^14 DISQUISITIONS on the 



Here, as in many other inflances, we find an example of an idea 

 exprefTed -with equal propriety either by a noun or its corre- 

 lative. The Greeks, in ufing a,[/.<p), kept in view that an objedl 

 •was included ; the Latins, in ufing circa and circim, and the 

 Greeks themfelves, too, in ufing srsfi, had in their eye that there 

 was a boundary containing. 



Avu. 



Ava, is one of thofe prepofitions which, partly from the obfcu- 

 rity of its primitive root, and partly from its varied and fome- 

 what anomalous mode of application, prefents confiderable diffi- 

 culty in the inveftigation of its primary and radical fenfe. LiN- 

 NEP fuppofed it to mean prepare upward; an idea which it 

 certainly does very frequently denote, but into which all the 

 others cannot be fairly refolved. In ProfeflTor Dalzel's 

 Fragmenta, the proper fignification of it is faid to be per^ 

 through, in which opinion Stefhens coincides. But to this idea, 

 though fo refpedably fupported, I cannot altogether accede. 

 Through is undoubtedly one, and a very common meaning of um, 

 but, like the former, can only be ranked as one of its fecondary 

 applications. Dr Moor, I apprehend, has come neareft the true 

 radical fignification of ava ; he explained it as expreffing " the 

 " lines of dire£iion traced backwards ;" a fenfe not very remote 

 from what appears to be the original one. 



Ava,, in the immediate form of a noun, does not, I beUeve, oc- 

 cur in the Greek writers now extant ; but from its cognates and 

 derivatives, it is not difficult to difcover the traces of its former 

 meaning. Av«, as an adverb, is common, expreffing a circum- 

 Jlance far back, — removed backwards from us, whether in place or 

 time : av occurs in compofition in a niimber of words, with the 

 fenfe as it were of contradidion or reverfal of the main idea, as 

 h.iu.\ilgoi, unmanly, avcxnog, impious, civogetTog, invifible : uhv, a deri- 

 vative from the lame root, generally carries a fimilar force of re- 



verfing 



