The Etymology of " Church^ 187 



barians ; and principally such words which were most com- 

 monly used in their mutual intercourse or whose import was 

 new to either of them. But which terms could have been 

 more often used by the Roman invaders or be more novel to 

 the barbarous nations, than those relating to the command of 

 the legions, to the charge or oversight of the military and 

 other works necessary for the establishment of colonies? 

 Such terms were ^^cura,^^ ^^curatio^' rerum, fruraenti, legionis 

 armandae, operum publicorum, viarum, aquarum, etc. Gr, 

 superioris Germaniae legiones curabat, Tacit. Annal. VI, 30. 

 That the word " cura " or one of its congeners has been the 

 parent of ^' church,^' we shall endeavor to show. If we adopt 

 cura, the c, hh, etc. of the Germanic dialects would be excres- 

 cent consonants or formative elements (cf. 0. H. G. chranih ; 

 Slav, zeravi, zoraw ; L. grus ; Gr. ysf/avo^), and the name of 

 the English ^iVJ'^/churchtown, as also the German Mriveihy 

 kirmes, (i. e. originally the mass celebrated on the anniversary 

 of the consecration of a church), a. o. would remind us of 

 cura, unless the prefix kir is the phonetic decay of curatio. It 

 is well known that only an educated ear is able to catch a for- 

 eign word and its stress and to observe this stress in the pro- 

 nunciation. Now the barbarian in mouthing over curatio 

 threw the accsnt of the antepenult back on the stem-syllable. 

 This shifting of the accent we observe in all Latin words 

 which were iniroduced into the Germanic dialects at such an 

 early period. E. g., L. cupella, O. H. G. chubili, G. Kilhel ; 

 L. cellarium, O. H. G. chellari, G. Keller; L. coquina (cokina), 

 0. H. G. chulihina G. kiiche, A. S. cycene, E. kitchen. In conse- 

 quence of the changed accent there followed Gravitation, i. e. 

 the tendency of sounds to accentual centers. It is seen in the 

 lengthening of accented syllables, the lightening and final dis- 

 appearance of unaccented syllables. According to this law of 

 gravitation the o of curatio was dropped, from i developed e, 

 as it generally does among the North European nations, a sunk 

 into e and after passing through intermediate i fell out alto- 



