ARcn 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



143 



it runs instead of lying still ; and then at tlie farthest 

 extremity from the head we find, not its foot, but its 

 mouth. Further, an army, a school, a sect, has its head. 

 A class has its head and its tail ; and so has a coin, 

 though in quite a different way. A sermon has its heads, 

 as divided by their different headings, and we can beg to 

 be spared anything more on that head. A sore comes 

 to a head ; and so, by one step further away from 

 literalness, a conspiracy, or other disorder in the State, 

 the bodi/ politic, does the same. We give a horse his 

 head, which he had before our donation ; and we treat in 

 the same way our passions — that is to say, if by their 

 overmastering violence we lose our heads. And so on, 

 ad infinitum.* 



Under this all-embracing class of changes by similarity 

 of me.aning may be included minor changes which I will 

 call (I.) quantitative and (II.) qualitiitive changes of 

 meaning. The implication of words may change by 

 enlargement or by diminution. As examples of the 

 former, the Romans called all their emperors C»sar, and 

 eventually the name was applied to tho.se who could 

 claim relationship to the royal family, the origin of the 

 title dating back to the name of the First Dictator — 

 Caius Julius Caesar. More recently the Germans have 

 adopted the name in the general significition of Emperor 

 (Kaiser), and the same word is apparent in the Russian 

 Czar. 



The English word panic is derived from the proper 

 name of the heathen god. Pan, and was formerly used in 

 English iu connection with the word fear, panic-fear 

 meaning Pan-like fear. In French the word epicier is 

 derived from only one of the things the grocer sells — 

 namely, spice. Our cTnguish, a word expressive of painful 

 emotion, is derived from the Latin ango, to choke, in 

 reference to the well-known physical sensation at the 

 tliroat which accompanies an exce.-s of grief. From the 

 same root comes also the Latin ang^istiSjUarrovf, referring 

 to the nari'owing of the windpipe produced by throttling. 



As examples of diminution in the implication of words, 

 the following will suffice : — Grocer meant a man who :,old 

 things by the gross ; but the present meaning of the word 

 is far more limited. Spices — Latin, species — original])^ 

 meant miscellaneous goods. The modern Greeks use the 

 word alogon for horse; but this word meant oi'iginally 

 any irrational or non-speaking animal. 



11. Words improve and deteriorate in signification. 

 Changes for the better are somewhat rare. Such are, 

 chivalry, which originally meant simpl}' horsemanship ; 

 loyal, a good sense grown out of the word legal. 

 Humble, originally meaning poor-spirited, is now used 

 to express a desirable frame of mind. Christian, now 

 a term of praise, was with Tacitus and Pliny one of 

 opprobrium. 



Words change for the worse either by euphemism, the 

 tendency not "to call a spade a spade," so that good 

 words ai-e frequently applied to vile uses, as, "to have 

 a few words" means to quarrel; "to take a drop too 

 much," to get drunkf ; or on the principle of "be not 

 wise overmuch." Thus, to be biisy is good ; but to be a 

 busybody is not desirable. Goody-goody is used for 

 hypocrite, and the German selig, blessed, innocent, 

 comes to be our silly. 



* "Life anci Growth of Language," Ed. 1879, pp. 86-7. 



■(■ Mr. David Christie Murray, in liis very interesting novel, 

 ' Kainbow Gold ' (Vol. II., p. 232), represents the landlord of a 

 country inn as saying of a customer given to swearing in his cups, 

 " He uses language, which is a thing as I cannot abide. I'll have 

 no man usin' language i' m)- house." Here, of course, language is 

 used in the sense of !md language. 



In such word-changes as these may be found the story 

 of the mental and historical development of the race 

 that effected them. Starting as the mere expressions 

 of sense perceptions, words become by the elastic power 

 of the human mind, and on the principle of .'similarity, 

 the embodiment of wholly abstract ideas. The word 

 justice is derived from a primary idea of straight, like 

 right, Latin 7-ectus. Wrong is literally wrong, or twisted 

 from the right or straight path. A concept is a taking 

 together. To imagine is to make a mental image of 

 anything. Nothing is no thing, like the Latin 7iihil, 

 ne filum., no thread, meaning not even the slightest 

 thing. Angel is from a Greek word meaning 

 messenger ; spirit, as I have said, is from a 

 word meaning breathing, whence also our respire and 

 other derivatives. The primary sense of hope is to 

 stretch or reach forward, and by a similar metajjhor we 

 say we long for an event. L'eligion is a binding together, 

 superstition a standing upon. These few words, taken at 

 random, serve to show how linguistic develoioment may 

 take place by the adaptation of old words to new ideas, and 

 the ignoring of their earlier signification. What is called 

 figurative language, the language of the jioets, is guided 

 by the same principle, and it is in this respect that 

 translators generally fail by trying to render the words 

 themselves instead of the ideas they embody. Literal 

 translations are, for this reason, failures. Take, for 

 instance, the phrase in Ecelesiastes rendered by the old 

 Authorised Version, '■ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity 

 and vexation of spirit." How could any one have the 

 heart to translate it accordinar to the literal meanincr 

 of the original Hebrew text : " Smokiest smoke, all is 

 smoke, and badness of breath " ? At the present time in 

 a London fug this translation is certainly a striking 

 metaphor, but the former would be generally considered 

 the more poetical rendering of the poet's thought. The 

 figurative nature of language is especially clear in Hebrew. 

 Thus zalctn, old, is literally bearded, as with the deaf- 

 mute ; Ichoshun, darhness, is used to mean misery, adver- 

 sity ; yazad, to pjlace a building, means metai^horically 

 to constitute, establish laws. Naphesh, breath, comes to 

 mean vital princiijle, soul, mind, also life, living thing, 

 animal, body, jjerson, and so on. In every language 

 words serve to exjjress a variety of meanings, and their 

 signification is gathered from the connection in which 

 tley appear. So much is this the case that if there is 

 occas^ion for extreme precision in speech it becomes 

 necessary to define the particular sense in which the chitf 

 words are read. 



No two persons have precisely the same range of 

 thought or of If.nguage, nor do all att.ich the same 

 meaning to the same words. Words are not perfect 

 models of ideas, but merely signs of them, just as coins 

 are the signs of certain values. Tlte meaning and appli- 

 cation of words is frequently misunderstood — thus a 

 young child calls every man papa, taking that word to 

 mean a certain group of characteristics which it sees in 

 all. The variations of meaning possibte are much greater 

 in some classes of words than in others — smallest in 

 words expressive of mere perceptions, largest in abstract 

 words ; but always deisendent on the experience and 

 mental tone of the speaker. The same language includes 

 individual varieties, class varieties, and local varieties. 

 No two Englishmen, for example, speak precisely the 

 same language, either in form, extent, or meaning. Still 

 greater variations are found between, for example, a mem- 

 ber of the class lawj-er and that of agricultural labourer ; 

 and locally we branch into dialects, as those of Yorkshire 

 and Somerset.5hire. Any two English people may talk 



