232 
T o the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
C3 
F your correspondent, Scrutator, No. 
161, p. 112, consider. well the true 
meaning and import of the word than, I 
hink that’ he will perceive that it has 
been originally a corruption of the word 
then*; and taking it in this sense, I can- 
not possibly conceive how it can rightly 
foliow the pronoun ether. But fora more 
particular account of our English parti- 
eles, I shalt refer your correspondent to 
"‘Vooke’s Eorea Hregosila, or Diversions of 
Purley, where I think he will find a sa- 
tsfactory definiuon of them. The in- 
sertion of this m your useful ahd enter- 
taining Magazine will oblige 
Your’s, &c. 
~ 
Hackney, Middlesex, S. R. 
Sepé. 19, 1807. 
5 Ses Sed 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OUR Correspondent Scrutator’s 
doubts sea eos ‘the propriety of 
using the adverb than atter the word 
ather, are certainly without foundation. 
His first mistake appears to consist in 
considering this word to be only a pro- 
notin. If he will consult the Gas edi- 
tion of Johnson’s Di ictionary, he will 
find that in its general use it 1s an adjec- 
tive. But that I may not seem to rest 
merely on authority, 1 would request 
Scrutator to consider, that, wherever the 
word in question is really a pronoun, 
there no adverb of relation is expressed 
or understeod after it. For instance, 
“ The confusion arises, when the one will - 
put his sickle into the other’s harvest,” 
is “4 sentence containing a declinable 
pronoun, which stands tor ‘‘ the coniru- 
vy person's harvest.” In the same man- . 
ner, ‘ Be not idle, whilst others are in 
want of your aid.” 
But im all the passages quoted by Scru- 
tater, the. slightest. consideration. will 
discover that the word is taken in an ad- 
, jective sense. It cannot be a pronoun, 
. because it isnot resolvable. into any 
noun. In all the passages, except the 
first, its adjective signification | 18 pointed 
out by its position: and -even im the 
first, we may observe its agreement with 
the substantives, by changing its place in 
the sentence; instead of ‘ Without fee 
ov reward other than, &e.” reading, 
~——— 
As an additional proof of the certainty 
_ of He seemingly absurd etymology, let the 
teader observe, that in old bovks written 
before the seventeenth century, this word was 
indiffesently spelled cither then os than. 
On the Word than after other. 
[Nov. 1, 
“¢ Without other fee or reward than, &c.” 
Qther, as a pronoun, has also “ the” 
before i it, and corresponds to “ the one:” 
but not as an adjective. 
The two subsequent quotations, which 
have led Scrutator to prefer the word 
“ but,” as avoiding what he thinks an 
avomaly, are grammatical errors. In 
both, the word ‘ other” 1s a redundant 
expression; for the sentences read as 
well without it—‘‘ Has no claim to no- 
tice but that, &c.” “ No kingdom, but 
that of righteousness.” To this test we 
cannot subject the four previous cita- 
tions: we cannot say, “ felt no desire 
than fo be free.” 
if the word “ other,” then, be used at 
all, “* but” 1s inadmissible as a substitute 
for than. For the same reason, “ be- 
sides,” which some writers place after ’ 
other, (no other besides this) is to be re- 
jected. The completeness of the sense, 
independently of the former word, proves 
that word to bea pleonasm. We should 
sav, “ none besides this.” A few other 
prepositions, which are sometimes used 
instead of “ than,” as “ above, beyond, 
except,” in relation to the word “ other,” 
are liable to the same objection. . 
As the word “ other” is derived from 
the Saxon, “ oder,” I shall submit the 
enquiry to any of your learned readers, 
whether the Saxon term be not the com- 
parative of an obsolete adjective ‘ od:” 
as rather (noticed by Scrutator) is from 
Rath. Rather, like other, wants the 
superlative degree; while farther pos- 
sesses It. . 
The English word odd, is employed 
in a sense which may justify this conjee- 
ture. ‘* There are yet missing some few 
odd lads that youremember not.” Shake- 
speare.—Uere ‘ other,” is quite trans- 
ferrable for the adjective “‘odd.” 
I shall take this opportunity of men- 
tioning, that the.vulgar Scotch use the 
word “ nor,” in comparison. ‘ Mine is 
better zor yours.” In Lancashire, there 
is a rermsarkable and very common pro- 
vincial expression, by which the words 
than and till are made completely to 
change places. They say, “ I shall wait, 
than you come,” and “to-day 1s mucli 
colder ¢id2 yesterday ;” and both phrases 
are often in the mouths even of the su- 
pericr classes, 
Will some of your correspondeiits re- 
ply to the following questions :—Is it 
equally proper to say, ao Jam afraid, lest 
he should come.” and “ that he will not 
come,” and “lest he should not come.” 
Ts it more ungeammnatical to say, ‘this is 
the same with that,” than “ the same as 
that.” 
