Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/221

 wax taper); miniature (orig.: a “picture painted with minium or carmine”); rubric, (orig.: an exceptional part of a book or MS., such as initial letters painted in red); surplice (orig.: a garment worn over another garment of skins); stirrup (orig.: ropes used for mounting a horse); haversack (orig.: a sack for the carrying of oats); barn (orig.: a place or building used for the storing of barley or bere); larder (orig.: a special place for keeping hog’s fat); monody (orig.: a simple ode); lucubration (orig.: meditation or study by artificial light at night); costermonger (orig.: seller of costards or apples); palace (orig.: a building on Palatine Hill); nausea (orig.: sea-sickness); sonnet and sonata (once the same); and so on with the names of the days of the week, etc.

Now a word about the dictionary. The growing inflation of the modern dictionary leads many to believe that the number of English words is increasing at a prodigious rate. The number is increasing without doubt,