English Past and Present

If these do not display correctly, make sure that your browser’s file encoding is set to UTF-8. You may also need to change your default font. For Greek words, the transliteration will appear if you move the mouse over the word: ἀκμή A short passage on page 222 uses some symbols that are not in Unicode; see the explanation at the end of the text for images of the original symbols and the transcription scheme. In the original book, the odd-numbered pages have unique headers, represented here as sidenotes. Obvious printing errors involving punctuation (such as missing single quotes), as well as alphabetization errors in the index, have been corrected without notes. Other corrections of printing errors are noted using mouse-hover popups like this . Variation in the spelling of the names Jonson/Johnson, Spenser/Spencer, and Ralegh/Raleigh is as in the original. ENGLISH PAST AND PRESENT BY RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. Edited with Emendations BY A. SMYTHE PALMER, D.D. Author of ‘The Folk and their Word-lore,’ ‘Folk-Etymology,’ ‘Babylonian Influence on the Bible,’ etc. London GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, Limited NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1905 EDITOR’S PREFACE In editing the present volume I have thought it well to follow the same rule which I laid down for myself in editing The Study of Words , and have made no alteration in the text of Dr. Trench’s work (the fifth edition). Any corrections or additions that seemed to be demanded owing to the progress of lexicographical knowledge have been reserved for the foot-notes, and these can always be distinguished from those in the original by the square brackets [thus] within which they are placed. On the whole more corrections have been required in English Past and Present than in The Study of Words owing to the sweeping statements which involve universal negatives—statements, e.g. that certain words either first came into use, or ceased to be employed, at a specific date. Nothing short of the combined researches of an army of co-operative workers, such as the New English Dictionary commanded, could warrant the correctness of assertions of this kind, which imply an exhaustive acquaintance with a subject so immense as the entire range of English literature. Even the mistakes of a learned man are instructive to those who essay to follow in his steps, and it is not without use to point them out instead of ignoring or expunging them. Thus,…