תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

of lexicographers. Of fuch I have omitted many, because I had never read them; and many I have inferted, because they may perhaps exift, though they have escaped my notice: they are, however, to be yet confidered as refting only upon the credit of former dictionaries. Others, which I confidered as ufeful, or know to be proper, though I could not at prefent fupport them by authorities, I have fuffered to ftand upon my own atteftation, claiming the fame privilege with my predeceffors, of being fometimes credited without proof.

The words, thus felected and difpofed, are grammatically confidered; they are referred to the different parts of fpeech; traced when they are irregularly inflected, through their various terminations; and illuftrated by obfervations, not indeed of great or ftriking importance, feparately confidered, but neceffary to the elucidation of our language, and hitherto neglected or forgotten by English gram

marians.

That part of my work on which I expect malignity moft frequently to faften, is the explanation; in which I cannot hope to fatisfy thofe, who are perhaps not inclined to be pleafed, fince I have not always been able to fatisfy myself. To interpret a language by itself is very difficult; many words cannot be explained by fynonimes, because the idea fignified by them has not more than one appellation; nor by paraphrafe, because fimple ideas cannot be described. When the nature of things is unknown, or the notion unfettled and indefinite, and various in various minds, the words by which fuch notions are conveyed, or fuch things denoted, will be am

biguous

biguous and perplexed. And fuch is the fate of haplefs lexicography, that not only dark nefs, but light, impedes and diftreffes it; things may be not only too little, but too much known, to be happily illuftrated. To explain, requires the ufe of terms Jefs abftrufe than that which is to be explained, and fuch terms cannot always be found; for as nothing can be proved but by fuppofing fomething intuitively known, and evident without proof, fo nothing can be defined but by the ufe of words too plain to admit a definition.

Other words there are, of which the fenfe is too fubtle and evanefcent to be fixed in a paraphrafe; fuch are all thofe which are by the grammarians termed expletives, and, in dead languages, are fuffered to pafs for empty founds, of no other ufe than to fill a verfe, or to modulate a period, but which are eafily perceived in living tongues to have power and emphafis, though it be fometimes fuch as no other form of expreffion can convey.

My labour has likewife been much increased by a clafs of verbs too frequent in the English language, of which the fignification is fo loose and general, the ufe fo vague and indeterminate, and the fenfes detorted fo widely from the firft idea, that it is hard to trace them through the maze of variation, to catch them on the brink of utter inanity, to circumfcribe them by any limitations, or interpret them by any words of diftinct and fettled meaning; fuch are bear, break, come, caft, full, get, give, do, put, fet, 80, run, make, take, turn, throw. If of thefe the whole power is not accurately delivered, it must be remembered, that while our language is yet living,

and variable by the caprice of every one that speaks it, these words are hourly fhifting their relations, and can no more be ascertained in a dictionary, than a grove, in the agitation of a storm, can be accurately delineated from its picture in the water.

The particles are among all nations applied with fo great latitude, that they are not eafily reducible under any regular scheme of explication: this difficulty is not lefs, nor perhaps greater, in English, than in other languages, I have laboured them with diligence, I hope with fuccefs; fuch at leaft as can be expected in a task, which no man, however learned or fagacious, has yet been able to perfom.

Some words there are which I cannot explain, because I do not understand them; thefe might have been omitted very often with little inconvenience, but I would not fo far indulge my vanity as to decline this confeffion: for when Tully owns himself ignorant whether leffus, in the twelve tables, means a funeral fong, or mourning garment; and Ariftotle doubts whether ougeus in the Iliad, fignifies a mule, or muleteer, I may furely without fhame, leave some obfcurities to happier induftry, or future information.

The rigour of interpretative lexicography requires that the explanation, and the word explained, fhould be always reciprocal; this I have always endeavoured, but could not always attain, Words are feldom exactly fynonimous; a new term was not introduced, but because the former was thought inadequate : names, therefore, have often many ideas, but few ideas have many names. It was then neceflary to ufe the proximate word, for the deficiency of fingle

terms

terms can very feldom be fupplied by circumlocution; nor is the inconvenience great of fuch mutilated interpretations, because the fenfe may eafily be collected entire from the examples.

In every word of extenfive use, it was requifite to mark the progrefs of its meaning, and fhew by what gradations of intermediate fenfe it has paffed from its primitive to its remote and accidental fignification; fo that every foregoing explanation should tend to that which follows, and the feries be regularly concatinated from the first notion to the last.

This is fpecious, but not always practicable; kindred fenfes may be fo interwoven, that the perplexity cannot be difentangled, nor any reafon be affigned why one fhould be ranged before the other. When the radical idea branches out into parallel ramifications, how can a confecutive feries be formed of fenfes in their nature collateral? The fhades of meaning fometimes pafs imperceptibly into each other, fo that though on one fide they apparently differ, yet it is impoffible to mark the point of contact. Ideas of the fame race, though not exactly alike, are fometimes fo little different, that no words can exprefs the diffimilitude, though the mind easily perceives it when they are exhibited together; and fometimes there is fuch a confufion of acceptations, that difcernment is wearied, and diftinction puzzled, and perfeverance herself hurries to an end, by crowding together what the cannot feparate.

Thefe complaints of difficulty will, by thofe that have never confidered words beyond their popular ufe, be thought only the jargon of a man willing to magnify his labours, and procure veneration to his

ftudies

ftudies by involution and obfcurity. But every art is obfcure to thofe that have not learned it: this uncertainty of terms, and commixture of ideas, is well known to those who have joined philofophy with grammar; and if I have not expreffed them very clearly, it must be remembered that I am speaking of that which words are infufficient to explain.

The original fenfe of words is often driven out of ufe by their metaphorical acceptations, yet must be inferted for the fake of a regular origination. Thus I know not whether ardour is ufed for material heat, or whether flagrant, in English ever fignifies the fame with burning; yet fuch are the primitive ideas of thefe words, which are therefore fet firft, though without examples, that the figurative fenfes may be commodioufly deduced.

Such is the exuberance of fignification which many words have obtained, that it was fcarcely poffible to collect all their fenfes; fometimes the meaning of derivatives must be fought in the mother term, and fometimes deficient explanations of the primitive may be fupplied in the train of derivation. In any cafe of doubt or difficulty, it will be always proper to examine all the words of the fame race; for fome words are flightly paffed over to avoid repetition, fome admitted eafier and clearer explanation than others, and all will be better understood, as they are confidered in greater variety of structures and relations.

All the interpretations of words are not written with the fame fkill, or the fame happiness: things equally eafy in themselves, are not all equally easy to any fingle mind. Every writer of a long work VOL. II. commits

E

« הקודםהמשך »