SELECT GLOSSARY OF ENGLISH WORDS USED FORMERLY IN SENSES DIFFERENT FROM THEIR PRESENT

First impression of the true first edition. Owner's name: 'William Walker' in sepia fountain pen to top of title-page. ***Very good in dark brown cloth-covered boards with decorative floral and ruled blind design to front and rear boards and spine. Gilt titles to spine. Burnt sienna-coloured front and rear free endpapers and pastedowns. Tiny, contemporaneous bookseller's label: James Macklehose, 61 St Vincent Street, Glasgow' to top outer corner of front paste-down. 'Edges slightly rubbed. Corners slightly bumped. Head and tail of spine rubbed. Very tiny tears to head and tail of spine. Gilt titles to spine bright. No foxing. Pages clean. Spine tight. ***xii pages prelims including eight-page preface by the author, last page of which uncut at top (can be cut open) plus 232 text-pages plus four-pages of publisher's adverts including earlier published works of Richard Chenevix Trench, D.D. to rear (as called for). 175 mm x 114 mm. ***'This volume is intended to be a contribution, I am aware a very slight one, to a special branch of the study of our own language. It proposes to trace in a popular manner and for general readers the changes of meaning which many of its words have undergone; words which, as current with us as they were with our forefathers, yet mean something different on our lips from what they meant upon theirs.' (Quote from the preface, Westminster, May 25th, 1859). ***' "HARVEST". It is remarkable that while spring, summer, winter, have all their Anglo-Saxon names, we designate the other quarter of the year by its Latin title 'autumn;' the word which should have designated it, 'harvest' 'hearfest' (= the German 'Herbest'), having been appropriated to the ingathering of the fruits of the season, not to the season itself. In this indeed we are truer to the proper meaning of 'harvest' than the Germans who have transferred the word from the former to the latter; for it is closely related with the Greek 'kapnos' and the Latin 'carpo'. (Quote from page 99-100). ***"WRETCHED". What has been observed on 'unhappy' explains and accounts also for the use of 'wretched' as =wicked. 'Wretch' still continues to cover the two meanings of one miserable or one wicked, though 'wretched' does so no more. [Nero regned after this Claudius, of alle men wretchidhest, redy to alle maner vices. Capgrave, Chronicle of England, p.62].' (Quote from page 232). ***Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886) was an Anglican archbishop and poet. A Select Glossary of English Words was an important pioneering work which helped establish the historical study of the English tongue. He is buried at Westminster Abbey. ***First impression of the true first edition, very hard to find complete in its original blind embossed and decorated cloth-covered boards in nice, collectable condition. A classic work. Of interest to collectors of antiquarian first editions on English philology. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…