370 THE STUDY OF FRENCH IN FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES. 



As soon as Arsene Darmesteter had discovered the law, that 

 is named after him and which says that " every Latin pretonic, 

 non-initial vowel, and every post-tonic vowel, with the exception 

 of the vowel a (which becomes e mute), falls out,"* it could be 

 proved that in Old-French such verbs as aidier, from adjutarc 

 (where u is the pretonic), were regularly conjugated with their u 

 in the strong forms (where the ictus falls on the stem): fain 

 (adjuto), tu aiues (adjutas) ; and without it in the weak forms 

 (where the ictus is on the ending): nous aidions (adjutamus) 

 vous aidiez (adjutatis). Well, then, the etymologists had been 

 trying for ever so long to find a quite plausible and satisfactory 

 etymology of the verb diner:, but without definite success. Quite 

 a number of origins had been suggested: decenarc< discenarc- 

 deescinare, esca, die cenare, nay, even, destinare and decima hora. 

 not to speak of the Greek henrvelv- And what is the conclusion 

 Gaston Paris has arrived at by means of Darmesteter's law? 

 Briefly this: The popular Latin verb dis-junare (for dis-jeju- 

 nare), which gave regularly in its strong forms: je desjun (dis- 

 juno), tu des Junes (disjunas), was bound to make in its weak 

 forms — consequently upon the falling out of the pretonic vowel : 

 — nous disnons (disjunamus), vous disnes (disjunatis), and in 

 the infinitive: disner (disjunare). So, in the olden times people 

 said: je dejeune, il dejeune, but nous dinons, vous iitiez. Analogy 

 has been at work on both sides. The strong forms have be- 

 queathed to us an infinitive, which is dejeuner, and which did not 

 exist of old, and the regular old infinitive has given to the world 

 the forms: je dine, tu dines, il dine, which did not exist either. 

 And so it has come to pass that the words by which, in our days, 

 we denote two distinct meals, have practically the same origin, 

 and have in bygone days implied the same detail of daily life, viz., 

 the first meal that was taken in the morning after getting up. 



Narrowly knit up with the history of the form of words is 

 the history of their meaning, i.e., the study of the successive 

 alterations words have undergone in their meanings. It is obvious 

 that this department, " la semantique," or, as English has it, 

 semasiology, or semantics, or, as Littre calls it " pathologie des 

 mots," is of the highest moment with regard to the psychology of 

 nations. But being part and parcel of lexicology rather than a 

 chapter of historical grammar, it is not well possible to expound 

 and discuss it in the systematical way grammatical problems 

 admit of.f Yet the etymologist could never ignore it in his 

 researches. One example will suffice to prove this. Let us take 

 the word danger, which is practically synonymous with peril, 



* In other words : All atonic finals arc dropped except (7, which 

 becomes c mute. All atonic counterfihals are dropped except a. which 

 becomes e mute, e.g., the Latin word bonitatem becomes in French bonte. 

 In this word a is the tonic, e the counter tonic, e(m) the final, and i the 

 counterfmal. The tonic has the main stress (ictus, tempus forte), the 

 countertonic the secondary stress ; the rest is atonic. 



t See for this: Arsene Darmesteter: La vie des mots. Paris, Dela- 

 grave. 



