Black R 1861 Students Manual.Pdf

THE STUDENT'S MANUAL I 1\ \. I I • ,_ 5 Lo~mos l'nIXTED IlY SPOTTISWOODE Ar-."D co, :t.""E\V·STREET SQUARE: THE STU·DENT'S MANUAL DUNG AN. ETYMOLOGICAL AND EXPLANATORY VOCABULARY ill' WORDS DElUVED FROM THE GREEK BY R. HARRISON BLACK, LL.D. CI So many of our most expressive words arc derived Crom tho Greek, that without some Imo\Vlcdge of that language, or at least of the compounds adopted from it, we lose aU the beauties and ingenuity of our terms of art or science; which, for want of the interesting associations which a knowledge of their origin would create, appear to us a mere jumble of letters tlllmcaningly put to. gether, and of arbitrary sounds." NEW EDITION LONDON J,ONGMA.N, GREEN,· LONGMA.N,' AND ROBERTS 1861 .. , - ~I, ~ 1 , , PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. IN the preceding editions of this little book, the words were not given in the Greek cha racters, because it was intended for the use of young persons, particularly' ladies, who were not likely to pursue the study of that language; and who, when writing to a Mathe.. matical Instrument Maker for a Telescope or Microscope, would not require to write 'rEAE ,n~Cl.l'7I'E or1""1f...E-o-KQ7rE:Cl.', l\r')'~J(J(]'x.C,Jn£ or IVIntS'0~-ery.OT.'ElrJ, but the plain English letters. The Author has, however, since been honoured by com munications from several gentlemen engaged in teaching the Greek language, suggesting that if the Greek characters were added, the book-might be advantageously employed as an introduction to the knowledge of the Greek A 3 vi PREFACE. language.- Although this was a use not ori~ ginally contempiated by the Author, still he feels very happy in complying with the sug gestion. He returns his sincere thanks to those correspondents, and is IlighlJ gratified _ that the book has been thought worthy or being so applied. ·EXTRACTS FROil! THE PREFACES TO THE PRECEDING EDITIONS. THE following little volume was originally compiled for the use of a young female .relative, and is now published with the hope of being gemirally useful; more especially to young ladies, whose mode of education pre cludes them from an acquaintance with Greek, and consequently, to whom the etymological knowledge in Johnson's Dictionary is inac cessible, - that is, so illr as it relates to the Greek language, whence our own has derived almost all its scientific words: the English letters have therefore been employed instead of the Greek characters. The thought of arranging the words !mder distinct heads, as well as putting them into alphabetical order, originated from perusing the observations which Locke makes on the association of viii EXTRACTS :;"ROM THE PREFACES ideas, and from having frequently remarked that terms of science are much more readily retained in the memory when so arranged, than when they are arranged simply in an alphabetiCal order. vVhen several words are deri:,ed from the same root, such as mathe-' matics, sub., mathematical, ael):, mathemati cally, adv., mathematician, s;tb., generally, only one of them is inserted, and the readers are left either to form the rest themselves, or to consult their dictionary, to which this vocabulary is simply an appendage. Many words, inserted in this book, arc not ofclassical authority, though so frequently employed by modern writers as to have found their way into several of our dictionaries. It is to be observed, that names and titles of bool,s, engines, instruments, &c., are arbitrary, and the authors and inventors make no scruple of coining new words when there are no old ones which they consider p()rfectly expressive.* '$ The words l1. Paneurnatlda" and " Paitlopldlean" will serve as examples. " PANEUMATIlI.\. or a New l\Ietho,1 of Knowledge, capable of universal application in Literature and the Sciences." - The term Pan-eu-mathia is formed of TO THE PItECEDING EDITlOI'S. ix The Author has to acknowledge the receipt of a communication in which the writer " observes, " that deriving the English word , enthusiasm' tj'om 8EG" God, ~yjll very much limit the sense of the word, and in some de gree oppose the rules of orthography. An enthusiast is not only a zealot in reHgion, but- he may be 0l1e in love, ambition, glory, honour, or study, about whatever scheme his ardent mind is employed, whatever business or mode of life he pursues, in war, or peace, in virtue or vice. Deriving it from 8"" naturally confines the sense of the 1vord to religion alone; hut if we derive it from 'Ju.', (el'veo, it will bear all the senses I have above pointed out, and it will also remedy the per verseness of the sentence." If further consideration be given to the subject, the writer 0,£ the above remark will find that many words deviate considerably pan, " all, universal," eu," good," and mathia, "know.. ledge." "PAIDO·PHILEAN System of Education, or a System which is the friend qf children," For" notice 01' a work under this title, see page 112. X EXTRACTS FROM THE PREFACES, ETC. from the original orthography, and lJa\'c greatly extended their primitive signification; in consequence .of his observation, however, the word has been more amply illustrated in this edition. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. To Instructors who employ this little Work in Tuition, the Author would suggcst that it be occa ~ionally used in the following manncr:- Let the Pupil be directed to seek for the words Tele-scope and Geo-graphy, Philo-sopher and lUis-anthropy, Ortho-dox and Calli-graphy, Chrono-meter and l\iytho-logy; and then be required to give, without seeking furthcr into the Vocabulary, the Etymology of Telc-graph-Phil-anthropy- Ortho-graphy - and Chrono-logy. Thc Greek alphabet has no lettcr It, and ccrtain vowels, instcad of being prcceded by that lettcr, are mm-ked by an aspirate or rough breathing; but, in the present case, for the sake of pcrspicuity, thc lettcr It is substituted for the aspirate. In Grcck, the letter g is pronounced like an n, when it pre cedes g, k, or c, as Aggelos, an Angel, is pro nounccd as if written Angelos, and for this reason a 3 xvi PRELIMINARY 1L is placed over the g, when it is to be so pro nounced. It is also to be observed, that the English letter y is here used for the Greek letter v (upsilon). THERE are a number of words frequently used in tile' Englisb language, which by some are said to be derived solely from the Arabic, and by others to be compounded partly from the Arabic ~nd partly from tlie Greek; these the Author has judged right here to class together: for the et)'mology of most of which he is indebted to Dr. J. BORTHWICK Gn,CHRlsT. AL, EL, or UL, as an Arabic noun, denotes" God, heaven, divine;n as an Arabic particle, it-is prefixed to words to give them a more emphatic signification, signifying much the same as our particle tile, as in AlcoranJ "The Koran:" and in the Arabic Astronomy we have Al Thllraiya, "The Pleiades." Alcahest, or alkahest, perhaps from ul, "the," and qusd, "project," or q'llssut, " a plaster," qissut, "an j' affair ;" also kalzislz, or kast, "diminution, alloy. n A liquor ,vhich has the power of resolving all things into their first principles. 'Vith the secret 01 preparing this extraordinary liquor Van Helmont" professed ,. Helmont was born at Brussels in 1577. He ac- quired such skill in natural philosophy, that he was accounted a magi<;ian, and thrown into the prison of the inquisition; having with difficulty justified himself, he was releaseel. He died in 1644. OBSERVATIONS, xvii himself to be acquainted, and solemnly affirmed he once had some of it in his possession. That these pretcnsions should gain credit, when it is so evident that no such liquor could cxist, may appear wonder ful (for no yessel can contain that which is capable of dissolving all things); but when we reflect on the cxtreme ignorance of thc agc, with respect to physical science, and on the extensive utility of such an al. kahest, if attainable; and when we also reflect that " what men wish they easily believe," we shall be less surprised at the avidity with which this, and other equally absurd notions, such, for example, as the " Philosopher's Stone·," were propagatedandreceived. • The Philosopher's Stonc, During a long series of ycnrs a subst:mce was eagerly sought for, which was to convert lead, mcrcury, and other metals, into gold, and which unknown substance was termed the Philosopher's Stone, King Henry VI. gmnted letters patent to certain per~ons, who undertook to find the Philosopher's Stone, and these letters were to free them from the penalties of n former statute made against attempts of n like nature. It app('nrs that mnny of those persons, who made the Philosopher's Stone an object of their search, wcre well skilled in sleight of hand, and hence often performed tricks which coul,r not fail to impose upon the great bod)' of those who witnessed them; and in this way must lIcnr)· Vr., and other so\'ereigns who granted si .. nlilar protections, have been imposed on. In the present dal' it would be a waste of time to enter into an)' minute detcction ofsuch impositions or absurd pretensions. "'e now know with tolcmble decisiveness that ever)' distinct metal is a simple subslnnce, as differcnt from eveT)' other metal as fire is from frost, ond Ihal a cT)'slal nla)' as soon xviii PRELIMINARY Alchymy: This word is compounded, acconting to some writers, of the Arabic particle 'ttl, " the," nnel the word keemiyu, or seemi!Ju, " chemistr)' ;" or otherwise, as some authors imagine, from the Greek verb elmo, "I melt." The objects of Alchymy were two-fold: 1.

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