or rather the sound judgement, of M. de Brosses; who says well-"Quelquefois la signification primitive nous est dérobée, faute de monuments qui l'indiquent en la langue. Alors cependant on la retrouve parfois en la recherchant dans les langues mères ou collaterales." In the Danish language they express the same meaning by, For og Bag, which we express by Fore and Aft, or, Before and Behind. And in the AngloSaxon they use indifferently Behindan, Beæftan, and Onbæc. DOWN, ADOWN. In the Anglo-Saxon Dun, Adun. Minshew and Junius derive it from Avvw, subeo. Skinner says "Speciose alludit Gr. Avvw." Lye says, " Non male referas ad Arm. Doun, profundus." S. Johnson, in point of etymology and the meaning of words, is always himself. ADOWN, the adverb, he says, is "from A, and Down;" and means" On the ground." ADOWN, the preposition, means-" Towards the ground." But though ADOWN comes from A, and Down,-Down, the preposition, he says, comes from Aduna, Saxon: and means; "1st. Along a descent; and 2dly. Towards the mouth of a river." Down, the adverb, he says, means-" On the ground." But Down, the substantive, he says, is from dun, Saxon, a hill; but is used now as if derived from the adverb: for it means, "1st. A large open plain or valley." And as an instance of its meaning a valley, he immediately presents us with Salisbury Plain. "On the Downs as we see, near Wilton the fair, Arcadia, by Sir Ph. Sydney. He then gives four instances more to shew that it means a valley; in every one of which it means hills or rising grounds. To compleat the absurdity, he then says, it means, " 2dly. A hill, a rising ground; and that, This sense is very rare." Although it has this sense in every instance he has given for a contrary sense: nor has he given, nor could he give, any instance where this substantive has any other sense than that which he says is so rare.-But this is like all the rest from this quarter; and I repeat it again, the book is a disgrace to the country. Freret, Falconer, Wachter and De Brosses, have all laboriously and learnedly (but, I think, not happily) considered the word Dun. From what Camden says of the antient names (Danmonii or Dunmonii, and Dobuni) of the inhabitants of Cornwal and Gloucestershire, and of the two rivers (Daven or Dan or Dun or Don) in Cheshire and in Yorkshire; it seems as if he supposed that our English word DOWN came to us from the Britons. Solinus, he observes, called the Cornish men Dunmonii; "which name seems to come from their dwelling there under hills. For their habitation all over this country is low and in vallies; which manner of dwelling is called in the British tongue Danmunith. In which sense also the province next adjoining is at this day named by the Britons Duffneint, that is to say, Low vallies." Of the Dobuni he says," This their name, I believe, is .formed from Duffen, a British word; because the places where they planted themselves, were for the most part low and lying under the hills." Speaking of the river in Cheshire, he says," Then cometh this Dan or more truly Daven, to Davenport, commonly called Danport." Of the river in Yorkshire, he says, "The river Danus, commonly called Don or Dune, so termed, as it should seem, because it is carried in a channel low and sunk in the ground: for so much signifieth Dan in the British language'. 1 "Regionem illam insederunt antiquitus Britanni, qui Solino Dunmonii dicti. Quod nomen ab habitatione sub montibus factum videatur. Inferius enim, et convallibus passim per hanc regionem habitatur, quod Danmunith Britannice dicitur: quo etiam sensu proxima provincia Duffneint, i. e. depressæ valles, a Britannis hodie vocatur."-P. 133. Folio Edit. 1607. "Dobunos videamus, qui olim, ubi nunc Glocestershire et Oxfordshire, habitârunt. Horum nomen factum a Duffen Britannica dictione credimus; quod maxima ex parte loca jacentia et depressa sub collibus insidebant."-P. 249. Selden, in his notes on the first song of Drayton's Polyolbion, gives full assent to Camden's etymology. He says,"Duffneint, i. e. low valleys in British, as judicious Camden teaches me." Milton, I doubt not on the same authority, calls the river "the gulphy DUN." "Rivers arise; whether thou be the son Of utmost Tweed, or Oose, or gulphy Dun." And Bishop Gibson concurs with the same; translating, without any dissent, the marginal note, "Duffen Britannice profundum sive depressum," in these words, "Duffen, in British, deep or low." How then, against such authorities, shall I, with whatever reason fortified, venture to declare, that I am far from thinking that the Anglo-Saxons received either the name of these rivers, or their word DUN, Adun (which is evidently our word DOWN, ADOWN, differently spelled), in any manner from the British language? And as for Duffen (from which, with Camden, I think the words proceeded), we have it in our own language, the Anglo-Saxon, and with the same meaning of sunk, depressum, deep or low. If, with Camden, we can suppose the Anglo-Saxon dun to have proceeded through the gradations of Dufen { Duven, Duvn, Dun, Don, Down; Daven, Davn, Dan; I should think it more natural to derive both the name of the rivers' and the preposition from Dupen, the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Dupian, mergere, To sink, To plunge, To dive, To dip. And the usual prefix to the AngloSaxon participles, A, in Adun, strongly favours the suppo "Dan vel Daven e montibus &c. fertur ad &c. Deinde Davenport, vulgo Danport accedit."-P. 461. Danus, vulgo Don et Dune, ita, ut videtur, nominatus, quod pressiori et inferiori in solum labitur alveo; id enim Dan Britannis significat."-P. 562. I suppose the river Dove in Staffordshire to have its denomination from the same word, and for the same reason. The Anglo-Saxons use indifferently for the past participle of Durian sition'. In most of the passages too in which the preposition or adverb DOWN is used in English, the sense of this participle is clearly expressed; and, without the least straining or twisting, the acknowledged participle may be put instead of the supposed preposition: although there may perhaps be some passages in which the preposition DOWN is used, where the meaning of the participle may not so plainly appear. UPON. UP. OVER. BOVE. ABOVE. These prepositions have all one common origin and signification, Upon. UƑan. UƑa. In the Anglo-Saxon Upa. Upeɲa. Ufemært. are the nouns, altus, altior, altissimus. Ufon, Ufan, Ufa. Altus (Fr. Th. Uph.) UPON, UP. Uremært. Altissimus. UPMOST, UPPERMOST, UPPEREST, OVEREST. Be-ufan or BuƑan. BOVE. The use of these words in English as adjectives is very either Dured, or Dufen or Dofen. I suppose this same verb to have been variously pronounced, Dofian Dofen. Doven. Dovn. Doun. Down. don. Durian Hence Dufen. Duven. Duvn. DUN. dune. 1 [See Lamb. ten Kate, Anleiding &c. v. Duiken, ducken, sese demittere, vol. 2. p. 171; and v. Duiv, dofen, gedofen, mergere, ib. p. 625. Ten Kate considers these as cognate roots. But Mr. Richardson (Illustrations of Engl. Philology) observes that Mr. Tooke does not seem confident in this etymology: and I shall take the liberty to suggest that DOWN, ADOWN, is a contraction of Or-dune, off or from hill, downhill, proclivis. See Lye v. OF-bune. Deorsum." -Also, under the words Dun, mons, and OF, Lye refers to A.S. authorities for the expression of bune. Downward, down. Deorsum." See Additional Notes.-ED.] [Subsequent investigation has fully confirmed this conjecture; so that there now remains no doubt upon the subject.-ED.] common; as it is also in all the northern languages: for the same words are used in all of them'. By which degrees men myght climben from the neytherest letter to the UPPEREST."-Boecius, boke i. fol. 221. p. 1. col. 1. "Why suffreth he suche slyding chaunges, that mysturnen suche noble thynges as ben we men, that arne a fayre persell of the erth, and holden the UPPEREST degree under God of benigne thinges.”Test. of Loue, fol. 312. p. 1. col. 1. It is not necessary for my present purpose, to trace the Particles any further than to some Noun or Verb of a determinate signification; and therefore I might here stop at the Anglo-Saxon noun Uran, altus. But I believe that Ufon, Ura, UPON, UP, means the same as Top or Head, and is originally derived from the same source. Thus, "-Lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Where you may use indifferently either Upward, Topward, or Some etymologists have chosen to derive the name of that part of our body from the Scythian HA, altus; or the Icelandic HAD, altitudo; or the Gothic hành, altus ; or (with Junius) 1 Germ. Auf. Auber. Oben. Ober. Oberste. Dutch. Op. Opper. Opperste. Boven, Over. Overste. Danish. Oven. Over. Overste. Swedish. Uppe. Ofwer. Öfwerste. |