86 Rev. Mr Wixiams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve 
was, from the frequent use of his spurs, called a pricker : 
« A gentle knight came pricking o’er the lea.” 
From the first and technical meaning of vestigium other signifi- 
cations arose, of which that of the whole footstep was the most 
natural. “ Hae video socci vestigium in pulvere,” says PLautus. 
Hence also all other traces whatsoever were indicated. by vesti- 
gium. But still there remain in the best writers many passages 
in which the word is used without the slightest allusion to its 
secondary meaning, and for the explanation of which we must 
have recourse to ve, little, and stigium, a point. These furnish 
us with the “ experimentum crucis” before alluded to, in which, 
if the facts are not denied, the inference must be allowed. Such 
was the use of the word by Casar, “ Eodemque tempore vis 
magna pulveris cernebatur, et vestigio temporis primum agmen 
erat in conspectus *.” Here we have “ vestigio temporis,” not 
in the meaning of vestige, trace, track, &c. but evidently for 
* puncto temporis,” in a moment. Should we entertain any 
doubts, they will be resolved by the following passage from C1- 
cERo’s invective against Piso, “ Atque eodem in templo, eodem 
et loci vestigio et temporis + ;” “ and in the same temple, at the 
same point both of time and place.” CoLtumEtLa employs it ina 
still more primary sense { (giving to stigiwm its first meaning of a 
blow), where he writes, that a vine branch injured by the prun- 
ing-knife, used ductim in opposition to c@sim, can be smoothed 
(allevari) “ uno vestigio,” “ with one slight stroke.” 
Vegraniis ||. We have already seen, on Ovin’s authority, 
that vegrandis signified not well-grown. It remains now to show 
* Bell. Civ. lib. ii. c. 26. + Cap. ix. * Lib. iv. c. 25. 
\| Grandis, a term borrowed from the swelling or rounding of the grains (grana) 
of corn, afterwards applied to the full growth of other objects. It is peculiar to the 
Latin language. 
