Aught.—In Anglo-Saxon áhte, the præterite of the present form áh, plural ágan.—As late as the time of Elizabeth we find owe used for own. The present form own seems to have arisen from the plural ágen. Aught is the præterite of the Anglo-Saxon áh; owed of the English owe=debeo; owned of the English own=possideo. The word own, in the expression to own to a thing, has a totally different origin. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon an (plural, unnon)=I give, or grant=concedo.
Durst.—The verb dare is both transitive and intransitive. We can say either I dare do such a thing, or I dare (challenge) such a man to do it. This, in the present tense, is unequivocally correct. In the past the double power of the word dare is ambiguous; still it is, to my mind at least, allowable. We can certainly say I dared him to accept my challenge; and we can, perhaps, say I dared venture on the expedition. In this last sentence, however, durst is the preferable expression.
Now, although dare is both transitive and intransitive, durst is only intransitive. It never agrees with the Latin word provoco; only with the Latin word audeo. Moreover, the word durst has both a present and a past sense. The difficulty which it presents consists in the presence of the -st, letters characteristic of the second person singular, but here found in all the persons alike; as I durst, they durst, &c.
The Mœso-Gothic forms are dar, dart? dar, daúrum, daúruþ, daúrun, for the persons of the present tense; and daúrsta, daúrstês, daúrsta, &c., for those of the præterite. The same is the case throughout the Germanic languages. No -s, however, appears in the Scandinavian; the præterites being þorði and törde, Icelandic and Danish. The Anglo-Saxon is dear=I dare, dearst=thou darest, durron=we,
ye, or they dare; subjunctive, durre, dorste, dorston. Old Saxon, present, dar; præterite dursta. The Mœso-Gothic tense, daúrsta, instead of daúrda, shows the antiquity of this form in -s.
The readiest mode of accounting for the form in question is to suppose that the second singular has been extended over all the other persons. This view, however, is traversed by the absence of the -s in the Mœso-Gothic present. The form there (real or presumed) is not darst, but dart. Of this latter form, however, it must be remarked that its existence is hypothetical.
In Matthew xxvi. 67, of the Mœso-Gothic Gospel of Ulphilas, is found the form kaúpastêdun, instead of kaúpatidédun, the præterite plural of kaúpatjan=to beat. Here there is a similar insertion of the -s.—Deutsche Grammatik, i. 848, 852, 853.
The -s in durst has still to be satisfactorily accounted for.
Must.—A form common to all persons, numbers, and tenses. That neither the -s nor the -t are part of the original root, is indicated by the Scandinavian form maae (Danish), pronounced moh; præterite maatte.
The readiest mode of accounting for the -s in must, is to presume that it belongs to the second singular, extended to the other persons, mo-est=must. Irrespective, however, of other objections, this view is traversed by the forms môtan, Mœso-Gothic (an infinitive), and mót, Mœso-Gothic, Old Saxon, and Anglo-Saxon (a first person present). These neutralise the evidence given by the Danish form maae, and indicate that the -t is truly a part of the original root.