A.

A-AN-THE. In popular speech the article frequently coalesces so closely with its substantive, especially when it begins with a vowel, that the two virtually become one word, and it sometimes happens, when the two are sundered again in being committed to writing, that a fragment of the aggluti nated article adheres to the substantive, or a portion of the substantive is carried away by the article. This especially applies to unusual or learned words. Speak to a rustic of an amethyst, an anagram, an epic, an oxytone, and it is an even chance whether he does not, on being required, write those words a namethyst, a nanagram, a nepic, a noxytone. It is equally doubtful whether, on the other hand, a narcotic, a narwhal, a nimbus, a nuncio, will not be to him an arcotic, an arwhal, an imbus, an uncio. Similarly aluminum, affray, amalgam, alarum, apothecary, academy, sound to uneducated ears undistinguishable from a luminum, a fray, a malgum, a larum, a pothecary, a cademy.

Many of these popular errors are now stereotyped in the language. Everybody writes a newt instead of an ewt, which was originally the correct form; a nickname, instead of an ekename; and again, by the opposite mistake, an adder instead of a nadder, an auger instead of a nauger, an apron instead of a napron, an orange instead of a norange, an umpire instead of a numpire.

Similar coalitions of the article are

observable in French and other languages.

In old texts and MSS. these phenomena are of frequent occurrence. For example, Palsgrave (1530) has: "Hec insula, a nylle; hec acra, a nakyre; hic remus, a nore; hec ancora, a nankyre." In Wright's Vocabularies we find: "He can romy as a nasse; "he can lowe as a noxe" (p. 151); "hoc pollicium, a nynche, hic oculus, a nie (p. 206); "hec auris, a nere; hoc ostrium, a nostyre" (p. 179); "hec simea, a nape; hec aquila, a neggle; hic lutricius, a notyre (p. 220); anguilla, a neele.

In William of Palerne we find no neiz, no negg, for non eiz, none egg; thi narmes for thine armes; a noynement for an oynement.

In the Three Metrical Romances (Camden Soc.) we meet a nayre = an heir, a nanlasan anlas, a noke = an oak.

In the Holderness dialect t', the definite article, commonly becomes blended with the word it accompanies. And so with the indefinite article; not only such forms as "a nawd man (an old man) may be heard, but even occasionally "two nawd men " (Holderness Glos sary, Eng. Dialect Soc. p. 5). In infantile speech the same is observable. A child informed that he might have an egg for breakfast, begs that he may have "two neggs." Compare the following:The tother was 3alowere thene the 3olke of a

паце.

Morte Arthure, 1. 3283 (E.E.T.S.). [i.e. an aye, an egg.]

A napys mow men savne he makes.
The Boke of Curtasye (in Way, Prompt.
Parv. p. 346).

[i.e. an ape's mouth.]

To here of Wisdome thi neres be halfe defe, Like a Nasse that lysteth upon an Harpe. Hermes Bird (Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum, p. 222).

The 15th century MS. (Ashmole, 48) has A narrowe, Anarchar, Anowar, for An archer, arrow, hour.

"He set a napyll upon a yron yarde" (hence the name of Naples!).-Thoms, Early Prose Romances, ii. 49. On the other hand, egromancy (for negromancy) occurs Id. p. 52.

Another way.-Maundevile, Voiage, p. 126 (ed. Halliwell).

He sente to hem a nother seruaunt.-Wycliffe, Mark xii. 4.

Bake hem in a novyn. - MS. in Way, Prompt. Parv.

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Whenne thys werre ys at A nende. Sege of Rone, Egerton MS. (Percy Folio MS. iii. p. xliv.).

"What 'ave you got there?" asked Mac. A nerring! !" said Benny.—Froggy's Little Brother, p. 62.

It was the boast of an Oxford guide that he "could do the alls, collidges, and principal hedifices in a nour and a naf" (Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, pt. i. ch. v.).

Coalitions of this description are not uncommon in the Manx dialect of the Keltic. Beside the borrowed words naim, an uncle, for yn eam, old Eng. an eam; naunt, an aunt; neeinfan, an infant, we find nastee, a gift, for yn astee; neean, the young of birds, for yn eean; Nerin, Ireland, for yn Erin; Niar, the East, for yn ar; noash, a custom, for yn oash; noi, against, for yn oai, the front; nest, the moon, for yn eayst; and, on the other hand, yn edd, a nest (as if an est), for yn nedd (Gaelic nead); yn eear, the West, for yn neear; but niurin, hell, for yn iurin.

Compare in Italian aspo and naspo, abisso and nabisso, astro and nastro, inferno and ninferno, astrico and lastrico ; Catalon. ansa and nansa; old Span. leste, for l'este, the East (Minsheu); Wall. égrimancien, from nécromancien (Diez).

The name of the village of Nezero in Northern Greece is derived from ezero,

the Bulgarian word for a lake, near which it is situated, together with the prefix n, which is the termination of the accusative case of the Greek article attached to the noun. Similar instances are found in Nisvoro, the modern form of the ancient Isboros, Negropont, from Egripo, the corruption of Euripus, the full form having been ἐς τὸν Εζερον, ἐς τὸν Ισβερον, &c. ; Stanco, ἐς τὴν Κῶ, Stalimene, ἐς τὴν Λήμνον, the modern names of Lemnos and Cos.

Again, in plural names, the s of the article becomes prefixed, as in Satinas, formerly the ordinary name for Athens, 1.ε. ἐς τὰς ̓Αθήνας, while here again the full form may be seen in στοὺς στύλους, the peasant's name for the remains of the Temple at Bassæ, in Arcadia, i.e. The Pillars (Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. ii. p. 42).

It is owing to a similar cause, probably, that in modern Etruria many ancient place-names beginning with a vowel now are written with an initial n-e.g. Norchia, anciently Orchia, Horchia, and Orcle, so Nannius for Annius, Nanna for Anna (Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. i. p. 204, ed. 1878).

The "natural vowel " ú, as in "the book," pronounced very quick (Glossic dhu), may be e, a, or u in print (Dr. J.A. H. Murray, Grammar of W. Somerset, E.D.S.); and so any short vowel at the beginning of a word might come to be mistaken for the indefinite article ǎ (e.g. old Eng. ydropsy for a dropsy, isciatica for a sciatica), or to be merged in the definite article the which preceded it (e.g. old Eng. the esample, thesample, the sample).

Thus old Scotch bism, bysyme occur in G. Douglas for abysm, Fr. abysme.

The Duchess of Norfolk, writing to Pepys in 1681, speaks of "ten or a leven peses" of Scotch plaid (Pepys' Correspondence).

"Your papa ain't a 'Piscopal," says a New England speaker in Mrs. Stowe's Poganuc People, "he don't have a 'lumination in his meeting-house." Compare old Fr. li vesque for li evesques, It. vescovo, from episcopus.

Barouns and Burgeis and Bonde-men also I sauz in fat Semble as 3e schul heren heraftur.

Vision of P. Plowman, A. Prol. 1. 97.

p. 95.

The Sun and the Mune was in the clips betwixt nin and ten in the morning and was darkish abut three quarters of a nour.-Register of St. Andrew's, Newcastle, Sept. 13, 1699 (Burns, Parish Registers, p. 192).

To the same cause perhaps is due the loss of an initial vowel in many mod. Greek words, e.g. rò orpidi, the oyster, for οἰστρίδιον; τὸ φίδι, the snake, for ὀφίδιον; τὸ λάδι, the oil, for ἐλάδιον; ή γίδα, the goat, for αἰγίδιον ; ξίδι, vinegar, for ὀξύδιον ; σπίτι, house, for ὀσπίTOV, Lat. hospitium (compare old Eng. spital for hospital). Compare Italian nemico, pitaffio, ragno, vangelo, vena, oats (Florio), for inemico, epitaffio, aragno, evangelo, avena.

§ The agglutination of the definite article, the, le, with its substantive, was so complete in old English and old French that the two were generally written and printed as one word. For example, in a letter of "Edward par la grace de dieu Roi Dengleterre Seigneur Dirlaunde et Ducs Daquitaine " to "le Priour de Labbaye de Westmoster," directed against vagabond monks, and dated "le xxiij jour de May lan de nostre regne tierz," we find lestat (l'état) and leyde (la aide).-Quoted in Stanley, Memoirs of Westminster Abbey, p. 537.

The title of a book published about 1508 is

Les présentes Heures à lusage de Rouan . auec... .. les figures de lapocalipse,. et aultres hystoires faictes à lantique (in Nisard, Hist. des Livres Populaires, ii. 290).

In the Oregon jargon spoken along the Columbia River, lamestin, medicine, is from Fr. la médicine; lalan, tongue, for la langue; litan, teeth, for les dents; lakles, for la grasse; lawie for la vieille (Wilson, Prehistoric Man, vol. ii. pp. 587, 588).

Caxton has thincarnacion (Polychronicon, 1482, p. 1); thapostles (Id.); thende, thabbay (Godfrey of Boloyne, last page); thangel, thadvent, "thabyte of a monk," thentent, therthe, thepyphanye, thistorie, thonour, thospytal, &c.

Talde lazhe, th' old law, occurs in Orminn, about 1200, vol. ii. p. 280; "towd hen." the old hen, was a popu

A-AN-THE

lar name for the eagle of the lectern in Chester Cathedral.

Nowe let the women also praye after theample of the men.-N. Udall, Trans. Paraph. of Erasmus, 1549.

"You would have vs uppon thipp, would you?" [i.e. the hip]. — Sir Thomas More, MS. Harl. 7368, fol. 8. Tusser (1580) has thencrease for the encrease, thend for the end.

Chaucer speaks of "Daniel in therrible cave (Man of Laws Tale, 1. 4893, ed. Wright), which recalls the song of a norrible tale," popular some twenty years ago.

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The Cumberland folk say " Twether an' twasps hes spoilt o' trasps" [the weather and the wasps have spoiled all the rasps].-Dickinson, Glossary, p. vi.

The natives of the Teme Valley, Herefordshire, commonly pronounce the as thun. Thus "thun Orchard," "thun Ash,' "thun Oak," "thun Hole," farms which have since become "the Norchard," "the Nash,' "the Noke," and "the Knoll" farms (N. and Q. 5th S. ii. 197).

So "Atten ale.”— Vision concerning Piers the Plowman, Pass I. 1. 43, Text C. (in some MSS. atte nale, and at the nale occurs in Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 6931), is to be analyzed into at, ten (or then), the dative of the article, and ale (=alehouse). So at the nende is for at then end; and compare surnames like Attenborough; atte noke, atte norchard, are also found for at then oke, at then orcharde.

A similar corruption is the tone, the tother, from that one, that other, where t is the sign of the neuter gender, as in tha-t, i-t (cf. Lat. d in i-d, quo-d, illu-d). -Skeat, Notes to Piers the Plowman, p. 8, and p. 118.

The initial letter changes in Celtic words, it has been pointed out by Lord Strangford (Letters and Papers, p. 182), were merely phonetic originally, and now have been raised to a grammatical value by the art of writing, which fixed them. That acute philologist remarks: "An Irish eclipse' is merely this: suppose modern Greek unwritten, and taken down for the first time as Irish was once taken down, τὸν τόπον, τὴν Tóλiv, tondópo, timbóli, or todópo, tibóli, if you choose, for no Greek conceives the

alternatives to be other than the same thing. Literary fashion may separate them, when first written, as to ndopo, ti mboli; and grammarians, improving on it, and seeking to show the original letter and the pronunciation at once, may write to d-topo and ti b-poli; thus people would ultimately cease to recognize the d and b as part of the article. This is a pure, genuine Irish eclipse. So, in Welsh, you may call pen, a head, fy mhen, my head, grammatical permutation; but it is really merely phonetic in origin, min or mim mhen for min pen (meina penna); which min, I believe, is actually found."

Lord Strangford remarks that in Albanian imiri, tmirit, tamiraną, &c., are inflectional forms of the word mir, good, and that these initial changes cannot possibly be other than "the stiffened dead remains of a prefixed article, once a separate word " (Letters and Papers, p. 145).

§ A curious instance of two words, when pronounced, running together and leading to a misunderstanding, occurred a few years ago in the House of Commons. A member, in supporting the Royal Titles Bill, spoke of "this legitimate and reasonable proposal." The Speaker, catching the words as "legitimate an' dreasonable," and thinking, with Soto in the play (Women Pleased, iv. 1)

There's a strange parlous T before the reason, A very tall T, which makes the word high

treason,

A-AN-THE

E.E.T.S. p. 336), "Priests say high mass, where the n of the previous word has got attached to hyze.

In an inventory of 1519 occurs "fuschan in appules" for "fustian o' Naples" (Peacock, Church Furniture, p. 200).

The colloquial French phrase, être en age, to be in a great perspiration, stands for être en nage, as if "to be in a swim" (Larchey, Scheler).

In the Creole patois, similarly, zanneau is for des anneaux; zébe for des herbes; zoreie for des oreilles; divin, wine, for du vin (J. J. Thomas, Creole Grammar).

Tawdry, originally gaudy like the goods sold at St. Awdry's fair, has appropriated the t of Saint, as in the old church- and street-names, Tabb's (St. Ebb's), Tann's, (St. Ann's), Tantolin's (St. Antholin's), Tooley (St. Olave).

So to before the infinitive is in old English often agglutinated.

He ne myghte out of his herte throwe This merueillous desyr, his wyf tassaye, Needlees, god wot, he thoughte hir for taffraye.

Chaucer, Clerkes Tale, 1. 450.

In Vision of P. Plowman, A. ix. 20, one MS. has a tom for at hom, at home.

In the same poem we read of A Castel of Kuynde I-mad of foure skynnes pinges. Pass. X. 1. 2 (MS. H. 2). i.e.foures kynnes, of four kinds of things.

The surname Nolt was originally atten-holt, At the wood, like Atwood, Atwell, Attenborough; Nash for attenash, Nalder for atten-alder; so Tash from "at th'Ash," Thynne from "at th'Inne" (Bardsley, Romance of the London Directory, p. 45).

The plain of Nasor (1 Maccabees xi. 67) is a mistake for Asor (= Hazor), due to the final n of the preceding word in the Greek (LXX.) version, “ τὸ πεδίον Naoop," having become attached to it (Bib. Dict. ii. 466). Similarly Eusebius has ἐστιν Ουράθ for ἐστι Νοοράθ, " it is Naarath" (1d. p. 453).

Lough Corrib, in Ireland, would be more correctly Loch Orrib, but the two words got glued together, and, when parted, one carried away a portion of the other (Joyce, i. 158).

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ABACOT, a word given in almost every Eng. dictionary, from Phillips downwards, with the meaning, a cap of estate in the form of two crowns worn by the kings of England," and so in Spelman, Glossarium, 1664, and Baker, Chronicle, 1641, who apparently took it from Holinshed (ed. A. Fleming), 1587. Dr. J. A. H. Murray has shown that this abacot is a corruption (probably under the influence of Lat. abacus, Fr. abaque) of an older form abococket (in Hall, 1550), which again is merely a bococket, run together into one word, or rather a bycocket or bycoket (Fabyan, Chron. 1494, p. 654). Old Eng. by cocket is from old Fr. bicoquet, biquoquet, a military cap, a diminutive of old Fr. bicoque. Compare Sp. bicoquin, a cap with two points (The Athenaeum, Feb. 4, 1882, p. 157). These latter words are perhaps akin to cock, a projection; then abacot would be just "a bi-cocked" (hat).

ABÉE (Fr.), the aperture through which the water flows that puts a mill in motion, has originated in la bée, the opening (from béer, to be open), being mistaken for l'abée (Scheler). Compare Prov. Fr. (Berry) "mettre à la coi" (in shelter) for à l'acoie, or à l'écoi (Littré, Hist. de la Langue Française, i. 127).

ABROSTINO (It.), a sort of wild grape, is for labrostino, from Lat. labruscum (Diez), the being dropped as if belonging to the article.

ADDER stands for a nadder (Scot. a nether), misunderstood as an adder, old Eng. naddere, neddere, A. Sax. nodre, Icel. naor, Goth. nadrs, probably derived from Lat. natrix (swimmer), a water-snake, whence also Ir. nathair, a snake, Welsh nadr (see W. Stokes, Irish Glosses, p. 46). Benfey connects the word with Sansk. root snâ, to bathe, which is, indeed, common to Lat. nare, to swim, and natrix.

Neddyr, or eddyr. Serpens. Parv.

Prompt.

AHPROIE

Robert of Gloucester says of Ire land:

Nedres ny oper wormes ne mow her be no3t.-Chronicle, p. 43.

AGOSTA, or aragosta, a name in the Adriatic for the langouste, or cray-fish (Palinurus vulgaris), the initial 7 being mistaken for the article. See LONGOYSTER, p. 222.

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ALBATROS, formerly spelt algatros, Sp. alcatraz, a sea-bird, originally the pelican, in the sense of a watercarrier," stands for Arab. al-qátus, "the-watervessel," from (Arab.) al, the, + (Greek) kádos, a water-vessel (Devic).

ALCOVE, Fr. alcove, Sp. alcoba, Portg. alcova, from Arab. al-qobba, "thecloset." Etymologically, therefore, if we say "the alcove," the expression is tautological; just as an alkali" (Arab. al-qali) is equivalent to "an the-kali," and "the Alcoran (Arab. al-qorán, "the reading") is "the the-Coran."

Similar formations involving the Arabic article are ALCHEMY, from Arab. al-kimiâ; ALCOHOL, from Arab. al-kohl; ALEMBIC, from Arab. al-anbik; ALGEBRA, from Arab. al-jabr; ALMANACK, apparently from Arab. al-manakh.

The Arabic article al is latent in Sp. achaque, illness; acibar, aloe-tree; azofar, brass; azogue, quicksilver; azucena, lily. It appears more plainly in Sp. alacran, scorpion; alarde, a review; albornoz, mantle; alboroto, riot; alcabala, alcaide, &c.

ALLIGATOR contains a coalescent article, formerly spelt alagartoe, standing for Sp. el lagarto, "the lizard.”

ALUMELLE (Fr.), old Fr. alemelle, owe their initial a to the article, and should properly be la lumelle, la lemelle (misunderstood as l'alemelle), from Lat. lamella, i.e. laminula, a dimin. of lamina (Scheler). See OMELET below.

AMMUNITION, an Eng. form of old Fr. amunition, which seems to be due to a popular misunderstanding of la munition as l'amunition (Skeat, Etym. Dict. p. 777).

AMPROIE (Prov. Fr. Wallon), a lamprey, is from Fr. lamproie (understood as l'amproie), Sp. and Portg. lamprea, It. lampreda, Lat. lampetra (Littré).