2. Many adverbs are compounds formed from two or more English words; as, herein, thereby, to-day, always, already, elsewhere, sometimes, wherewithal. The formation and the meaning of these are, in general, sufficiently obvious.
3. About seventy adverbs are formed by means of the prefix, or inseparable preposition, a; as, Abreast, abroach, abroad, across, afar, afield, ago, agog, aland, along, amiss, atilt.
4. Needs, as an adverb, is a contraction of need is; prithee, or pr'ythee, of I pray thee; alone, of all one; only, of one-like; anon, of the Saxon an on; i.e., in one [instant]; never, of ne ever; i.e., not ever. Prof. Gibbs, in Fowler's Grammar, makes needs "the Genitive case of the noun need."--P. 311.
5. Very is from the French veray, or vrai, true; and this, probably, from the Latin verus. Rather appears to be the regular comparative of the ancient rath, soon, quickly, willingly; which comes from the Anglo-Saxon "Rathe, or Hrathe, of one's own accord."--Bosworth. But the parent language had also "Hrathre, to a mind."--Id. That is, to one's mind, or, perhaps, more willingly.
OBSERVATIONS.
OBS. 1.--Many of our most common adverbs are of Anglo-Saxon derivation, being plainly traceable to certain very old forms, of the same import, which the etymologist regards but as the same words differently spelled: as, All, eall, eal, or æll; Almost, ealmæst, or ælmæst; Also, ealswa, or ælswa; Else, elles; Elsewhere, elleshwær; Enough, genog, or genoh; Even, euen, efen, or æfen; Ever, euer, æfer, or æfre; Downward, duneweard; Forward, forweard, or foreweard; Homeward, hamweard; Homewards, hamweardes; How, hu; Little, lytel; Less, læs; Least, læst; No, na; Not, noht, or nocht; Out, ut, or ute; So, swa; Still, stille, or stylle; Then, thenne; There, ther, thar, thær; Thither, thider, or thyder; Thus, thuss, or thus; Together, togædere, or togædre; Too, tó; When, hwenne, or hwænne; Where, hwær; Whither, hwider, hwyder, or hwyther; Yea, ia, gea, or gee; Yes, gese, gise, or gyse.
OBS. 2.--According to Horne Tooke, "Still and Else are the imperatives Stell and Ales of their respective verbs Stellan, to put, and Alesan, to dismiss."--Diversions, Vol. i, p. 111. He afterwards repeats the doctrine thus: "Still is only the imperative Stell or Steall, of Stellan or Steallian, ponere."--Ib., p. 146. "This word Else, formerly written alles, alys, alyse, elles, ellus, ellis, ells, els, and now else; is, as I have said, no other than Ales or Alys, the imperative of Alesan or Alysan, dimittere."--Ib., p. 148. These ulterior and remote etymologies are perhaps too conjectural.
SECTION VIII.--DERIVATION OF CONJUNCTIONS.
The English Conjunctions are mostly of Anglo-Saxon origin. The best etymological vocabularies of our language give us, for the most part, the same words in Anglo-Saxon characters; but Horne Tooke, in his Diversions of Purley, (a learned and curious work which the advanced student may peruse with advantage,) traces, or professes to trace, these and many other English particles, to Saxon verbs or participles. The following derivations, so far as they partake of such speculations, are offered principally on his authority:--
1. ALTHOUGH, signifying admit, allow, is from all and though; the latter being supposed the imperative of Thafian or Thafigan, to allow, to concede, to yield.
2. AN, an obsolete or antiquated conjunction, signifying if, or grant, is the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon verb Anan or Unan, to grant, to give.
3. AND, [Saxon, And,] add, is said by Tooke to come from "An-ad, the imperative of Ananad, Dare congeriem."--D. of P., Vol. i, p. 111. That is, "To give the heap." The truth of this, if unapparent, I must leave so.
4. AS, according to Dr. Johnson, is from the Teutonic als; but Tooke says that als itself is a contraction for all and the original particle es or as, meaning it, that, or which.
5. BECAUSE, from be and cause, means by cause; the be being written for by.
6. BOTH, the two, is from the pronominal adjective both; which, according to Dr. Alexander Murray, is a contraction of the Visigothic Bagoth, signifying doubled. The Anglo-Saxons wrote for it butu, butwu, buta, and batwa; i. e., ba, both, twa, two.
7. BUT,--(in Saxon, bute, butan, buton, or butun--) meaning except, yet, now, only, else than, that not, or on the contrary,--is referred by Tooke and some others, to two roots,--each of them but a conjectural etymon for it. "BUT, implying addition," say they, "is from Bot, the imperative of Botan, to boot, to add; BUT, denoting exception, is from Be-utan, the imperative of Beon-utan, to be out."--See D. of P., Vol. i, pp. 111 and 155.
8. EITHER, one of the two, like the pronominal adjective EITHER, is from the Anglo-Saxon Æther, or Egther, a word of the same uses, and the same import.
9. EKE, also, (now nearly obsolete,) is from "Eac, the imperative of Eacan, to add."
10. EVEN, whether a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a conjunction, appears to come from the same source, the Anglo-Saxon word Efen or Æfen.
11. EXCEPT, which, when used as a conjunction, means unless, is the imperative, or (according to Dr. Johnson) an ancient perfect participle, of the verb to except.
12. FOR, because, is from the Saxon preposition For; which, to express this meaning, our ancestors combined with something else, reducing to one word some such phrase as, For that, For this, For this that; as, "Fortha, Fortham, Forthan, Forthamthe, Forthan the."--See Bosworth's Dict.
13. IF, give, grant, allow, is from "Gif, the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon Gifan, to give."--Tooke's Diversions, Vol. i, p. 111.
14. LEST, that not, dismissed, is from "Lesed, the perfect participle of Lesan, to dismiss."
15. NEITHER, not either, is a union and contraction of ne either: our old writers frequently used ne for not; the Anglo-Saxons likewise repeated it, using ne--ne, in lieu of our corresponsives neither--nor; and our modern lexicographers still note the word, in some of these senses.
