A detailed reference to the definitions, history and etymology of frequently-used primary words.

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Excerpt from Notes on English Etymology: Chiefly Reprinted From the Transactions of the Philological Society In a former volume, entitled A Students Pastime I reprinted a considerable number of my occasional contributions to 'Notes and Queries' during the years 1866 - 96. In the year 1898 many kind friends were so good as to contribute a sum of money for the purpose of presenting my portrait to Christs College, Cambridge. As somewhat more was contributed than was required for this purpose, a portion of the surplus was made over to me for the purpose of reprinting some more of my rather numerous stray articles without much risk of loss. This act of kind consideration, in conjunction with the good will of the Clarendon Press, is practically responsible for the appearance of the present volume; and these circumstances have suggested the reproduction of some of my articles on English philology which may perhaps be of no great interest to the general public, though I venture to hope that a few serious students of our language may find them useful. It is owing to the same circumstances that the tone of this introduction is more autobiographical than it would otherwise have been, and I gladly take this opportunity of thanking the kind friends who have done me this good turn. How the articles in the present volume came to be written is easily explained. After the appearance of my larger Etymological Dictionary in 1884, it was not long before I discovered that it required both corrections and additions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Walter Skeat (1835-1912) was one of the greatest investigators of the roots of the English language, and his remarkable scholarship was instrumental in the revival of the great works of early English Literature. His astonishing detective work into the origins and development of the world's most widely used language provides an unsurpassed guide to its flexibility and richness.