•3 216 DIS-^UISITIO NS on the 



•fought for the word. From, in Saxon, 15 f ram and//v7. This lafl 

 appears plainly the root, and it is as evidently a defcendant of 

 the Got\\\c fairra, from. Now this Got\iic fairra was undoubt- 

 edly alfo the root of our adjecftivey///', equivalent to diftant or re- 

 mote ; and from this root proceeds likewife the German Fremde, a 

 ftranger. Here, then, we have the fame analogy which has been 

 already traced out in the Greek ; the root of our Englifli from 

 being an adjedtive expreffing remote, and the prepolition of courfe 

 meaning juft — remote point, or diftant point. 



It may be added, upon the fubjedl of kto, that this prepofi- 

 tion, or rather its afpirated form a.<p, is, according to the beft ety- 

 mologies, the root of the Englifli adverb off, originally aff; and 

 the precife meaning of this is diftant or retnote, — off, as is well 

 known, being quite a different word, and from a different fource, 

 from the prepofition of, a word radically and properly denoting 

 ■ilafs, kind or [pedes, though the two have not always been 

 Xufficiently diflinguifhed by lexicographers. 



There can be little doubt, I tliink, that the prepofition S<a 

 mufl have been clofely related to the verb I'm. Now hia in com- 

 mon ufe fignifies to drive out, or drive azvay. From many of its 

 cognates and derivatives, however, it is evident, that it mufl 

 have fignified alfo to divide, to JpUt, or to cleave. The original 

 radical idea expreffed by it, therefore, from which both thefe 

 took their rife, may fairly be conjedured to have been to bore, 

 to pierce, to penetrate. From this verb lio> appears to have come 

 a verbal adjedfive ^;oj, tia,, hov, fignifying, from the verb, pierced 

 or penetrated, fometimes divided ; and, when applied to furfaces 

 or fpaces, by a very natural and obvious reflridlion, pajfed over, 

 or croffed. To the neuter plural, or feminine fingular of this 

 adjedtive, fome common word, fuch as 'y^u(jt.f/,yi, %ai^«, tr^i^eia,, or 

 the like, being at firflufually joined, as in other cafes, and after- 

 wards 



