Language. 923 



root. Rat in Danish is rotte ; Swedish, ratta ; German, ratie and ratz. 

 In Sanscrit, rada is a tooth ; in Latin rado is to scratch, rodo to gnaw, 

 rostrum a beak ( to peck with ), and in English we have also rodent, a 

 gnawing animal. Of course in this instance it is possible rad may have 

 first been the name of the animal and afterwards received its general sig- 

 nification ; or it might be the animal was first called mus and afterwards 

 renamed rat in recognition of its characteristic propensity for gnawing. 

 After the terms rad and mus had come to receive a general signification, 

 either would be a suitable name for the rat, and that one would gain the 

 day which was on the whole the fittest and most appropriate. 



Max Miiller observes that in ancient dialects there was a superabund- 

 ance of synonyms, and a ".struggle for life" between them. He says 

 any feature of a thing ' ' that struck the observing mind as peculiarly 

 characteristic could be made to furnish a new name. The sun might be 

 called the bright, the warm, the golden, the preserver, the destroyer, the 

 wolf, the lion, the heavenly eye, the father of light and life. " He also 

 makes the almost incredible statement that there have been counted no 

 less than "5,744 words relating to the camel," ( certainty not all in use 

 at the same time ). Such a redundancy of significant and poetical names 

 could not occur in the beginning of language, but would prevail as soon 

 as a moderate degree of civilization had been reached. Then a struggle 

 for existence would take place between the different words applied to the 

 same thing. This struggle goes on yet and always will. A great many 

 words are constantly being coined and put upon probation. For ex- 

 ample, we no longer hear of a " dm fly ; " he has become a " dude, " he 

 makes a "mash " instead of an impression ; there is no longer a "grog- 

 gery," but he may frequent a "saloon." The word " groggery," which 

 has been overthrown by "saloon," was short lived, not having endured 

 more than two generations. " Skedaddle " is a word which flickered 

 during our civil war and then went out. The dictionary contains a sur- 

 prising number of words which are either obsolete or almost so, but 

 which were in common use a few generations ago. A great many words 

 have been introduced by the "best writers and speakers " which never 

 met with much encouragement. A large number of classical words 

 have thus been introduced which were probably never assimilated, such 

 as algid, cold ; alimonious, nourishing ; allegiant, L ?oyal ; arride, to 

 laugh at ; conject, to throw together ; dinetical, whirling round ; ful- 

 gury, lightning ; gnatlionic, flattering ; nocument, harm, &c. 



The following obsolete words have been taken at random out of many 

 hundreds to be found in the dictionary, some of Saxon origin, but 

 most of them Latin : 



Obtemperate, to obey ; naufrage, wreck ; obequitate, to ride about ; postnate, subsequent ; 

 proditor, a traitor; refocillate, to refresh ; resile, to recoil; rixation, a quarrel ; scelrrat, a 

 criminal; secundation, prosperity ; sicker, sure; singult,a,sigh', sollar, a garret; sopition. 



