14 PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON THE 
subject with learned phraseology, we shall say simply, that all cultivated 
languages, when used merely for convenience, without the continued check of a 
higher aim, are liable to have their vocabulary changed by a process of cuR- 
TAILMENT, which makes a part of the word serve for the whole. Thus in 
America, from the rattlmg haste in which the people delight, “an acute man” 
is called “a ’cute man ;” from the same careless instinct, the ignorant English 
peasant, or the sharp London street boy, talks of the “varsity” instead of the 
“university ;” and the familiar words, bus and cab, are only the tail and head 
respectively of two polysyllabic words, borrowed the one from the Latin, 
the other from the French. That this is a corruption, not of a very elegant 
kind, no person will deny; for even when the original form of the word may 
have died out from the popular memory, it requires only a little bookish culture 
to make one feel that a segment has been cut from the full sound of the thing, 
the absence of which makes itself felt. Curtailments of this kind are obvious 
everywhere in French and Italian, and in not a few German words also derived 
from Latin and Greek, as in probst for propositus, pfingst for tertynKoo7Ty, and 
such like. Now, it is manifest that these corruptions may be made in various 
ways. Sometimes only a weak initial or final letter or short syllable may be 
dropt, which leaves the word not much the worse; sometimes a half, and 
that not the most important half, may be left, after the amputation, and in such 
a fashion it may be, that only a scientific eye can recognise its original identity. 
One of the commonest forms of curtailment in Greek is that of an initial short 
vowel, of which the following list contains some of the most common :— 
‘4 lal lal 
Atiyos, for 6Xtyos. propa, for éwopo. 
Oe , Y re , en 
pradua, >, apddc. TEL, »» €TQLpos. 
Lal ec Lal 
[IAQ, »» Opwdra. TopiKd, »» OTTWpLKa. 
, ay Ce , e+ 
TES, 5  €larés (eure). Bpicke, » evpioKo. 
Eee. 
vos, 3» OS. Broy.a, » evddyua. 
, ec , Se 
um)os, », vinhos.” AnKeEpt, »> OAnNmept. 
, € ld / 5 4 
pepa, » NEPA. Bayyéduov, ,, evayyéduov. 
ip c / , 
pepova, » NpEpow. meOup.d, »» emOupia. 
, 5sQ7 
Oia, + 5, idtepa. yovpevos, 4, Hyovpevos. 
, e 
TavopEvop.at, ,, vmavopevopat. odadilo, , daodadrilo. 
, oa 4 
OKUTTO, 5) €LOKUTITO. TOAVTVXAWVO, ,, aTravTUXaive. 
5 , 
yeaos, » atyvahos. PETEWOS, »» €eTwos. 
(4 Sees A 
peyopar, » Opeyomar. paTove, 9 OlaTow. 
4 5 / € lal ¥ > , 
oalo, MOLiGace.ae pyneokdyjor, ,, epnua exkdnoia. 
, > 50 Se ° 4 2: 5 4 
oobKa, » €o@biKa, 2.€., vTdcOia. metpayyd, ,, emiTpayndLov. 
, > , , e 2 
pBawvo, » epBaivo. veld, » vyveua. 
* The highest peak of Mount Ida in Crete is now called Psiloriti, or High-mount. 
