It  has  been  remarked  (I  am  told  b}'  Coleridge,  though  I
have  been  unable  to  find  tho  piuwage)  that  with  the  iid\-unce
of  hmguage,  words  which  were  originally  alike  in  t}ioir
mconinga  acquire  unlike  mcnnings — a  change  which  ho
expresses  by  tho  formidublo  word  "  de^ynonymization.*'
Amon^  indigenous  wnrdii  thiit  loss  of  txjtiiralcnco  cannot
be  clearly  tihown ;  bei^atise  in  them  the  di^'C^gencics  of
taeaning  began  before  tho  dawn  of  littTalure.  Itut  among
words  that  hu>-o  been  coinod,  or  adopted  from  other
languagoSt  stnoo  tlio  writing  of  books  commenced,  it  is
dciDonstrabln.  Tn  the  old  divines,  miscreaat  U  used  in
its  et  jTnotogical  sense  of  unMtertr  ;  but  ia  modem  spc«e]i  it
has  entirely  lost  this  acuso.  Similiirly  with  nil-doer  and
mak/acton  exactly  sj-nonymous  as  the^e  oro  by  derivation,
they  aro  no  longer  synonymons  by  usage :  by  a  malefactot
wo  now  understand  u  convict^  criTniniil,  which  ia  fur  from
boing  the  acoeptation  of  tvil-doer.  Tho  verb  prottiice,  bears  in
Kuclid  ita  primary  meaning— to  prolong,  or  draw  &al ;  but
the  now  hirgely  developed  meanings  otprvduce  have  little  in


THE  »srABiLin  or  T»s  uomooexkods.
