. 



False spelling has been the parent of false etymology. A 

 country-dance is not a dance in the country, but a contre danse, a 

 dance where each one stands opposite to his partner in the long 

 line of couples ; the French term conire signifying opposite. 

 Shamefacedncss and sltamtfaced have properly nothing to do 

 with the face or countenance, but are misspellings under a false 

 notion for sfamcfastness, and shamefast, like steadfast and stead- 

 fastness. Hurricane is in origin, whatever it may be in fact, 

 totally innocent of hurrying away the canes of the sugar plan- 

 tations in the West Indies, and comes to us from our Gallic 

 neighbours, who, borrowing an Oriental term uracan, to describe 

 an Oriental storm or tornado, designate it ourmjitii. 



The alligator, or crocodile of the New World, was very appro- 

 priately designated by the Spaniards who first saw it, el layarto, 

 that is, the lizard, the lizard, the largest lizard, the typo of the 

 lizard species. In time the article el, the, blended with the noun 

 and formed alligator. We have a similar combination in Eldorado, 

 the gold country. In Ben Jonson, who writes aligarta, we see 

 the word in the process of its transformation. For this word 

 Dr. Johnson could find no etymology, and Sir T. Herbert made 

 it to be a compound of German and Spanish. 



LATIN STEMS. 





Inter and disinter may be compared with inAuma/ion and exhu- 

 mation. The four words are made up of Latin elements, but 

 they are not pure Latin words. To inhume (inhumo) or to put 

 in the ground, ia good Latin, and the Romans practised inhu- 

 mation; indeed, for a corpse to remain uncovered with earth was 

 accounted a great calamity among them. But the practice of 

 burial, to which these four words point, owes its origin and pre- 

 valence to the Christian Church, from the usages of which the 

 words themselves are derived. The doctrine of the resurrection 

 of the body made an article of the Christian's creed, and, enter- 

 ing into his heart and life, naturally led to the discontinuance of 

 burning dead bodies, and tc their being inhumed or interred, put 

 into the earth, there to await their resurrection or rising again. 



Umbrella, from umbra, a shade, is etymologically o little shade. 

 Umbrella is a mediaeval word used to represent a Greek word 

 (o-Kiaowv, ski-ad'-i-on) of the same import. Umbrellas are of 

 Eastern origin. In Constantinople, under the Greek empire, 

 they were used for the same purpose as our ladies now use 

 parasols, namely, to shade the head ard face from the heat of 

 the sun. Such a protection was less needful in our cold moist 

 climate, and doubtless the rough and sturdy manners of our old 

 English forefathers were averse to a foreign fashion, and so (to 

 them) effeminate. The use of the umbrella in the shape of a 

 parasol found a home in France, and was made prevalent in this 

 country probably by Catherine of Braganza, though it was known 

 here before her time, as may appear from the following quo- 

 tations : 



" I saw in the court of Spain once 

 A lady falling in the king's sight, along ; 

 And there she lay, flat spread, as an wmbrtn*.** Bn JOMM. 



76 N. 



