The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1893-10-20
THE STUDY OF A WORD.
The Resources and Variety of Information
1t Is Likely to Furnish.

The Resources and Variety of Information
1t Is Likely to Furnish.
The great dictionaries are library in
themselves and furnish an exhaustless
source of information. A study of a
single word like cross in the Century
Dictionary shows the resources and va
riety of information that familiar
word may furnish. There are 151 col
umns devoted to this word and its COM
binations. There are "a pictorial illus
trations. All in all there are 257 differ
ent words made out of cross which have
to be defined. In the great Oxford Die
tionary there are II pages given to this
word, or twice as much as in the Cen
fury. In the Century the study is
highly fascinating. There are IA radical
ly different sets of definitions to the
word itself.
The fundamental idea is, of course,
the cross, the cruX for crucifying, but it
has come to have variety of meaning
as monument, crucifix, the atone
ment, the Christian religion itself, any
suffering for Christ's sake, anything that
thwarts or vexes, mixing of breeds in
animal breeding, term used in chang
ing plants, joint in a pipe, the acct
dental contact of two electric wires, a
sportsman phrase for contest dishon-
estly decided.
Then cross becomes an adjective, with
several meanings, as falling, athwart,
passing from one of two positions, per-
verse, etc., to the other, being opposed,
being peevish or fretful, i'll tempered,
thoroughly contrary, in the breeders
vocabulary. Then it becomes an adverb,
meaning transversely or adversely. Then
it becomes verb, with all kinds of sig
ni6cance, from the running of a line to
cross thing, to cancel by crossing, to
cross ones self in devotion, passing from
side to side of man, to go over body
of water, to obstruct, to cause to inter-
fere, to cross plants, to hoist from the
deck to its place on the mast any of the
lighter yards.
Then there is the proposition, in riding
cross-country or walking cross-lots. All
this with the simple word itself, which
goes cavorting from the most sacred
thought in the world to the breeders
and the sportsmans language of the
coop and ranch.
After this the mysteries begin. There
are crosses-anserated, arellane, beam
ty, bretesse, catoosed, commisse, Gre
nele, estoile, ftche, feury, gringole, lam
beaux, moline, nowyed, nyle, quatre-
foil, saltier, sarele, resarceled. Then
there are the innumerable compounds of
cross from cross-armed, cross ated,
cross-biter, cross-bar and cross-bun.
through cross-fucan, cross-ruff, cross
sower and cross-spale to crossword.
Then there are a cross-gramed set of
crosses, such as crossarchinal, cross
archus, crossette, crossopinal, crossop
terygia, crossopterygian, crossopterygi-
dae, crossopterygii, crossopterygia, cross
opterygium, crossopus, crossorhined and
cross Orhininae.
1t is incomprehensible that word so
simple should have gone rollickipg 81
over the earth, into the bowels Of the
earth, into tho depths of the sea, among
the fowls of the air, the horse upon the
turf, to card table, to the ships upon the
sea, to the fishes in their glee, to the
sharks in their ferocity, to the architect
and plumber to the farmer in his har-
rowing, to the railroad in it's building,
to the engine in its working, to the seam
stress in her labors, to the spider in his
webbing, to the spinner at his loom, to
the lawyers in their pleading, to shrew
in her wrangling, to the gunner in the
fort. to the miner at his lode, to the
Turk as he sits, to the sword of the glad
iator, to the expert with his telescope, to
the woman in her gazing and in her
dressing, to the athletes in their wres-
thing and to the swindler at his arts.-A.
E. Winship in Journal of Education.