PREFACE. THE ANALYTICAL DICTIONARY was originally announced for publication in twelve successive Parts, six of which are here produced. These, though not including the whole of the English Vocabulary, complete a Volume that, by means of its General Index, may be read and consulted as an independent work. The following Prospectus was circulated along with Part I.; and the purchasers will now be enabled to judge how far its promises have been fulfilled: SOME apology seems requisite for attempting to increase the number of Dictionaries of the English Language. The task of a Lexicographer is proverbially laborious, but labour does not necessarily imply improvement, and books may be multiplied without any advantage to mankind. Neither, then, boasting of its merits nor pleading peculiar circumstances in extenuation of its faults, the following is given as an outline of the plan of the performance. The thoughts of the human mind are expressed by articulated sounds. In the written languages of Europe, words are conventional marks that indicate these sounds, and thereby recall to memory the associated ideas. Simplicity of thought will produce simplicity of expression, and hence the individual impulses of the mind will be marked by monosyllables. Two or more simple impressions form what is termed a complex idea, which is expressed by as many primitive words. If this complex idea be of general recurrence, the syllables by which it is denoted will, by habit of pronunciation, be joined together, so as to form a compound word with different articulations. All this is hypothesis, but we find it confirmed by the analysis of the languages with which we are acquainted. In conformity, therefore, with this theory, words of one syllable are to be considered as primitives, unless, from a complexity of signification and probable etymology, any of them shall appear to have been, originally, polysyllables, contracted by the pronunciation of aftertimes. And, on the other hand, every word of more than one syllable will be considered as a compound, formed by the conjunction of two or more simple words: thus, gold and smith are primitives, forming together the complex term goldsmith, the signification of which may be easily deduced from the parts of its composition. While we confine our attention to those polysyllables which are made up of words in general use, their composition appears evident; but living tongues are in a state of perpetual fluctuation: foreign words are gradually adopted, while many of the natives are suffered to slide into oblivion, and hence the compounds remain, though their formatives may be no more. The sources of this influx may generally be traced to the imagined necessity of literary men. They become enamoured of languages that have been acquired with difficulty, and the word which they suppose too vulgar, or antiquated, in their mother tongue, is supplanted by another, known only in writings that have survived the wreck of ages. During some centuries, immediately previous to the invention of printing, Science, immured in the gloom of a monastery, seemed an alien in the land of her residence. She appeared in a garb which concealed her from the knowledge of the vulgar, or, if she deigned to assume the dress of her country, it was so disfigured by the trappings of antiquity as to be known only to a few. From these causes has arisen almost the whole of the difficulty in composing an Explanatory Dictionary; and this the Author hopes to obviate, in part, by attempting to analyze the word, to be explained, into its constituent principles. For this purpose he has judged it most eligible to arrange the words into classes, placing under one head all that are derived from the same root: thus, when the word MAN is sufficiently explained, its various compounds follow, such as manful, manly, manhood, unmanly, &c. When the fundamental part, or root, is not found in its simple state in the English language, (as in the case of homicide, humanity, &c. from the Latin HOMO,) search is made in other tongues where it is usually discovered. Where this search has been made in vain, the idea expressed by the fundamental syllable is gathered from a comparison of its compounds. In the formation of English polysyllables there is a considerable degree of regularity. The signification of the primitive word is varied by the addition of a pretty extensive list of Prepositions and Terminations, such as ad, con, sub,―ary, ation, ment, &c. These are words as susceptible of definition as any other; but their explanation, (or how they modify the original idea,) if given wherever they occur, would tend only to swell the work by useless tautology. These, therefore, with a Grammar of the language, will form the INTRODUCTION. Nothing is more necessary, nor is there any point in which Dictionaries are more defective, than a rigid accuracy of definition. To tell us that To ABANDON is to give up, resign, or quit,-to desert, to forsake, is to tell us nothing, unless we are to believe that all these expressions are synonymous. A number of words are huddled together which have a certain degree of resemblance, from a particular point of view, but the nicer shades of dis crimination are neglected. To assert that the present Work will excel its predecessors, might be censured as unpardonable vanity; and yet, if it be found to contain no improvement in this respect, the Author must confess that his labour has been in vain. A marked feature in the plan of this Dictionary, and that which will distinguish it from every other that has hitherto appeared, is its perfect freedom from the fetters of Alphabetical arrangement. In consequence of this emancipation, the Author is persuaded that he has been enabled materially to improve his definitions, both as to correctness and to perspicuity, while the ease of consultation will be sufficiently provided for by an INDEX. By the ordinary arrangement, words that have the most intimate connexion in their nature, or in their etymology, are often separated by hundreds of pages. No subject, however interesting, can be dwelt upon for a moment :—the thread of thought is continually cut asunder by the inexorable battalions of rank and file; and the whole frame of language, which might exhibit no imperfect history of the human mind, is so torn and disjointed that we view it with pain. All is chaos without a ray of creative light :-the lamps of genius are broken into atoms. Who ever read ten successive pages of a Dictionary, without the feeling of lassitude or the approach of sleep? It is not thus that language should be taught; and the Writer will certainly feel mortified at his want of success, if the Reader of the Analytical Dictionary shall not be interested in the perusal, as well as benefited by the consultation. With respect to the Author's ability to execute the task which he has undertaken, it will not be expected that he himself should speak. It is now sixteen years since he first published an Introduction to this Analytical Dictionary. The Introduction was favourably received, and the Part of the Dictionary, now published, may be considered as a specimen of the whole. In a Work of research, improvement might be expected in proportion to the procrastination of its appearance: but human life has only a limited duration; |