60 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 142. 



I acknowledge the great plausibility of the ordi- 

 nary derivation from Sia^uWeiv, but it is this ap- 

 parent correctness which makes the search for a 

 more satisfactory etymon unusually difficult. The 

 application of a word in a sense foreign to the 

 language in Avhich it is employed, especially when 

 that meaning is so peculiar and limited as that of 

 the word ^idfioXos in the Greek Testament, neces- 

 sarily excites a doubt respecting its origin, which 

 is what I implied by the phrase " in the case of 

 ■ecclesiastical usage," which has occasioned such 

 perplexity in the mind of A. N. 



How he can feel surprised at my assertion, that 

 the Septuagint and Greek Testament are replete 

 with words of oriental origin, I do not understand ; 

 it would be a much more remarkable fact if the 

 polity, religion, and literature of a distinct people 

 like the Hebrews could be transplanted into a 

 foreign language without the occurrence of such a 

 phenomenon. 



I am at present at a distance from my library, 

 and must trust to memory for arguments to main- 

 tain my position ; In furtherance of which object 

 I shall adduce a few words, Greek in their form 

 and analogy, but undoubtedly oriental. Some of 

 them, I know, occur in the Greek Bible, but it is 

 from Herodotus and Xenophon that I have im- 

 mediately borrowed them. They are as follows : 

 Trapd^eiffov, aKiuuKYj^, avdlvpts, Kvpos. On_ some of 

 these I shall exert a little fancy etymology, to 

 show how easily a Greek origin miglit be claimed 

 for them as well as form and Inflection. In the 

 first place, it is a fact known to all philologists, 

 that Tooke, in the Diversions of Parley^ derives 

 the word town from the Anglo-Saxon tynan, " to 

 enclose," and the Greek S^^uos has a similar root 

 Sew. Now the word irapd^iKros means a park 

 attached to a summer palace, and might be derived 

 from irapx, " beside," and Sew, " to bind ;" and thus 

 be defined as a tract of land set apart beside a dwell- 

 ing. Unfortunately the word Is Persian, and will 

 not admit of this derivation, which is to the full 

 as plausible as Bia^dWuv for Staj8n\os. Again, the 

 ■word aKivaKrjs, " a dagger," might be derived from 

 ■aichs, " a point," and mean a pointed weapon ; the 

 reduplication being no more remarkable than that 

 in the Latin preterits cecidi and momordi. This 

 ■word too is Persian, and probably from the same 

 root as the words liach, hatchet, axe, &c., viz., if 

 my memory does not deceive me, the Chaldee 

 pi^n, " secare." Kvpos again, being the name of a 

 prince, might be considered the substantive root 

 of the adjective Kvpios, " lordly, legal, ratified," 

 &c. (Kvpta eKK\r](na, and similar phrases, being com- 

 mon in classical authors), were It not simply the 

 Median " Khoresh," which means the sun. The 

 habit of the Greeks in altering words to suit the 

 genius of their own language, forms a marked 

 feature In their literature, a number of Persian, 

 Hebrew, and Egyptian words having thus become 



incorporated and naturalised. The abuse of this 

 custom Lueian satirises In his treatise De Historid 

 Conscriheudd, where he says that a writer of his 

 day altered the Latin Saturnlanus into Kpovluvos, 

 TItlanus Into Tirivos, Fronto into ^povns, and so on. 



If A. N. cannot see the connexion between Un- 

 debel and BidfioXos, how can he acknowledge, as 

 every divinity student does, that eTr/tr/cojros and 

 bishop, TrpeafivTepos and priest, are identical words ; 

 the history of whose changes is lucid and distinct. 

 I come now to that part of his reply which he 

 himself says is not relevant, but which, In my 

 opinion, is the only argument of any weight which 

 he has adduced. I understand him to say, that 

 the Introduction of a new religion was usually 

 attended with the condemnation of the old divini- 

 ties as evil spirits. This is true as far as regards 

 their individual appellations, but does not apply 

 to the abstract words denoting deity. In Scandi- 

 navia, after the introduction of Christianity by 

 King Oluf the Saint, Odin, Thor, Balder, and the 

 rest of the northern Olympus, were anathematised 

 as demons ; but the appellation " Alfadir," and the 

 like, were merely directed to their proper channel. 

 No Christian writer has ever used 6eos or divus 

 to denote the evil spirits, though the old pos- 

 sessors of these names, Jupiter, Apollo, and 

 Athena, were hurled to that Tartarus, where they 

 were believed to have incarcerated the Titans. 

 The word Div, in Its diabolic sense, was undoubt- 

 edly long antecedent to the composition of the 

 Shah-nameh, as the combats of the Rustan and 

 Tahmuras Shah with the Dius are amongst the 

 most ancient legends of Persia. If I do not mis- 

 take, the latter was a monarch of the Pishdadlan 

 dynasty, which had died out ages before the intro- 

 duction of Islamism. 



The chief objection to the parallels I have 

 brought forward is, that one word In each case is 

 in a dead, and one in a living language ; but an 

 instance occurs to me where both are found ia 

 living tongues, namely, the Slavonic Bogud, God, 

 and the Scotch hogie, a ghost or evil spirit. Tlic 

 euphonlsms of the Celtic Daoine Shie, or men of 

 peace, and the Icelandic Jutun, or God-men, both 

 applied to evil and malignant races, might likewise 

 serve to show the extent and spread of the Yezidi 

 superstition. 



Having thus answered A. N.'s objections, I beg 

 leave to submit my interrogation again to your 

 notice, and once more to ask the etymology of the 

 word "Devil?" Richard F. Littledale. 



ANCIENT AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 



(Vol. v., p. 585.) 



If the following remarks be of any service to 

 your correspondent W. B. D., they are quite at 

 his disposal. 



