1802.] Comments on Mafon’s Supplement to Fobnfons Diétionary. 11 : 
introduced into the fpelling of this laft 
word erroneoufly: that combination of 
letters, although filent in Englifh, ufually 
correfponds with the guttural letters of 
the foreign etymon, as in ight, for Licht ; 
fight, for feblicht. Hight, \ike muft, is, 
according to authority, an inflexible verb; 
in the prefent, the paft, and the parti- 
ciple, it is ftill hight, ight. Whereas, 
according to analogy, it ought to be in- 
fleted, like dite and finite; bite, hit, bit- 
ten. Hight approaches in {pelling and in 
found too nearly to height, or rather highth, 
the regular fubftantive of high, as length, 
breadth, widih, ave of long, broad, wide. 
On all thefe accounts it is a fort of crip- 
ple, or monfter, in language, and is de- 
fervedly limping to that infirmary of de- 
cayed words, the Gloffary. 
Hitch—To hitch, commonly means, as 
Johnfon obferves, to move by jerks, to 
proceed with interruptions, to advance 
with fhort, fmall, trail’d fteps. To back, 
to hitch, and to a/b, are all derivatives of 
the fame Gothic root. The High and 
Low Dutch have hacken, and hicken, and the 
French, through their Frankifh anceftors, 
_ bacher.’ The primary meaning is, to chop 
into fragments, as ‘*to hack wood into 
billeting.”” Hemp-ftalks are broken with 
a fort of forked flail, called a hatchel, or 
bitchel. Chaff is called hackerling in Ger- 
man. By thofe who have clay-cottages, 
** the temple-haunting martlett’’ has been 
named a hickwall. It feems ftrange to 
apply a metaphor derived from cutting 
wood, or victuals, tothe walk. Has fome 
intermediate word been loft, fignifying 
(t) a billet, (anfwering to the German 
hiit{che, a footftool) ; and (2) aclog? We 
fay, however, ‘‘a mincing gait,”—** to 
cut capers,"—* a fee-faw waddle,’— 
6 pick your way.” 
Both to dick (although obfolete) and to 
hack, have fupplied derivatives to the Jan- 
guage. Hickwall. Hiccough. Higgler. 
To hackle, and to haggle. ‘* He will 
ftand higgle-haggle for an hour over a 
twopenny-halfpenny bargain.” 
intenfive verbs are formed in feveral 
Gothic diale&ts by introducing the found 
fo. Soin German, from gleiten, to glide; 
glit{chen, to flip; and again, feilfchen, 
raufchen, klat{chen, horchen, &c. Of this 
analogy there are many traces in Englifh. 
Break, breach; bond (whence bundle), 
bunch; clang, clinch; dot, dodge; fost, 
fudge; grub, grudge; mund (mouhe), 
munch ; nook, notch ; fnap, fuatch ; ftand, 
ftanch ; flark, flretch ; fink, ftench ; tewick 
(zwicken), twitch ; wring, wrench; and 
others, Thus from hick, bitch, 
fuch words as indict, indorfe, indue. 
Inmper feverant.—Inveiled.—Mr. Maton 
explains thefe words, and perhaps rightly, 
by perfeverant and by veiled, Itisfurely a 
reat defect in the language, that one 
and the fame formative fyllable zz (which 
before m, 6, and p, is fer found’s fake 
written im) fhould have three diftin& 
offices. Sometimes it is (1), as in the 
prefent inftances, infignificant ; fometimes 
it reprefents (2) the prepofition zz, as to 
imperil, to infpire; fometimes it ferves 
(3) for’a privative prefix, as in zmmutzga- 
ble, infanity. 
Where it has no meaning at all it might 
be dropped: as (I confine myfelf on this 
occafion to Mr. Mafon’s lift of words) in 
imperfeverant, imperfonated, impictured, 
impoor, inexhaufile/s, infuit, inveiled, and 
invillaged. Indeed al] thefe words are 
objolefcent, precifély becaufe they are 
anomaloufly formed, witha fuperfluous 77. 
Where it reprefents the prepofition iz,- 
Johnfon has endeavoured to fubftitute the 
French or Greek prepofition e#; not 
merely in words derived from the French, 
as enchain, enchant, encounter; or from 
the Greek, as enclytic, enconnum, encyfted; 
but in words even of Latin origin, as ez- 
diét, endorfe, endue. This laft alteration 
is furely, harfh ; the Latin prepofition zz 
being more familiar to our ears, becaufe 
it is a part of our own language, than the 
French prepofition ez, we expect it in 
Be- 
fides Johnfon does not carry his rule 
through ; he retains, for inftance, to iz= 
debt, which is certainly from endetter. 
Where it ferves for a privative prefix, 
it might often be replaced by the Saxon 
un: which, like the {yllable we/s, is be- 
come fo wholly Englifh, that it unites 
with words of fouthern origin without ex- 
citing much fentiment of incongruity; as 
in unaccurate, unaclive, unaffected, un 
exhaufted, unexprefive, unextended, une 
imitable, unintelligible, unintrenched, un- 
obvious, unoperative, unorderly, unufual, 
Sc. To fubftantives with Latin termi- 
nations the w# is yet prefixed with re- 
luétance: wm, according to Junius and to 
Adelung, is a contraction of ana, or 
ohne, without: in this cafe it would. feek 
the fociety of fubftantives, which it fhuns, 
Is it the fame word as none ? 
Ifuable.—This may be a legal, but 
is not a legitimate, term, iA the fenfe 
affigned by Mr. Maton: it can only mean 
able to be iffued.—Shake{peare’s infuppref= 
five for unfupprefable is equally blame- 
worthy. 
Fufticiary.—The refident magiftrate of 
a parifh, or a hundred, is called in Eng. 
ay ‘land 
