This comparison of ploughing and rowing is of frequent occurrence in ancient languages. The English word plough, the Slavonic ploug, has been identified with the Sanskrit plava,[261] a ship, and with the Greek ploion, ship. As the Aryans spoke of a ship ploughing the sea, they also spoke of a plough sailing across the field; and thus it was that the same names were [pg 256] applied to both.[262] In English dialects, plough or plow is still used in the general sense of waggon or conveyance.[263]
We might follow the offshoots of this root ar still further, but the number of words which we have examined in various languages will suffice to show what is meant by a predicative root. In all these words ar is the radical element, all the rest is merely formative. The root ar is called a predicative root, because in whatever composition it enters, it predicates one and the same conception, whether of the plough, or the rudder, or the ox, or the field. Even in such a word as artistic, the predicative power of the root ar may still be perceived, though, of course, as it were by means of a powerful telescope only. The Brahmans who called themselves ârya in India, were no more aware of the real origin of this name and its connection with agricultural labor, than the artist who now speaks of his art as a divine inspiration suspects that the word which he uses was originally applicable only to so primitive an art as that of ploughing.
We shall now examine another family of words, in order to see by what process the radical elements of words were first discovered.
Let us take the word respectable. It is a word of Latin not of Saxon, origin, as we see by the termination [pg 257] able. In respectabilis we easily distinguish the verb respectare and the termination bilis. We then separate the prefix re, which leaves spectare, and we trace spectare as a participial formation back to the Latin verb spicere or specere, meaning to see, to look. In specere, again, we distinguish between the changeable termination ere and the unchangeable remnant spec, which we call the root. This root we expect to find in Sanskrit and the other Aryan languages; and so we do. In Sanskrit the more usual form is paś, to see, without the s; but spaś also is found in spaśa, a spy, in spashṭa (in vi-spashṭa), clear, manifest, and in the Vedic spaś, a guardian. In the Teutonic family we find spëhôn in Old High-German meaning to look, to spy, to contemplate; and spëha, the English spy.[264] In Greek, the root spek has been changed into skep, which exists in skeptomai, I look, I examine; from whence skeptikos, an examiner or inquirer, in theological language, a sceptic; and episkopos, an overseer, a bishop. Let us now examine the various ramifications of this root. Beginning with respectable, we found that it originally meant a person who deserves respect, respect meaning looking back. We pass by common objects or persons without noticing them, whereas we turn back to look again at those which deserve our admiration, our regard, our respect. This was the original meaning of respect and respectable, nor need we be surprised at this if we consider that noble, nobilis in Latin, conveyed originally no more than the idea of a person that deserves to be known; for nobilis stands for gnobilis, just as nomen stands for gnomen, or natus for gnatus.
“With respect to” has now become almost a mere preposition. For if we say, “With respect to this point I have no more to say,” this is the same as “I have no more to say on this point.”
Again, as in looking back we single out a person, the adjective respective, and the adverb respectively, are used almost in the same sense as special, or singly.
The English respite is the Norman modification of respectus, the French répit. Répit meant originally looking back, reviewing the whole evidence. A criminal received so many days ad respectum, to re-examine the case. Afterwards it was said that the prisoner had received a respit, that is to say, had obtained a re-examination; and at last a verb was formed, and it was said that a person had been respited.
As specere, to see, with the preposition re, came to mean respect, so with the preposition de, down, it forms the Latin despicere, meaning to look down, the English despise. The French dépit (Old French despit) means no longer contempt, though it is the Latin despectus, but rather anger, vexation. Se dépiter is to be vexed, to fret. “En dépit de lui” is originally “angry with him,” then “in spite of him;” and the English spite, in spite of, spiteful, are mere abbreviations of despite, in despite of, despiteful, and have nothing whatever to do with the spitting of cats.
As de means down from above, so sub means up from below, and this added to specere, to look, gives us suspicere, suspicari, to look up, in the sense of to suspect.[265] From it suspicion, suspicious; and likewise the French [pg 259] soupçon, even in such phrases as “there is a soupçon of chicory in this coffee,” meaning just a touch, just the smallest atom of chicory.
As circum means round about, so circumspect means, of course, cautious, careful.