GREEK PREPOSITIONS. 3 u 



I fhall be fatisfied to take them as they occur m the order of the 

 alphabet. 



Aptp). 



The near relation which this prepofition bears to the adjec- 

 tive up<p&>, both, and the adverb uft<pi{, on both fides, evidently 

 points out an identity of origin as well as affinity of meaning. 

 All three appear to be immediately derived from the obfolete 

 verb cipu, to embrace or grafp *. From upa it is probable came 

 the verbal adjectives dpo$ and dt^ig, iignifying grafped or embra- 

 ced. From many examples in the more ancient Greek writers, it 

 appears to have been a frequent practice either to add to words the 

 termination (pi, or fimply to infert the letter <p before the termi- 

 nation. Of this laft, the inflances are not unfrequent in Ho- 

 mer and Hesiod, as oyzcr(pi for o%e<rt, jjJut^o. for what appears to 

 have been originally /^sca, and hvri<pi for what I mould fufpect 

 had been originally tvvtji or svwj j* . By a fimilar infertion, dpo$ 

 and dptg became olpQog and cipQis, both of them iignifying, as be- 

 fore, grafped or embraced. Ap<pa>, the dual number of clpQog, thus 

 exactly exprefTed two objects, grafped, embraced or united, the pre- 

 cife idea denoted by the term both. To up<pi$, exprefling grafp- 

 ed, fome common word denoting place, objecl, or the like, be- 

 ing at firft ufually joined, and afterwards in common ufe 

 omitted, as being univerfally underftood, up$i$ and its oblique 

 cafe dft<p) came to fignify literally place or objecl grafped, embra- 

 ced, or comprehended. 



Vol. V.— P. II. Ss Hence 



* The root of the common Greek verb <*/*«<», to reap, (literally to gather toge- 

 ther the fruits of the earth), and of the Latin verb amo, to love, originally deno- 

 ting to grafp at or ftrive to obtain. 



f Perhaps the <p thus inferted was originally the iEolic digamma ; a letter com- 

 mon in the moll ancient Greek, writings, and it feems probable, pronounced not 

 unlike the p. 



