ETYMOLOGY.
(SUPPLIED BY A LATE CONSUMPTIVE USHER TO A
GRAMMAR SCHOOL.)
The pale Usher—threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him
now. He was over dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a
queer handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all
the known nations of the world. He loved to dust his old grammars;
it somehow mildly reminded him of his mortality.
ETYMOLOGY
“While you take in hand to school others, and to teach
them by what name a whale-fish is to be called in our tongue,
leaving out, through ignorance, the letter H, which almost
alone maketh up the signification of the word, you deliver that
which is not true.”
Hackluyt.
“WHALE. * * * Sw. and Dan. hval. This animal
is named from roundness or rolling; for in Dan. hvalt is arched
or vaulted.”
Webster's Dictionary.
“WHALE. * * * It is more immediately from the
Dut. and Ger. Wallen; A.S. Walw-ian, to roll, to wallow.”
Richardson's Dictionary.
| הח |
Hebrew. |
| χητος |
Greek. |
| CETUS, |
Latin. |
| WHŒL, |
Anglo-Saxon. |
| HVALT, |
Danish. |
| WAL, |
Dutch. |
| HWAL, |
Swedish. |
| WHALE, |
Icelandic. |
| WHALE, |
English. |
| BALEINE, |
French. |
| BALLENA, |
Spanish. |
| PEKEE-NUEE-NUEE, |
Fegee. |
| PEHEE-NUEE-NUEE, |
Erromangoan. |
