322 DISQUISITIONS on the 



phers feem at a lofs what to make of it. The Greek fchoUaffc 

 conjectures it to have been equivalent to i'-^/o;, height, and thence 

 transferred to denote lAx-f^i, length, a ftrange circuitous mode of 

 appHcation, much more naturally refolved by underftanding 

 the noun ktoj as a cognate of the adjedlive aito;, and hence im- 

 mediately denoting length or diftance. It may be added, that 

 there is in common ufe a verb aVro/, to tie, and K'TTTov.a.i, to 

 touch : the root of both thefe, 1 fliould conjecture, mud have 

 been a verb aVrsj or u-ttu, fignifying to ftretch, as it is not eafy, 

 except upon this fuppofition, to reconcile the different meanings 

 of the adive with thofe of the paffive or middle form of the 

 verb. 



These different cognates, then, feem all to point to the pri- 

 mitive meaning of «^o, and mark it out as an adjedlive denoting 

 d'ljant or remote. Some common noun denoting place or point, 

 being, as in other cafes, underftood or implied, a.'no came to be 

 ufed in the literal radical fenfe of dijlant point, — remote point. 

 From being thus frequently ufed to exprefs a point, more 

 remote than any other in view, the fignification was^ extended to 

 denote likewife the extreme point. 



This primitive radical fenfe ct^ro retained in a number of 

 cafes ; but upon this primitive meaning there came, it fliould 

 feem, to be very foon engrafted a fecondary application, which 

 in time, in great meafure, fuperfeded the former. In any 

 courfe or progrefs, it is evident, that, in the nature of things, ei- 

 ther the commencement or the conclufion may be reckoned the 

 extreme or remotefl; point of the line ; but in die common ufe of 

 language it will be found, that it is the former which mod ge- 

 nerally and readily occurs as the point moft remote from the 

 fpeaker. Hence the mojl remote or extreme point, is often confi- 

 dered as the fame with the point of departure ; and the word 

 which at firfl denoted the one, came readily to be applied to ex- 

 prefs alfo the other. Such appears to have been the cafe with 



OLVt 



