The Portland daily press., 1875-12-01
MOrds.

Words are something more than arbitrary
signs. They have an artificial look, as they
stand up in regular rows like files of soldiers
with little dashes and dots scattered along the
ranks, and big letter leading off every SEN
tence as sort of captain. But words are won-
derful things, when you get down to the live
root, and see what they have sprung from.
Your eye, for instance, falls upon the word
c!9nsp!rdtors, and if you happen to remember
that IL means "breathing-together"- the
Latin con, together, and Splro, to breath-it
becomes picture, and you seem to see o band
of men in dark, sequestered room, plotting
treason with low, bated breath-no one daring
to speak above whisper The terms BY which
various other styles of meu are designated be-
come just as vivid, when you know precisely
what they mean. We hear of q company Of
profigates, and the word suggests something
repulsiye; but the etymology of the word
pro.and ftgo-" to dash against"-gives pecu-
liar defniteness to our conception of these
needless men, hurting themselves about 10 de-
fiance of all moral restraint. ambition is de-
rived from dnabire-"to go round'-a harmless
occupation in itself; but we can easily under
stand, from what we see going on about us,
how it came to be used as equivalent to desire
for place and power. ambiguity, as the origin
of the word indicates, is a driving from side to
side after zigzag fashion, and no image could
picture more forcibly the mode in which GER
tain people 60 through the world. When one
man supplants another, by getting him turned
out of office, or in any other way-according to
the original meaning of the term, he strips him
up,' or removes the props from under him."
A preUaricator is literally man with handy
legs, or one who straddles; no rhetorical -four
isb could describe him more strikingly.
Let me next call your attention to the w1,-
derful delicscy with which the different shades
and degrees of mental suffering are indicated
by class of words, which, in their etymolegy.
signify simply some external action, applied
to the body. Af7iction is from the Latin ami
gere, and means 'to strike against with vio-
lence, while anxiety, from angere, signifies
"to press" or "to snffocate.' Observe the
same nice distinction in the words distraction-
dastrohere, to draw apart,-and distress-dis
and stringere ito press or strain, or pinch close
or tight" And again to be tornaented-tor-
qlere, is "to be twisted" and to suffer TeDe0rse
re and naordere, is ito be bitten back"
was quite surprised in examining the mat
ter carefully. to find that almost all the ordi-
nary titles of office are also derived from roots
which signify simply motion in space. From
the long list which lies before me give the
following: The word president means Zone
who sits BEFORE" or has the seat of honor and
influence. A pretdte proelatus is man who is
brought forward" the presumption being
that no wise person would be likely to thrust
himself into such an office as this. An assis-
tdnt-dd-SiStere-is one who Stands near or
BY" ready to take hold when he is wanted. A
tedcher-from the Anglo Saxon toec-dr-is one
who takes or conveys; an tnstructor-i,a-
cere-one who "draws forth; a professor-pro-
feSse-one who "brings things to light; and a
tut0r-tueri-one who "looks after Others" 1t
does not accord with our New England notions
OF deacon that he should be a fast man, and
yet this is what the title indicates; it is de-
rived from two Greek words, which mean
Through the dust''-that is, one whose Jealous
service leads him to run about so rapidly as to
raise the dust.
There is another class of words which are
used to convey what are called abstract ideas.
But what is an abstraction? 1t is something
from which all the outer layers have been alb
stracted, or peeled off, so as to show us the
real, essential, vital substance. And what IS
substance? Nobody knows; and we conceal
our ignorance by calling it sub stans--that
which islands under the entity or basis, or
whatever it may be, which underlies the phe-
nomena addressed to the senses,-just as we
call the immaterial part of man spirit-wind or
breath-the most unsubstantial substance
known in former times. 1t thus appears that
every abstract term is, after all, nothing but
an image or metaphor. Attention means
simply 'inclining towards" a thipg-refection,
bending back" comprehension, "grasping q
thing with your hand" -deliberdtion, weigh
ing it,"-and rumtnation Chewing it," Peo-
the beginning, in order to make themselves in
telliglble.
The study of words throws much light upon
ancient habits and customs. Bankrupt takes
us back to the time when, if banker, or
"bencher," became insolvent, his table at the
exchange was demolished, as token that the
mans credit was shattered There would be
great deal of loose timber lying round If the
same custom still prevailed. How few people,
when they take book in their hands, ever
think of the original meaning of the word col
anle-v -voEutun,-something "rolled up,''-or oil
the real significance of the phrase, SACRED
rolls" Enlolunaent is from the Latin, and re-
fers to the profits derived from running a mill
indicating that this was profitable business
in ancient days. To interpolate means Ito pol
ish or furbish up" and suggests the conceit
which led transcribers of manuscript to sup-
pose that the spurious passages of their own
composition which they inserted were an inn
provment. Kerchief is French word, and
means Ito cover,"-it having originally been a
covering for the head, and we have expanded
it into pocket handkerchief-a pocket-hand-
head-cover. The word cement literally means
that which is ''cut up," and not that which
binds, because the original material was made
of pulverized stones. Sermon is from Greek,
and means ito connect" implying that there
should be regular sequence of ideas,-a rule
that is not always observed in our discources;
and tert is from the same root as feature
something which is to be woven into the SER
mon, in order to give it consistency. Bishop
Clark, IN the ". Y. Ledger.