IL — Nomenclature. — By the Rev. John Bannister, LL.D., Si, Day. 



Presented at the Spring Meeting, Hay 25, 1866. 



THE science of Nomenclature must, in some degree, be interesting 

 to all curious and enquiring minds. Every one has a name for 

 himself; all persons and places around him bear names, — proper 

 names, names peculiar to the individual, not common to others, 

 but given for the sake of identifying each, distinguishing one per- 

 son or place from all others. Whence are these names derived ] 

 Have they a meaning in themselves 1 Or, are they mere arbitrary 

 sounds — a conjunction of certain' letters or syllables, conveying in 

 themselves no idea to the mind, excepting as connected with the 

 individual object on which each has been, or may be, imposed? 

 We know they are commonly treated in this way, bemg imposed 

 without reference to any meaning they themselves may have, 

 and transferred from one person or place to another, merely be- 

 cause they please the fancy, are pretty, high sounding, or fashion- 

 able ; and so are often in truth " misfits " ; * for, it is a fundamental 

 principle ever to be borne in mind, that all names, at their first 

 imposition, were significant words, and were intended to be de- 

 scriptive of some quality or characteristic of the individual objects 

 on which they were severally imposed, or in some Avay or other 

 were appropriate to them. 



To begin at the beginning : Adam was so called because he 

 was made out of H^IK? the ground (red earth) ; or, because he 



T T - : 



was formed in the image m^"T (similitude) of GoD.t Eve was 

 so called by Adam because she was the mother of all living; "^n? 



* As Miss Milroy said to Allan Armadale, in reference to her own name. 



f Adam, we are told, was so named by God. No reason is assigi:ed for 

 the imposition of his name. Hence the uncertainty about the derivation, 

 and the twofold coujectui'e. 



