1807. | 
Locke, on the contrary, uses the word 
with precision: 
‘¢ We should cognmiserate our mutual 
ignorance,” | 
Clock. Dial. 
These are both time-pieces, with this 
difference, that the clock strikes; the 
dial does not. Clock is derived from 
clocke, a bell; dial trom dies, day. The 
clock tells the hour, the dial shows it. 
Mr. Roscoe flatters the Medici; his‘pen, 
like the gnomon of a sun-dial, notices no 
hours but the serene. Dials were long 
in use before the invention of clocks. 
The plate, on which the hours are 
numbered, is called sometimes the dial 
of a clock; but hour-plate is more cor- 
rect. ‘Those time-pieces, which do not 
strike, when fitted up in a manner to 
resemble striking clocks, are often called 
clocks. 
Wind. Breeze. Blast. Gale. Gust. 
Storm. Tempest. Hurricane. 
Of these words, Wind is the most com- 
prehensive and indefinite: if signifies a 
stream of air, and is etymologically con- 
nected with wehen to blow, of which verb 
it is probably the contracted participle 
present, the thing biowing. 
Breeze is a gentle orderly wind: the 
word is Spanish, or Italian, and is asso- 
ciated with ideas of soft airs, such as 
slide under southern skies. 
Blast is any effort of blowing, the ex- 
halation of a trumpet, the breath of bel- 
lows, the eruption of a cannon, the sweep 
of the storm-wind: it is the past parti- 
ciple of blasen to blow, the thing blown. 
Gale is a‘sonorous steady wind: 
the word is ctymologically counected 
with ¢o caél and to yell: the wind that 
sings in the shrouds, that keeps the sail 
suff uninterruptedly, is a gale. Addison, 
makes a bull, in talking of Umbria’s 
green retreats, 
Where western gales eternally reside : 
that is, where motion eternally rests. 
Gust is a fit of wind; it is derived 
from the Icelandish, and is therefore as- 
sociated with phenomena familiar in the 
northern skies: . winter-gusts: fretted 
with the gusts of heaven: the showery 
gusts of April: — 
As when fierce northern blasts from alps 
descend, 
From his firm roots with struggling gusts to 
rend, 
An aged sturdy oak, 
Storm includes other accidents than 
Violent wind;. it is etymologically con- 
hected with to stir, and may be detinad 
2 
Contributions to English Synonymy. 
‘verb has prevailed. 
447 
a noisy rapid commotion of the atme- 
spheric elements; a wind which disturbs 
clouds, woods, and seas; it exceeds a 
gust in continuance, in vehemence, in 
darkness and destruction. Storm, like 
gust, being of northern origin, is applied | 
to the phenomena of northern climates; 
a hail-storm, a storm of snow, the storms 
ot December, 
Here may thy storm-beat vessel safely ride. 
Stir, commotion, being the radical 
idea, this word is extended, by a natural 
metaphor, to the assault of fortifications, 
and to seditious movements. 
‘Tempest, being of southern erigin, de- 
scribes that sort of storm common in 
warns countries; wind accompanied 
with rain, lightnings, and thunder. 
Hurricane, being not merely of south- 
ern, but of tropical origin, it ts a Ca- 
ribbee word, describes that sort of storm 
common between the tropics, the most 
violent form of summer-storms. 
To lie, 
There are traces in many Gothie dia- 
lects of a causative inflection for the in- 
finitive moods of verbs. So from to sit 
is formed to set, which signifies to cause 
Lo fay. 
to sit. So again from 
torie - toraise, to cause to rise 
to full - to fell, to cause to fall 
to fly - to flee, to cause to fly, 
but a corrupt and confused use of this 
To this same class 
of modification must be referred to lie, 
and to lay, to cause to lie. Lege, low, 
is the etymon of both words. I will lie 
with my fathers. Lay me withmy fathers. 
These words are used in composition 
in amanner very idiomatic. To lie by 
implies to remain still; ¢o lay by, to re- 
serve for future use. Zo lie down imn- 
plies to repose oneself; to lay down is to 
deposit a pledge, a proposition, an em- 
ployment. Yo lie in implies to be in 
child-bed; fo day in, to store. To lie 
with, implies to sleep with; to lay with, 
to bet, or wager, with, 
it would be more convenient if the 
past. sense of to lie were spelled ley, and 
not day, which is a combination of letters 
otherwise appropriated. 
Abdication. Resignation. 
Dicare is to promise; abdicare, to call 
off: sigznare, 1s to sign, or seal; resignare, 
to sig again, or against. Abdicatien, 
then, is viving up by word of mouth; and, 
resignation is giving up by signature, - 
It deserves notice, because it will assist 
us to understand the word “ resign,” about 
which 
2 
