l899-'00 TRANSACTIONS 



117 



"a divinity." The word "ghastly" has picked up an "h" which 

 does not belong to it, and has thereby much improved its appear- 

 ance for terrifying purposes. Like the Chinese soldiers in their 

 drill it was preparing to look fierce, and now it looks that way all 

 the time — at least it looks "ghastly ;" but it meant no more than 

 "formidable" at the first. The word "ghost" has also been try- 

 ing to frighten, us with a stolen "h," and has succeeded pretty 

 well. It has the same origin as the German "geist" meaning 

 spirit in the ordinary sense, and is akin to our English "yeast." 



lyCt us take now some very dignified and stately words. 

 "Venerate" and "venerable" are words of the highest character, 

 and move in the very best society ; but thc}^ both are derived from 

 the name of the most amiable and mirth-loving goddess in the 

 Roman pantheon. What a very expressive word most would say 

 "solemn" is. Decidedly ; we catch echoes in it of a tolling bell, 

 or of the fateful words of a judge who has donned the black cap. 

 But after all what does it really mean ? Well it means "every 

 3^ear." The lyatin word was W,?;/;;/^, like /(?r,?;z«w, the ''ennis'' 

 representing "_annus" and "sol" the old Latin adjective sollus 

 meaning all or eve?y. A "solemn festival" is therefore, strictly 

 speaking, one that is celebrated annually. "Glorious" and 

 "splendid" are words that think a good deal of themselves, but if 

 we trace the first back we come to a root meaning ' ' to hear' ' — indicat- 

 ing that the first condition of glory is noise — and if we trace back 

 the second we come to the ancient term for the spleen, which was 

 supposed to have something to do with the production of bile. 

 "Splendid" therefore meant originally of a bright yellow color. 

 Melancholy is a very sentimental word, but it too had a physiologi- 

 cal origin. "Jeopardy" is a word which brings before us the idea 

 of very imminent danger ; but at first it had no such meaning : it 

 comes from two French words yV/^ pafii, meaning a game in which 

 the counters are distributed equally to all the players. The poet 

 Keats stirs our sensibilities when he speaks of "perilous seas 

 forlorn;" but "peril" is the Latin "periculum" which means 

 literally "a little experience." "Vengeance" is a terrible word, 

 but the "ven" is the same root we see in "vend" and "venal." 

 The word "soldier" calls up the noblest associations of courage, 

 honour, and devotion to duty; 3'et strange to say, if we go back 

 to its origin it means simply "hireling," one taken into pay, like 



