A Book About Words

by G. F. Graham

There is some difference of practice in the use of the article (a, an). The rule is, that ‘an’ must be used before a vowel, or h mute. This is, in general, a good rule; but there is one vowel, which must be sometimes considered an exception, viz. ‘u.’ It is right to say ‘an apple,’ ‘an evil,’ ‘an idler,’ and ‘an orange;’ but before u we must pause; for here there is a double practice. Now, this vowel has two sounds; open, as in ‘union;’ and close, as in ‘ugly.’ Before the long sound, we should use the article ‘a;’ as ‘a unit,’ ‘a union,’ ‘a uniform,’ &c. But before the short sound of ‘u,’ the article ‘an’ should be used; as ‘an uncle,’ ‘an ugly object,’ &c. Many good writers, however, use ‘an’ even before a long u. We often meet with ‘an united family,’ ‘an universal practice,’ &c. The question is here one of harmony; and the best practice seems to be, to adopt the softer sound. No one ever thinks of saying or writing ‘an youth,’ or ‘an yew tree;’ and yet the sound in ‘an uniform,’ or ‘an universe,’ is precisely the same, and of course equally harsh.

Another case belonging to this question is the use of the article in the frequently-seen expression ‘such an one.’ This form is disagreeably harsh and unmusical. We might as well say: ‘such an woman,’ or ‘such an wonder.’ It is true there are authorities for both these forms—‘such a one,’ and ‘such an one;’ but in a case of this sort, we had better adopt the more harmonious form; good taste and a delicate ear will direct us to ‘such a one,’ rather than ‘such an one.’

It has been remarked that there is a strong tendency in English to get rid of inflections. Many of these were found in old English which have now fallen off. The old infinitive-ending en is now altogether gone, though some adjectives in en still remain; viz. those which denote material, such as ‘golden,’ ‘earthen,’ ‘oaten,’ &c. We had at one time ‘rosen,’ ‘silvern,’ ‘tinnen,’ ‘boxen,’ and many others. These are now gone; and there seems to be a prevalent disposition to cut off the endings of those which remain. Instead of ‘a golden watch,’ we now say ‘a gold watch,’ using the noun for the adjective. In the same way, we have ‘earthworks’ for ‘earthen works;’ though we still keep ‘earthenware.’ Many of these adjectives in en still hold their ground, though most of those which are retained have lost a part of their sense. ‘Brazen’ has now only a secondary meaning; and stands for ‘bold’ or ‘impudent.’ In a concrete sense, the noun is used instead of the adjective. We say a ‘brazen face,’ for an ‘impudent face;’ but ‘a brass knob,’ or ‘a brass candlestick.’ Again: we have ‘a golden rule,’ in a secondary; but a ‘gold’ ring in a primary sense.

The word ‘pigmy’—derived from the Greek πυγμὴ, the fist—was first spelled ‘pygmy.’ It meant one whose stature was no higher than from the elbow to the fist. The change from y to i was probably caused by the dislike of the printers to y in the middle of a word. But it has here as good a right to its place as the y in ‘hymn,’ or ‘type.’ It is, however, gone; and we must submit.

Hundreds of words might be cited which have been brought into their present forms by the influence of corruption. The now generally received explanation of ‘Rotten Row’ is, that it is a corruption of ‘Route du Roi,’ originally the private road used by King William III. when going from Piccadilly to Kensington. The old form ‘diamant’ was preferable to the more modern ‘diamond,’ because it told its story more clearly. It was an inversion of ‘adamant,’ the untameable, or invincible, so called because it is the hardest of stones, and cannot be cut except by one of its own species.

The modern spelling of the word ‘height’ is a corruption. We have ‘width,’ from ‘wide;’ ‘length,’ from ‘long;’ and ‘breadth,’ from ‘broad.’ Why, then, not ‘highth,’ from ‘high?’ In the writings of the seventeenth century we meet with various spellings of this word. It is found ‘highth’ in the first edition of ‘Paradise Lost;’ and also ‘heigth’ and ‘heygth.’ Now the inversion of ht for th has corrupted it into ‘height;’ and so, for the present, it will probably remain. The d in ‘admiral’ appears to be a corruption. All our dictionaries give the derivation of this word from the Arabic ‘amir,’ or ‘emir,’ a lord, or commander. Neither the French ‘amiral,’ nor the Italian ‘ammiraglio,’ has the d. Milton writes the word ‘ammiral:’

the tallest pine

Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast

Of some great ammiral,—

though in this passage, the word means a ship, and not its commander. Mr. Wedgewood says that, in many cases in Arabic, the article is placed after the noun; and that the ad initial is a mere corruption of the first syllable of ‘amir’ or ‘emir.’