41 
ferred from the Hebrews, who derived them from the Assyrian 
Semites. Yet the former finds place in that familiar sea-song wherein 
Dibdin, with a total disregard of anatomy, wrote :— 
‘There’s a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft 
To keep watch for the life of ‘poor Jack.” 
Some carry the genealogy of the cherub still farther back, and trace 
its origin in the ancient Egyptian word Cherufu. More words than 
are usually conceded may yet be proved of Coptic descent. Spanish >: 
full of words of Arabic derivation, evidence of the Moorish ¢>. — 
Spain. When we transfer words from that Semitic tongue we run 
prefixed article and noun together, as in ed tksir, “The elixir of life,” 
al kahal, the strange source of alcohol, meaning a fine powder of black 
sulphide of antimony used to paint the eyebrows with. © : 
our words are compounded of two languages, like “ inter-loper,” which 
is half Dutch, half Latin, or, the Spencerian concept, “altruism.” 
wherein the Greek suffix ism is joined on to the Italian word altruz, for 
another, while the “ Data of Ethics” is derived from the Persian data, 
“settled,” and the Greek ethica, “custom.” Hence the philologist of 
the future will say with safety that English is a later linguistic produc: 
than Dutch, Latin, or Greek. 
What mental phases are being revealed in the biographies and 
significance of words and titles. Our Sunday is a corruption of 
Sonsdag, and a reminder of the days of sun-worship. In Thursday or 
Thorsdag we preserve the memory of the worship of the thunder god, 
Thor, whom the Saxon Pagans of old formally renounced in the word, 
“Ke forsacho Thunare” on embracing Christianity. The significance 
of titles is rather amusing when looked into. The A.S. ae/dre equals 
the Latin senior, French seignewr, siewr, our sir. Baron, M.E. barund, 
old English baron, on is a Norman suffix, in its older form bar means 
man, and in Provencal Jo bur is “the man” and signifies a bearer, a 
porter, vassal, orservant. So that baron is no more than the equivalent 
of the familiar Scotch “mon” or the colloquial Spanish “ Hombre.” 
The German Graf comes from der graue, the grey one, and the English 
knicht is the easier pronunciation of the German knecht, or servant. 
Our most familiar monosyllable to sell preserves a record of the days 
when salt was money, and a medium of exchange, as it is still in 
Central Africa. To buy is derived from the the A.S. bycgan, and goes 
back to the Icelandic bawgr, meaning both money and ring, or twisted 
coils of gold, which were bended or broken off, to pay for what had 
been bought in the days when men carried their wealth on their per- 
son. It is said there are 250,000 words in the English language, all to 
be derived, Max Muller admits in his “ Science of Thought,” from the 
800 roots, and every thought to the 121 simple fundamental concepts of 
Sanskrit. We have now reached the compounding epoch in language, 
and we have all the languages of the world, and the universal 
experiences of mankind to draw on. Sometimes these compounds 
betiay the ignorance of the framers of them, as seal-fisheries 
and whale-fisheries, proof that they were put together by 
persons ignorant of the simple zoological truth that both whales and 
seals are warm-blooded mammals and not fishes, although they happen 
to live and swim in the water. How great is the extension of metaphor. 
