IV INTRODUCTION. 



Moufat failed in tracing the roots of these classic 

 words. Dr. Murray writes to me: — "So far as I 

 know, the Latin term Cicada is at present an ultimate 

 fact to etymologists, which they cannot get beyond, 

 nor as yet has there been any satisfactory root 

 suggested. One does not even know to what ancient 

 Italian dialect the word Cicada originally belonged. 

 Unless a word may be traced to one of the general 

 Aryan family, we have usually to be contented if we 

 find it connected with a Latin word of established use, 

 but with little or no expectation of learning where they 

 got it. Of the origin of a vast body of Latin words, 

 like Apis, we can now never know anythiug, since 

 the old Italian dialects, out of which Latin rose, are 

 virtually lost." 



Again he remarks, that the original affinities of 

 Latin and Greek are very remote, the most common 

 objects having the most different names in the two 

 languages. "On the other hand, here and there, 

 affinities between Latin and Celtic are being discovered, 

 and herein lies a hope that some light will eventually 

 come on tbis subject." "Old Latin was essentially a 

 Celtic language, as has been recently shown by Stokes. 

 The points of contact with Greek are superficial and 

 later, and these connections are chiefly literary or 

 else superstitional." This opinion is, I believe, 

 endorsed by my friend the late Rev. B. P. Pratten, 

 from whose skill in philological questions I have 

 often benefited, and to whose knowledge I am much 

 indebted for unearthing little-known texts from classic 

 authors. He thinks tbat the words " tettcc and xixa are, 

 at any rate, cognate, and that they possibly have refer- 

 ence to the note made by the insect." The passage 

 from one word to the other will not be thought 

 difficult, when we remember how readily children, and 

 indeed adults, interchange "t" with "k" sounds. 



Hesychius gives us the phrase, «<««oj ««< «imo?, referring 

 to the tenderness and dryness of summer ; and Moufat 

 hints some connection between Kinfcog = siccus (dry) and 



