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difficulty is increased by the neceffity of explaining the words in the fame language; for there is often only one word for one idca; and though it be eafy to tranflate the words bright, fweet, falt, bitter, into another language, it is not eafy to explain them.

With regard to the interpretation, many other queftions have required confideration. It was fome time doubted whether it be neceffary to explain the things implied by particular words; as under the term baronet, whether, inftead of this explanation, a title of honour next in degree to that of baron, it would be better to mention more particularly the creation, privileges, and rank of baronets; and whether, under the word barometer, instead of being satisfied with obferving that it is an inftrument to dif cover the weight of the air, it would be fit to fpend a few lines upon its invention, construction, and principles. It is not to be expected, that with the explanation of the one the herald fhould be fatisfied, or the philofopher with that of the other; but fince it will be required by common readers, that the explications fhould be fufficient for common ufe; and fince, without fome attention to fuch demands, the Dictionary cannot become generally valuable, I have determined to confult the beft writers for explanations real as well as verbal; and perhaps I may at laft have reafon to fay, after one of the augmenters of Furetier, that my book is more learned than its author.

In explaining the general and popular language, it feems neceffary to fort the feveral fenfes of each word, and to exhibit firft its natural and primitive fignification; as,

Το

To arrive, to reach the shore in a voyage: he arrived at a fafe harbour.

Then to give its confequential meaning, to arrive, to reach any place, whether by land or fea; as, he arrived at his country feat.

Then its metaphorical fenfe, to obtain any thing defired; as, he arrived at a peerage.

Then to mention any obfervation that arifes from the comparison of one meaning with another; as, it may be remarked of the word arrive, that, in confequence of its original and etymological sense, it cannot be properly applied but to words fignifying fomething defirable: thus we fay, a man arrived at happinefs; but cannot fay, without a mixture of irony, he arrived at mifery.

Ground, the earth, generally as oppofed to the air or water. He fwam till he reached ground. The bird fell to the ground.

Then follows the accidental or confequential fignification in which ground implies any thing that lies under another; as, he laid colours upon a rough ground. The filk had blue flowers on a red ground.

Then the remoter or metaphorical fignification; as the ground of his opinion was a falfe computation. The ground of his work was his father's manufcript.

After having gone through the natural and figurative fenfes, it will be proper to fubjoin the poetical fenfe of each word, where it differs from that which is in common ufe; as wanton, applied to any thing of which the motion is irregular without terror; as, In wanton ringlets curl'd her hair.

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To the poetical fenfe may fucceed the familiar; as of tonft, used to imply the perfon whofe health is drank; as,

The wife man's paffion, and the vain man's toaft. POPE.

The familiar may be, followed by the burlesque; as of mellow, applied to good fellowship:

In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow. ADDISON.

Or of bite, ufed for cheat:

More a dupe than wit,

Sappho can tell you how this man was bit.

POPE

And lastly, may be produced the peculiar fenfe, in which a word is found in any great author: as faculties, in Shakespeare, fignifies the powers of authority:

This Duncan

Has born his faculties fo meek, has been
So clear in his great office, that, &c.

The fignification of adjectives may be often afcertained by uniting them to fubftantives; as, fimple fwain, fimple fheep. Sometimes the fenfe of a fubftantive may be elucidated by the epithets annexed to it in good authors; as, the boundlefs ocean, the open lawns: and where fuch advantage can be gained by a fhort quotation, it is not to be omitted.

The difference of fignification in words generally accounted fynonimous, ought to be carefully obferved; as in pride, haughtiness, arrogance: and the strict and critical meaning ought to be diftinguished from that which is loofe and popular; as in the word perfection, which, though in its philofophical and

exact fenfe it can be of little ufe among human beings, is often fo much degraded from its original fignification, that the academicians have inferted in their work, the perfection of a language, and, with a little more licentioufnefs, might have prevailed on themfelves to have added the perfection of a dictionary.

There are many other characters of words which it will be of ufe to mention. Some have both an active and paffive fignification; as fearful, that which gives or which feels terror; a fearful prodigy, a fearful hare. Some have a perfonal, fome a real meaning; as in oppofition to old, we ufe the adjective young, of animated beings, and new of other things. Some are reftrained to the fenfe of praife, and others to that of difapprobation; fo commonly, though not always, we exhort to good actions we inftigate to ill; we animate, incite, and encourage indifferently to good or bad. So we ufually afcribe good but impute evil; yet neither the ufe of thefe words, nor, perhaps, of any other in our licentious language, is fo eftablished as not to be often reverfed by the correcteft writers. I fall therefore, fince the rules of ftile, like thofe of law, arife from precedents often repeated, collect the teftimonies on both fides, and endeavour to discover and promulgate the decrees of cuftom, who has fọ long poffeffed, whether by right or by ufurpation, the fovereignty of words.

It is neceffary likewife to explain many words by their oppofition to others; for contraries are beft feen when they ftand together. Thus the verb ftand has one fenfe, as oppofed to fall, and another as oppofed to fly; for want of attending to which diftinc

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tion, obvious as it is, the learned Dr. Bentley has fquandered his criticifm to no purpose, on thefe lines of Paradife Loft:

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In heaps

Chariot and charioteer lay overturned,

And ficry foaming fleeds. What flood, recoil'd,
O'erwearied, through the faint fatanic hoft,
Defenfive fcarce, or with pale fear furpris'd,
Fled ignominious

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Here,' fays the critic, as the fentence is now read, we find that what food, fled :' and therefore he proposes an alteration, which he might have spared if he had confulted a dictionary, and found that nothing more was affirmed than that thofe fled who did not fail.

In explaining fuch meanings as feem accidental and adventitious, I fhall endeavour to give an account of the means by which they were introduced. Thus, to eke out any thing, fignifies to lengthen it beyond its juft dimenfions, by fome low artifice; because the word eke was the ufual refuge of our old writers, when they wanted a fyllable. And buxom, which means only obedient, is now made, in familiar phrases, to stand for wanton; becaufe in an ancient form of marriage, before the Reformation, the bride promifed complaifance and obedience, in thefe terms: I will be bonair and buxom in bed and at board.'

I know well, my Lord, how trifling many of these remarks will appear feparately confidered, and how eafily they may give occafion to the contemptuous merriment of fportive idleness, and the gloomy cenfures of arrogant ftupidity; but dulnefs it is easy to defpife, and laughter it is easy to repay. I shall not

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