Very many of our time-words are unmoulded from the same cause—that they are names of things; although such names of things, having become worn more or less out of shape, or having fallen out of use, may not show themselves to our minds what they are.
To hunt makes hunted; why? From hound, to hunt, meaning at first to seek with a hound.
It may, however, be said, ‘Is to hunt from hound, or hound from to hunt?’
Such a point is, in very many cases, cleared out by the Anglo-Saxon, in which ‘to hunt’ is hunt-i-an, not hunt-an; and the i, a worn shape of ig, shows that huntian is from hund, hound, and so hound is not from hunt.
The time-word from the thing hunt-ig-an, hunt-i-an, is to houndy, to take time with a hound.
We say
| Cling, clung. |
| Fling, flung. |
| Sling, slung. |
But we should say ‘he ringed (not rung) his pig’; ‘he stringed his harp’; ring and string being things.
The strong or moulded time-words are nearly or quite all words ending in one single breath-penning, and of a close sound (1, 2, 3, or 4 of the Table), as