,^QI. LlTERxVRY rNTELLIGENCER. pj 



nor would riie mofl faftidious critic find fault v/ith the 

 p'lrafcs I'riijs c\i/i(jliyliik or fthcr cafutltfi'tcky though 

 •evidently abfurd, if the meaning of the original ele- 

 ment of thefs compound v/ords be adverted to ; 

 though tlie worik theniL'lves, as commonly ufed, do in 

 facl: convey as diilinft iJos as any other in the lan- 

 guage. If lb, then, vvculd it not be highly abfurd and 

 improper to change tliem for others ? 



It often happens that compound words of this kind 

 come to exprels the molt contradictory ideas, if the mean- 

 ing of the original vvords were confidcrsd, — which how- 

 ever, when viewed as a whole, wichotit regard to the ele- 

 ments, are expreffive and intelligible \— li''~bite~hecid is a- 

 common name, which has been evidently derived from 

 the colour of the hair of the perfon to whom it was 

 firft appropriated, — -yet having been paiTed now asa com- 

 mon furname, no one ever thinks of adverting to the co- 

 lour of the hair, when the name is mentioned, — nor 

 .would the fmalleft improprietv be perceptible in any 

 one faying that William inyitchead had very fine black 

 hair. Baims-father is another furname not uncommoti 

 in the one part of the country, which originally dcnot d 

 that the perfon to whom it had been applied was the fa- 

 ther of children. It is now, liowever, applied indif- 



.criminately to females and to males, to thofe who are 



fathers and mothers of children, and to thofe who ne-. 

 ver had children at all, without exciting any other idea. 

 than that it is the name of tlie particular perfons to. 

 wnom it is appropriated, and nothing eUe. 



Midwife, and man-midwife arc words of the fame 

 kind. — And many others might be added, which are in 

 common and univerfal ufe j but theie will fo readily oc- 

 cur to every reader, that it is unnecefTary to fpecily 

 them. 



In fcience, as well as arts, words of this kind are 

 alfo common ; and in thofe branches of fcicncc which 

 are progreiFive, it niuil happen that a word which is' 

 invented to denote new ide.v; ?.3 they arife, can be cou^ 



