and in Saxon, ‘Hu maeg he?’ how mays he? (strongensorvalet).
Shall.—Sceal-an, meant, as a stem, to offmark, distinguish, or toskillin the meaning of 1 Kings v. 6—‘Ic sceal dón,’ I offmark or skill to do; as what I am bent to do.
‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.’ Thou markest or clearly seest to love the Lord thy God.
‘Thou shalt not steal.’ Thou markest this. Not to steal.
Must.—Mot-an,most-an, is most likely a stem of the wordmag-an, to strongen (valere).
The-stwould strengthen the meaning ofmag(may) as it does in-estoflongest. So ‘I must go’ (Ic moste gán) would mean ‘I am overmighted by another’s might to go.’
Time-words are fitted
ToPerson, asI am.Thou art.He is.ToTale, asI am.We are.Thou art.Ye are.He is.They are.ToTime, asI am (now).I was (heretofore).I shall be (hereafter).
ToMood, as
I write, or shall write.I may or can write, or might or could or should write.If I write, or if I had written.
Timing of time-takings is the marking of their times, asnow,heretofore, orhereafter.
Noworhereat.I am, or I love, or am loved.Heretofore done.I was, or I loved, or was loved.Heretofore ongoing.I was, or I was a-loving or I did love.Now ended.I have been, or I have loved, or have been loved.Heretofore ended.I had been, or I had loved, or had been loved.Heretofore ongoing, ended.I had been a-loving.Hereafter doing.I shall be, or I shall love, or shall be loved.Hereafter ongoing.I shall be a-loving.Hereafter ended.I shall have been, or shall have loved, or shall have been loved.Hereafter ended, ongoing.I shall have been a-loving.
Single and stringly time-takings of the same name, as ‘Marysoldme some apples yesterday.’ There was a single selling; but under the wording ‘Mary formerlysoldapples in the market,’ it is clear that under the same wordsoldis meant a string of sellings.
So under the wording ‘Writeyour name’ is understood a single writing; but under the wording ‘If you would write readily, write every day,’ the same wordwriteimplies a string of writings.
Some tongues (as the Greek and Russian) have two shapes of the time-words for these two cases of time-taking; as, Greek—
‘Take thy bill and write fifty’ (γράψον,aorist).—Luke xvi. 6.
‘Jesus, stooping down, wrote on the ground’ (ἔγραφεν,imperfect, ondoing shape,wrote on).
But Acts xxv. 26, ‘About whom I have nothingcertain to write’ (γράψαι,aorist, to write off once for all).
See the Greek text of the 3rd Epistle of John v. 13—‘I had many (things or many times?) towrite(γράφειν, ondoing shape), but I will not with pen and inkwrite(γράψαι) to thee’ (aorist, offdoing form).
An understanding of the difference between theaoristand ondoing shapes is of weight in the reading of the Gospel. ‘Tomake intercession, tointercedefor them.’—Heb. vii. 25. To intercede once for all, at the doom-day? No. To intercede on always; for the word is not in theaoristshape, but in the present ondoing form,to be interceding.
A time-shape of a time-word used in an unwonted way for the telling of a string of deeds, as, in English, the present time-shape is so used for deeds of foretime, as ‘Heopensthe door,walksin, coollytakesa chair,sitsdown, andtellsthe maid he wishes to see me.’
So ‘PhilipfindethNathanael, andsaithunto him,’ &c.—John i. 45.
The wording of the time-taking may be; as,
(1) Now or heretofore true, or hereafter sure, as ‘Heis, orwas, orwill be’; ‘Hesings, orsang, orwill sing.’The Truth Mood.
(2) That it may or can, or could or might be so taken, as ‘He may or can go.’The Mayly Mood.
(3) Or that it is to be wished that it may or might be taken, as ‘I wish,’ or ‘Oh that I could go.’The Wish Mood.
Or that it is a hinge time-taking on which another hangs, as ‘If you ask (hinge), you will receive (on-hang).’
Or as bidden to be taken, as ‘Go thy way.’
Things named in speech, so as to mark the stead of the beginning or end, or of the way of the time-taking at any point of its length or outreach in time or room, are Case-things.
There are, however, two cases which are speech-cases and not stead-marks or way-marks:—
(1) That of the of-spoken thing (nominative), the thing of which the speech speaks, as ‘The bird flies’; and
(2) The to-spoken thing (vocative), as ‘O sing, sweet bird.’
Cases are marked by shapes of thing-names or by case-words, or by the setting of the case-word either after or before the time-word, as ‘The dog drove out the cat,’ where the dog is the beginning of the time-taking; or ‘The cat drove out the dog,’ where the dog is the end of it, and is shown to be so by the setting of its name after the time-word.
‘The bird flew from, or off, or out of thetree.’
‘He died of or fromintemperance.’
Thetreeandintemperanceare source-marks offlewanddied.
‘John lovedGeorge.’
‘He went to or towardsLondon.’
‘Edwin worked forwages, or strolled along by thestream.’
‘John was in thefieldor at thechurch.’
‘Alfred wrote with apen.’
‘The bird flew before, behind, over, under, above, below, by, around, or through thegate-turret,’ which is the way-mark offlew.
There is a Source-mark which is a source of the time-taking, not as being only that thing, but as being a thing then in some shape or kind of time-taking.
‘(a) The wind being against us, (b) we made but little way.’ais the source ofb, ‘we made but little way,’ not from the wind simply as wind, but as also being against us.
‘You being my leader, I shall overcome.’
This is commonly called the absolute case (allfree case); though the wind is not free of a time-taking (being against us). It may be called the ‘thing-so-being’ case.
Some tongues mark many of the cases by sundry endings of the thing-name, but we have in common names only one ending for case, the possessive, as ‘the horse’s mane,’ ‘John’s house.’
In name-tokens we have three case-forms, asthou,thy,thee—thyfor the possessive, andtheefor all the other cases.
‘The bird flewfromthe apple-treeinthe cornerofthe garden,throughthe archway, andunderthe elmbythe barn,roundthe hayrick, and onoverthe stream justbelowthe willow, andabovethe bridge, and thentothe stall, and ontowardsthe wood, andintoan ivy-bush.’
Here the sundry named things are way-marks which mark the place of theflyingin its beginning and end, and at sundry points of its length.
Such stead-marks or way-marks may be taken as in either of one or two or three cases, as they may be either stead-marks or way-marks, and as their beholdingness to the time-taking may be reckoned to it or from it to themselves.
‘The bird flewoverorunderorbythe tree.’ The flying at first reached on nearer towards the tree, and then reached off again farther from it, so that the tree was at first in the case of a toness, and then in the case of a fromness, with the flying.
But under the wording ‘the roof isoverthe floor,’ or ‘the floor isunderthe roof,’ the time-takingisis a staid and not an ongoing one, and either the roof or the floor may be in the fromness or toness case, as the height may be reckoned from it to the other, or to it from the other.
A housemother may say ‘We live near (to) Fairton’ (toness case); yet an hour afterwards she may say ‘We live too farfromFairton (fromness case) to step in readily for errands.’
Her abode may be four miles from Fairton, so that the time-takingliveis as far from Fairton in one case as the other; and yet it puts it in two sundry cases.
‘If Alfred gave to Edred a field,’ the time-takinggaveended in the mid-thing, the field (the endingness case), but it put the field to Edred, as his, in the toness case.
The place of a time-taking may be shown by one place-mark, or by two or three, of which a latter may mark the place of a former, as ‘The rooks buildinthe elms,abovethe house,’ where the elms mark the place of thebuilding, and the house marks that of the place-mark (theelms).
But some case-words are made up of a smaller case-word and a thing-name, as ‘Alfred satbesidethe wall.’Besidebeing ‘by theside,’ and the side of the wall (whereof case).
The figure forcase-shifting, or the changing of the case-tokens, is called in Gr.enallageas
‘I have ten sovereignsin my purse’; ‘My pursecontains ten sovereigns.’
‘The pump hasa new handle’; ‘There is a new handleto the pump.’
‘The carpetinthe hall’; ‘The carpetofthe hall.’
‘The brotherofortothat lady.’
‘Johnlikescricket or isfond ofcricket.’
‘Greedyofgain orforgain.’
‘Thinkofme oronme.’
‘He was killed by a blowof a cluborwith a club.’
‘He spokeinthe balcony orfromthe balcony.’
is the setting of words or a bewording of thought or speech (syntax).
A thought-wording (proposition) is a bewording of the case of a thing with its time-taking. ‘The boy is good’ or ‘the boy plays.’
A thought-wording may have more thing-names and time-words, as ‘The boys and girls read and play.’
Thought-wordings (propositions) may be linked together in sundry ways, though mostly by Link-words (conjunctions). ‘Men walkandbirds fly’; ‘I sought him,butI found him not’; ‘I waited at the doorwhileAlfred went into the house.’
TheHingeTime-taking, on which the other hangs, and theHankTime-taking which hangs on the Hinge one, as ‘If ye ask (hinge), ye shall receive (hank).’
There are sundry kinds of hinge time-takings, as one or the other or both of the time-takings may or may not be trowed or true or sure.
(1)Hingeandhank, trowed—‘As ye ask (as I trow you do), so ye receive (I trow).’
(2)Hinge, untrowed;hank, trowed—‘If ye ask (I trow not whether ye will or no), then ye will receive (I trow).’
The hinge-word put down as trowedly untrue, and the hank one trowed, as ‘If ye asked (as I trow you do not), ye would receive (I trow)’; or ‘If ye had asked (ye have not), ye would have received (I trow).’
The hinge time-taking trowed, and the other untrowed, as ‘Ye ask (I trow), that ye may receive (I trow not that ye will).’
The putting of speech into trim;trimbeing a truly good form or state. Totrima shrub, a bonnet, or a boat, is to put it into trim.
1. The first care in speech-trimming is that we should use words which give most clearly the meanings and thoughts of our mind, though it is not likely that unclear thought will find a clear outwording; and either of the two, as clear or unclear, helps to clearen or bemuddle the other.
With most English minds, and with all who have not learned the building of Latin and Greek words, English ones may be used with fewer mistakes of meaning than would words from those tongues; though Englishmen should get a clearer insight into English word-building ere they could hope to keep English words to their true sundriness of meaning.
The so-seeming miswordings (solœcisms) of writers in the Latinised and Greekish speech-trimming are not uncommon or unmarkworthy.
One man writes of something whichnecessitatesanother, though Latin itself has nonecessitoto back‘necessitate’; another giveseliminateas meaningelicit, or outdraw; a third calls afailureof a rule anexceptionfrom it. There is noEXCEPTIONto a rule but that which isexceptedfrom it at and in the downlaying of it. If a man gives a simple rule ‘that if it rains on St. Swithin’s day it rains forty days after it,’ and it did not so rain last year, the case is abreachorfailureof the rule, and not anexceptionto it. He gave no exception.
Some say ‘Mrs. A. has hadtwins’ or ‘Alfred was one oftwins.’ A twin is atwain, atwo, or a couple of things of the same name or kind; and twins of children must be at least four. I should say ‘Alfred was one ofatwin.’ In the latter case it would be correct to say ‘ThereISoneor atwainof fat men,’ &c., in whichiswould match both.
One has written ‘ideas aremanufactured.’ By whose hands? Another talks of ‘adilapidateddress’; and a third has ‘found the stomach of a big fishdilapidated.’ What arelapides? and what meansdelapido?
A man has written of an old Tartar that he was ‘atamelessgorilla’—a gorilla without atame! as iftamewere a thing-name.
Another says ‘It imposedabsolute limitsupon the choice of positions.’ What areabsolute limitsif absolute (fromabsolvo, to offloosen) means offloosened from all check and all limits?
A man writes of ‘a photograph reproduced by a new permanent process.’ Is it the process or the sunprint that is permanent?
Preposterous, foreaft, as when what should bepræ, foremost, is putpostor behind; whereas a writer givesa structure as ‘preposterously overgrown,’ as if ‘preposterous’ meant only very much, vastly.
One takesirretrievableas nohow amended. If ‘retrieve’ is the Frenchretrouver(to find again), ‘irretrievable’ would mean not to be found again; and ‘the irretrievable defeat of the whole nation’ would be one which they could notfindagain, as most likely they would not wish to find it.
From want of words in English, or of care, our wording may seem to bear two meanings, as ‘John played with Edwin, and broke his bat.’ The bat of which boy?
‘One Robert Bone of Antony shot at a little bird sitting upon his cow’s back, and killed it—the bird (I mean), not the cowe.’—Carew.
Words of the same meaning are less often so than they are so called; and we sometimes give lists of synonyms showing the differences of their meanings.
A twin of words of one very same meaning is rather evil than good; and if they are not of one very same meaning they should not be given as such.
It may be that from a misunderstanding of the wordtautology, as the name of a bad kind of speech-trimming, men have often shunned the good use of words.
The bad tautology from which speakers have been so frayed seems to be the giving twice or many times,within one scope of thought-wording, the same matter of speech in the same words.
It is true that it would not be good wording to say ‘John has soldJohn’shorse’ for ‘hishorse’ since the name-tokens are shapen to stand for foregiven names.
But where the same foreused word would give a very clear—if not the clearest—meaning, there seems to be little ground against the use of it.
‘I bought a horse on Monday and a donkey on Tuesday, and sold thehorseagain at a gain on Thursday.’ Why should not the wordhorsetake the latter place as well as the wordsteed, or equine animal, or ‘more worthy beast’—or why should I not as well say, ‘An ass I want, and an ass I will buy,’ as ‘An ass I want, and a donkey, oritorhim, I will buy’?
It seems that much wrong is done to the Greek of the Gospel by the putting, for the same Greek word, sundry English ones at sundry passages; and by what right do we try an Evangelist’s or an Apostle’s wisdom in the use of the same word, by which he must have meant to give the same meaning? or why should we make him to mean by κρίσις, at one time, a trying of a soul, and at another time a fordooming of him?
It is not any tautology to use near to each other a thing-name and a mark-word which are only fellow stem-words, as ‘Asfree, and not using yourfreedomfor a cloke of wickedness.’
2. Another care in speech-trimming is the choice of words for their sound-sweetness (Gr.euphony) or well-soundingness, or for speech-readiness.
Past, with the hissingswitht, is less sound-goodthanafter; andaqueduct, withct, is less well-sounding thanwaterlode; nor iscataractsofter thanwaterfall.
The hereunder given wordings were lately heard in a law court:—
‘I can give youone or two instancesof remarkable intelligence in the cases of fat men’; and
A Juror—‘Thereare one or two fat menon the jury (laughter).’
Dr. K.—‘I don’t think there are.’
How should these cases be treated? In the first case, ‘one instances’ is a breach of word-matching, as would be ‘two instance’; and in the latter, the wordonecalls forman, andtwoformen. May we not better say, ‘I can give you at least one instance,’ or ‘I believe more instances than one’?
‘A man who has already, and will still, render such services will be,’ &c.Renderedis understood afterhas; but how may the thought be worded without the two puttings of the wordrender? Thus: ‘a man who will still be, as he has already been, found to render,’ &c.
Penetratemeans insink, inpierce. M. Gambetta writes, ‘After the heroic examples given by open towns, and by villages only guarded by their firemen, it is absolutely necessary that each town, each commune, shall pay its debt to the national defence, and that all alike bepenetratedby the task which is imposed upon France.’ It seems a queer speech-wording to take ataskas a thing thatpenetrates, though it might be undertaken.
A bad wording is often found with mark-words of the higher pitch, as ‘Alfred was more clever, but not so good,asJohn.’ ‘Not so good’ is an inwedged word-cluster, but the word-setting is bad, as ‘more clever’ calls for the wordthan, notas; and ‘so good’ wantsas, notthan. It would be better to say ‘Alfred was more clever, but less good, than John.’ To try the word-setting take out the wedge-words (‘but not so good’), and you will have ‘Alfred was more cleverasJohn.’
Dislikeseems a bad word-shape.Mislikeis the old and true English one.Likeis fromlic, a shape, aslich, the body of a dead man. ‘Itliketh(licað) me well’ is ‘itshapesitself (looketh) to me well.’ ‘Itmislikethme’ is ‘itmisshapesitself to me’ (looks bad).
Toseemis from the thing-name—sam,seam,seem, body or mass—and ‘itseemsto me’ is ‘itbodiesitself to me.’ ‘That shipseemsto be a French one,’ or ‘that manseemsto be ill,’bodiesitself or himself to be a French one or ill.
‘The house and the goodswereburnt’; but ‘the house with the goodswas(notwere) burnt,’ since it is only the house that is in the speech-case, as the goods are in the mate-case. ‘The housewasburnt with the goods.’
‘Oneof the childrenarecome.’ No—iscome. The one only is come.
In our taking of time-words from the Latin in the shape of the past participle, we get at last a queer shape of word. Take the Latinreg-ofrego, to reach or straighten, as a line, and our wordreck. Fromregcomesregtus,rectus. Here thetanswers to ourd(Germantofedandet). Thenrec-tanswers toreck’d. Now put onedto each, andrec-tbecomesrec-t-ed, as indirec-t-ed; andreck’dbecomesreck-d-ed, showing thatdirectedis trulydireg-ed-ed, and too likereck-ed-ed, as ‘Hereck-ed-ednought.’
We may often hear a man who is careful to speak good English say ‘This rose smells very sweetly,’ for sweet. The rose smells (gives out smell) as being itself very sweet, not as smelling (taking in smell) in a sweet way. To find which to use, the thing-markword or the under-markword, put ‘as being’ after the time-word, as ‘This rose smells (as being itself)sweet,’ not sweetly.
‘Can you smell now? you had, the other day, lost your smelling?’ ‘Yes, I smell verynicely.’ Not I smell as being myself verynice. A rose cannot smell any other thing, and so cannot smell itnicely.
‘Mary sings verycharmingly,’ but ‘Mary looks verycharming.’
‘John lookspale,’ but ‘John looks verynarrowlyinto that gold-work.’
‘I can tastewell,’ ‘That peach tastesgood.’
To have seen a man at a bygone time would mean that the seeing was before that bygone time; but we sometimes hear a man say, ‘I should (yesterday) have been very glad to have seen you (if you had called yesterday).’ That is, by wording, ‘I should have been very glad (yesterday) to have seen you (at a time before yesterday),’ not to see you yesterday; and yet that is what the speaker means. ‘I should have been very glad (yesterday) to see you (yesterday),’ or ‘I should be very glad to-day to have seen you yesterday.’
3. Odd word-shapes are not in the main choice-worthy.
Our time-wordgois of unwontsome conjugation, asits foretime shapewentis not shapen fromgo, but is a shape of another word,wend.
So the forlessening name,leveretfor ahareling, andcygnetfor aswanling, are unwontsome, as being words of another speech.
4. There is a greater or less freedom ofword-shifting(Gr.anastrophe, up-shifting or back-shifting), asupin ‘Fasten itupwell,’ ‘fasten it wellup’; orbackin ‘He broughtbackthe saw,’ or ‘he brought the sawback’; ‘There is none to disputemy right,’ or ‘my rightthere is none to dispute.’
Why should not English, like other tongues, more freely form words with headings of case-words, asdownfalls,incomings,offcuttings,outgoings,upflarings, instead of the awkward falls-down, comings-in, cuttings-off, goings-out, flare-ups; oroffcast(for cast-off) clothes; or adownbroken(for a broken-down) schoolmaster;outlockoroutlocking(for a lock-out); theuptakingbeam (for the taking-up beam) of an engine?
Mongrel (hybrid) words, or words partly from one tongue and partly from another.
Twy-speechwords are a sore blemish to our English, as they seem to show a scantiness of words which would be a shame to our minds; as,
Sub-warderfor under-warder.Pseudo-sailorfor sham-sailor.Ex-kingfor rodless or crownless king.Prepaidfor forepaid.Bi-monthlyfor fortnightly or every fortnight.
As ‘The train ranwith extraordinary velocity,’ for ‘the train ranvery fast.’
‘Alfred did the businesswith perfect fidelity;’ for ‘Alfred did the businessfaithfully.’
Thence much of the wordiness of our written, if not spoken, composition.
The ‘New York Times’ thus explains how it was that the flames got to the roof in the burning of the Fifth Avenue Hotel:—‘Fire always is aspirant, the sole exception being where incandescent masses fall down, and so act as a medium of ignition.’
The hard breathing (aspirate) is often wrongly dropped or misput by less good speakers; but, while the upper ranks laugh at them for their mistakes, they themselves, like our brethren of Friesland and Holstein, often drop it from words to which it of right belongs, and mainly from the hard-breathedWor the SaxonHW(ourWH).