98 
Whence fpring this kia, this lin, this 
Lag, this et, or let? The origin of forma- 
tive fyllables can feldom be traced {atis- 
factorily : coming into currency before the 
art of writing, the early fhape of their 
courfe ufually lies behind the furtheft fum- 
mits of hiftorical etymology: it is with 
the {pying. glafs of conjefture, not with the 
way-wifer cf record, that the bearing of 
their fources muft be made out. Take 
guefs then inftead of proof. 
y. and 2. In Anglofaxon hlaen, in 
Swedith klez, in Swabian clain, in Low- 
faxon k/een, and in Teutonic chlein, fig- 
nify litle. ‘The Englith adje€tive lean, 
thin, is of the fame family: and, as every 
word muft at firft have been the name of 
a fenfible object, it probably denoted 
fomething fmall and flender, fuppole a 
rufh, ora twig. This chleia may among 
fome Gothic tribes or provinces have 
dwindled into chez and kiz ; among others 
into /eiz and liz; and have been received 
in both forms after a remixture of the fe- 
parated clans. Al diminvtives eafily ac- 
quire a careffive character, as animula, 
ocellus, &c. the Greeks even called their 
diminutives omszesize ; and the fofter 
form, din, yather than 422, would mof na- 
turally be fo appropriated. 
3. Fetch Spelman’s Glofiary. Turn to 
the word Adelingus. It is there afferted 
that, in the early provincial dialect of 
Weflex, ding fignified an image, or idol, 
The firft idols were little elfe than pofts, 
trunks of trees flightly fafhioned by the 
carver: Jing then 1s likely to have figni- 
fied the fem of a tree, before it came to 
ficnify an idol. Now in all languages a 
misfhapen or ftupid individual is com- 
monly compared with wood. What a 
ftump of a man! What a blockhead! 
What a wooden pate! Whata log! How 
ftubborn! Metaphors thefe of the fame 
clafs, and natural everywhere, becauie 
founded in the aualities of things. Man- 
ling, Witling, Kingiing, might thus be 
analyzed into Stump of a man! Block of 
awit! Log of aking! The mould once 
formed would foon be. employed,to caft 
fubftantives to which it was lefs adapted. 
The Danith ding left, left-handed, auk- 
ward, is perhaps connected etymologically 
with this afix: to call the left hand, the 
clumfy hand, or the wooden hand, is not 
unnatural, 
4. The Evglith et (or Jet as for found’s 
fake it is fometimes written) defcends from 
the French effe, which defcends from the 
Italian eftc: thus flswret is modelled af- 
ter Zeureite, and this after foretto. But 
whence have the Italians their eft; for it. 
Comments on -Mafon's Supplement to Fobnfan’s Dictionary. [Sept. 1, 
is not obvious in the Latin? The acade- 
micians della Crufca ought to have un- 
dertaken the inveftigation at the word 
agnelletto, which was their firft glaring 
oppertunity. Did this fyliable originally 
acquire a diminutive f:gnification by be- 
ing appended to certain adjectives, as acer- ~ 
betto, fourith, from acerbo, four? In itsad- 
je€tival form can it be a corruption of 
the Latin aptus, which feems to be an ab- 
breviation of adpofitus to have contigz- 
zty tor its primary idea; and to be ety~ 
mologically allied with apud ; it fignifies 
therefore clofe to, near to, approaching ? 
Thus Cicero: Facilius eff apta difflvere 
quam diffipata conneciere. Acerbetio then 
would mean approaching to four: de/- 
chetto 2pproaching to a table: balenetta 
very like a whale: orcioletto a canakin. 
Capricious. —Mr. Mafon makes an ar- 
ticle of this’: word merely to fupply an 
authority or two for its ufe. He might 
have added ‘to Dr. Johnfon’s information 
a better account of its origin. Who un- 
derfiands the word from hearing that it 
means whinfical, fanciful, humourfome? 
Can it be faid of the melancholy hypo- 
chondriac that he is capricious, becaufe 
he is whimfical ; of Milton’s Comus that. 
it is capricious, becaufe it is fanciful; or 
of confpiratory-clubs that they are capri- 
cious, becaufe they are humourfome ? 
Certainly not. It is neccflary to trace 
back the word to its radical idea; it means 
Srifky, bounding or fpringing like a gazel 
with unmotived irregularity. Ceva right- 
ly tells us fo. 
Cum levis in nimbo delapfa volucribus alis 
Letitia in terras ftellato ex zthere venit: 
Cui comes illeciens animos, et pectora verfans _ 
Spiritus*, a capreis montanis nomen adeptus, 
Tgnotum Latio nomen: pittoribus ille 
Interdum affiftens operi, nec fégnius inftans 
Vatibus, ante alios Mufis gratiffimus hofpes. 
Captivance.—Words in ance were for- 
merly more common in the language than 
they are now; and were oftener ufed in 
the plural number. We no longer, with 
Jeremy Taylor, fay purfuances. The fyl- 
able azce comes direétly from the Erench 
ance, and mediately from the Latin aatia ; 
and is ufed for the infleétion of verbs : fuf- 
fer, fufferance, perfevere, perfewerance 3 
equiponderate, equiponderance ; abound, 
abundance; comply, compliance. —In'con- 
fequence of their verbal origin, an idea 
of time, of continued,. or of tranfitive ac- 
tion commonly clings about thefe words 5 
fo that caplivance {eemingly fhould mean 
the procefs of taking captive ; whereas cap- 
wavity being derived from the adjeétive, 
® Vulgo Capriccio. 
fhould 
