The Newtown bee., 1889-07-19
FRIDAY, JULY 10. 1880.
An Old Dictionary.

An Old Dictionary.
 D. w. Bronson has in his possession an English dictionary, published in Lon don by N. Baily before the Revolution, the two and twentieth edition, with con siderable improvement, having been is sued from the press in ITO. In looking it over, one is impressed with the changes that century has wrought in the English language, especially in the words lost in oblivion. To quote from the first pages of the book will illustrate this Abacsta, an arithmetician; Abac- ted, drawn away by stealth or violence ; Abacus, counting table used for calcu- lations and schemes; Abarnare, to de- tect or discover to magistrate any secret crime; Abb, the yarn on weav- CTS warp; -Abecedarian, one who learns or teaches tfe alphabet; Abent, a steep place. The book is full of strange and unusual words, many of which would be but a foreign tongue were it not that they are defined. The book is printed in the old style, when f was used for s ~and the first word of one page was dupli- cated at the foot of the page before. It gives the derivations of the generality of words in the English tongue, either ancient or modern, from the ancient British, Saxon, Danish, Norman and modern French, Teutonic, Dutch, Span ish; as also from the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages, each in their proper characters. This shows the author to have been philologist of research and his office of publication to have been we'll supplied with characters of foreign tongues. The book gives proverbs as we'll as words, their derivation and meaning, as this illustration will show l:
 EVERY MAN THINKS HIS OWN GEESE SWANS.
 This proverb intimates that an inbred phi lauty (self Iove) runs through the whole race of flesh and blood and that self love is the mother of vanity, pride and mistake It turns mans geese into swans, his dung hill poul- try into pheasants and his lambs into venison. It blinds the understanding, perverts the Judgment, depraves the reason of the other wise most modest distinguishes of truth and fnlsity. It makes man SO fondly conceited of himself that he prefers his own art tor it's cNcellency, his own skill for its perfection, his own compositions for their wit and his own productions for their beauty It makes even his vices seem to him virtues and his de- formitics beauties; for so every crow thinks her own bird fairest, though never so black and ugly.
 The author gives some space in his introduction to the growth of the English tongue, from the early British which the Romans drove into Wales, to the Saxon, the oss of which he mourns because blen{ bed with Norman French, by William he Conqueror and his victorious hosts. He gives the Saxon names of the mouths as significant: January was Wolf mon h., because wolves were then most mum Er- ous; February was Cole Wort, beeau use worts or herbs then began to spro9t !; March was Lengthening month, becaut e the days begin to get longer; Aptl Easter month, for then their Eastfr came; May was Three Milkings, fdr their cattle were milked then three timd Is day; June was Meadow month, for the cattle were now turned out to grassE July was Hay month, on account of the hay harvest; August Barn month, fof the barns were now full; Septembe1 was Grist month, for the new corn was carried to mill; October was Wine month, on account of the grape vintage November was Wind month, on account of the high winds that blew and Decem- Der Winter month, at first, for the in- tense cold and, afterward, Holy month, on account of Christmas. He says:
 "Our language, which 1900 years ago was ancient British or Welsh, is now a mixture of. Saxon, Teutonic, Dutch Dan ish, Norman and modern French, embel- lished with the Greek and Latin. By transplanting foreign words into our native soil and new forming them, we have so enriched it that now it is become the most copious and significant Ian guage in Europe, if not in the world.' His dictionary, he says, contains many thousand words more than Harris, Phil lips, Kersey or any other English die tionary before extant. But Webster or Worcester would seem as strange to N Bailey as his collection, mostly of obso- lete words, does to us.