GREEK PREPOSITIONS. 31.5 



verfing the idea denoted by the word with which it is connecft- 

 cd. 



In all thefe different cognates, we find the idea of reverfmg or 

 tracing backward implied; and Apollonius Sophista, in his 

 Lexicon Homericum, mentions this as the primitive idea denoted 

 by the prepofition civk *. Here, then, I think, we may fix the 

 radical fenfe of the word. Attn, appears evidently to be a noun, 

 having the literal fignification of reverfed, turned back, or traced 

 backwards j and, if necelTary, fome common and obvious word, 

 fiicb as direBion, pofition^ or the like, may be fuppofed to be im- 

 plied and underftood ; but this will feldom be required f . 



We may, therefore, give the radical meaning of ava. as hack, 

 backward, reverfed, or traced back. Thus, in Xenophon, a,va, -no- 

 ruf^ov hiiJcoiJt.i(ra,v, " they bore them, — the river being traced back- 

 " wards in their bearing," i. e. bore them againfl the ftream, or 

 up the river. 



From this radical meaning, the other applications will be 

 found naturally to arife. 



I. Very frequently ava, Cgnifies up or upward, becaufe down- 

 or downward being the natural and ufual diredtion which bodies 

 take when left to themfelves, up is confequently the natural di- 

 redlion reverfed or traced back, and therefore properly expreffed 

 by am. 



'Q,i airav oiva, vr,og sSijy, IxiXsura, 5' \ra,i^ovt 



' Avroug t aj^QaUut , dvci ri v^vu.vricrKX, Xvffui. HOMER,. 



" Having thus fpoken, I afcended the veflTel, and ordered my 



" companions 



AfOLLON. SopHisr. fub Toce Avoii 



t Parkhurst's idea of the derivation of this prepofition from a Hebrew word 

 fignifying an anfwer, coincides pretty nearly with the idea here ftated. The He- 

 brew, word for an anfwer may probably have originally denoted a rebound. 



