RICHARDSON'S NEW DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
WHEN the first number of this learned and elaborate undertaking appeared,* we, judging from the specimen, predicted that " the result will be to present the world with the most complete dic- tionary ever published, as regards the etymology and primitive meaning of words, the succesive growth of their secondary signi- fications, the gradual advance and changes of the language, the vast body of quotations from all our authors, both ancient and modern, and, in consequence, the skeleton history of the English language which it indirectly presents." Nor has the result dim,- pointed us ; nor need we any longer say that it will be, but that it " a work indispensable to every one who is curious in his mother tongue, and without which no library can be considered complete."
The plan upon which Mr. RICHARDSON has pursued his la- bours is derived from two theories of language. One, taken from Locira and several other writers is, that all words in their original signification, if we could reach it, would be found to have had their first rise from sensible objects. Another and the most important one is the opinion of HORNE TOOKE- that every word has one primitive meaning, and one only, from which ell its metaphorical and consequential usages, however nu- merous, must spring ; and that in the etymology of each word must be found this single intrinsic meaning, and the cause of the application of those usages. Acting upon these views, Mr. RICHARDSON has not merely searched our writers from the periods preceding CHAucEn. down to the present century, to fix the sense in which they used words, but in order to discover their first appearance in the written lan- guage. and the meaning they then bore, as well as to find out the source whence the primitive word came. Having settled this, our lexicographer proceeds to trace downwards the successive ad- ditions to the original meaning,—first metaphorical, and second consequential; supporting his views, or more truly, perhaps, enabling the reader to form his own, by a copiousness of quota- tion, especially from the earlier writers, which sometimes becomes almost burdensome. These three points—the etymology of the word, its primitive sense, and its secondary meaning—having been established, Mr. RICHARDSON finally gathers under one head all the words derived from the same root, commencing with the verb, going on to the noun of the same root, and so forth, and giving the general meanings of the different parts of speech under one bead. It will hence be perceived, that this Dictionary must be studied in the using, and will call for some thought and exertion on the part of the reader; so that, for the purpose of hasty and bandy reference as to the spelling or authorized meaning of a word, it is not equal to JOHNSON. Thus far we have spoken of the forms and of the general cha- racter of the Dictionary. The effects of the peculiar theory which Mr. RICHARDSON has formed and followed out, lead occasionally to strained or fanciful meanings, and often to startling ones, that require consideration to convince us of their truth. But the ma- piny are convincing and satisfactory,—sometimes they are of strik- ing Justness; and frequently, it will be conceived, of great curiosity. Of the second class is the word "peak'—" from the point of a bill;" and hence, primitively, signifying "small or sharp,"—a sense whose justness will at once be recognized by those who have noticed the faces of what nurses call peaking children. Of the latter we will let Mr. RICHARDSON give a couple of instances r January 3, 1835: No. 340.
himself; the first of which is clear, the second perhaps only bable ars
There are two words, so important in themselves, and bearing so moil of novelty in the origin ascribed to them in the New Dictionary—and they wit serve also in further illustration of its mode of etymological research—that I cannot forbear to present them. And these words are Mercy and Belief. AMERCE, MERLE, MERCY. Our elder writers use the words amerce so merce indifferently ;—to fine, to impose, to exact, a fine, a something in finolid, justinent ; in payment for, or in lieu of, a penalty or forfeiture ; in satisfacti of a claim or demand. To be subject to the King's grievous mercy, was to subject to a heavy fine, payable to the King. "t he remission of this test, penalty, and, generally, the remission of punishment, we now call his 1. c. his clemency, his compassion. And the question arises, is mercy, in the's; two usages, two words of different origin, or one word differently applied? Do New Dictionary is profuse in quotations from pages of hitherto unexplored 4. tiquity to establish that mercy, an the latter application (to clemency or cost, passion) is no contraction of the Latin misericorda, but is transferred or tzs. duced from mercy, a fine : from the fine paid in ransom or redemption to ti deliverance or pardon granted and received in return ; and that it is the further traduced to the feeling which, it is assumed, imposes, receives, or satisfied with a smaller instead of a greater punishment ; of a sum of mon for instance, in commutation for life or limb, forfeited to civil or military lsit, When we amerce any man (tooth Peers), let Mercy be taxer. And this is the mercy that pervades the whole system of Jewish and Chek, tian theology. BELIEVE, LEVE, or LIVE. Our elder writers use to kve and to believe indite rently ; and that not only as we now use the latter, (se to have faith, to gies credit,) but as we use the verb to live, or have life ; to dwell. The (puns, again occurs : are these two words distinct in their origin, or one word difis rently applied? It should be premised that believe was written bi leue,be lyte, by lyve, separately and conjointly ; and, recurring to our old authorities, weim the verb by. leve, denoting to lyre by, or according to. " The King would De bileeee the !awes that his elders held," (Rob. of Gloucester, p. 470); and tit noun bileve, applied not only to life, but to that by which we may keg or EN the means (or demeans) of life; to that whereon or wherin we maylre, ils dwelling, the demesne ; and the obvious inference is, that it is also ankle (metaphorically) to that by which we should live, to a rule of life, to that ra or that body of rules or laws by which we do or ought, or know we should/ ought to live. A more emphatic or effective reddition from the Latin verde our venerable translator could not have selected. " Lordis," cried the tenia keeper of the prison, "what bihoueth me to do that I be maad saaf? Aadi seiden, Bileeve thou in the Lord Jhesu, and thou schalt be saaf and thinks's.' Such was the primitive question, and such the answer. Such, as our mils. aries could testify, continues to be still the question which they are required' answer. The full explanation stands thus : To believe is to live by or according to, to abide by ; to guide, conduct, rip late, govern or direct the life by; to take, accept, assume, or adopt winded life; and, consequentially,
To think, deem, or judge right ; to be firmly persuaded of, to give credit* to trust, or think trustworthy; to have or give faith or confidence; to code, to think or deem faithful.
In some philological introductions, Mr. RICHARDSON broads a curious theory of the origin of language ; which, although pre perly kept out of the Dictionary, has probably influenced is method of composing it. Agreeing with ARISTOTLE in the del. nition of a letter, that it is an indivisible intelligible sound, Mr, RICH 1RI,SON maintains that these sounds being uttered by coal organs, and addressed to auricular organs, always alike in ivery age, must have the same sound in all nations, and form in fact tie root of human speech, however difficult or impossible it may bet trace them for any long way. This task he has imposed upon bite self to a considerable extent ; but the exceptions of his Dictionary are here the rule. He is mostly forced and fanciful, rarely as vincing. The most successful attempt is upon the labial %what announced sound ab, and enounced sound be, are, our authorde clares, the earliest distinct sounds uttered by children. In theta or in their compounds, abba, baba, or B's smoother substituteP, and occasionally V, he sees the origin of the names for parent sef child ; and traces them, or something like them, through a canal of languages, from Hebrew to Dutch.
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