But, in truth, Harris himself yields the point, when he says, that prepositions, when compounded, transfuse something of their meaning into the compound; for they cannot transfuse what they do not contain, nor impart what they do not possess. They must, therefore, be themselves significant words.
But it is not so much their meaning with which the grammarian is concerned, as their syntactical character, their capacity of affecting other words, or being affected by them. In both these lights, however, I propose to consider them.
The name of preposition has been assigned to them, because they generally precede their regimen, or the word which they govern. What number of these words ancient and modern languages contain, has been much disputed; some grammarians determining a greater and some a less number. This, indeed, of itself affords a conclusive proof that the character of these words has not been clearly understood; for, in the other parts of speech, noun, adjective, and verb, the discriminative circumstances are so evident, that no doubt can arise concerning their classification.
That most of our English prepositions have signification per se, and form no distinct species of words, Mr. Tooke has produced incontrovertible evidence: nor is it to be doubted, that a perfect acquaintance with the Northern languages would convince us, that all of them are abbreviations, corruptions, or combinations of other words. A few of Mr. Tooke’s examples I shall now present to the reader.
Above, from the Anglo-Saxon ufa, high; hence bufan, on bufan, bove, above.
With, from withan, to join, of which with is the imperative; thus, “a house with a party wall,”—“a house, join a party wall;” or it is sometimes the imperative of wyrthan, “to be;” hence, by and with are often synonymous, the former being derived from beon, “to be.”
Without, from the Saxon preposition withutan, extra, sine, which is properly the imperative of the verb wyrthanutan, “to be out.” Withutan, beutan, “without,” “be out,” or “but.” The Saxon preposition occurs frequently in the writings of Chaucer, and is still used in Scottish poetry[111].
From[112], is simply the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic noun frum, “beginning,” “source,” “origin;” thus, “Figs came from Turkey;” that is, Figs came; “the source,” or “beginning,” Turkey; to which is opposed the word.
To, the same originally as do, signifying finishing or completion; thus “Figs came from Turkey to England;” “the beginning,” or “source,” Turkey; “the finishing,” or “end,” England.
Beneath, is the imperative be, compounded with the noun neath, of the same import with neden in Dutch, ned in Danish, niedere in German, and nedre or neder in Swedish, signifying the lower place; hence, the astronomical term Nadir, opposed to Zenith. Hence also nether and nethermost.