1801.] Comments on Mafon’s Supplement ta Fohnfon’s Dictionary, 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
DESULTORY COMMENTS 0” MASON’S 
SUPPLEMENT (fa JOHNSON’S DICTIO=- 
NARY. 
(Continued from Page 505, Vol. XT.) 
CANAKIN, . 
TALIAN diéion owes much of its 
peculiar beauty to the variety of its 
modificatory fyllables. | From its nouns 
are formed at pleafure augmentatives and 
diminutives; and thefe fubdivide again 
into terms of difguft and approbation. 
Albergo a tree, alberone a great tree, albe- 
ronaccig a great overgrown tree, alberetto 
a little tree, aiberettino a nice little tree, 
&c. A like latent. power of forming di- 
minutives refides indeed in the northern 
tongues; but they are not equally pro- 
fufe in its difplay : our own language 
efpecially in this refpe&t is meanly {paring. 
The Gothic dialects are moftly provided 
with three diftinct diminutive affixes: 1 
chen, kin, or ke, which is merely leffening ; 
2 lein, lin, or le, which has an endearing 
careflive character, 3 dwg, which is ap- 
plied to perfons, not to things, and has a 
contemptuous fignification. 
Inftances of the firft are—German : 
becher a beaker, becherchen a {mall beaker ; 
lammalamb, lammchen, a {mall lamb ; 
haus a noule, bauschen a fmall houfe; Gall 
a ball, balchen a {mall ball. Low Dutch: 
lam alamb, lammekena {mall lamb; man 
aman, mannetke a little man. Banh : 
lade a thed, ladike a fmallfhed. Englifh: 
lamb, lambkin ; hood, hutkin; gourd, gher- 
kin; man, mannikin, or mankin; hill, 
billikin, or hillock ; and perhaps a few 
others. Shakefpe are has {till lady kin, or 
la’kin, and maudberkin; but thefe are now 
obf{<lete ; and fo is canakin, or cankin: 
pipkin is ttl) heard. 
Inftances of the fecond are—German : 
vofe a role, raflein a rofe-bud; weib, a 
woman, wweiblei a uice little woman ; kind 
a child, Aizdlein a {weet little child ; buch 
a hook, dichlein a pretty little book. Da- 
nifh : bid a bite, billing a little bit; due 
a dove, dulle a \ittle dove. Englifh: firtt, 
firfiling 3 cat, kitling; young, younglin ; 
_ goole, gofliz ; duck, ducklin; dump, dump- 
lia; and, if Wallis be right in his deri- 
vation, fack, fatchel. In the Englith di- 
minutives of this clafs the final g, altho’ 
ufual, isa corrupt @ddition, and has been 
the caufe of throwing this whole order of 
words out of ufe, by confounding the ca- 
reffive with the difparaging afix. / 
Inftances of the third are—German: 
fiucht flight, flachling, a run-away 3 find 
a find, findling afoundling ; buck a hump, 
biickling one who is hunchbacked 3 dich- 
“Montuiy Mas, No. 77, 
97 
ter a poet, dichterling a poetafter; witz 
wit, witzling a witling. Anglofaxon : : 
hyra hire, hyrling a hireling ; babban to 
have or hold, hefilug a captive; fremd 
ftrange, fremdling an outcaft, Englith : 
found, foundling ; wit, witling ; hire, hires 
ling ; tond, fondling ; nett, neftling ; dear, 
darling ; fuck, fuckling ; change, change- 
ling; king, kingling ; prince, princeling 5 
world, worldling ; man, manling ; cringe, 
cringeling ; and many others. his athx 
isin Englith fo familiar, and fo precifely 
underftcod, that it may ftill be applied ta 
the formance of new wor ds Ben Jonfon 
indeed ventured to coin’ airling, which 
has not been received ; but this arifes from 
the ftrange figuification by him affigned 
toit: he ufesit for a fopliag. Earthling 
would naturally mean a contemptible in- 
habitant of the earth, and might by a 
theologian be applied to man; airling 
would naturally mean a contemptible i in- 
habitant of the air, and mught in the Rape 
of the Lock, have been addrefled by 
the chagrin ae Ariel to the incautious 
Crifpiffa; but, by fubftituting an arbi- 
trary to the ‘eflential henification, the 
word is rendered anomalous, and has 
therefore incurred the ufual fate of fuch, 
words—defuetude. 
4. To the kia and lim of the northern 
dialeéts ufage has now fubftituted the eé. 
or fet of the fouthern, which is employed 
with increafing freedom in the mintage of 
Englifh diminutives: as cérclet, hamlet, 
freanlet, ringlet, runlet, flowret, pocket, 
baronet, dragonet, crowvnet and coronet, ri- 
veret, riverlet and rivulet, pullet, cyguet, 
and many others. 
Dr. Geddes, in his new Tranflation. of 
the Bible, which for purity of diction ge- 
nerally excels the old one, rafhly hazards 
the word wrifflet. He evidently fuppofes 
bracelet to mean an ornament for the arm} 
and to be derived from the French bras, 
arm; and wrifflet to be likewile coined 
in the legal die of domeftic analogy, and 
to mean an ornament for the wrift. This 
is furely a {kip-over in etymology. From 
bras comes the verb fe brace, to furround 
as with the arms ; and from this verb de- 
fcends the fubftantive a brace, that which 
embraces. Of this fecondary fub‘tantive 
brace, a git, bracelet is the diminutive 5 
it means therefore a {mall girt. Dr. Ged~ 
des might correétly have employed the 
terms arm-bracelet, and wr uft- -oyacelet 5 
or he might have ufed the more familiar. 
wrifi-band, which, although commonly 
applied to the unornamented termination 
of a fhirt-fleeve, does not exclude the idea 
ae ornament, —Arwilef and wrifflet can 
nly hgnity a {mall arm, and a fnvall writ, 
QO Whey 
