YEVE used where we now employ GIVE; and in the time of Queen Elizabeth it was written in the same manner. "YEOVEN under our signet."-Lodge's Illustrations. The Queen to Sir W. Cecil and Dr. Wotton, vol. i. p. 343. "YEVEN under our seale of our order, the first day of April 1566, the eight year of our reign."-Lodge's Illustrations. Quene Elizabeth to the Erle of Sherowsbury, vol. 1. p. 362. GIN1 is often used in our Northern counties and by the Scotch, as we use IF or AN: which they do with equal propriety and as little corruption: for GIN is no other than the participle Given, Gi'en, Gi'n. (As they also use Gie for Give, and Gien for Given, when they are not used conjunctively.) And Hoc dato is of equal conjunctive value in a sentence with Da hoc. "Then wi' his spear he turn'd hir owre, O GIN hir face was wan! He turn'd her owre and owre again, O GIN hir skin was whyte." Percy's Reliques, vol. i. Edom o' Gordon. Even our Londoners often pronounce Give and Given in the same manner: As, "Gime your hand.” "I have Gin it him well." So Wycherly, Love in a Wood, act 5. If my daughter there should have done so, I wou'd not have gi'n her a groat." AN. I do not know that AN has been attempted by any one, except S. Johnson: and, from the judicious distinction he has made between Junius and Skinner, I am persuaded that he Ray says—“ "Gin, Gif, in the old Saxon is Gif; from whence the word If is made per apheresin literæ G. Gif, from the verb Giran, dare; and is as much as Dato." 3 "Junius appears to have excelled in extent of learning, and Skinner in rectitude of understanding. Junius was accurately skilled in all the northern languages; Skinner probably examined the antient and remoter dialects only by occasional inspection into dictionaries : But the learning of Junius is often of no other use than to shew him a track by which he may deviate from his purpose; to which Skinner always presses forward by the shortest way. Skinner is often ignorant, but G will be the first person to relinquish his own conjecture:1 especially when he notices his own self-contradiction: for after having (under the article AN) told us that "AN is a contraction of And if;" and given the following instance, "Well I know The clerk will ne'er wear hair on 's face that had it. He will AN' IF he live to be a man he very truly (under the article AND) says-"In And if, the And is redundant; and is omitted by all later writers." As "I pray thee, Launce, AN' IF thou seest my boy, bid him make haste." The author of "Criticisms on the Diversions of Purley," who publishes under the feigned name of CASSANDER, (I suppose, because he was born in the island of Cadsan, in Dutch Flanders) and who is a Teacher and Preacher in the City of Norwich, thus elegantly amuses his readers. Pages 36, 37, 38. "I have known a public speaker who would now and then take a survey of his audience, and call out (if he espied any drooping noddles or falling jaws) —Brethren, I will tell you a story. As I think this an excellent method of rousing the attention of a reader or hearer, for ever inclined to grow drowsy when the subject is so, I shall not scruple to make use of it upon this occasion. "It is well known that the Boors in Friesland, one of the United Provinces, have so far retained ancient customs, as to be, in dress, language, and manners, exactly the same people which they were five hundred years ago; a circumstance that induced Junius the son to pay them a visit, and to pass a few months among them. In a tour I made to that country some never ridiculous: Junius is always full of knowledge; but his variety distracts his judgment, and his learning is very frequently disgraced by his absurdities."-Preface to Dictionary. 1 1 Immediately after the publication of my letter to Mr. Dunning, I was informed by Mr. S. (an intimate friend of Dr. Johnson) that I was not mistaken in this opinion; Dr. Johnson having declared, that if he lived to give a new edition of his Dictionary, he should certainly adopt my derivations. [The late Rev. John Bruckner, for many years the much-esteemed minister of the Dutch church and of the Walloon or French church in Norwich. See Additional Notes.-ED.] years ago, I was at a gentleman's house, from which I made frequent excursions into the inner part of the province. In one of these I was obliged to take the first sheltering place in my way, being overtaken by a violent shower. It was a farm house, where I saw several children: and I shall never forget the speech which one of them, an overgrown babe, made to his mother. He was standing at her breast; and after he had done with one, I heard him say to her,-Trientjen, yan my t'oor,-i. e. Kate, give me t'other.-I little thought at the time, I should have so good an opportunity of making use of the story as I have at present." This story of the babe, he says, is certainly in my favour. I think it is decisively. But the Critic proceeds-" But we should not fancy that words exist, or must have existed, because, having adopted a certain method of finding out origins, we cannot possibly do without them. I have been looking out with some anxiety for the Anglo-Saxon verb Anan, but can get very little information about it. I find, indeed, in King Alfred's Will the following article:-AEpirt ic an Eadpaɲde minum eldɲa runa.First I give to Edward my eldest son,-And from the expression Ic an, it should seem as if there really existed such a verb in the Anglo-Saxon as Anan. But as this is the only sign of life it has given, as one may say, for these thousand years, I am inclined to look upon that sign as being rather equivocal, and suspect that the true reading of the Will is, not Ic an, but Ic un, from Unnan, cedere, concedere; this last verb being common in the Anglo-Saxon, and nothing more easy than to mistake an u for an a, in that language, as well as in English. However, as I have not seen hitherto any manuscript, on whose authority I can ground the justness of my conjecture, I do not give it you as any thing certain; and if you persist in giving the preference to the old reading, the story of the babe is certainly in your favour; for there is as little difference between An and Yan, as between Un and An. With me it will remain a matter of doubt, whether there ever existed such a verb as Anan, the same in signification, and yet different in origin, with Gipan. It is by no means probable, that a people, who had hardly a conveyance for one idea in a thousand, should have procured two such noble conveyances for one single idea. This is a piece of luxury, which even the most civilized nations seldom allow themselves."1 To this I answer, that Anan, Annan, and Unnan, are all one and the same word differently spelled (as almost all the Anglo-Saxon and old English words are) because differently pronounced. But he has been looking for Anan, he says, with some anxiety, and can get very little information about it." If he looks so carelessly when he is anxious, we may pretty well guess with how much accuracy he looks upon other occasions. I will relieve his anxiety. I know he has Lye's collection of Anglo-Saxon words before him; (for he quotes it in his 66th page) let him put on his spectacles and open the book: he will there find Anan, and Annan, with references to places where they are used. And if, after that, he should still continue anxious, I will furnish him with more. "Nothing, he says, is more easy than to mistake an u for an a, in that language, as well as in the English."—It is not so easy to mistake the Anglo-Saxon character U for A, or u for a; as it is to mistake the written English character u for a. It is not true that any people are now, or ever were, in the condition he represents the Anglo-Saxons; viz. of having "hardly a conveyance for one idea in a thousand;" unless he means to include in his expression, of one idea, each man's particular perception. No. Cheer up, Cassander: your lot is not peculiar to yourself: for the people who have the poorest and scantiest language, have yet always many more words than ideas. And I leave the reader to judge whether to have two words for one idea, be "a piece of luxury which even the most civilized nation seldom allows itself." UNLESS. Skinner says " Unless, nisi, præter, præterquam, q. d. 1 Reprehensor audaculus verborum-qui perpauca eademque a vulgo protrita legerat, habebatque nonnullas disciplinæ grammaticæ inauditiunculas, partim rudes inchoatasque, partim non probas; easque quasi pulverem ob oculos, quum adortus quemque fuerat, adspergebat ;-neque rationem verbum hoc, inquit, neque auctoritatem habet. One-less, i. e. uno dempto seu excepto: vel potius ab Onleran, dimittere,1 liberare, q. d. Hoc dimisso.” It is extraordinary, after his judicious derivation of IF, that Skinner should have been at a loss about that of UNLESS : especially as he had it in a manner before him: For Onler, dimitte, was surely more obvious and immediate than Onlered, dimisso. As for One-less, i. e. uno dempto seu excepto, it is too poor to deserve notice. So low down as in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, this conjunction was sometimes written Oneles and Onelesse. And this way of spelling it, which should rather have directed Skinner to its true etymology, might perhaps contribute to mislead him to the childish conjecture of One less, uno dempto.- But in other places it is written purely ONLES: and sometimes ONLESSE. Thus, in the Trial of Sir John Oldcastle, An. 1413, "It was not possible for them to make whole Christes cote without seme, ONLESSE certeyn great men were brought out of the way." So Thomas Lupset, in the early part of Henry the VIIIth's reign; "But alway, sister, remembre that charitie is not perfect ONLES that it be burninge."-Treatise of Charitie, p. 8. "This peticion cannot take effect ONLES man be made like an aungel.” -Ibid. p. 66. "Fayth cannot be perfect, ONLES there be good workes."-A compendious Treatise teachynge the Waye of Diynge well, p. 160. "The more shamfully that men for the most parte feare to die, the greater profe there is, that such extreme poyntes of feare against all shame shuld not in so many dayly appere, whan death approcheth, ONLES bi natur some just feare were of the same."-Ibid. p. 166. In other places Lupset spells it ONELES and ONLesse. "Men do feare to approche unto their soverayne Lorde, ONELES they be called." "This noble empire is lyke to falle into extreme ruyne and perpetuall infamye, ONELESSE your moste excellent wysedomes wyll dilygently and constantly prepare yourselfes to the certayne remedy." So in-A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Chris 1 [Mr. Bruckner says "it is not susceptible of this sense; it is solvere."-ED.] |