in sûnu-bhjas (compare the Latin ped-ibus),[1] our English word by entering into the third syllable. Sunubhjas was in time pared down in Teutonic mouths to sunub, and this again to sunum. This last corruption of the dative kept its ground in our island until Becket's time. The tendency of old, when we dwelt on the Oxus, and long afterwards, was to pack different words into one; our custom, ever since the days of Henry I., has been to untie the words so packed together; thus sunubhjas has been turned into by sons.[2] We have two of these old Datives still left, hwîl-um, whilom, and seld-um, seldom.
We keep to this day many prefixes to verbs (a, be, for, fore, gain, mis, un, with), and many endings of substantives and adjectives, common to us and to our brethren on the mainland; seen in such English words as leech-craft, man-kind, king-dom, maiden-head, wed-lock, glee-man, piece-meal, ridd-ell, kind-red, bishop-rick, friend-ship, dar-ling, sing-er, spin-ster, warn-ing, good-ness, stead-fast, mani-fold, East-ern, stân-ig (stony), aw-ful, god-less, win-some, gold-en, right-wis (righteous). Others, older still, I have given before. Many old Teutonic endings have unhappily dropped out of our speech, and have been replaced by meaner ware.
The Teutons, after turning their backs on the rest of
- ↑ Pedibus is but the Latin form of the Sanscrit padbhyas.
- ↑ I hope I have been plainer than Miss Cornelia Blimber, who told her small pupil that Analysis is ‘the resolution of an object, whether of the senses or of the intellect, into its first elements — as opposed to Synthesis, you observe. Now you know what Analysis is, Dombey.’ It is remarked that Dombey didn't seem to be absolutely blinded by the light thus let in upon his intellect.
