ow 
100 Comments on Majon’s Supplement to Fobnfon’s Dictionary. \Sept.1 
ftructure mean, and in the adduced paf- 
fage does mean, a partixan of the conffitu- 
zi02. i : 
Ccooperage.—Mr. Mafon defines cooper- 
age, a place where coopers work is done, 
whereas it ought to mean the price of coo- 
pers work: and coopery ought to defignate 
the place where coopers work is done. Stall- 
age, poundage, wharfage, pontage, mur- 
age, &c. tignify tne tolls levied for a fall, 
a pound, a wharf, a bridge, a wall, &c. 
Brewery, foundery, fmithy, indicate the 
place where brewers, founders, {miths, do 
their work. 
Corival.—As the word rivai includes 
the idea of competition, the co is reaun- 
dant: Shakefpeare’s authority has been 
impotent to protect a word manifefly im- 
proper: it isnow difufed. - 
Corrigible.—There are two ways of ob- 
taining verbal adjectives: 1. by domeftic 
analogy ; adding to the infinitive the affix 
able, as difputable, anfwerable, movable, 
witrifiable: 2. by importation from the 
French or Latin; as admifibie, applica- 
ble, irrefragable, foluble. Of this latter 
cla{s, fo many are of doubtful purity, both 
in French and Latin, that it is perhaps 
fafer to prefer, when both forms exift, the 
Englith form; as admiitable, applicable, 
&c. corref@able however does, no where 
oecur. 
Thefe adjectives all have, or fhould 
have, a paflive fignification: able fo be 
difputed, anfwered, moved, vitrified ; able 
to be admitted, applied, refuted, diflolved, 
corrected. Thole words are impurely 
employed, to which an active fenfe 1s 
fometimes affigned. The Ephefian matron 
was a comfortable widow: but not Warm 
baths are moft comfortable: where comfort- 
ig, or comfortive, is intended. Bae 
Cotqueenity.— Another proof, if proof 
were wanting, that there is a tendency in 
our language to purge itfelf of every 
thing anomalous: the afix z/y is not ap- 
pliable to words of Saxon origin ; a Saxon 
word inflected by means of it is therefore 
fuffered to obfolefce, although minted by 
Ben Jonfon. Cot-queen is the queen of 
his own home or cot, where he ought to 
be king ; the mafter Betty, the hufhand 
in petticoats. “‘A ttatefwoman, (fays Ad- 
difen,) is as ridiculous a creature as a 
cotqueen.” 
Coure.—Chaucer thus fpells to cower ; 
Ferre from thefe other up inan halke © 
There lurked and there coured fhe. 
R. Rov. 463. 
And again: 
Kings mote to hem knele and coure, P.Tale. 
Both words probably derive from the 
French couvrir to’ cover, and were firit 
applied to the {quatting of a hen to cover 
her chickens, and by degrees to fquatting 
in general, Spenfer feems to have pre- 
ferved this primitive fenfe in the paflage, 
At laft him turning to his charge behight, 
With trembling hand his troubled puife gan 
tr 
Where Ending life not yet difloged quite, 
He much rejoiced, and cour’d it tenderly, 
As chicken newly hatcht. 
Junius is for deriving the word from 
the Welth cavrriaz, to crouch on the paf- 
terns ; and Johnfon from the manner in 
which a cow finks on her knees. Neither . 
of thefe projets of devivation will account 
for Spenfer’s ufe of the word. 
Craple.—Few words are common to fo 
many nations as the name of the crab. ~ 
‘The Greeks have KogaGoo; the French 
Crabe; the Swedes Krabba; and all the 
other Gothic dialeéts an orthographic va- 
tiety of the fame term. Ecrevife is but 
a mod:fication of the northern crabfifh_or 
crayfifh. ‘This animal being remarkable 
for its bent-in pincer-claws, has fupplied 
in many languages the denomination of a 
hook, or crook. Thus in German Krapf, 
in Italian Graffo, in French Agraffe de- 
fignates that hook which receives the 
bucket of a well. The Mery grifies, a 
claw, and the Englifh verb to gripe have 
a common Gothic origin, and defcend ~ 
from the fame ftem. From to gripe comes 
the frequentative Zo grapple. 
The motion of the crab is no lefs re- 
markable than its form: another fet of _ 
derivatives very numerous, have this 
movement for their radical idea. In Eng- 
lifh to creep, in German krauexz, krabbeln, 
and again, to crawl; as well as the Ita- 
lian grappare, grappegyiare, and the 
French grimper ; allo to ferape, and its 
frequentatives to fcrabble, to {cramble, are 
no doubt of the fame family. 
_ Words denoting inftruments are in all - 
the’Gothic dialeéts conitrutted by adding ~ 
the affix el, which in Mefo-gothic figni- 
fies the primitive and commoneft inftru- 
ment, the arm, and occurs in the Enghfh 
word elbow, the bow or bend of the arm; 
and in e/l, a meafure of an arm’s length, 
‘Thus, hovel, from to fhove; girdle, from 
to gird; heavel, from to heave; flail, 
from to flay ; aeedle, from A.S. ueffan, to 
fow ; gabel, a fork, from to gape (whence 
the gable-end, or forked-wall, of a houfe); 
chifel, from to chafe, or enchafle; aw, 
from A. S. agaz, to begin; /pindle, from 
to fpin; treadle, from to tread 3 trundle, 
; eae es 
