It is not easy to determine to what part of speech worth here belongs. Dr. Johnson calls it an adjective, but says nothing of the object after it, which some suppose to be governed by of understood. In this supposition, it is gratuitously assumed, that worth is equivalent to worthy, after which of should be expressed; as, "Whatsoever is worthy of their love, is worth their anger."--Denham. But as worth appears to have no certain characteristic of an adjective, some call it a noun, and suppose a double ellipsis; as, "'My knife is worth a shilling;' i. e. 'My knife is of the worth of a shilling.'"--Kirkham's Gram., p. 163. "'The book is worth that sum;' that is, 'The book is (the) worth (of) that sum;' 'It is worth while;' that is, 'It is (the) worth (of the) while.'"--Nixon's Parser, p. 54. This is still less satisfactory;[368] and as the whole appears to be mere guess-work, I see no good reason why worth is not a preposition, governing the noun or participle.[369] If an adverb precede worth, it may as well be referred to the foregoing verb, as when it occurs before any other preposition: as, "It is richly worth the money."--"It lies directly before your door." Or if we admit that an adverb sometimes relates to this word, the same thing may be as true of other prepositions; as, "And this is a lesson which, to the greatest part of mankind, is, I think, very well worth learning."--Blair's Rhet., p. 303. "He sees let down from the ceiling, exactly over his head, a glittering sword, hung by a single hair."--Murray's E. Reader, p. 33. See Exception 3d to Rule 21st.
OBS. 9.--Both Dr. Johnson and Horne Tooke, (who never agreed if they could help it,) unite in saying that worth, in the phrases, "Wo worth the man,"--"Wo worth the day," and the like, is from the imperative of the Saxon verb wyrthan or weorthan, to be; i. e., "Wo be [to] the man," or, "Wo betide the man," &c. And the latter affirms, that, as the preposition by is from the imperative of beon, to be, so with, (though admitted to be sometimes from withan, to join,) is often no other than this same imperative verb wyrth or worth: if so, the three words, by, with, and worth, were originally synonymous, and should now be referred at least to one and the same class. The dative case, or oblique object, which they governed as Saxon verbs, becomes their proper object, when taken as English prepositions; and in this also they appear to be alike. Worth, then, when it signifies value, is a common noun; but when it signifies equal in value to, it governs an objective, and has the usual characteristics of a preposition. Instances may perhaps be found in which worth is an adjective, meaning valuable or useful, as in the following lines:
"They glow'd, and grew more intimate with God,
More worth to men, more joyous to themselves."
--Young, N. ix, l. 988.
In one instance, the poet Campbell appears to have used the word worthless as a preposition:
"Eyes a mutual soul confessing, Soon you'll make them grow Dim, and worthless your possessing, Not with age, but woe!"
OBS. 10.--After verbs of giving, paying, procuring, and some others, there is usually an ellipsis of to or for before the objective of the person; as, "Give [to] him water to drink."--"Buy [for] me a knife."--"Pay [to] them their wages." So in the exclamation, "Wo is me!" meaning, "Wo is to me!" This ellipsis occurs chiefly before the personal pronouns, and before such nouns as come between the verb and its direct object; as, "Whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth [to] God service."--John, xvi, 2. "Who brought [to] her masters much gain by soothsaying."--Acts, xvi, 16. "Because he gave not [to] God the glory."--Ib., xii, 23. "Give [to] me leave to allow [to] myself no respite from labour."--Spect., No. 454. "And the sons of Joseph, which were born [to] him in Egypt, were two souls."--Gen., xlvi, 27. This elliptical constr
