ETHNOLOGY OF TilE INDO-PAOIFIC IflLAWDS. 



102 



meaning, receiving the snine roo( in oihar forms and with dilTerent 

 meanings from the cognate voeabulariea. AnoUier cause of the 

 same root lieing found wKIi ditFereiit H|>plication9 ts that some 

 words were ii.«ed genorically. Thus when tht^ Ears and the Hrmds 

 were deisignnted by ihe same root thefoi'mer might have n word 

 for TIpad annexod to it. Tlie latter mi^ht in time aertuire a pho- 

 netic form that dii«lin^nish< d this a[>fjlication from th(» primary onf, 

 and llie drop|>in«^ oi the oilier ifrin of (he compound might leave 

 ihe same root current for both Head and Ear, the phonetic varia- 

 tion being sufficient to give to each a complete conventionid Inde- 

 pendence, 



The acquisition of new roots from foreign voeahularies and of 

 now forms of native roots from eister dialects not only leads to 

 restrictions in the applications of the old roots but to seeontlarj 

 and even mctaphorioil meanings becoming the principal ones. 

 Thus a word that at one lime means Hair generally becomes res- 

 tricted to the hair of the head or particular parts of it, of the face or 

 parts of it, as Whiskers, Mustaches &e., or to that of tho rest of the 

 person, or distinctively to that of the bwer animals, or to one kind 

 of hatr, as flown, wool, bristles, ^c. A word that was originally 

 applied to fealhcrs, hair, grass and other things of a similar growth 

 or appearance may be appropriated to^ one of ih^to, so that in 

 diflTereut dialects and langnages the same root may signify Fea- 

 thers, Hair, Wooi, Fur, Down, Mos.^, Grass, Bur, Baiidjus, Thorns, 

 Teeth &c. It may also be applied in different languages quati- 

 tively to distinnrtiish particular tilings or animals, and thus even- 

 tually furniisb many substantive names, most of which wilt in lime 

 come lo bo purely conventionaL A wortl for Face or Eye may 

 become Appearanc?,.Look, See, Glance, Watch, Beware, Guard, 

 Show, View &c., while the brightness, sharpness or roundness of 

 the Eye, a convex in.a concave, may give rise to numerous meta- 

 phorical applications any of which may acquire the rank of a sub- 

 stantive term when the word becomes obsolete in its originid 

 meaning. Thus the point or the edge of an instrument, the sun, a 

 gem, a concavity, a hole, a ring, a convexity, an ankle, a kunckle, 

 the navel, a nipple, a hud, a knot, a spring, the sonree or origin 

 kc may in different languages be designated by a root which origi- 

 nally meant the Eye. We can thus see that a very few primary 



