H. Nor does it so signify. hlardig signifies and is merely lofty, i. e, raised or exalted: her birth being intirely out of the question; the wife following the condition of the husband. But I wish you here to observe, that the past participle of the verb blirian, besides LOAF, LORD, and LADY, has furnished us with two other supposed substantives: viz. LIFT (Lyft) and LOFT. The former of these, LIFT, is not used at present in England; but, I am told, is still common in Scotland. "With that the dow "Heich in the LIFT full glaide he gan behald." Douglas, booke 5, pag. 144. "Under the LIFT the maist gentyl rieure." Douglas, booke 8, pag. 241. "the reason why our noble and principall men came to be ❝honoured in the name of Laford, which now is LORD, and " even the like in corespondence of reason must appeare in this "name of leafdian, the feminine of Laford: the first syllable "whereof being anciently written hleaf and not hlaf, must not "therefore alienate it from the like nature and sense; for that "only seemeth to have bin the feminine sound; and we sea "that of leafdian we have not retained leady but lady. Well "then both hlaf and hleaf we must here understand to signifie "one thing, which is bread: dian is as much to say as serve; " and so is leafdian, a bread-server. Whereby it appeareth that "as the Laford did allow food and sustenance, so the leafdiun "did see it served and disposed to the guests. And our ancient "and yet continued custome that our ladies and gentlewomen doe "use to carue and serve their guests at the table, which in other "countries is altogether strange and unusuall, doth for proofe "hereof well accord and corespond with this our ancient and "honourable feminine appellation." "Nane uthir wyse, than as sum tyme we se Douglas, booke 8, pag. 255. "For suddanlie thay se, or thay be war, "And on that part quhar the LIFT was maist clere Douglas, booke 9, pag. 300. "Wyth stormy tempestis and the northin blastis, Douglas booke 9, pag. 302. "Ane huge clamour thay rasit and womenting, "Beting thare breistis, quhil all the LIFT did ryng." Douglas, boke 11, pag. 360. "The sparrow chirmis in the wallis clyft "Goldspink and lintquhite fordynnand the LYFT." Douglas, Prol. to booke 12, pag. 403. "Beliue ouer al the LIFT upsemyt rise "The fell tempest." Douglas, booke 12, pag. 418, "But lo ane sworl of fyre blesis up thraw "Lemand towart the LIFT the flamb he saw." Douglas, booke 12, pag. 435. "And as I lukit on the LIFT me by, "All birnand rede gan waxin the euin sky." Douglas, Prol. to booke 13, pag. 449. LIFT....Is the past participle bli fod or LIFED; obtained, in the usual manner, by adding the participial termination oб or ED to hly or lif, lifed, lif'd, lift. Seeing the signification of the word LIFT, you will not wonder that it is perfectly equivalent to HEAVEN; and that in all the foregoing passages you may, if you please, subsitute Heaven for lift: one being the past participle of lirian, and the other of hea fan. LOFT (Our common name for a raised, elevated or high room or chamber) is likewise the past participle of hirian; obtained in the same manner, by adding the participial termination ED to the past. tense play or lawf. Lafed (A broad) laf'd, laft....or LOFT. "A heart where dread was neuer so imprest, "To swell in wealth, or yeeld unto mischaunce." Songes, by the Earl of Surry, &c. fol. 87, pag. 1. Being thus in possession of the supposed substantive LOFT, the language proceeded in its usual way of forming an adjective by adding 13 to it; which our modern language uniformly, in all cases, changes to y. Hence the adjective LOFTY. LOFTY and LADY Are the same word, the same participle, the same adjective; and mean merely raised, elevated, exalted. I F. I cannot take this leap with you at once from LOFTY to LADY: they are too distant for me. must have some station or some steps between, or I shall never reach it. I do not boggle at the difference between o and a, or, as it was pronounced, aw. That change is perpetually made. But the FT in the one, instead of D in the other, I cannot so easily get over. Besides, we use the * one as a substantive, and the other as an adjective. H. It is the F alone which, being retained in the one and suppressed in the other, causes all your difficulty, and all the difference between the words. hlaf, hlafod, hlafd, hlafd-ig omitting the incipient н, is in our modern character, Laf, lafed, laf'd, lafd-y If the F is retained in the word, the immediately subsequent d is, as usual, changed to T: and the word will be lafty (A broad) or LOFTY. If the F is suppressed, no cause remains for changing the D, and the word will be LADY. It is not necessary, I suppose, to say one word to explain why LADY is used as a substantive. Their frequent recurrence causes the same to numberless other adjectives which are now considered as substantives. F. It seems rather extraordinary to me, that you should derive from one common stock so many different words, which in their common use and application do not, at first sight, appear to have any the smallest relation to each other. That lord and lady however might have a common origin, and be derived from the same source, I could very well suppose. But how their meaning should be connected with the lift, a loft, and a loaf, I confess 1 had not imagined. I do see at present the common link which holds them together. But, though you did the same thing before with the verbs hearan and reitan, yet, I suppose, such coinciden cies are rare. H. No: It is the necessary condition of all languages. It is the lot of man, as of all other animals, to have few different ideas; (and there is a good physical reason for it) though we have many words: and yet, even of them, by no means so many as we are supposed to have. I mean, of words with different significations. What you now notice would have happened often before, if I had not been careful to keep it out of sight, till you should be ripe for it. At first, if you remember, we were led to a discovery of these hidden participles only by the participial terminations ED, EN, and г. But we have now proceeded a little farther, and have discovered another set of participles which we obtain by a change of the characteristic letter of the verb. We may now therefore look back to those participles we at first noticed; and add to them those which are derived from the same common stock, and which I forbore at the same time to mention. Thus BROWN and BRUNT As well as BRAND(), are the past participle of the verb to bren, or to brin. The French and Italians have in their languages this same participle; written by them brun and bruno. BROWN means burned, (subaud. colour). It is that colour which things have that have been burned. "Newe grene chese of smalle clammynes com. "fortethe a hotte stomake, as Rasis sayth, it (d) In BRANDY, (German brand-wein) brand is the same participle. |