{120} The same happens in other languages. Thus in Greek ‘ἀνάθεμα’ and
‘ἀνάθημα’ both signify that which is devoted, though in very
different senses, to the gods; ‘θάρσος’, boldness, and ‘θράσος’,
temerity, were no more at first than different spellings of the
same word; not otherwise is it with γρῖπος and γρῖφος, ἔθος and
ἦθος, βρύκω and βρύχω, while ὀβελὸς and ὀβολὸς, σορὸς and σωρὸς,
are probably the same words. So too in Latin ‘penna’ and ‘pinna’
differ only in form, and signify alike a ‘wing’; while yet ‘penna’
has come to be used for the wing of a bird, ‘pinna’ (its
diminutive ‘pinnaculum’, has given us ‘pinnacle’) for that of a
building. So is it with ‘Thrax’ a Thracian, and ‘Threx’ a
gladiator; with ‘codex’ and ‘caudex’; ‘forfex’ and ‘forceps’;
‘anticus’ and ‘antiquus’; ‘celeber’ and ‘creber’; ‘infacetus’ and
‘inficetus’; ‘providentia’, ‘prudentia’, and ‘provincia’;
‘columen’ and ‘culmen’; ‘coitus’ and ‘cœtus’; ‘ægrimonia’ and
‘ærumna’; ‘Lucina’ and ‘luna’; ‘navita’ and ‘nauta’; in German
with ‘rechtlich’ and ‘redlich’; ‘schlecht’ and ‘schlicht’;
‘ahnden’ and ‘ahnen’; ‘biegsam’ and ‘beugsam’; ‘fürsehung’ and
‘vorsehung’; ‘deich’ and ‘teich’; ‘trotz’ and ‘trutz’; ‘born’ and
‘brunn’; ‘athem’ and ‘odem’; in French with ‘harnois’ the armour,
or ‘harness’, of a soldier, ‘harnais’ of a horse; with ‘Zéphire’
and ‘zéphir’, and with many more.
{121} Coleridge, _Church and State_, p. 200.
{122} [One hardly expects to find this otiose Americanism (first used by
J. Adams in 1759) in the work of a verbal purist, when ‘longish’
or the old ‘longsome’ were at hand. No one, as yet, has ventured
on ‘strengthy’ or ‘breadthy’ for somewhat strong or broad.]
{123} [This prediction was correct. ‘Dissimilation’ is first found in
philological works published in the decade 1874-85. See N.E.D.]
{124} [Coblenz, at the junction of the Moselle and Rhine (from
_Confluentes_), reminds us that the word was so used.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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