28 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIII. 



hundred years has wrought in the meaning and spelling of 

 our English language. To illustrate this let us look at the 

 following words which I have taken from these pages. 



In the letter to the East India Company Knox speaks of 

 " the land in which I was captivated," meaning imprisoned 

 or held captive ; it has now come to mean " entranced " or 

 " delighted." For Knox's use of the word cf. Jeremiah XXXIX. 

 (contents of the chapter: "The city ruinated, the people 

 captivated.") and 2 Kings XVII, (contents, " Samaria for their 

 sins is captivated"). 



In one passage he speaks of a certain flower as being of a 

 "murry " colour. This is mulberry coloured, the I having 

 superseded the earlier r : cf. Latin moms, " mulberry tree." 

 The word "murry" is now obsolete. He also speaks 

 of the "tingling" of bells where we should now say 

 "tinkling." The two words "tinkling" of a bell and 

 "tingling" of the skin or flesh are identical, the meaning 

 being " vibration." " Ortyards and plantations" : " ortyard " or 

 " wortyard" is the original of our present " orchard ." " Imbez- 

 elled," where we now write " embezzled." The old spelling 

 shows the connection with " imbecile," and the meaning is 

 " to weaken by taking little by little," or " filching." "A blew 

 or red shash about their loyns." What we now call " sash " is 

 a Persian word originally spelt, and no doubt pronounced 

 " shash." Knox says in one place : " We thought it no boot 

 to sit longer." " Boot," which now survives in the negative 

 " bootless," we find in the Bible, in the form " boots " and 

 " booteth." It is from the base " bet " good, whence " better," 

 " best." 



Of the Bo tree he says : " The leaves shake like an asp." 

 The form " aspen" now used is an adjective, like " oaken" 

 or "ashen" or "wooden," and we should not say, as is some- 

 times done, " shake like an aspen," but " an aspen tree "; or, 

 as Knox says, " an asp." Of the Kandyan nobles he says : 

 " They carry a painted cane, and sometimes a tuck in it, 

 in their hands." " Tuck " is an obsolete word for " rapier," 

 and " a cane with a tuck in it " is what we should now call a 



