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Page xxviii:-
of the writers of the New Testament, it was only applied to
malign spirits in the sense in which it is at present
received. Thus loom is at present only used for the
weaver's machine; but it was formerly, as it is at present
in Scotland, and sometimes in the North of England, the name
of any kind of instrument; as appears by the words
Edge-loom, Work-loom, and in Scotland by the general name of
the Apparatus, for brewing,&c. How
signifies empty or hungry, but the how neet is an
expression so very poetical, that it by no means can be
reduced to its original signification, but by supposing it
to be significant of the loneliness and solitude that
characterize the waste of night. Byspelt is an
epithet for a very bad person; that is, his name is wrong
spelled (for so by-spelled means,) like that of the devil,
who is commonly mentioned by a nick-name.
Compound metaphors are also very common here, but the
resolution of them into their original and component parts
is often so doubtful that there is a danger of the
Etymologist being liable to such sarcasms as Dean Swift
might bestow upon him. Let it be remembered, that the
sentence in Milton,
"At ev'ry fall smoothing the raven-down
"Of Darkness still it smil'd," ---
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proverbs
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is pleasing, though it cannot be resolved into plain sense,
without taking asunder the three metaphors heaped on each
other, which is not altogether easy. I also forbear, for
brevity's sake, mentioning the more curious Proverbs of
these parts; for though proverbs are generally
characteristic of the persons to whom they belong, yet as
several poems in the Cumberland dialect are at present
extant, and still more about to appear, with a glossary
affixed, the want of them here will be very well supplied.
As a sample however, I shall mention "As old as
Knock-cross;" which conveys an idea of antiquity in
Cumberland, that cannot be expressed by a word of less force
than what the ancients understood by Ogygian; but
Knock-cross is only an upright stone, yet standing amidst
the ruins of the Picts Wall. I may also mention here, that I
can easily count near thirty different names for strokes and
beatings, all distinctly expressive of the methods in which
they are inflicted; but which seem to shew by their numbers
that such things have been very frequent, and have much
engrossed the minds of those who used them. Above all things
however, this dialect is richest in names for different
kinds of sounds: every noise has its consonant name, so that
the Greek itself is left far behind in this respect.
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etymology
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In considering the various subjects which naturally fall
under these heads, I often view, with a degree of wonder,
that mighty variation which has occasionally taken place in
the application of one and the same word, or of its
derivatives; a variation increasing in a sort of compound
proportion of the popularity and antiquity of the word
itself. This has been a thing which has puzzled etymologists
more perhaps than any other; finding the same word applied
in quite different senses, without being in the least able
to account for the difference: for when the circumstances
which first occasioned it, by presenting some similarity of
ideas, have ceased, the word still remains, and gives birth
to fresh ones, in a series which seems as if it rose from
that poetical turn of which I have already made mention, and
which is natural to mankind without their being conscious of
it; beginning, forsooth, with things the affinity of which
is pretty obvious, but in proportion as they grow numerous
extends its plan, multiplies not only its objects, but along
with the increases its want of adequate description in
direct phrases; and consequently, by means of the similies
and metaphors of different degrees, which become necessary
to it, multiplies proportionally the modes of expression.
'Tis thus that in a sort of infinite permutation the native
bent of the human mind produces the various terms of a
language; and these terms, amongst an active people, do not
cease to grow more numerous, till almost every thing has got
a name, and every mode of thinking with which they are
acquainted a mode of expression, in some sort. After this,
the growth of language is but slow, or perhaps it is static;
for, in general, as new things come forward, of ones are
thrust out; and thus the language of the day may be
prevented from acquiring any considerable increase. By these
means,
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