"Etymological" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... of Cuglas (now Baltinglass, in the County of Wicklow). It is about this cave, nevertheless, that so many of our pretended Irish antiquarians have written so much nonsense in connection with some imaginary pagan worship to which they gravely assure the world, on etymological authority, the spot was devoted. The authority for the legend of Cuglas is the Dinnoean Chus on the place Bealach Conglais (Book of Lecain). The full tale has ...
— The Golden Spears - And Other Fairy Tales • Edmund Leamy
... will tell us that the three names of this important pedigree—Constans, Constantius, and Constantinus, have no etymological connexion with the substantive Constantia; in other words, that Constans does not mean the constant Man, just as prudens means the prudent, or sapiens the wise. No such signification will account for the forms in -ius and -inus. To this it may be added that the ...
— The Ethnology of the British Islands • Robert Gordon Latham
... dithyrambic, like the dithyrambus, that is, the wild choral-singing of the worshippers of Dionysus. But Dithyrambus seems to have been, in the first instance, the name, not of the hymn, but of the god to whom the hymn is sung; and, through a tangle of curious etymological speculations as to the precise derivation of this name, one thing seems clearly visible, that it commemorates, namely, the double birth of the vine-god; that [26] he is born once and again; his birth, first of fire, and afterwards of dew; the two dangers ...
— Greek Studies: A Series of Essays • Walter Horatio Pater
... We do not mean to imply that there is any close etymological relation between these two uses ...
— The Faith of the Millions (2nd series) • George Tyrrell
... insinuate that when he lived at home with his papa and mamma he was surrounded by bad models, or, in plain English, that his parents were vulgar or ignorant people; when you say that he writes bad grammar, or is guilty of glaring solecisms, or displays want of etymological knowledge, you insinuate that his education was neglected, or that he has not associated with correct speakers. Usually, too, you do all this in the most provoking way by selecting passages from his writings on which he probably prided himself, and separating them totally from the thought of which ...
— Reflections and Comments 1865-1895 • Edwin Lawrence Godkin
... been added some footnotes, in which difficult points are discussed and where reference is given to recent authorities. All editorial additions, whether in the text or in the notes, are enclosed in square brackets. It is hoped that the book as it now stands does not contain in its etymological details anything inconsistent with the latest discoveries of ...
— On the Study of Words • Richard C Trench
... Why is a word divided into syllables? For the purpose of showing their proper pronunciation and etymological composition. ...
— 1001 Questions and Answers on Orthography and Reading • B. A. Hathaway
... carefully did he read the newspapers, but nothing appeared in their columns to alarm him; merely an occasional perfunctory paragraph about the Cornwall murder. The favourite adjective in the journalistic etymological garden was culled for the heading, and it was described as an amazing case. Charles felt that the definition was correct enough. Early developments were faithfully promised—by the newspaper. Charles understood very well what ...
— The Moon Rock • Arthur J. Rees
... that he ever saw. Lord Cheyne (Viscount Newhaven) married the Dowager Duchess of Radnor, who was at that time living in Radnor House. After the death of the first Earl, the family name is recorded as Roberts in the registers, an instance of the etymological carelessness of the time. In Radnor House was one of the pillared arcades fashionable in the Jacobean period, of which a specimen is still to be seen over the doorway of the dining-room in the Queen's House. On the first floor was a remarkably fine fireplace, ...
— Chelsea - The Fascination of London • G. E. (Geraldine Edith) Mitton
... people who still remembered that ill was an adjective, the shortened form of evil, out of which Shakespeare and the translators of the Bible ventured to make evilly. This slurred evil is 'the dram of eale' in 'Hamlet.' I find, illy in Warner. The objection to illy is not an etymological one, but simply that it is contrary to good usage,—a very sufficient reason. Ill as an adverb was at first a vulgarism, precisely like the rustic's when he says, 'I was treated bad.' May not the reason of this exceptional form be looked ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... river north of the equator, (the Niger,) of which the termination is unknown, and which may, perhaps, form the principal branch of the Congo. These, in truth, are the only grounds upon which the present supposition can be fairly said to rest. Arguments founded upon etymological conjectures, supposed resemblances of names, or affinity of languages, &c. &c., are, for the most part, too arbitrary and fanciful, and liable to too much uncertainty to be entitled to any place in disquisitions ...
— The Journal Of A Mission To The Interior Of Africa, In The Year 1805 • Mungo Park
... sanctuary). Although averse to any unnecessary change in the received orthography of proper names, we have adopted M. Huc's mode of spelling, in the case of the capital of Thibet, as there appear to be etymological reasons ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 • Various
... to find a place or work called after an individual, because it may help to support some tradition of his existence or his actions. But it is requisite that care be taken not to push the etymological dissection too far. Thus, "Caer Arianrod" should be taken simply as the "Camp of Arianrod," and not rendered the "Camp of the silver circle," because the latter, though it might possibly have something to do with the reason for ...
— The Mabinogion • Lady Charlotte Guest
... as thus related by descent or cognation, do not always agree in sense; for it is incident to words, as to their authors, to degenerate from their ancestors, and to change their manners when they change their country. It is sufficient, in etymological inquiries, if the senses of kindred words be found such as may easily pass into each other, or such as may both be ...
— Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books - with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations • Charles W. Eliot |
