294 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



glomerates with dark shales. They occupy the whole of Cardi- 

 ganshire and parts of Glamorgan and Radnor. They contain 

 many fossils common to the Bala beds beneath and to the upper 

 Silurian above. They are about 1,000 feet thick. 



Of the life of the lower Silurian we may thus sum up. Of 

 that of the flora we are ignorant, save with regard to a few 

 sea-weeds. Of the fauna several classes have representatives. 

 These seem to appear simultaneously, and all indicate that the 

 rocks in which they are embedded are of marine formation. 

 The lower Silurian fossils belong to the classes Zoophyta, Bra- 

 chiopoda, Conchifera, Gasteropoda, Cephalopoda, Echinoder- 

 mata, Annelida, and Crustacea. 



LESSONS IN ENGLISH. XLL 



NOUNS: THEIR ORIGIN AND CLASSES (continued). 



PROPER nouns may be distinguished as names of places and 

 names of persons. Names of places were originally descriptive ; 

 they described the places to which they were assigned. The 

 Bible furnishes such names in abundance : for instance, a place 

 in the Wilderness of Sinai was denominated Kibroth-hattaavah, 

 that is, graves of lust, from an historical event recorded in the 

 book of Numbers xi. 34. Names of places have, to the un- 

 learned, ceased to be descriptive, because the terms have lost 

 their meaning. Those who would know the meaning of the 

 /lames in English topography must study the Teutonic and the 

 Celtic languages, which contain the original elements out of 

 which those names were formed. Some instances have been 

 given I add two or three. Ore, the name given to the Orkney 

 islands in the Welsh Triads, signifies that which is extreme, so 

 that Orkney is the extreme or last country, the Ultima Thule. 

 Ramsgate means the gate or pass leading into Earn, or Ruim, 

 the British name for the Isle of Thanet. Canterbury ia a cor- 

 ruption of the Anglo-Saxon Cantwara lyrig, the forts or strong- 

 holds of the Cantware, that is, the men of Kent. Cant itself 

 conies from Gaint, which, in Welsh, means a plain or open 

 country ; and it was probably the old Welsh name for the slip 

 of open land lying between the Weald and the Thames. The 

 word Winchester is a hybrid, that is, a cross between the British 

 and the Latin. Chester is the Latin Castra, a camp, and de- 

 notes a Roman station. It is frequent in our names of places ; 

 e.g., Manc/iester, Dorchester, Chester. The first syllable Win is 

 the Welsh Givent, which like Caint (probably the same word) 

 signifies an open country. It seems to have been a name given 

 to several districts in this island. Monmouthshire is still called 

 Gwent by the Welsh, and was called Went by our English 

 chroniclers as late as the 10th century. The Welsh name Gtvent 

 was softened by the Anglo-Saxons into Winte, whence came 

 Winceaster, or Winchester. 



Names of places, as being proper nouns, are distinctive as well 

 as descriptive. Thus Pans is the capital of the French empire. 

 But is there another Paris in the world ? The descendants of 

 British colonists, who settled years ago in North America, have 

 unsparingly given the names belonging to the old country to 

 places of recent foundation in the new country. In so doing 

 they havo caused many of our names of places to lose their 

 distinctiveness. The name Boston once denoted the town in 

 Lincolnshire so called. The name was distinctive. Another 

 Boston has sprung up in Massachusetts. Now, then, when we 

 use the term, we are obliged to add some distinctive epithet, 

 and call the one Boston in England, and the other Boston in the 

 United States. Unless such an epithet is added, confusion must 

 ensue. I havo known a letter travel over a large part of England 

 in search of the right Broughton, where lived the person for 

 whom it was intended. 



I subjoin some examples of the meaning of names of places in 

 England. 



Names of towns ending in MOUTH and FORD. Instances: Plymouth, 

 Tynemouth, Yarmouth, Portsmouth ; Oxford, Strat/ord, Roni/ord, Sal/ord. 



The ending mouth denotes the mouth of a river, or the point 

 where a river falls into the sea ; thus Tynemouth is the mouth 

 of the river Tyne. PortsmouM, the mouth of the Port, origi- 

 nally denoting the projecting land forming the narrow opening 

 by which ships pass from the sea (Spithead) into the harbour. 

 Ford, the German furt, signifies the part of a river or stream, 

 which, from its being shallow, may be forded, or passed dry- 

 foot. 



Names of towns ending in CHESTER, CASTER, CESTER. Instances : Dor- 

 chester, Porchester, Lancaster, Doncaster, Gloucester, Worcester, Leicester, 

 Cirencester. 



These endings come from either the Roman castra or the Saxon 

 caester, according as the one or the other may be considered as 

 the original word ; not improbably the Saxon caester is a deriva- 

 tive from the Latin castra or castrum. Castrum in Latin, as 

 caester in Saxon, denotes a fort, a fortification, a castle, an 

 encampment ; hence a 'military settlement, and so a town or 

 city ; for many of our towns were at the first military settle- 

 ments. 



Names of towns and villages ending in WICH or WICK. Instances : 

 Greenwich, Woolicich, Harwich, Norwich, Nantu'ich, 'Berwick, Kesuricfc. 



Wich or wick denotes an inlet or creek formed by the bend of 

 a river; then the land so enclosed, and then the collection 

 of abodes fixed there ; and so a fortification, a village, or town. 



The ending SHIRE.- Instances : Yorkshire, Cardiganshire, Devonshire, 

 Lancashire, Cheshire. 



Shire, connected with the German scheren (Saxon, scir), to 

 cut, to cut off, to divide, denotes a division of a country, a large 

 district ; thus, Yorkshire is the district which belongs to the 

 city of York, and of which that city is the (provincial) capital. 



The ending SEX. Instances : Essex, Middlesex, Susse.r, Wessex. 



Sex is the remainder of the old Saxon term Seaxe, Saxe 

 (German, Sachse), signifying Saxons; so that Sussex means the 

 south Saxons, etc. 



The endi?igs BOROUGH, EURO (German, BURG, a castle), BURY. In- 

 stances : Peterborough, Queenborough, Edinburgh, Sudbury, Bury. 



Borough, softened into burg and bury, is the German burg 

 (Greek, purg), a fortified place, a town; borough, considered as a 

 municipality, is a derived and comparatively recent application. 

 Burg or bury also signifies a bosom, that is, a vale environed with 

 hills ; hence the use of the word in relation to places situated as 

 is Bury in Lancashire. 



The ending or prefix HAM. Instances : Higham, Hompstead, Hampton, 

 Oakham. 



Ham, still continued as a separate word in the diminutive 

 Jiamlet, denotes a dwelling, and hence a village. 



The ending MINSTER. Instances : Westminster, Exminsfer, War- 

 minster. 



Minster is a Saxon word signifying a monastery or settlement 

 of monks ; hence its application to some of our cathedrals ; as 

 York Minster. 



THE ARTICLES. 



The word article, coming from the Latin artus, a joint, is in 

 form a diminutive (articula), and, according to its etymology or 

 derivation, signifies a little joint. The articles may have been 

 called " little joints," because of their smallness as articulations, 

 or because, being small, they, as limiting the application of 

 nouns, are the points or pivots on which discourse turns. 



The article the does not essentially differ from what is called 

 the demonstrative pronoun this, for "the man" and "this 

 man " are phrases of kindred import. Indeed, the appears to 

 be an abbreviated form of this (from the Saxon, thes, as in 

 these), being softened down from this into thic (thic is still 

 common among the peasantry of the south), and thae Scotch 

 into the. In the Anglo-Saxon, the article the is connected in 

 origin as well as signification with this and that (that). 



The article on (a before a consonant), the same with the , 

 German ein, the Greek en, the Latin units, the French un, and ' 

 the Scotch ane (ae), in all of which the n is a radical letter, 

 denotes unity. 



From these etymological statements we are led to the exact 

 import of the articles. In English there are two articles. Of 

 these the one namely, the is called the definite article ; tho 

 other namely, an is called the indefinite article. The indefinite 

 article points out one object, as an apple, a man, thus limiting 

 the noun to a single object of its kind. Such a limitation at 

 first sight seems very definite ; but an or a, while it indicates 

 one, leaves it uncertain, that is undetermined (or indefinite), 

 what one is meant. The office of determining what object is 

 meant belongs to the definite or determining article the. For 

 example, " I saw a man." " What man ? " " The man whom 

 you and I met yesterday." 



A has the same origin as one. But a differs from one : " <* 

 man" and "one man" do not signify exactly the same. A 



