THE STUDENT'S ENGLISH DICTIONARY, ETYMOLOGICAL, PRONOUNCING, & EXPLANATORY: IN WHICH THE WORDS ARE TRACED TO THEIR ULTIMATE SOURCES, THE ROOT OR PRIMARY MEANING INSERTED, AND THE OTHER MEANINGS GIVEN FULLY BY JOHN OGILVIE, LL.D., EDITOR OF 'THE IMPERIAL" AND OF "THE COMPREHENSIVE" DICTIONARIES. BLACKIE AND SON, PATERNOSTER ROW; EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. PREFACE. Of late years great efforts have been made to raise the standard of education in our schools and seminaries. Teachers, educationists, statesmen, and the better educated classes, have become fully alive to the importance of studying the English language more thoroughly than has hitherto been done, and of making a rigid inquiry into the origin and affinities of its constituent words. Indeed, the English language demands the fullest investigation on account of its own intrinsic excellence and importance. The late Jacob Grimm, one of the most eminent German scholars of modern times, and possessed of a profound knowledge of the Teutonic group of languages, ascribes to English "a veritable power of expression, such as perhaps never stood at the command of any other language of men ;" and adds, “Its highly spiritual genius and wonderfully happy development and condition have been the result of a surprisingly intimate union of the two noblest languages in modern Europe-the Teutonic and the Romance-the former supplying in far larger proportion the material ground-work, the latter the spiritual conceptions. In truth, the English language may with all right be called a world-language; and, like the English people, appears destined hereafter to prevail with a sway more extensive even than its present sway over all the portions of the globe." Comparative philology, as it has been prosecuted in modern times, has established a far sounder and more scientific mode of conducting etymological inquiries than that which formerly obtained; much light having been thrown on the principles of language in general, and on the origin and laws of development of particular languages, by the labours and researches of such men as Schlegel, Bopp, Pott, Grimm, and others. The great impulse given to the labours of comparative philologists, and the success which has attended their labours, are due to the discovery, towards the close of the last century, of the Sanscrit, the ancient language of the Hindoos, which long ago ceased to be a spoken tongue, and is now employed only in the sacred writings and literature of the Brahmins. Sanscrit, which has been termed the language of languages, is regarded as the key to all those termed Indo-European, including the Teutonic family, French, Italian, Spanish, Sclavonian, Lithuanian, Greek, Latin, and Celtic. It is found to bear such a striking resemblance, both in its more important words and in its grammatical forms, to the Indo-European languages, as to lead to the conclusion that all must have sprung from a common source-some primitive language now lost, of which they are all By acquiring a knowledge of the roots of English words, the student obtains an exact perception of their real signification, and will not be in danger of confounding together words quite distinct in their origin, although usage has assigned to them a similarity or an identity of meaning. He will also be enabled to explain whole groups of words which are radically connected. Thus, referring to the Saxon word man, we trace it to the Old German, thence to the Gothic, the oldest of the Teutonic languages extant, and finally we get the Sanscrit man, to think. By this process we arrive at a definite idea, teaching us that man primarily signifies the thinking being. Or, let us take the word spirit, which in French is esprit, in Italian spirito, in Latin spiritus, from spiro, to breathe, and in Sanscrit we find spri, to live. Here we are taught that the primary meaning of spirit is life, and this idea may be clearly traced through all the meanings of the word. Again, for the etymology of the word true, we have the Sax. treowe, D. trouw, G. treu, Dan. tro, Icel. trûr, trygg, old G. triuwi, triwi, Goth. triggvs, Zend drva, solid, constant, Sans. drdha, from dhru, to be fixed. Hence we learn that truth, in its highest sense, is that which is firm, fixed, and solid-that which is not subject to change or variation. The great importance and utility of thus combining the study of the etymologies of words with that of their usages is finely illustrated by the Archbishop of Dublin (Dean Trench), in his excellent manual, On the Study of Words. The chief elements of the English language are the Saxon and the Norman. The Saxon draws its stores from the Teutonic class, while the Norman comes to us chiefly through the French, as it was spoken in Normandy at the time when the Normans invaded England. But the English language has borrowed more or less from many other languages. The Latin, the Greek, the French, the Celtic, the Hebrew, the Arabic, the Hindustani, have all contributed to enrich its vocabulary, and hence it opens up a wide field of etymological inquiry. The want of an English Dictionary, strictly etymological, as well as explanatory, and at the same time of moderate size and price, has been long and seriously felt both by teachers and pupils in our colleges and advanced schools. This want, which it is now proposed to supply, might doubtless have been supplied long ago, had one or other of the many competent scholars to be found throughout the country set himself seriously to the task. But, probably, a main cause which has interfered with the production of such a work, has been the apprehension that the labour required to be bestowed upon its compilation would render it too costly to admit of its being adopted generally in English seminaries. The leading object of this Dictionary is to place the English language as far as possible upon a sound etymological basis, with the view of fixing the primary idea or rootmeaning of each principal word. This has been attempted by consulting the best and most recent etymological authorities, and tracing each word back step by step, if possible, |