FOOTNOTES:
[1] And this opinion was the cause of the omission in the First Edition.
[2] See Sweet, History of English Sounds, p. 17.
[3] As pronounced, e.g., in Dutch gaan. This sound does not now exist in English.
[4] This factor in the change of language (which has only recently received investigation) cannot here be dwelt upon, as readers who have not studied phonetics would be unable to follow the argument. Such should at once endeavour to obtain at least a mastery of the elements of phonetics, without which they cannot possibly understand many of the problems with which we have here to deal, and all should then read the very interesting article on Phonetic Compensations, by C. W. Grandgent and G. S. Sheldon of Harvard University, in Modern Language Notes, June, 1888, No. 6, pp. 177-187.
[5] For further instances, see Skeat, Principles of English Etymology, p. 376.
[6] A similar transference is observable in γέρανος, γρῦς, and in words in modern languages expressive of the same idea; cf. also corvus, which means a raven, a grapnel, a battering-ram, a surgical instrument, and a sea-fish.
[7] See Marsh, English Language, in Students’ Series, lect. iii., pp. 55-62, with note on p. 64.
[8] See the discussions of the examples below. The ‘various’ meanings of these words there given are mostly ‘usual’ ones. Whenever a speaker utters any of these words in the body of his discourse, the word has only one of the various ‘usual’ senses. The use of the word ‘body’ in this very note may serve as illustration of an ‘occasional’ signification of a word with sundry ‘usual’ meanings.
[9] Vid. Murray, p. 1257.