moan from povos, monos, fingle or folitary, who con fiders that grief naturally loves to be alone *.

Our knowledge of the northern literature is fo fcanty, that of words undoubtedly Teutonick, the original is not always to be found in any ancient language;

That I may not appear to have spoken too irreverently of Junius, I have here fubjoined a few fpecimens of his etymological extravagance:

BANISH, religare, ex banno vel territorio exigere in exiliam agere. G. bannir. It. bandire, bandeggiare. H. bandir. B. bannen. Evi medii fcriptores bannire dicebant. V. Spelm. in Bannum & in Banleuga. Quoniam verò regionum urbiumq; limites arduis plerumq; montibus, altis fluminibus, longis deniq; flexuofifq; anguftiffimærum viarum amfractibus includebantur, fieri poteft id genus limites bam dici ab eo quod Buάτας & Βάνιατροι Tarentinis olim, ficuti tradit Hefychius, vocabantur ai λışdı xal μà iduteveis ödor, "obliquæ ac minimè in rectum tendentes viæ." Ac fortaffe quoque huc facit quod Barès, eodem Hesychio tefte, dicebant reayyúλn, montes arduos.

EMPTY, emtie, vacuus, inanis. A. S. Æmziz Nefcio an fint ab ἐμέω vel εμελαίω. Vomo, evomo, vomitu evacuo. Videtur interim etymologiam hanc non obfcurè firmare codex Rufl. Mat. xii. 22. ubi antiquè fcriptum invenimus gemoezed hiz emerig. "Invenit eam vacantem."

HILL, mons collis. A. S. hyll. Quod videri poteft abfciffum ex xohún vel xohwrię. Collis, tumulus, locus in plano editior. Hom. Il. b. v. 811. ἔςι δέ τις προπάροιθε πόλεος ἀιπεῖα κολώνη. Ubi authori brevium fcholiorum κολώνη exp. τύπος εις ύψος ἀνήκων, γεώλοφος ἐξοχή.

NAP, to take a nap. Dormire, condormifcere. Cym. heppian. A. S. hnappan. Quod poftremum videri poteft defumptum ex arépa, obfcuritas, tenebræ nihil enim æque folet conciliare fominum, quàm caliginofa profunda noctis obfcuritas.

STAMMERER, Balbus, blæfus. Goth. STAMMS. A. S. pra.mer, framer. D. ftam. B. ftameler. Su. ftamma. ft. ftamr. Sunt a swμvkov vel swμúndu, nimiâ loquacitate alios offendere; quod impeditè loquentes libentiffimè garrire foleant; vel quòd aliis nimii femper videantur, etiam parciffimè loquentes.

guage; and I have therefore inferted Dutch or German fubftitutes, which I confider not as radical, but parallel, not as the parents, but fifters of the English.

The words which are reprefented as thus related by descent or cognation, do not always agree in fenfe; for it is incident to words, as to their authors, to degenerate from their ancestors, and to change their manners when they change their country. It is fufficient, in etymological enquiries, if the fenfes of kindred words be found fuch as may easily pass into each other, or fuch as may both be referred to one general idea.

The etymology, fo far as it is yet known, was eafily found in the volumes, where it is particularly and profeffedly delivered; and, by proper attention to the rules of derivation, the orthography was foon adjusted. But to collect the Words of our language was a task of greater difficulty: the deficiency of dictionaries was immediately apparent; and when they were exhausted, what was yet wanting must be fought by fortuitous and unguided excurfions into books, and gleaned as induftry fhould find, or chance fhould offer it, in the boundless chaos of a living fpeech. My fearch, however, has been either fkilful or lucky; for I have much augmented the vocabulary.

As my defign was a dictionary, common or appellative, I have omitted all words which have relation to proper names; fuch as Arian, Socinian, Calvinist, Benedictine, Mahometan; but have retained thofe of a more general nature, as Heathen, Pagan.

Of

Of the terms of art I have received fuch as could be found either in books of fcience or technical dictionaries; and have often inferted, from philofophical writers, words which are fupported perhaps only by a fingle authority, and which being not admitted into general ufe, fland yet as candidates or probationers, and muft depend for their adoption on the fuffrage of futurity.

The words which our authors have introduced by their knowledge of foreign languages, or ignorance of their own, by vanity or wantonnefs, by 'compliance with fafhion or luft of innovation, I have regiftered as they occurred, though commonly only to cenfure them, and warn others against the folly of naturalizing ufelefs foreigners to the injury of the natives.

I have not rejected any by defign, merely because they were unneceffary or exuberant; but have received those which by different writers have been differently formed, as vifcid, and vifcidity, viscous, and vifcofity.

Compounded or double words I have feldom noted, except when they obtain a fignification different from that which the components have in their fimple ftate. Thus highwayman, woodman, and horfecourfer, require an explanation; but of thieflike, or coachdriver no notice was needed, becaufe the primitives contain the meaning of the compounds.

Words arbitrarily formed by a conftant and fettled analogy, like diminutive adjectives in if, as greenish, bluish; adverbs in ly, as dully, openly; fubftantives in nefs, as vileness; faultinefs; were lefs diligently fought, and many fometimes have been omitted, when I

had

had no authority that invited me to infert them; not that they are not genuine and regular offsprings of English roots, but becaufe their relation to the primitive being always the fame, their fignification cannot be mistaken.

Th verbal nouns in ing, fuch as the keeping of the cafle, the leading of the army, are always neglected, or placed only to illuftrate the fenfe of the verb, except when they fignify things as well as actions, and have therefore a plural number, as divelling, living, or have an abfolute and abftract fignification, as colouring, painting, learning.

The participles are likewife omitted, unless, by fignifying rather habit or quality than action, they take the nature of adjectives; as a thinking man, a man of prudence; a pacing horfe, a horse that can pace: thefe I have ventured to call participial adjectives. But neither are thefe always inferted, because they are commonly to be understood without any danger of mistake, by confulting the verb.

Obfolete words are admitted when they are found in authors not obfolete, or when they have any force or beauty that may deferve revival.

As compofition is one of the chief characteristicks of a language, I have endeavoured to make fome reparation for the univerfal negligence of my predeceffors, by inferting great numbers of compounded words, as may be found under after, fore, new, night, fair, and many more. Thefe, numerous as they are, might be multiplied, but that ufe and curiofity are here fatisfied, and the frame of our language and modes of our combination amply discovered.

Of

Of fome forms of compofition, fuch as that by which re is prefixed to note repetition, and un to fig→ nify contrariety or privation, all the examples cannot be accumulated, because the ufe of thefe particles, if not wholly arbitrary, is fo little limited, that they are hourly affixed to new words as occafion requires, or is imagined to require them.

There is another kind of compofition more frequent in our language than perhaps in any other, from which arifes to foreigners the greateft difficulty. We modify the fignification of many verbs by a particle fubjoined; as to come off, to escape by a fetch; to fall on, to attack; to fall off, to apoftatize; to break off, to stop abruptly; to bear out, to justify; to fall in, to comply; to give over, to cease; to fet off, to embellish; to fet in, to begin a continual tenour; to fet out, to begin a course or journey; to take off, to copy; with innumerable expreffions of the fame kind, of which fome appear wildly irregular, being fo far diftant from the fenfe of the fimple words, that no fagacity will be able to trace the fteps by which they arrived at the present use. These I have noted with great care; and though I cannot flatter myself that the collection is complete, I believe I have so far affifted the ftudents of our language, that this kind of phrafeology will be no longer infuperable; and the combinations of verbs and particles, by chance omitted, will be eafily explained by comparison with those that may be found.

Many words yet ftand fupported only by the name of Bailey, Ainsworth, Philips, or the contracted Dia. for Dictionaries fubjoined; of thefe I am not always certain that they are read in any book but the works