GREEK PREPOSITIONS. 317 



It is from this application that dva has often come to be ufed 

 for through or over, — through the mountains, or over the moun- 

 tains, equivalent to up and down — backward and forward. 



3. Avd is joined with nouns of number, to denote regular cliftri- 

 bution- ^rgariaiag i%nvai xsXzvu avccnivri, (Vigerus), " he orders 

 " the foldiers to go out by fives," — to go out five — then traced 

 back again, — to go out till they came to five, and then begin or 

 trace back the reckoning again. Kiwdi^u^ou xu) vdgdov dvd ovyr,lav 

 fj>/iuv, (Vigerus), " of cinnamon and nard, an ounce each," — of 

 cinnamon an ounce, — then trace back the fame reckoning for 

 the nard. 



4. Sometimes, though but rarely, ava is ufed to denote accord- 



big to. AaXilv ava tou dvrov Koyov (Clemen. Alex.) li to fpeak 



u the fame word traced backward,* — according to the fame 

 word. 



Under thefe different heads, all the applications of ava may,. 

 I fhould think, either directly or indirectly be arranged. In all 

 of them we are warranted in regarding it a&anoun;; and though 

 it cannot be denied, that the varied application and obfcure ori- 

 gin of this prepofition may fometimes occafion difficulty in 

 marking its exact progrefs or ramification, this does not at all 

 detract from the truth of the general proportion. Here, as in 

 many fimilar cafes, the following obfervation of Linnep will be 

 found to hold good. " It is not to be expected, that the analo- 

 " gy of any language can be perfectly traced, from the want of 

 " many primitive words, which, having gone into difufe, are not 

 "now to be met with, as the mod ancient compofitions in the 

 " language have probably perifhed. This defect is ftill increa- 

 " fed by the careleffnefs of lexicographers, who have not been 

 " attentive even to preferve the old words that were to be met 

 " with at the time they wrote." Hence, under every root, we 

 need not be furprifed to find blanks in the analogy which no 

 ingenuity or conjecture can now poffibly fupply. 



Av 



T> - 



