208) Comments on Mafon’ s Supplement to Fobnfon’s Didtienary. TA pril ly 
this kind. So is mal-feafance ; but: as 
feafance is already objolete, the derivative 
is following its fortunes : we fhonld now 
fay maleficence. Onthe contrary, malcon- 
tent, malengia, maltalent, are fomewhat 
anomalous. The old participial adjeCtive 
wmal-contented, which Lord Bacon employs, 
is more defenfible than Addifon’s {ubfan- 
tive, mal-conient. Malapert is difufed ; 
becaufe its derivation, and confequently 
its precife and effential meaning, is uncer- 
tain. J guefs it is the French wial-apris, 
ill-taught: Minthew fays, malé apertus ; 
Junius, mal and pert ; Bailey, malé partus ; 
johnfon follows Junius. 
Marquefs.—The diftance to which -it 
is convenient and ufwal to fend the fame 
horfes with a mail-coach, or a poft-chaife, 
is called a /fage; and, with our prefent 
roads and breeds of cattle, may be eftimat- 
ed at about fifteeri miles. In the feudal 
times, a flage was called a march, which 
word, fays Spelman, derives from a Teu- 
tonic etymon, fignifying, borfe; whence 
alfo the Icelandifh mar, equus, and the 
Englith mare, equa. It meflages, provi- 
fions, forage, ammunition, were to be con- 
veyed for the fovereign through a given 
diftri&, the lords of caftles along the road 
undertook the duty in fucceffion ; each em- 
ployed his own vaffals and cattle to an 
agreed diftance in every direction: the 
line circum(cribing thefe ftopping- places 
formed the boundary of his march, which 
may commonly have included a diftri& of 
40 miles diameter. Wherever the conqueitts 
of the Goths extended, a diftributionof the 
country into marches, and certainconnected 
military regulations, were introduced, and 
the lord of a march was denominated, in 
the Latinity of the middle ages, marcbi- 
Sfius. 
marchefe, the French marquis, and the 
Englith marquis. I know not why Mr. 
Maton prefers the fpelling marquefs, which 
has a feminine termination, and, in the 
cafe of Lady Ann Bolein, feems to have. 
been confidered as a femixtine term. In 
the Teutonic, the lord of a march is-called 
mark graf, whence the ftill fubfifting ticle 
margrvave; and,in theAnglo-laxon,mearc- 
gerefa. This word gerefa has, in modern 
Englifh, been abbreviated into reve, thus 
2 land-reve, the reve's tale, and frem 
foire-gereve, foire-reve, and now sheriff ; 
fo that march-reve would be the proper 
defignationof a marchifius or margrave. 
Mifallied, mifavifed, mifoelieving, mif- 
born, &c.—Are none of thefe words mif- 
coined ? Iwo of them have a French, two 
a Saxon, derivation; dees the formative 
fyllable mis coaleice indifferently with 
From this word derives the Italian. 
either? It is certainly of Gothic origine 
One finds in Ulphilas miffadedins, for mif- 
deeds; and ‘miffaleiks, for unlike; in Ice- 
landith, gifslet, for motley; mif/vefui, for 
réfilefnels, mifdreaming : in Swedith, if= 
de@re, an archfool ; mifsbrott, 2 crime; in 
Anglo-faxon, maufbeardh, a_mifbirth ; mif- 
ledan, to miflead, in Hollandith, mif- 
hooren, to hear amis ; mifoak, a bad batch: 
in Daniih, misforftaaelfe, mifunderflanding ; 
mifmod, ‘ difcouragement: Frielith, mf- 
dwan, to do amifs ; mifoagian, to difpleafe, 
&c. But it has been received from the 
Franks by their Gallic fubjeéts, and is 
freely ufed in the compofition of French 
words. Thus méfaife, méfalliance, méf-. 
arriver, méfavenir, méfaventure, &e. It 
feems then, that the fyllable mis being 
common bath to the Gothic and to the 
French fountain of our language, may, 
with equal propriety, accompany words 
from either: yet, we fhould hefitare, I 
think, to couple it with words of Greek 
origin, and fhould feel as unwelcome no- 
vations fuch terms as i/philofophize, mif- 
prophetic, mifrhetoric. The primary mean- 
ing of mis is not eafily afcertained. John- 
fon defines the adverb amis, which has 
the fame etymon, not right, out of order: 
of arrows, which do not hit the mark, we 
fay that they ifs. I fufpect that the word 
was originally uled of weapons ; and that it 
meant not merely to avoid, but to grafe, to 
touch injurioufly ; for ideas of dilappoint- 
nient, of difapprobation, and of injury, 
teem affociated with its meaning, Befides, 
a rude language is not likely to have had 
a pofitive term fer exprefling the mere ne- 
gation of action. Nor could smezfel mean 
a chizel, unlefs mcifen had once meant tq 
feraich. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
Some ACCOUNT of the LEIPZIG Mi+ 
CHAELMAS-FAIR, 1801. 
T the preceding Eafter-fair already 
A the agents and riders of the great 
Englifh mercantile houfes in London, 
Leeds, Manchetter, Sheffield, Glafgow, 
and other manufacturing towns, had been 
very bufy in preparing the ware-rooms 
where at Michaelmas they might expole to _ 
fale immenfe piles of goods, at the molt 
reafonable prices. Accordingly, waggon 
after waggon, merchant after merchant, © 
made their appearance, fome of them 
hoping there to indemnify themfelves for 
the loffes they had fuftained at Frank fort- 
fair, where, in confequence of the ftridtly 
enforced prohibitions of Britifh goods in 
France, the exhaufted flate of the countries 
_ bordering . 
