Next to the Norse languages the French affords the best instances of the reciprocal power of the reflective verb; as se battre, s'aimer, s'entendre, se quéreller, se reconcilier, se disputer, and other words of less frequent occurrence.
Ces enfans s'aimaient, s'adoraient, se sont jetés à mes pieds en pleurant.—Les Inséparables, A. 1. S. 1.
Les Républics Italiens acharnés à se détruire.—Pardessus II. 65.
This has been recognized by an old grammarian, Restaut, who insists upon the use of the adverb entre, in order to avoid the ambiguity of such phrases as "vous vous dites des injures;" "nous nous écrivons souvent;" "Pierre et Antoine se louent à tout moment."
By a writer in the Museum Criticum the reciprocal power of the Greek middle has been indicated. For the classical languages the question has not met with the proper investigation. Passages where the sense is at least as reciprocal as in the line
[a]Χεῖρος τ' ἁλλήλων λαβήτην καὶ μιστώσαντο].—Il. vi. 233,
must be numerous.
In the Dutch language the use of zich for elkander is a peculiarity of the Guelderland and Overyssel dialects; as "zij hebt zich eslagen," for "zij hebben elkander geslagen." See Opmerkingen omtrent den Gelderschen Tongval, in Taalkundig Magazijn ii. 14. p. 403.
Of the use of ser for hinanden or hverandre, when uncombined with the verb, we have, amongst other, the following example in the Icelandic version of the Paradise Lost:—
Ef frá tilsyndar-
punkti hleyptu ser
planetur fram,
ok mættust miklum gny
ó midjum himni.