_The Word "rather."_--The word _rather_ is, as far as I know (if I am
wrong, perhaps some of your correspondents will correct me) a solitary
instance in our language of a comparative regularly formed from a positive
which is now obsolete. In the _Cant. Tales_, v. 13029., we find the
positive form:
"What aileth you so _rathe_ for to arise;"
where _rathe_ means "early, soon."
The earliest use of the comparative degree which I can find, is in a piece
of Anglo-Norman poetry preserved in Hickes's _Thesaurus_, and given in
Ellis's _Specimens_, vol. i. p. 73.:
"The chrystal turneth into glass
In state that it _rather_ was."
Here we have the adverbial form; but in Chaucer's _Troilus and Creseide_,
iii. 1342., we find the adjectival form:
"But now to purpose of my _rather_ speech,"
where, according to the principle laid down by Dr. Latham, in his _English
Language_, p. 262., 2nd edit., we should, I suppose, pronounce it
_rayther_.
This word has sustained various modifications of meaning, but they are in
general easily deducible from the original signification: _e.g._ the phrase
"I had _rather_" is easily explained, as far as the word _rather_ is
concerned; for that which we do more quickly, we do preferably. But in such
expressions as "I am _rather_ tired," equivalent to "I am a little tired,"
the explanation is not so obvious. In this case _rather_ seems to mean "In
greater degree than otherwise." Now, in such sentences as "I am glad you
are come, _the rather_ that I have work for you to do," _rather_ seems to
require the signification "in a greater degree;" and may we not therefore
explain the case in question as an elliptical expression for "rather than
not?" If {283} so, is it not a solitary instance of such a construction in
our language? Perhaps some of your correspondents can inform me, at what
period this use of the word was introduced; for it is doubtless a modern
innovation.