ye will or no), then ye will receive (I trow).’
The hinge-word put down as trowedly untrue, and the hank one trowed, as
‘If ye asked (as I trow you do not), ye would receive (I trow)’; or ‘If
ye had asked (ye have not), ye would have received (I trow).’
The hinge time-taking trowed, and the other untrowed, as ‘Ye ask (I
trow), that ye may receive (I trow not that ye will).’
Speech-trimming.
The putting of speech into trim; _trim_ being a truly good form or
state. To _trim_ a shrub, a bonnet, or a boat, is to put it into trim.
1. The first care in speech-trimming is that we should use words which
give most clearly the meanings and thoughts of our mind, though it
is not likely that unclear thought will find a clear outwording; and
either of the two, as clear or unclear, helps to clearen or bemuddle
the other.
With most English minds, and with all who have not learned the building
of Latin and Greek words, English ones may be used with fewer mistakes
of meaning than would words from those tongues; though Englishmen
should get a clearer insight into English word-building ere they could
hope to keep English words to their true sundriness of meaning.
The so-seeming miswordings (solœcisms) of writers in the Latinised and
Greekish speech-trimming are not uncommon or unmarkworthy.
One man writes of something which _necessitates_ another, though
Latin itself has no _necessito_ to back ‘necessitate’; another gives
_eliminate_ as meaning _elicit_, or outdraw; a third calls a _failure_
of a rule an _exception_ from it. There is no EXCEPTION to a rule but
that which is _excepted_ from it at and in the downlaying of it. If a
man gives a simple rule ‘that if it rains on St. Swithin’s day it rains
forty days after it,’ and it did not so rain last year, the case is a
_breach_ or _failure_ of the rule, and not an _exception_ to it. He
gave no exception.
Some say ‘Mrs. A. has had _twins_’ or ‘Alfred was one of _twins_.’ A
twin is a _twain_, a _two_, or a couple of things of the same name or
kind; and twins of children must be at least four. I should say ‘Alfred
was one of _a_ twin.’ In the latter case it would be correct to say
‘There IS _one_ or a _twain_ of fat men,’ &c., in which _is_ would
match both.
One has written ‘ideas are _manufactured_.’ By whose hands? Another
talks of ‘a _dilapidated_ dress’; and a third has ‘found the stomach
of a big fish _dilapidated_.’ What are _lapides_? and what means
_delapido_?
A man has written of an old Tartar that he was ‘a _tameless_
gorilla’--a gorilla without a _tame_! as if _tame_ were a thing-name.
Another says ‘It imposed _absolute limits_ upon the choice of
positions.’ What are _absolute limits_ if absolute (from _absolvo_, to
offloosen) means offloosened from all check and all limits?
A man writes of ‘a photograph reproduced by a new permanent process.’
Is it the process or the sunprint that is permanent?
_Preposterous_, foreaft, as when what should be _præ_, foremost,
is put _post_ or behind; whereas a writer gives a structure as
‘preposterously overgrown,’ as if ‘preposterous’ meant only very much,
vastly.
One takes _irretrievable_ as nohow amended. If ‘retrieve’ is the French
_retrouver_ (to find again), ‘irretrievable’ would mean not to be found
again; and ‘the irretrievable defeat of the whole nation’ would be one
which they could not _find_ again, as most likely they would not wish
to find it.
Twy-meanings.
From want of words in English, or of care, our wording may seem to bear
two meanings, as ‘John played with Edwin, and broke his bat.’ The bat
of which boy?
‘One Robert Bone of Antony shot at a little bird sitting upon his cow’s
back, and killed it--the bird (I mean), not the cowe.’--_Carew._
Word-sameness (Synonyms).
Words of the same meaning are less often so than they are so called;
and we sometimes give lists of synonyms showing the differences of
their meanings.
A twin of words of one very same meaning is rather evil than good; and
if they are not of one very same meaning they should not be given as
such.
It may be that from a misunderstanding of the word _tautology_, as the
name of a bad kind of speech-trimming, men have often shunned the good
use of words.
The bad tautology from which speakers have been so frayed seems to be
the giving twice or many times, within one scope of thought-wording,
the same matter of speech in the same words.
It is true that it would not be good wording to say ‘John has sold
_John’s_ horse’ for ‘_his_ horse’ since the name-tokens are shapen to
stand for foregiven names.
But where the same foreused word would give a very clear--if not the
clearest--meaning, there seems to be little ground against the use of
it.
‘I bought a horse on Monday and a donkey on Tuesday, and sold the
_horse_ again at a gain on Thursday.’ Why should not the word _horse_
take the latter place as well as the word _steed_, or equine animal, or
‘more worthy beast’--or why should I not as well say, ‘An ass I want,
and an ass I will buy,’ as ‘An ass I want, and a donkey, or _it_ or
_him_, I will buy’?
It seems that much wrong is done to the Greek of the Gospel by the
putting, for the same Greek word, sundry English ones at sundry
passages; and by what right do we try an Evangelist’s or an Apostle’s
wisdom in the use of the same word, by which he must have meant to give
the same meaning? or why should we make him to mean by κρίσις, at one
time, a trying of a soul, and at another time a fordooming of him?
It is not any tautology to use near to each other a thing-name and a
mark-word which are only fellow stem-words, as ‘As _free_, and not
using your _freedom_ for a cloke of wickedness.’
2. Another care in speech-trimming is the choice of words for
their sound-sweetness (Gr. _euphony_) or well-soundingness, or for
speech-readiness.
_Past_, with the hissing _s_ with _t_, is less sound-good than
_after_; and _aqueduct_, with _ct_, is less well-sounding than
_waterlode_; nor is _cataract_ softer than _waterfall_.
The hereunder given wordings were lately heard in a law court:--
‘I can give you _one or two instances_ of remarkable intelligence in
the cases of fat men’; and
A Juror--‘There _are one or two fat men_ on the jury (laughter).’
Dr. K.--‘I don’t think there are.’
How should these cases be treated? In the first case, ‘one instances’
is a breach of word-matching, as would be ‘two instance’; and in the
latter, the word _one_ calls for _man_, and _two_ for _men_. May we not
better say, ‘I can give you at least one instance,’ or ‘I believe more
instances than one’?
‘A man who has already, and will still, render such services will be,’
&c. _Rendered_ is understood after _has_; but how may the thought be
worded without the two puttings of the word _render_? Thus: ‘a man who
will still be, as he has already been, found to render,’ &c.
_Penetrate_ means insink, inpierce. M. Gambetta writes, ‘After the
heroic examples given by open towns, and by villages only guarded by
their firemen, it is absolutely necessary that each town, each commune,
shall pay its debt to the national defence, and that all alike be
_penetrated_ by the task which is imposed upon France.’ It seems a
queer speech-wording to take a _task_ as a thing that _penetrates_,
though it might be undertaken.
A bad wording is often found with mark-words of the higher pitch, as
‘Alfred was more clever, but not so good, _as_ John.’ ‘Not so good’
is an inwedged word-cluster, but the word-setting is bad, as ‘more
clever’ calls for the word _than_, not _as_; and ‘so good’ wants _as_,
not _than_. It would be better to say ‘Alfred was more clever, but less
good, than John.’ To try the word-setting take out the wedge-words
(‘but not so good’), and you will have ‘Alfred was more clever _as_
John.’
_Dislike_ seems a bad word-shape. _Mislike_ is the old and true English
one. _Like_ is from _lic_, a shape, as _lich_, the body of a dead man.
‘It _liketh_ (licað) me well’ is ‘it _shapes_ itself (looketh) to me
well.’ ‘It _misliketh_ me’ is ‘it _misshapes_ itself to me’ (looks bad).
To _seem_ is from the thing-name--_sam_, _seam_, _seem_, body or
mass--and ‘it _seems_ to me’ is ‘it _bodies_ itself to me.’ ‘That ship
_seems_ to be a French one,’ or ‘that man _seems_ to be ill,’ _bodies_
itself or himself to be a French one or ill.
‘The house and the goods _were_ burnt’; but ‘the house with the goods
_was_ (not _were_) burnt,’ since it is only the house that is in the
speech-case, as the goods are in the mate-case. ‘The house _was_ burnt
with the goods.’
‘_One_ of the children _are_ come.’ No--_is_ come. The one only is come.
In our taking of time-words from the Latin in the shape of the past
participle, we get at last a queer shape of word. Take the Latin _reg-_
of _rego_, to reach or straighten, as a line, and our word _reck_. From
_reg_ comes _regtus_, _rectus_. Here the _t_ answers to our _d_ (German
_t_ of _ed_ and _et_). Then _rec-t_ answers to _reck’d_. Now put on
_ed_ to each, and _rec-t_ becomes _rec-t-ed_, as in _direc-t-ed_;
and _reck’d_ becomes _reck-d-ed_, showing that _directed_ is truly
_direg-ed-ed_, and too like _reck-ed-ed_, as ‘He _reck-ed-ed_ nought.’
We may often hear a man who is careful to speak good English say
‘This rose smells very sweetly,’ for sweet. The rose smells (gives
out smell) as being itself very sweet, not as smelling (taking in
smell) in a sweet way. To find which to use, the thing-markword or the
under-markword, put ‘_as being_’ after the time-word, as ‘This rose
smells (as being itself) _sweet_,’ not sweetly.
‘Can you smell now? you had, the other day, lost your smelling?’ ‘Yes,
I smell very _nicely_.’ Not I smell as being myself very _nice_. A rose
cannot smell any other thing, and so cannot smell it _nicely_.
‘Mary sings very _charmingly_,’ but ‘Mary looks very _charming_.’
‘John looks _pale_,’ but ‘John looks very _narrowly_ into that
gold-work.’
‘I can taste _well_,’ ‘That peach tastes _good_.’
To have seen a man at a bygone time would mean that the seeing was
before that bygone time; but we sometimes hear a man say, ‘I should
(yesterday) have been very glad to have seen you (if you had called
yesterday).’ That is, by wording, ‘I should have been very glad
(yesterday) to have seen you (at a time before yesterday),’ not to see
you yesterday; and yet that is what the speaker means. ‘I should have
been very glad (yesterday) to see you (yesterday),’ or ‘I should be
very glad to-day to have seen you yesterday.’
3. Odd word-shapes are not in the main choice-worthy.
Our time-word _go_ is of unwontsome conjugation, as its foretime shape
_went_ is not shapen from _go_, but is a shape of another word, _wend_.
So the forlessening name, _leveret_ for a _hareling_, and _cygnet_ for
a _swanling_, are unwontsome, as being words of another speech.
4. There is a greater or less freedom of _word-shifting_ (Gr.
_anastrophe_, up-shifting or back-shifting), as _up_ in ‘Fasten it _up_
well,’ ‘fasten it well _up_’; or _back_ in ‘He brought _back_ the saw,’
or ‘he brought the saw _back_’; ‘There is none to dispute _my right_,’
or ‘_my right_ there is none to dispute.’
Why should not English, like other tongues, more freely form words with
headings of case-words, as _downfalls_, _incomings_, _offcuttings_,
_outgoings_, _upflarings_, instead of the awkward falls-down,
comings-in, cuttings-off, goings-out, flare-ups; or _offcast_ (for
cast-off) clothes; or a _downbroken_ (for a broken-down) schoolmaster;
_outlock_ or _outlocking_ (for a lock-out); the _uptaking_ beam (for
the taking-up beam) of an engine?
Oddly-shapen or Oddly-taken Words.
Mongrel (hybrid) words, or words partly from one tongue and partly from
another.
Twy-speechwords are a sore blemish to our English, as they seem to show
a scantiness of words which would be a shame to our minds; as,
_Sub-warder_ for under-warder.
_Pseudo-sailor_ for sham-sailor.
_Ex-king_ for rodless or crownless king.
_Prepaid_ for forepaid.
_Bi-monthly_ for fortnightly or every fortnight.
Wordiness (Verbosity).
As ‘The train ran _with extraordinary velocity_,’ for ‘the train ran
_very fast_.’
‘Alfred did the business _with perfect fidelity_;’ for ‘Alfred did the
business _faithfully_.’
Thence much of the wordiness of our written, if not spoken, composition.
The ‘New York Times’ thus explains how it was that the flames got to
the roof in the burning of the Fifth Avenue Hotel:--‘Fire always is
aspirant, the sole exception being where incandescent masses fall down,
and so act as a medium of ignition.’
The hard breathing (aspirate) is often wrongly dropped or misput by
less good speakers; but, while the upper ranks laugh at them for their
mistakes, they themselves, like our brethren of Friesland and Holstein,
often drop it from words to which it of right belongs, and mainly from
the hard-breathed =W= or the Saxon =HW= (our =WH=).
What, _wat_ (Hols.)
When, _wanne_ (Fri.)
Where, _wâr_ (Fri.)
Wheel, _weel_ (Fri.)
Whelp, _welp_ (Fri.)
While, _wile_ (Fri.)
White, _wit_ (Fri.)
(It is bad.)
Shall we soon hear ‘Wet the ’ook with a wetstone’ for ‘Whet the hook
with a whetstone’?
Some Englishmen would say, ‘The ’ammer is on the hanvil’; and some have
been known to say, ‘’enry ’it ’orace with the ’ollow of ’is ’and,’ for
‘Henry hit Horace with the hollow of his hand.’
English mark-timewords (participles) are of two kinds--one of an
ongoing time-taking, as ‘the _rising_ sun’; and another of the ended
time-taking, as ‘the _risen_ sun’; and they are of a few sundry shapes,
some ending with _-en_, _-n_, as _broken_, and others ending with
_-ed_, _-d_; and some without an ending, as _cut_.
1. In _-en_, those which are of one breath-sound, and moulded so that
the bygone time-shape takes the sound (7) _o_[2]:--
[2] See Table of Sounds, p. 1.
Bore, borne.
Broke, broken.
Chose, chosen.
Clove, cloven.
Drove, driven.
Froze, frozen.
Rode, ridden.
Rose, risen.
Shore, shorn.
Smote, smitten.
Spoke, spoken.
Stole, stolen.
Strode, stridden.
Strove, striven.
Swore, sworn.
Tore, torn.
Throve, thriven.
Trode, trodden.
Wore, worn.
2. Some one-sounded and moulded time-words, of the sound (8) in the
shape for bygone time, take _-en_, _-n_; as,
Draw, drew, drawn.
Grow, grew, grown.
Know, knew, known.
Throw, threw, thrown.
Flow, flew, flown.
Slay, slew, slain.
Unmoulded time-words take _-ed_, but a few of them take _-ed_ or _-en_;
as,
Grave, graved, {graved,
{graven.
These following, as is shown by the Saxon, ought to take _-ed_ rather
than _-en_:--
Hew.
Rive.
Show.
_Shape_, _shave_, and _swell_ were in Saxon moulded, and thence took
_-en_.
There is a set of time-words which were weak, but are now endingless in
their mark-word shape. They ended with a roof-penning _-t_ or _-d_, and
the roof-penning of the ending _-ed_ ran at last into the roof-penning
of the stems in the way shown on p. 22, and their mark-word shapes are
the same as those for bygone time.
Cast.
Cost.
Cut.
Hit.
Let.
Put.
Rid.
Set.
Shoot.
Shut.
Split.
Spread.
Shed.
SHORTENED SHAPES (p. 23).
Bred.
Crept.
Dealt.
Fed.
Fled.
Left.
Lost.
Slept.
Sped.
Spilt.
Swept.
Wept.
One-sounded root time-words are mostly endingless in their mark-word
shape:--
Sing, sang, _sung_.
WORDS OF SPEECH-CRAFT, AND OTHERS, ENGLISHED.
WITH SOME NOTES.
=Ablative= (fromness case). The case of the source of the time-taking.
=Abnormal.= Unshapely, queer of shape, odd.
=Abrade.= To forfray, forfret. For _for-_ see For- hereafter.
=Absist.= Forbear.
=Absorb.= Forsoak.
=Absolute.= _Checkless_, freed or loosened from checks.
=Absolve.= To forfree-en, forloosen.
=Abstract= (in speech-craft). Unmatterly, not of matterly form.
=Accelerate.= To onquicken, quicken.
=Accent.= Word-strain, a strain of the voice, higher or lower, on a
breath-sound.
=Accessary.= A bykeeper, deedmate.
=Accidence.= The forshapenings of words for case, tale, time, mood, or
person.
=Accusative= (case). End-case, the case of a thing which is the end or
aim of a time-taking.
=Acephalous.= Headless.
=Acoustics.= Sound-lore, hearing-lore.
=Active.= Sprack (Wessex), doingsome, doughty.
=Active= (time-taking). One that can reach from the time-taker to
another thing; as, ‘to strike.’ John can strike another thing.
=Acute.= Sharp or high in sound.
=Adjective.= Thing-markword, mark-word.
=Adulation.= Flaundering, glavering.
=Adverb.= An under-markword.
=Adversative.= Thwartsome.
=Aerology.= Air-lore.
=Aeronaut.= Airfarer.
=Affirmation.= Foraying, or a _foryeaing_, not a _fornaying_; as, ‘Yes,
he is.’
=Agglutinate.= To upcleam, to cleam up.
=Aggregate.= The main, whole.
=Allative= (case). A name given by some writers to that of a thing at
which the time-taking is aimed (the aim case).
=Alienate.= To unfrienden.
=Allegory.= A forlikening.
=Alliteration.= Mate-pennings (_i.e._ Breath-pennings).
=Alone.= _All-án_, all-one:--‘Nen manniska buta God _al ena_.‘--W.
Friesic. ‘No man, but God all-one (alone.)’
=Altercation.= A brangle, brangling, brawling.
=Ambiguous.= Twy-sided, twy-meaning:--‘Alfred was struck as he was
walking with a stout stick.’ _Struck_ or _walking_ with a stick?
(twy-sided.) ‘Those shoes were made before the man that made them.’
_Before_ in time, or _before_ not behind?
=Amicable.= Friendly:--‘We have lived in amicable relations’ (friendly,
in friendliness).
=Amphibious.= Twy-breath’d, twy-aired: by lungs and gills.
=Amphibology.= A twy-casting, a wording of two meanings.
=Amphimacrum.= Long sidelings, long end-sounds. A foot (in verse) of
one short sound between two long ones, or of a low sound between two
high ones; as, Tó and fró.
=Amputate.= Forcarve.
=Anachronism.= A mistiming.
=Anagram.= A letter-shuffling; as, out of ‘name’ to
1234
make ‘mane,’ or of ‘march’ to make ‘charm.’
3214
=Analysis.= A forloosening or unmaking of a word or wording, or any
thing, into its sundry clear pieces.
=Anastrophe.= A word-shifting; as, ‘Fasten it _up well_,’ ‘Fasten it
_well up_.’ ‘He brought _back_ the horse,’ or ‘He brought the horse
_back_.’ ‘There is none to dispute _my right_,’ or ‘_My right_ there is
none to dispute.’
Anastrophe affords a case
Of the shifting of words from place to place.
=Ancestor.= Fore-elder, kin-elder.
=Animate.= To quicken.
=Annals.= Year-bookings.
=Annihilate.= To fornaughten.
=Anniversary.= Year-day.
=Annuity.= Year-dole.
=Antanaclasis.= Twy-hitting on a word:--‘If _shape_ that was which had
no _shape_.’ ‘It is the best _art_ that conceals _art_.’
By antanaclasis is heard
Aloud once more a former word.
=Anodyne.= Pain-dunting, pain-dilling. (_Dill_, _-n_, to dunt, to
soothe.)
=Anomalous.= Odd-shaped, oddly shapen.
=Antepenultimate= (breath-sound). Last but two.
=Anticipate.= To foreween, foretake.
=Antique.= Ancient, _fore_old, _ere_old. _Old_ for things in being,
_fore_old or _ere_old for things forgone.
=Antithesis.= An atsetting.
=Antonomasia.= Name-shunning, the marking of a man by other words than
his name; as, ‘The honourable member for A.,’ instead of ‘Mr. B.’
=Aphæresis.= Foredocking of a word; as, _pothecary_ for _apothecary_,
_nob_ for _knob_.
=Aphorisms.= Thought-cullings.
=Apocope.= End-lopping; as _mortal_ for _mortalis_, _send_ for
_send-an_.
=Apodosis.= The hank time-taking to a hinge one (_protasis_):--‘If ye
ask (hinge), ye shall receive (hank).’
=Aposiopésis.= A tongue-checking; as, ‘Do you think----but I reck not
what you think.’
=Apostrophe.= An offturning.
=Appellative= (name). A call-name.
=Appendix.= Hank, hank-matter.
=Apposition.= A twy-naming, a putting of two names for one thing; as,
‘The dog Toby.’
=Aptote.= Casemarkless.
=Aqueduct.= Waterlode.
=Arbitrator.= Daysman (Job ix. 33).
=Armistice.= A weapon-staying, weapon-stay, war-pause.
=Articulation.= Breath-penning.
=Aspirate.= A breathing, hard breathing.
=Assimilate.= To make of the same _sam_ (form of matter) or _lic_
(bodily form of a thing). To assimilate food, to forselfen it, to make
it into a man’s self.
=Asylum= has with us widely shifted its first meaning. An _asylon_ was
a sanctuary where a man was _asylos_, not to be pulled away (from _a_,
_sylao_) by a foe. Now it often means a place whence a man cannot get
away.
=Asyndeton.= Linklessness. The putting of words without link-words; as,
‘Faith, hope, charity,’ for ‘Faith _and_ hope _and_ charity.’
Asyndeton puts side by side
Strong words, by ne’er a linkword tied.
=Atmosphere.= Welkin-air.
=Attraction.= A _fordrawing_, a drawing of a word out of its true case
or tale by another word to which it is nearer than to the one which it
should match; as, ‘Neither of the men _are_ (for _is_) come.’ Where the
time-word would most likely have been drawn into the somely shape by
its nearness to men.
Attraction may be _misdrawing_.
=Augment.= An eking, eking on or out.
=Auxiliary.= Outeking or helping.
=Be-= (a fore-eking, meaning _by_, _to_, _about_). _Bebutton_ a coat,
to put buttons to it; _becloke_ school-children, give them clokes;
_becloud_, obnubilate; _beflood_, inundate; _behem_, bebound or
circumscribe; _bereek_, fumigate.
=Belligerent.= War-waging.
=Bibulous.= Soaksome.
=Bicornous.= Twy-horned.
=Bidental.= Two-teeth, two-teethed.
=Bilateral.= Two-sided:--‘These articles would be considered a public
_bilateral_ contract, and would form the subject of an agreement
with the Powers having Catholic subjects.’ _Bilateral_ contract is
put for _bipartite_, a contract by or between two sides, or of men
of two sides; but it would seem that the Romans did not call the two
sides in a contract or cause _latera_, but _partes_--‘Parte utrâque
auditâ.’--_Plin. Jun._
_Latera_ are the sides of a body or space.
=Binocular.= Two-sighted.
=Bipennated= (as an axe). Twy-bladed.
=Botany.= Wortlore.
=Cardinal= (numbers). Tale-numbers; as, one, two, three.
=Catachresis.= A misuse (of a word); as, an _iron milestone_; a
_parricide_ for one who has killed his mother; _dilapidated_ for a
ragged coat.
=Chemistry.= Matter-lore, the science of matter.
=Chronology.= Time-lore.
=Cinereous.= Ash-grey.
=Circular= (a trade-circular). A touting-sheet or -bill.
=Circumference.= Rim, rimreach.
=Circumflex.= A roundwinding, a winding of the voice up and down again.
=Clause.= A word-cluster in a thought-wording.
=Cognate.= Kin, akin. _Cognate_ breath-pennings; as, =T=, =D=, both on
the roof.
=Collective= (name). That of a cluster or a many or a body of single
things; as, a club, a herd.
=Colon.= Gr. _kōlon_, a limb or member. A mark for a limb, or marked
share of a thought-bewording.
=Colophon.= Book-end.
=Comma.= Gr. _komma_, a cut or share. A mark for the offcutting of
small shares of a discourse.
=Complement.= An _upfilling_ or _outfilling_ in words.
=Compound.= Clustered or a cluster, a clustered word, as _horseman_, or
a thought-wording of two or more smaller ones.
=Concord.= A matching.
=Concrete.= Matterly.
=Conditional= (mood). Hinge-mood (p. 34).
=Conjugation= (of a time-word). The forfitting of it, the fortrimming
of it.
=Conjunction.= A link-word.
=Conjunctive.= Linked, byholding.
=Consonant.= A letter for any breath-penning.
=Construction.= A word-setting, speech-trimming (see p. 36).
=Contraction.= An updrawing:--_I’ll_ for I will, _sinn’d_ for sinnèd.
=Co-ordinate.= Rank-mate, row-mate.
=Copula.= A link or bond.
=Correlative= (words). Mate-words.
=Crasis.= Sound-blending, sound-welding.
=Dactyl.= Gr. _daktylos_. A foot (in verse) of one long and two short
sounds, or of one high and two low sounds, as _cheerily_.
=Dative.= Giving.
=Deciduous= (plant). Fallsome. (Does it mean that only the leaves
fall, or that the whole stem falls?) An elm is summer-green or leaved,
and winter-sear. Holly is ever-green or winter-leaved. Parsley or the
nettle is summer-stemm’d and winter-fallsome.
=Decimate.= To tithe:--‘Breech-loading rifles would so decimate
columns.’ _Decimate_ (_decimo_, from _decem_, ten, in Latin) was to
take for death every tenth man of a body that had behaved very badly.
The word _decimate_ is now used very loosely, as meaning to cut up.
=Defective.= Wanting of something of its kind.