The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-07-21
Some Tbings About Words.


/ Words are queer things in some re-
! spects- Perhaps you think that they
have always the same meaning. For
instance, that prevent and charity
and ''pitiful," " and many others I could
/ mention, always meant just what they
do nowadays. If you think this, you
| greatly mistake.
A word is not like q house, which, if
/ let alone, stands still and has the same
4 look yesterday and to-day. 1t is more
I Ike landscape, which varies from time
to time. Some words have, in the course
Of several hundred years, so changed
/ their signihcatiOn that they mean the
very opposite Of what they used to.
There is the common word prevent -
1t comes from the Latin words Uenire,
to 60, and pre-, before. Now any one
can 90 before another for either one Of
stEo purposes. He may 90 in front Of
him, to help him along; or he may come
in front Of him, to push him back.
Now, just think Of it; three hundred
years ago, this word prevent meant
the former; it now means the latter.
Nowadays you Prerent a person by
stopping, hindering him; your fOrefath-
ers used to PreCelt persons by assisting
the e. ''gOing before, " to lead them
OF, as it were, by the hand. not to keep
them back and impede them, as preUeHt
means in these days.
"QUtcE' is another word that has
changed its meaning. Il used to mean
aIiUe: ''quick and dead'' means the
living and the deceased We do not
often use the word nowadays in that
sense.
Saints once meant all holy persons:
now. it signifies chiefly dead persons
who are esteemed holy.
'tPitifllL, j meant showing pity; now,
it means, as you know, something en-
tirely different.
"GOSSjD" is from the two words
God and ''Sib;' and did mean God
parent; now, by a gossip, we under
stnd talkative, tale-telIng person.
At the christening Of Queen Elizabeth,
in his great play Of Henry the Eighth,
Shakespeare makes the king say to the
GOdparents;
MY noble Gos5ips, ye have been too prodigal:
thank ys heartily; so should this lady,
When she has 50 much English"
Another word that has lost its old
sense is sober. Among US Of to-day, in
ordinary use, the word means not intOr-
seated. Some hundreds of years AGO,
and in certain uses still, it had the sense
Of sedQts only; when we use it in this
way nowadays, we frequently say $50
ber-minded," " in OEder fully to express
our meaning.
ssGbaritv'5 now usually SIGNIFIES fha
giving Of aims to the poor. But not so
in the early life Of the word. 1t then
meant simply LOUe-lOYe to God and to
man.
The derivation Of words is also q very
interesting study. There is the word
husband" He is (Or ought to be) what
his name indicates-the hOuse-bORd
''Wife'' is another very interesting
word. It originally meant the one who
aCOUe-weaying being a common indus
try Of women in other days.
ssSaunter' is from S0iRt-teTTe, or holy
land. When the Crusaders-whoh had
gone in great numbers to rescue the.
Holy Land IRON the Saracen, who had
invaded and conquered it-returned to
their respective countries, they had so
long led the lazy life of the soldier that
they had acquired a slow, indOlent way
of walking and persons would say Of
them: 'sThere is one who has Just come
from sGint-te1Te." Hence, Sa1ultey-tO
walk indolently, leisurely.
Gospel is GOd's-pel, or gOOd-tiOy-
tngs. '.AngeP' is a messenger; "God,"
the good Being.-Dr. LO50Ije.