_Misapplication of Terms_ (Vol. ix., p. 44.).--I cannot pretend to set up
my judgment against that of MR. SQUEERS, who has in his favour the
proverbial wisdom of the Schools. Riddle, however, who I believe is an
authority, gives the word LEGO no such meaning as "to hearken." If Plautus
uses the word in that sense, as it is an uncommon one, the passage should
have been quoted, or a reference given. The meaning of {362} the word
appears to be "to collect, run over, see, read, choose." In justification
of my criticism, and in reply to MR. SQUEERS, I shall quote Horne Tooke's
remark, in speaking of "[Greek: ta deonta], or things which ought to be
done;" _Div. Purley_, Pt. II. ch. viii. (vol. ii. pp. 499-501., edit.
1849):
"The first of these, LEGEND, which means _That which ought to be read_,
is, from the early misapplication of the term by impostors, now used by
us as if it meant, _That which ought to be laughed at_. And so it is
explained in our Dictionaries."
At the hazard of being again deemed hypercritical, while on this subject,
_the misapplication of terms_, I must question the correctness of the
phrase "_Under_ the _circum_stance." A thing must be _in_ or _amidst_ its
_circum_-stances; it cannot be _under_ them. I admit the commonness of the
expression, but it is not the less a solecism. Can you inform me when it
was introduced? I hope it is not old enough to be considered inveterate.
The best authors write "in the circumstances;" and yet so prevalent is the
anomaly, that in a very respectable periodical, not long since, the French
"_dans_ les circonstances presentes," given as a quotation, is rendered
"_Under_ the present circumstances."