3. The circumstance that if self be dealt with as a substantive, such phrases as my own self, his own great self, &c., can be used; whereby the language is a gainer.
"Vox self, pluraliter selves, quamvis etiam pronomen a quibusdam censeatur (quoniam ut plurimum per Latinum ipse redditur), est tamen plane nomen substantivum, cui quidem vix aliquod apud Latinos substantivum respondet; proxime tamen accedet vox persona vel propria persona, ut my self, thy self, our selves, your selves, &c. (ego ipse, tu ipse, nos ipsi,
vos ipsi, &c.), ad verbum mea persona, tua persona, &c. Fateor tamen himself, itself, themselves vulgo dici pro his-self, its-self, theirselves; at (interposito own) his own self, &c., ipsius propria persona, &c."—Wallis, c. vii.
4. The fact that many persons actually say hisself and theirselves.
Whit.—As in the phrase not a whit. This enters in the compound pronouns aught and naught.
One.—As in the phrase one does so and so. From the French on. Observe that this is from the Latin homo, in Old French hom, om. In the Germanic tongues man is used in the same sense: man sagt=one says=on dit. One, like self and other, is so far a substantive, that it is inflected. Gen. sing, one's own self: plural, my wife and little ones are well.
Derived pronouns.—Any, in Anglo-Saxon, ænig. In Old High German we have einîc=any, and einac=single. In Anglo-Saxon ânega means single. In Middle High German einec is always single. In New High German einig means, 1. a certain person (quidam), 2. agreeing; einzig, meaning single. In Dutch ênech has both meanings. This indicates the word án, one, as the root of the word in question.—Grimm, D. G. iii. 9.
Compound pronouns.—Which, as has been already stated more than once, is most incorrectly called the neuter of who. Instead of being a neuter, it is a compound word. The adjective leiks, like, is preserved in the Mœso-Gothic words galeiks, and missaleiks. In Old High German the form is lih, in Anglo-Saxon lic. Hence we have Mœso-Gothic, hvêleiks; Old High German, huëlih; Anglo-Saxon, huilic and hvilc; Old Frisian, hwelik; Danish, hvilk-en; German, welch; Scotch, whilk; English, which. (Grimm, D. G., iii. 47). The same is the case with—
1. Such.—Mœso-Gothic, svaleiks; Old High German, sôlih; Old Saxon, sulîc; Anglo-Saxon, svilc; German, solch; English, such. (Grimm, D. G. iii. 48). Rask's derivation of the Anglo-Saxon swilc from swa-ylc, is exceptionable.
2. Thilk.—An old English word, found in the provincial dialects, as thick, thuck, theck, and hastily derived by Tyrwhitt,