Evening star., 1924-12-02

| and therefore that legalize means tc
| make legal. The suffix kin means
| little, therefore lambkin means little
lamb. Let or ling, also, means little
such as plantlet. But there are nc
lamblets or piantkins!
Suppose you should get a letter
signed:
Yours without wax" etc,
Would you think your correspondent
| crazy, or just temporarily abberated'
Neither. II you remember your
On page 107, under the title oi
Study of Words" you find that the
| word sincere is derived from the
Latin, sine, without, and cera, wax
applied originally to pure honey
hence it's derivation meaning Of pure
unadulterated, true.
Any government employe ought te
know-as most of them probably dc
that our word salary is derived
lowance for salt. Our common say.
ing. He is not worth his salt
might be written, lie Is not worth
his salary"
Our word alphabet comes from the
| first two greek letters of the Greek
alphabet, alpha and beta. The worG
| nausea comes from the Greek naus
ship. Pretty neat, eh? / am sure
| that even sea-sickness would be
| lightened by this knowledge.
Take the word preposterous; this
comes from the Latin prae, before
and posterus. behind; Swinton tells
| that before which ought to be be.
hind, that is, putting the cart be-
fore the horse"
How many gentlemen looking a
| the world solemly from behind theii
| whiskers know. as their 12-year-
| son does who studies world analysis
| that our word calculate is from Tho
Latin calculi, pebbles used by an.
| clients to aid them In their mathe.
| matical computations? When they
are brought down with the ston,
| they may find out.
Would 1t not be well for all Of us
! to refresh ourselves on the difference
| in meaning between the synonyms
Lifeless and inanimate? 1t NIGH
help us In our business of working
| out cross word puzzles.
Good old Swinton--peace be to his
| soul-tells US:
| "Lifeless implies the absence of life
| where II has once been; inanimate
| its absence where IL has never been
| person Is said to be lifeless or deat
from whom life has departed: the
| material world consists of object.
| which are by nature inanimate."
And which would you say: "Presi.
| dent Coolidge is a silent man." o,
president Coolidge is tactiturr
| man." Swinton says: SILENCE ex.
presses less than taciturnity; the
silent man does not speak; the taci.
turn man will not speak"
| The section Of this little schoo
| Dook devoted to derivatives from III.
Anglo Saxon is especially Interesting
| we are shown that our word HEAVIER
rs from heave. to raise up. literally
| that which is heaven or heaved uI
over our heads, the sky
Personally ! always derived an in.
explicable mental satisfaction from
these old words. They seem so to be
| part of ones very mental being.
| How is the word heather connected
| with the word heath, a barren place
| or moor? "A heather meant orig.
lnaily, dweller on a heath, or wild
when Christianity first spread
throughout the Roman Empire. in the
early centuries after Christ, the new
| rehgion was first accepted in tn,
large cities; the dwellers in the dis.
| tant parts, or heaths. remote from
civilization. still kept up the ole
| pagan worship-hence heather cam,
10 mean the same rs pagan"
IL might help "a gadding wife tt
kho" mat the word wife is derived
from the Saxon verb wefan. tht
same word from which weave comes
us original meaning was one who
VI " -