100 LYMAN— NATURE OF THE JAPANESE VERB. [Apni ia 



in mind the true original significance of the terminations ; and all 

 words should, then, he considered to be strictly nouns, and to be 

 adjectivally connected with one another, as the parts of compound 

 words are always connected. The oversight of this necessary con- 

 nection of two parts of compound words, the first as adjective to 

 the second, has led to some common mistakes as to the real meaning 

 of the compounds, and to the impression that the order of the com- 

 ponent parts made no difference in the meaning. For example, it 

 has been supposed that the meaning of the names Theodore and 

 Dorothy were the same ; Theodore would be God-gift, and Dorothy 

 would be Gift-goddess. Spermophile, seed-loving, Anglophile, Eng- 

 lish-loving, Russophobe, Russian-fearing, are correctly used; but 

 Phil-hellene means friendly Greek, and Philander, not man-loving, 

 but a loving (or friendly) man. Philadelphi means friendly 

 brothers, and Philadelphia means friendly brotherhood, not brotherly 

 love. Philosophy would, accordingly, appear to be, not love of wis- 

 dom, but friendly wisdom, the occupation of the philosopher, or 

 friendly wiseman, as contrasted with that of the mere sophist; and 

 the modern word philology (perhaps meaning properly science of 

 loving) should have been logology, or glossology. That universal 

 acceptance and high authority are not a wholly unimpeachable guar- 

 anty against mistranslations is evident from flagrant errors that are 

 to be seen outside the range of our present subject. For instance, 

 a scholar profoundly versed in the Chinese language has given cur- 

 rency to the translation " Middle Kingdom " for the Chinese name 

 of China proper; but the same expression is used in Japan for the 

 Central Provinces, or Home Provinces (or our Middle States, which 

 would be so written in Chinese), and that appears to be the true 

 meaning. The Japanese (or Chinese) name for Corea, Chosen, has 

 somehow come to be translated Land of the Morning Calm ; but its 

 real meaning is Morning Earliness, sen meaning fresh, or new, as 

 recently caught fish is fresh. While Japan means Sun-rising, the 

 country next westward is appropriately called Morning-early. Evi- 

 dently, we cannot put implicit faith in what has come from high 

 sources and has been widely accepted. 



In Chinese, totally without welded terminations, words are plainly 

 connected only in the adjectival way, and as, in the writing, there 



