phenomena of their history, and English philologists have collected numerous instances of this sort, chiefly from the Latin element of English, though there are not wanting like cases in proper Saxon words. The Saxon adjective reckless, formerly spelled retchless, for example, was in constant use down to the middle of the sixteenth century, but when Hooker, writing fifty years later, employed the word, it had become so nearly obsolete, that he, or perhaps his editor, thought it necessary to explain its meaning in a marginal note. It has now been revived, and is perfectly familiar to every English-speaking person. A couple of like instances, though not in Saxon words, occur in a little vocabulary which went through at least twelve editions in the sev

*

*The indiscriminate use of bound, in the sense of ready, destined, determined, which has recently become very common in this country, and is perhaps peculiar to it, is an instance of the revival of an obsolete employment, if not an obsolete signification of a word. In nautical language, indeed, as indicating the destination of a ship, it has been always in use, and is idiomatic and proper, but the present extension of its application is an offensive vulgarism, and is further objectionable, because it is a confounding of words which have no relation to each other. When we say a ship is bound to Cadiz, we are not employing the past participle of the verb to bind, but the Old-Northern participial adjective búinn, from the verb at búa, which signifies, among other things, to make ready or prepare. Búinn is of very frequent occurrence in Icelandic, and it is applied, without distinction, either to ships and their company, or to other objects and persons, as expressive of destination, or of purpose. It often corresponds to our familiar auxiliary, going, in such phrases as, I am going to do this or that. The Scandinavian inhabitants of the North of England introduced this word, and in the form bown or boun it has ever since remained in general use in the North-English and Scottish dialects; but in English proper, it has long been confined to the nautical vocabulary, though sometimes figuratively applied, in a strictly analogous sense, to persons. The modern corruption consists in employing it in a way that embraces the significations, both of the Old-Northern búinn and of the English participle bound from bind, and it is therefore a gross abuse of language. The nautical term wind-bound is literally bound or confined by adverse winds, and is not related to bound as denoting destination. The Anglo-Saxon had a verb buan, cognate with the Icelandic at búa, but I believe never used in this particular sense. See App. 42.

enteenth century, but is now so completely forgotten as to be little known except to bibliographers. It is entitled, The English Dictionarie, or an Interpreter of Hard English Words, Enabling as well Ladies and Gentlewomen, young Scholars, Clerks, Merchants, as also Strangers of any Nation to the understanding of the more difficult Authors alreadie Printed in our Language-By Henry Cockeram, Gentleman.

Among the "hard words" which make up Master Cockeram's list, are the verbs abate and abandon, both of which are marked as 66 now out of use, and only used of some ancient writers." Now, both these words occur in the English Bible, Shakespeare, and in Milton, and abate, as a term of art in law, could never have become obsolete in the dialect. of that profession. They are now, and have long been, in very current use, both colloquially and in literature, and the period during which they were not familiarly employed must have been a very short one.*

The introduction of a new word, native or foreign, often proves fatal to an old one previously employed in the same

* Ventilate and proclivity, after having been half-forgotten, have come again into brisk circulation, and a comparison of the literature of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries will show multitudes of words common to the first and last of these periods, but which were little used in the second.

The most remarkable lists of such words as I am now speaking of are those referred to by Trench in the second chapter of his little volume on the authorized version of the New Testament. I will not quote these lists here, because throughout this course, I make it a point not to borrow from that very instructive and agreeable writer, and thereby diminish the pleasure which such of my hearers as are not already familiar with his works will find in their perusal They are excellent exemplifications of the attractions and value of unpretending philological criticism, as distinguished from linguistic investigation; and I know no books on language better calculated to excite curiosity and stimulate inquiry into the proper meaning and use of the English tongue, than those interesting volumes, The Study of Words, English Past and Present, The Lessons contained in Proverbs, and the essay on the English New Testament, to which I have just

alluded.

or an allied sense. Income, for instance, is of recent introduction, though Saxon in its elements and form, and it is generally applied to the pecuniary product of estates, offices or occupations, and even when used with respect to lands, its signification is confined to the money received for rent, or the net profit accruing from the sale of the crops. It corresponds very closely to the German Einkommen in etymology, structure and signification, and is a good example of verbal affinity between a Teutonic dialect and our own, but we have purchased this convenient word by the sacrifice of another, equally expressive, though more restricted in use, and belonging to the Scandinavian side of English. I refer to of come, employed by old English writers in the sense of produce rather than of product, though sometimes synonymously with the more modern income.

To persons who desire to watch the progress of change in English, periodical literature, and especially the daily journals, furnish the best opportunities for observation, and they are as faithful in serving up the novelties of speech, as the political and commercial news of the day. The advertising columns, especially, often contain very odd specimens of both syntax and vocabulary, and one can scarcely run over a single sheet of a city newspaper without noting, among words which merit a place nowhere, some which, though excluded from dictionaries, ought long ago to have met acceptance.

In a small fragment of a New York daily paper, published within a month, I find these words and phrases, (nearly half of them in extracts from English journals,) not any one of which I believe any general English dictionary explains: photoglyphic engraving; telegram, for telegraphic message; an out-and-out extreme clipper; prospecting for gold; go-ahead people; they are not on speaking terms;

Mr. Gottschalk's rendition of a piece of music, the Black Swan is concertizing in the western States; the vessel leaked so many strokes an hour; an emergent meeting of a societyapparently in the sense of a meeting to consider an emergency; such a man ought to be spotted by his associates; old fogy, which by the way is an old English word; such a handsomely-put-on man as Mr. Dickens; and Kossuth's phrase, the solidarity of the peoples. Some of these expressions have little claim to be considered English, and they belong to the class of words which "come like shadows, so depart," but several of them long have been, and others will be, permanent members of the colloquial, if not of the literary fraternity of the language. Photoglyphic and telegram are too recent in origin to be yet entitled to the rights of citizenship, but whatever may become of the former, telegram will maintain its place, for reasons of obvious convenience; and in spite of the objections of some Hellenists against it as an anomalous formation, the English ear is too familiar with Greek compounds of the same elements to find this word repugnant to our own principles of etymology.

LECTURE XIII.

INTERJECTIONS AND INTONATIONS.

In a historical sketch of the genetic development of the parts of speech, we should naturally begin with the Interjection, both because it is the earliest of distinct human vocal sounds, and because it is a spontaneous voice prompted by nature, and not, like other words, learned by imitation, or taught by formal instruction. This is at least the character of the true interjection, though the want of a specific term, and the inconvenience which would result from a too copious and minute grammatical nomenclature, oblige us to include under the same appellation words, and even entire phrases, whose resemblance to that part of speech lies chiefly in being, like it, introduced into a period with which they are not syntactically connected.

Of the elements of discourse, there is no one which has received so little attention from grammarians as the part of speech in question. Few treatises on language devote more than a page or two to the subject, and many writers have denied to interjections the character of words altogether. I think that, with most grammarians, this is a prejudice arising