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1633 Pages·2010·62 MB·English

ETYMOLOGICAL AND PRONOUNCING
DICTIONARY
0"
DIFFIOULT· WORDS.
------ --------\.
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Demy 8vo., Illustrat:d. Price 55.
I
WARD & LOCK'S
STANDARD ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY
OFTHE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE,
WithanAppendixand 500 Illustrations.
LONDON:"VARD,LOOK&Co.,SalisburySquare,E.e.
E1'YMOLOGICAL AND PRONOUNCING
DICTION A.RY
OF
DIFFICULT WORDS.
BY TTII:;nEV.
E. COBHAM BREWER, LL.D.
(<0f~fl1tit~ 8}11l!, (Slt11tV,lbge),
AUTHOR OF
"GuidetoScience"(300,OOOth);
CtIiistoryofFrance"(broughtdmcntothe1J)'esentyear):
"Dictional'yofPhraseandFctble"(Brdedition):
'LesPlt~nom~nesdeTOil,s lesJow's" (dedicated by authoritytoNalJoleon11.~.
andsanctionedby..lIgnl'.SiSou'1',Apb.0/Pm'is)..
,,"c.I c1:c.
LONDON:
WARD, LOCK, & CO., WARWICK HOUSE,
SALISBURYSQUARE, E.C.
NEW YORK: 10, BOND STREET.
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'."', PREFACE~
--
OBJECT IN VIEW.
TheobjectofthisDictionaryisnotto collecttogetherallthe
words employed in the language,nor to furnish anexhaustive
list ofthe several meanings ofeach word, but simply to call
attention to errors of speech and spelling made, not by the
uneducated,butbythosewhowishtospeakandspellcorrectly.
Inpursuanceof theseobjects,theplanadoptedis-
1.'Toomit allwordswhich are so obvious as to present no
difficultyofmeaning,spelling,orpronunciation.*
2. Tosupplythecorrectspelling and pronunciationofevery
wordlikelytobelookedforinsuchamanualasthis.
3. To point out those errors in spelling, lJrOnunciation, or
use,tobeespeciallyguardedagainst.
4. To give so much ofthe meaning of each word as may
sufficetoidentifyitandexplainitsgeneraluse.
5. Toset side byside homonyms,paronyms,and synonyms,
thattheymaybereadilycomparedandcorrectlyapplied. .
o. Thepluralofeveryword(exceptthosewhichadd·8or.es)
isgiven, the femiuine ofevery masculine, the past tense and
past participle of every verb,the degrees ofcomparison, the
changes of.y into .ies, the doublingofconsonants, and every
othervariationwhichawordinitsdifferentphasesundergoes.
Incarryingout the scheme some repetition has been made,
withaview ofsaving the searcher that tedious and most un·
satisfactory,taskofturning toit.wordwhich he does notwant,.
after he has been at the pains of finding the one which he
requires. As adictionaryisread piece.meal and not conseeu
tively, the only fault ofthese repetitions is that itsomewhat
enlargesthebulkofthebook.
• The earlierlettersof the bookare notso full as thebtter. The
originalintentionwastolimitthesizeofthebooktoabout300page••
iV' PR/EFACE.
7. Attention is called to all outrages of spelling and com·
bination; but, that the corrections suggested may in no wise
interfere with the received spelling or pronunciation,theyare
invariablyadded as notes in a smaller type. Thus equerryis
pointed out as indefensible in spelling, rhyme (meaning the
clinkofwordsinpoetry), indelible,'isinglass(fromtheGerman
..hausenblase,"asturgeon'sbladder),imposthumefor"aposteme,"
infusible (both positive and negative), pedometer for ..podo.
meter," defenee andoffenee for"defense"and"offense," letter
andlettuee,marryandmarriage,manaclesfor"manicles,"mar·
maladefor"marmelade,"osprayfor"oBfray"(thebone.breaker),
passengerandmessenger,with scoresofothers. Someofthese
errorsmayprobablygetcorrectedafterattcntionhasbeencalled
tothem,othersmayaffordamusementorgratifyliterarycuriosity.
8. All hybrids are noticed, all abnormal derivations, all per.
versions, all blunders of philology, all inconsistencies: for
example-pro-eeed with .eeed, and pre.cedewith .cede;primo.
genitureandprimo.genitorfor"primi."(Latin"primi-genitus,"
&c.); theintroduction ofh inthe middle ofsome Greekcom.
pounds and its omission in others, as philharmonic,aphelion.
diarrhcea, phi/hellenist, enhydrous, &c., on the one side, and
pan[h]oply,ex[h]odus, pan[h]orama,an[h]omaly, peri[h]od, &c.,
on the other. Insomeinstances theItisomitted even at the
beginningofaword,asudometer, although we have fiftyother
compounds oflmdor with the ..h" affixed, apse for-..hapse,"
erpetologyfor"herpetology," endeeagonfor"hendecagon," aud
thatmuchabusedwordeureka,whichoughttobe..heurc!ra."
Amongstthemauyinstancesofperversion,takethef,?llowing
fromtheFrench: eonnoisseur,dishevel, frontispiece, lutestring,
encore,epergne,furnish(for"garnir"),andfurniture(for"meu.
bles"). Some ofthese perversions are too well establishedto
bedisturbed,butitcannotfailtoamusethecurioustopryinto
theseoddities.
Our hybrids are above 200 words in common use: witness
octopus (Latin and Greek), grand.son (English.French and
English),grand·father(Frenchand English),bi.monthly(Latin
!Ind English), demi.semi-quavel· (French, I,atin, and Spanish).
In regard to "grandfather" and."great·grandfather"wo hava
PREFACE. v
no excuse, as excellent,words eXisted,for those relationships
before the co~quest;."bi.monthly" is very objectionable, and
"octopus'" isablunder.
ETYMOLOGY AND DERIVATION.
th~ ~f:
Etymologyis tracing awordbackto'itsoriginalsonrce,
and'showing the.ethnological changes it has gonethroughin
its travels.thence to itssettlement inthelanguageundercon·
sidemtion." . . , ' .'.
Derivationissimplyshowingfromwhatsourceapeoplecame
bya certainword,regardlessofanymoreremoteorigin.
Taketwoyerysimple,illustrations. ,A man,offers me some
cherries,andI askhimwheretheycomef!'om, he replies from
his owngarden. That would be "derivation" if applied to
language;,but'ifhewent'into thetareaboutLucullusandthe
j\Iithridaticwar,showi~gthat theRomangeneral transplanted
them from Cerasus to his,own g~rden at Rome; that the
Romans.importedthe tree into Spain, where the word was
modified'into cereza; that the French.obtainedthe tree from
their neighbours, and,hating theletterz,changed,thewordto
cerise; that.we borrowed it.from.theFrench, and called the
word cherrie~; this,would be etymology, moreorlessvaluablc
aseachstageoftheprocess couldbeprovedtobeanhistorical
fact; but for everydaylifethesiInpleanswer,"theycamefrom
my, own garden," would be quite sufficient, and the learned
disquisition about Lucullus andhis,warswouldbetediousand
outofplace:," ,
SO"again,alabourer.namedHettysettles inourvillage,and
I askaneighbourwherethemancamefrom. He replies from
Singleton,theothersid~oftheDow~s. That is all I require.
Butanother.informsmethattheoriginalfamilycame fromthe
terraincognitacalledArya,somewhere nearthe ancientgarden
ofEden; and that,the wordmaybedistinctlytracedinallthe
Aryan family oflanguages.' Thus we have.the Gothic hath,
theHighGermanhad, the old Frankishchad,the Celticcath
in Cathmor,theScandinavian Hoedhr (according to Grimm).
\Yehavethe,Catti,awarliketribeofTeutonicorir,rin, Cato.and
Catullusin,Latin,CadwalhainWelsh, ChabotinFrench, from
theAryanwordcad,meaning"war.''' This,again,maybevery
wellinitsplace: "Fortassecupressumscissimulare:. quidhoc,
sifractis enatat expes navibusrnro dato qui pingitur?" This
learnedparadeistoolengthyandtooeruditeforthepurposein
hand,andthesimpleanswer,"themancomesfrom Singleton,"
isall-sufficient.
Inthismantlalnoattempthasbeenmadetotracecherriesto
Pontus, or the name of the ploughman to the hypothetical
Aryan word meaning "war;" butto give a f~ir idea of the
heterogeneouscharacterofourlanguage,andtOBh~,vthemean.
ing ofwords, their derivationis given. Wh'en the French is
a modified Latin word, or the Latin a modified Greek word,
theearlierformisadded also; butnounravellingofetymology
properhasbeenattempted,exceptindeedwhenthechangeofa
word(as sirfromanax,aking)tells atale startlingtothe eye,
btltobviousthemomentitispointedout.
Itmay,however,bementioned,thatnotol1esinglederivation
hasbeentakenontrust, everyonehasbeenve~ifiedbypersonal
reference to some well.established dictionary of the language
referredto, beitFrench,Spanish,Danish,AnglocSaxon,Latin,
Greek, or what not. The necessity ofthis precaution is far
more important than maJ1ij' would suppose; fornotonlyhave
printers'errors,manuscript"slips,"andauthors'blunders been
handeddown fromdictionarytodictionaryinamost incredible
manner, butscores ofwords have been coined forthe nonce,
scoresofothershavebeen torturedinspellingandmeaning,or
dressedupsoastomakeJacoblook likeEsau,while notafew
have been deemed foreigners which belong to onrownAnglo.
Saxonmedleyofwords.
OpeningthefirstEnglishdictionnryofestablishedreputation
at hand, a dictionary especially praised by one of our most
l'eputed Reviews "for its accurate and'very excelle~t deriva.
tions," we meet in one page taken at random the'following
specimens: Gale (Danish.galm, a blast), whereas.the:Qanish
verbiskule(toblow),andnosuchwordas"galm"existsinthe
language. Gall(tofret) issaidtobetheFrench{jaller,butthe
French verb is galer (to'seratch). Gallon is given (French
galon),whichmeans"galoon,"andshouldbegallonwithdouble
PREFACE. vtl
l as in English. Galley, we are told-by the same authority,
is Latin galeida,'a word most certainly not Latin at all.
Game is said tobeAnglo-Saxongaman(sport),whichoughtto
begamen. Gaol(Italiangaiola), awordcontainedinnoItalian
dictionary,thenearesttoitisgaio(gay). Garret(Frenchgarite);
nottobefound, butgaletasmaybeintended. These ll1l occur
iuonepage. Turningoverthe leaves,lind takingthewordsat
hap-hazard,welightonthefollowing: Gloom(Germanglumm);,
butnosuchwordexists inooyofmyfour Germandictionaries,
andifitdid,theobvious derivlltion is our own glom. Spigot
(Italian spigo, a spigot); now,itisverytruethereisanItalian
wordsp4Jo, but it means"lavander"or"nard," and the word
for spigot is zipolo. Lease(French laissement); nosuchworel
tobefound, the nearest to itislaisse (aleash). Loch(Welsh
llwch, alake); buttheWelshllwchmellns"dust,"lindtheworel
correspondingto"loch"islloc(adam). Quire(French'Zllaier);
no suchwordexists,butcalliermeaus aquire.
Itwouldbemerepredantrytogofurther. I pledge myword
that these extracts are copied literll1ly and exactly, and that
similarexamplesmaybetaken from anypageofthebook. Of
course,I cannotmentiontheauthor'sname, astheworkstands
ingoodrepute,and its publishers lire inthe forerankof their
profession. When, however,itisstatedthateverywordinthis
Dictionary hlls'been personally verified, and that neither the
spellingnormeaningofonesinglewordhasbeentamperedwith
tomake itfit the occasion,itisagrant advantage,which may
bemostconfidentlyreliedon.
A goodly number of the "derivations" differ from thoso
usually given, but -therein fancy or guess.work has had rio
part. The word"confervoo" is usually referred to the Latiu
conjm'vej'e(toboilup), buttheconnectionbetweenwlIter.plants
lindebullitionisnot'obvious. Plinytellsustheseplants"were
esteemedcuresforbrokenbones,"and"conferveo"meansto"knit
together broken bones," II good and sufficient reason for tho
technicalterm. "Frean"(ahymntoApollo, and appliedtotho
godhIInself)we are'told,inDr.Smith'sClassicalDi~tiona7'lJ,is
from P[lJlIn, the physicianof the Olympiangods; butsurel.rit
could be- no grellt honour to the Sun-god to be called bythe