1808.) 
of white-wash, on account of its superior 
beauty. From some experiments which I 
have made with this clay, I am induced 
to believe it will make ware as fine as the 
Staifordshire- -ware, nearly as clear, aud 
mies superior in strength and adhesion.” 
Mineral waters, also, are frequently dis- 
covered, impregnated with -Glauber’s 
salt, alum , sulphur, &c. &c. 
Manufactures and exports make the 
next item in the pamphlet before me; 
but my extracts have been so much larger 
than I anticipated when I sat down to it, 
that I find it impossible to condense the 
work into this sheet; I must therefore 
ence more trespass on your goodness, 
with a promise that another letter shall 
close the correspondence, at all events, 
and with the assurance of the respect of 
Sir, Your's, &c. 
Alexandria, R. Dinmore. 
September 1, 1807. 
ea 
For the Monthly Maguzine. 
€ONTRIBUTIONS to ENGLISH SYNONYMY. 
Prop. Stay. Shoor. - Buttress. 
HESE words deseribe several kinds 
of adventitious support: like cary- 
atids, they agree in purpose, but differ in 
form. A prop isa per ‘pendicula r, astay 
is an inclined, and a shoor is a horizontal 
lifter: they are placed only to be with- 
drawn. But a buttress is a permanent 
_ structure, which abuts against another in 
order to prevent its siiking; a sloping 
wall, or pillar, built up to str rengtnen a 
standing edifice. 
Inthe Dutch language proppe signifies 
a plug; and is applied to those bits af 
wood, of rag, of tow, of cork, with which 
leaks. m ships, cannon, barrels, chinks in 
wainscotting, or necks of bottles, are oc- 
casionally Stepped. It also signifies a 
graft, an inserted twig. Proppen, in Hol- 
Jand, is to eat voraciously, to cram sau- 
sages, to stuff. ‘This word, on which Ju- 
nius avoids to dilate, may once have been. 
a name of the male organ, and have been 
metaphorically employed by some of the 
Gothic nations to designate ‘ that which 
intrudes’ and by others to designate ‘ that 
which is erect.’ In this last sense the 
English use the word: a prop isan upright 
support. 
The French substantive éfai is a deri- 
vative of the gothic stay, and describes. 
the cable, by which a vessel is fastened 
to her anchor. That which stays, or re- 
sists progressive motion, by pushing as 
well as pulling, 1s also called a stay, wne 
“@taje: of this kind are the inclined tim- 
Contributions to English Synonymy. 
549 
bers which support a roof during the re- 
construction of the wall beneath. 
Létaiement de cette maison étart fort 
necessaire, autrement elle serait tombee. 
«* Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands.” 
Evodus. 
“The branches serve as so many stays 
for their vines, w hich hang, like garlands, 
from tree to tree.” Addison.» 
Schoor is the name given by the Hol- 
landers to those transverse blocks, which 
are laid upon props, in order to diffuse 
the pressure over a wide surface of the 
incumbent weight, and thus to prevent 
perforation, or local indentation: ship- 
builders support the sides of vessels with 
shoors. In many gothic dialects the man- 
tle-piece of a chimney is called the shoor- 
stone. The word is probably a contrac- 
tion of shoulder, in Dutch schouder; as 
shoors operate after the manner of shoul- 
ders, and extend the lifting surface on 
each side of the trunk. 
Watts says in his Logic; ‘‘ When I use 
the word shore, I may intend thereby a 
coast of land near the sea, a drain to 
carry off water, or a prop to support a 
building.” (Shore is the proper and undis- 
puted spelling ter sea-coast. Suer is the 
proper spelling for a drain; it is derived 
from the French suwer to sweat, or ex- 
sude: the verb is m commen English 
use, though unnoticed by Bailey, or 
Johnson. ‘¢ The water sves through the 
rick-work.” This ward is spelt, by Mil- 
ton, sewer. 
‘¢ Like one who long in populous city pent 
Where houses thick and sewers annoy the 
air.” 
But shoor is the proper spelling for a 
horizontal s support, as we have unqustio- 
nably borrowed the word from the ship-— 
carpenters of Holland. As soon as an 
orthographic distinction is introduced, we 
shall cease, like Watts, to confound them 
to the ear. 
Buttress, if derived from the French 
aboutissement, 1s impurely formed, and 
ought to sicnify frontier-walls, frontier- 
corners, parts which abut against each 
other, in short an abutment, which word 
we possess already. The oe words 
but, out, and treo, tree, may be the com- 
ponent parts; in this case buttress origi« 
nally signified outside-trees, exterior lean- 
to’s placed to prevent a hut from falling 
sidewards: what we now call stays. — 
Act. Actvon. 
Act (actum) is a thing done; action 
(actio) is doing: act therefore is an incl- 
dent; and action a process or habit. A 
virtuous acta course of virtuous ae 
The 
