"MEATH, Vox agro Linc. usitatissima, ut ubi "dicimus, I give thee the MEATH of the buying, "i. e. tibi optionem et plenariam potestatem pretii "seu emptionis facio." Skinner.

LIGHT: which the Anglo-Saxons wrote leohted, leohd, and leoht, i. e. quod illuminat. It is the third person of the indicative of leohtan, illuminare.

SIGHT which the Anglo-Saxons wrote sið and ride, i. e. that faculty which SEETH. The third person singular of the indictive of reon, videre.

This change of E for 1 is nothing extraordinary : for, as they wrote ried or rid for seeth; so they wrote rie for see, and riene for seen. And Gower and Chaucer wrote SIGH for SAW.

"And tho me thought that I sighe

"A great stone from an hille on highe

"Fell downe of sodeine auenture."

Gower, Prol. fol. 4, pag. 2, col. 1.

"He torneth him all sodenly

“And save a ladie laie him by

"Of eightene wynter age,

"Whiche was the fairest of visage

"That euer in all this worlde he SIGHE."

Gower, lib. 1, fol. 17, pag. 2, c:l. 2.

"Ful fayre was Myrthe, ful longe and high

"A fayrer man I neuer sYGH."

Rom. of the Rose, fl. 123, pag. 2, col. 2. WEIGHT....A. s. Fazed. The third person singular of the indicative of lagan, to weigh..... The WEIGHT of any thing, is....that which it weigheth.

WRIGHT: i. e. one that worketh. The third person of the indicative of yɲcan, operari. As

shipwright, cartwright, wainwright, wheelwright: one that worketh at ships, carts, waggons, wheels.

R and H, the canine and the aspirate, are the two letters of the alphabet more subject to transposition than any other. So wORK....aliquid operatum.... which we retain as our substantive, is the regular past tense of yɲcan; which, by the addition of the participial termination ED, became WORKED, WORK'D, WORKT. This our ancestors, by substituting н for K or c, wrote Poɲhʊ, and by transposition noht; which we now write WROUGHT, and retain both as past tense and past participle of Pyncan, to work.

For yɲceð, our ancestors wrote yɲhʊ; and, by a transposition similar to the forgoing, which with us becomes wRIGHT.

nyht;

These words, and such as these, are not difficult to discover. Because the terminating HT, instead of TH, leads to suspicion and detection. But there are many others, such as BLOW, HARM, ALE, KNAVE, ROOM ('), &c. which are not so readily

(1) ROOMTH (in the Anglo-Saxon Rýmoe,) the third person singular of Ryman, is the favourite term of Drayton.

"When wrathful heauen the clouds so lib'rally bestow'd "The seas (then wanting ROOMTH to lay their boist❜rous load) "Upon the Belgian marsh their pamper'd stomachs cast." Poly-olbion, song 5.

"But Rydoll, young'st and least, and for the others price "Not finding fitting ROOMTH upon the rising side,

"Alone unto the west directly takes her way."

Poly-olbion, song 6.

suspected as those I have before mentioned: because, in our modern English, we have totally cast off all the letters of the discriminating termination of the third person singular of the indicative of those verbs.

Sir Walter Raleigh, in his History of the World, instead of BLOW, uses BLOWTH (the third person singular of the indicative of blopan, florere) as the common expression of his day.

"This first age after the flood was, by ancient "historians, called Golden. Ambition and covetousness being as then but green and newly 66 grown up; the seeds and effects whereof were as yet but potential, and in the BLOWTH and bud." Part 1, book 1, chap. 9, sect. 3, pag. 107. edit.

1677.

"This princess having beheld the child; his "form and beauty, though but yet in the BLOWTH,

"Whose most renowned acts shall sounded be as long "As Britain's name is known; which spred themselves so wide "As scarcely hath for fame left any ROOMTH beside." Poly-olbion, song 8. "Nor let the spacious mound of that great Mercian king "(Into a lesser ROOMTH thy burliness to bring)

"Include thee."

Poly-olbion, song 8.

"Kanutus, yet that hopes to win what he did lose,

"Provokes him still to fight: and falling back where they "Might field-roomth find at large their ensigns to display, "Together flew again."

"Poly-olbion, song 12.

"Besides I dare thus boast, that I as far am known

"As any of them all, the south their names doth sound;

"The spacious north doth me: that there is scarcely found "A ROOMTH for any else, it is so fill'd with mine."

Poly- lbion, song 26.

"so pierced her compassion, as she did not only "preserve it, and cause it to be fostered; but com"manded that it should be esteemed as her own." Part 1, book 2, chap. 3, sect. 3, pag. 148. HARM. Our modern word HARM was in the Anglo-Saxon Ypm or Iepm, i. e. Whatsoever harmeth or hurteth: the third person singular of the indicative of ýɲman, or Ieɲman, lædere.

ALE, was in the Anglo-Saxon Aloð, i. e. Quod accendit, inflammat: the third person singular of the indicative of Ælan, accendere, inflammare.

Skinner was aware of the meaning of this word, though he knew not how it was derived. He says of ALE....." Posset et non absurde deduci ab A. "s. Elan, accendere, inflammare: Quia sc. ubi "generosior est (qualis Majoribus nostris in usu fuit) spiritus et sanguinem copioso semper, sæpe nimio, calore perfundit."

66

KNAVE (A. S. Enaya) was probably Narað, i. e. Ne-harað, Lenarað; qui nihil habet: the third person singular of Nabban, i. e. Ne-haban. So Lenæ F, Lenæ Fo, Næfig, Nærga, are in the AngloSaxon, mendicus, egens. In the same manner Nequam is held by the Latin etymologists to mean Ne-quicquam. i. e. One who hath nothing; neither goods nor good qualities. For...." Nequam servum, "non malum, sed inutilem significat." Or, according to Festus...." Qui ne tanti quidem est, quam "quod habetur minimi."

Of the same sort the Anglo-Saxons had likewise many other abstract terms (as they are called) from others of their verbs: of which we have not in our

modern language any trace left. Such as Lýð, the third person singular of the indicative of Lɲetan; Duguð, the third person singular of the indicative of Dugan, &c.

Chaucer indeed has used GRYTH.

"Christ said: Qui gladio percutit,

"Wyth swerde shall dye.

"He bad his priests peace and GRYTH."

Plowmans Tale, fl. 94, pag. 1, col. 2.

And from Duguð we have doughty still remaining in the language.

But I think I need proceed no farther in this course: and that I have already said enough, perhaps too much, to shew what sort of operation that is, which has been termed ABSTRACTION.