PREPOSITION.
Prepositions, so called because they are commonly put before the words to which they are applied, serve to connect words with one another, and to shew the relation between them.
One great use of Prepositions in English, is to express those relations which in some languages are chiefly marked by Cases, or the different endings of the Noun.
Most Prepositions originally denote the relation of Place, and have been thence transferred to denote by similitude other relations. Thus, out, in, through, under, by, to, from, of, &c. Of is much the same with from; “ask of me,” that is, from me: “made of wood;” “Son of Philip;” that is, sprung from him. For, in its primary sense, is pro, loco alterius, in the stead, or place, of another. The notion of Place is very obvious in all the rest.