[91] Phil. Trans. v. 133 sq. “The facility with which unusual or difficult words are corrupted is being at this moment strikingly illustrated in the numerous Spanish words introduced into our language through the American conquests in Mexico; cañon, estancia, stampedo, &c., are already altered in form.”—R.G.
[92] Engl. Lang. i. p. 356, 4th ed. St. Aldhelm’s Head, in Dorsetshire, is always pronounced and generally written St. Alban’s Head, although St. Alban had no connection with it. Penny-come-quick was a very natural corruption of Pen, Coombe, and Ick, the former name for Falmouth. These words form a curious chapter in the history of language. There is no doubt that the mythological legends of a later period are largely suggested by the corruption of names, as in the case of Aphrodite, Dionysus, &c. The fiction of an Oriental nation provided with a two-fold tongue (Diod. Sic. ii.) might easily spring from the word δίγλωσσος. See many such instances in Lersch. iii. 6 fg. The Greek Ἱεροσόλυμα presents a double instance of this, being corrupted from יְרוּשָּׁלַיִם, which is itself probably a corruption of the old Canaanite name for Jerusalem. Dict. of Bibl. Ant. s. v.
[93] The instance is a pure supposition, for sherbet, syrup, and shrub are from the same Arabic root, coming to us from three different sources.—Latham.
[94] We know of very few words invented on simply arbitrary grounds. “Sepals” was devised by Neckar to express each division of the calyx (Whewell, Hist. Ind. Sc. ii. 535), and yet we see at once that it is only a very slight alteration of the word “petals,” and this no doubt was the reason, not only for the choice of it, but also for the ready currency which it obtained. The term “Od force” is another instance. Chemistry at one period affected to give to simple bodies only such names as were destitute of all significance; but it abandoned this practice in consequence of the absurdities and impossibilities which it involved. (v. Renan, p. 148.) Thus, “sulfite” and “sulfate” are due to Guyton de Morveau. (Charma, p. 66.) “Ellagic” acid is the name given by M. Braconnot to the substance left in the process of making pyrogallic acid, and it is derived from Galle read backwards (Hist. Ind. Sc. ii. 547); but such terms are justly reprobated by men of science. Even proper names, which some have supposed to be often arbitrary, are in almost every case found capable of a real etymology. “Ils n’ont pas, plus que les autres mots, été imposés sans cause, ni fabriqués au hasard, seulement pour produire une bruit vague.”—De Brosses. This was noticed very early; see Schol. ad Hom. Od. xix. 406.
[95] Renan, p. 122.
[96] Nodier, p. 39. See, too, Garnett’s Essays, p. 89.
[97] Bunsen, Outlines, s. ii. 84. 78.
[98] Essais de Phil. Morale, p. 344. (The word שָׁמַיִם comes from a root signifying height.) Several of the instances in this paragraph are from M. Vinet.
[99] “Augustus himself, in the possession of that power which ruled the world, acknowledged that he could not make a new Latin word.”—Locke, iii. 2. 8.
[100] Renan, p. 143. “Though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolised the world to the speaker and the hearer.... As the limestone of the Continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is made up of images and tropes, which now in their secondary use have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin.”—Emerson, Ess. on the Poet.