in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 81 



cessary (we might think) to the very essence of the word. Thus, 

 the Greek sikoo-i, Latin viginti, JEo\. fitxuri, lost the letter which 

 gave it any signification ; — as if we were to drop the first two 

 letters of twenty (twain-tig), and pronounce the word " enty." 

 A similar accident seems to have befallen the Greek to-Kegog. The 

 oldest Latin form appears to have been vesperugo, as in Plautus, 



" Nee jugulae, neque Vesperugo, nee vergiliae occidunt. 1 ' 



And that this was its common name, even in the Augustan age, 

 is evident from the following passage of Vitruvius, an author 

 notorious for his attachment to the vulgar tongue : " The star 

 of Venus appearing in the sky after sunset is called Vesperugo : 

 at other times, when it precedes the sun, and rises before day- 

 break, it is called Lucifer *." As it was, therefore, when acting 

 as the harbinger of light, called <3>&><r<pogog and Lucifer, it may be 

 fairly inferred that its name, whilst acting as a precursor of dark- 

 ness, should have something of an appropriate signification. In 

 ve and sperugo we have such a meaning. For sperugo may well 

 be derived from the old verb specere to see, used by augurs even 

 in Varro's time, as in the expression " specere avem," to view a 

 bird. Specio became obsolete at an early period, being super- 

 seded by its own frequentative specto. It left, however, innu- 

 merable traces of its former existence in all the languages of 

 western Europe. Even spes and spero, with their numerous 

 progeny, are derived from specio. For spes signifies a looking 

 forward ; nor could Cicero himself give a better definition of 

 spes, than by using a compound noun of specto : " Si spes sit ex- 

 pectatio boni." " If hope be the looking out for some advan- 

 tage." Even the difference of the quantity between the e of 

 spero and that of vesperus, presents no difficulty. For (without 

 adverting to the cognate word prosperus), in the two words spe- 

 cula, a watch-tower, derived immediately from specio, and specula, 



* Lib. ix. cap. 4. 

 VOL. XIII. PART I. L 



