Produced by Karl Hagen Juliet Sutherland Charles Franksand the Online Distributed Proofreading TeamTHE STUDY OF WORDSON THE STUDY OF WORDSBYRICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH DDARCHBISHOPLanguage is the armoury of the human mind and at once contains thetrophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquestsCOLERIDGEOut idle words servants to shallow foolsSHAKESPEARETWENTIETH EDITION revised byTHE REV A L MAYHEWJoint Author of The Concise Middle English DictionaryPREFACE TO THE TWENTIETH EDITIONIn all essential points this edition of The Study of Words is the samebook as the last edition The aim of the editor has been to alter aslittle of Archbishop Trenchs work as possible In the arrangement ofthe book in the order of the chapters and paragraphs in the style inthe general presentation of the matter no change has been made On theother hand the work has been thoroughly revised and corrected A greatdeal of thought and labour has of late been bestowed on Englishphilology and there has been a great advance in the knowledge of thelaws regulating the development of the sounds of English words and theresult has been that many a derivation once generally accepted has hadto be given up as phonetically impossible An attempt has been made topurge the book of all erroneous etymologies and to correct in the textsmall matters of detail There have also been added some footnotes inwhich difficult points are discussed and where reference is given torecent authorities All editorial additions whether in the text or inthe notes are enclosed in square brackets It is hoped that the bookas it now stands does not contain in its etymological details anythinginconsistent with the latest discoveries of English scholarsA L MAYHEWWADHAM COLLEGE OXFORD _August_ 1888PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITIONThese lectures will not I trust be found anywhere to have left out ofsight seriously or for long the peculiar needs of those for whom theywere originally intended and to whom they were primarily addressed Iam conscious indeed here and there of a certain departure from myfirst intention having been in part seduced to this by a circumstancewhich I had not in the least contemplated when I obtained permission todeliver them by finding namely that I should have other hearersbesides the pupils of the TrainingSchool Some matter adapted forthose rather than for these I was thus led to introducewhichafterwards I was unwilling in preparing for the press to remove onthe contrary adding to it rather in the hope of obtaining thus asomewhat wider circle of readers than I could have hoped had I morerigidly restricted myself in the choice of my materials Yet I shouldgreatly regret to have admitted so much of this as should deprive theselectures of their fitness for those whose profit in writing and inpublishing I had mainly in view namely schoolmasters and thosepreparing to be suchHad I known any book entering with any fulness and in a popular mannerinto the subjectmatter of these pages and making it its exclusivetheme I might still have delivered these lectures but should scarcelyhave sought for them a wider audience than their first gladly leavingthe matter in their hands whose studies in language had been fullerand riper than my own But abundant and ready to hand as are thematerials for such a book I did not while yet it seems to me that thesubject is one to which it is beyond measure desirable that theirattention who are teaching or shall have hereafter to teach othersshould be directed so that they shall learn to regard language as oneof the chiefest organs of their own education and that of others For Iam persuaded that I have used no exaggeration in saying that for manya young man his first discovery that words are living powers has beenlike the dropping of scales from his eyes like the acquiring ofanother sense or the introduction into a new worldwhile yet allthis may be indefinitely deferred may indeed never find place at allunless there is some one at hand to help for him and to hasten theprocess and he who so does will ever after be esteemed by him as oneof his very foremost benefactors Whatever may be Horne Tookesshortcomings and they are great whether in details of etymology orin the philosophy of grammar or in matters more serious still yetwith all this what an epoch in many a students intellectual life hasbeen his first acquaintance with _The Diversions of Purley_ And theywere not among the least of the obligations which the young men of ourtime owed to Coleridge that he so often himself weighed words in thebalances and so earnestly pressed upon all with whom his voice wentfor anything the profit which they would find in so doing Nor withthe certainty that I am anticipating much in my little volume can Irefrain from quoting some words which were not present with me duringits composition although I must have been familiar with them long agowords which express excellently well why it is that these studiesprofit so much and which will also explain the motives which inducedme to add my little contribution to their furtheranceA language will often be wiser not merely than the vulgar but eventhan the wisest of those who speak it Being like amber in its efficacyto circulate the electric spirit of truth it is also like amber inembalming and preserving the relics of ancient wisdom although one isnot seldom puzzled to decipher its contents Sometimes it locks uptruths which were once well known but which in the course of ageshave passed out of sight and been forgotten In other cases it holdsthe germs of truths of which though they were never plainly discernedthe genius of its framers caught a glimpse in a happy moment ofdivination A meditative man cannot refrain from wonder when he digsdown to the deep thought lying at the root of many a metaphorical termemployed for the designation of spiritual things even of those withregard to which professing philosophers have blundered grossly andoften it would seem as though rays of truth which were still below theintellectual horizon had dawned upon the