[§ 433]. Darkling.—This is no participle of a verb darkle, but an adverb of derivation, like unwaringun=unawares, Old High German; stillinge=secretly, Middle High German; blindlings=blindly, New High German; darnungo=secretly, Old Saxon; nichtinge=by night, Middle Dutch; blindeling=blindly, New Dutch; bæclinga=backwards, handlunga=hand to hand, Anglo-Saxon; and, finally, blindlins, backlins, darklins, middlins, scantlins, stridelins, stowlins, in Lowland Scotch.—Deutsche Grammatik, iii. 236.
[§ 434]. "Adverbs like brightly may (laxly speaking) be called adverbs of derivation." Such the assertion made a few paragraphs above. The first circumstance that strikes the reader is, that the termination -ly is common both to adjectives and to adverbs. This termination was once an independent word, viz., leik. Now, as -ly sprung out of the Anglo-Saxon -lice, and as words like early, dearly, &c., were originally arlîce, deorlîce, &c., and as arlîce, deorlîce, &c., were adjectives, the adverbs in -ly are (strictly speaking) adverbs, not of derivation, but of deflection.
It is highly probable that not only the adverbs of derivation, but that also the absolute adverbs, may eventually be reduced to adverbs of deflection. For now, see Deutsche Grammatik, iii. 249.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
ON CERTAIN ADVERBS OF PLACE.
[§ 435]. It is a common practice for languages to express by different modifications of the same root the three following ideas:—
1. The idea of rest in a place.
2. The idea of motion towards a place.