Specimen of an etimological vocabulary, or, essay, by means of the analitic method, to retrieve the antient Celtic / By the author of a pamphlet entitled, The way to things by words, and to words by things [i.e. J. Cleland].

  • John Cleland
Date:
1768
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specimen of an etimological vocabulary, or, essay, by means of the analitic method, to retrieve the antient Celtic / By the author of a pamphlet entitled, The way to things by words, and to words by things [i.e. J. Cleland]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    This was far from Improbable. Conftantine, born and converfant in Britain, the fon of a Britifli woman, might avail himfelf of the eflablifhed divilions of the land mio parijhesy and quarter men '^refpe6lively on them: but the word itfelf Parijh is of a much higher antiquity, and has no afEnity with the Greek word Without here inlifting on the ftmilarity of the Government of Gaul to that of Britain, I fliall con¬ fine myfelf to our own iftand, and particularly to South-Britairiy long afterward called England, In the earlieft ages the Southern part, and per¬ haps all Britain, was divided into what we now call Shires, or w^ent under the different diale(fti- cal appellations of ii/r, Cir, Chur, Sir, <&c. Each Shire was a diftincft ftate, fub-divided' into Baro¬ nies, Parifties, or Pareichs, or, according to the more ancient way of pronouncing the P, into Ba- riJJdeS) or Bareichs, I take no notice here of Cofn- Wapentakes, which belong to another difcuftion. Far, or Bar, for they are uni vocal, lignified a Judge, reich a region or territorial di/irid. The Fieves, or rather pioves, in fome parts of Italy, have this analogy to pariJJoes, that they are ftill at once fpiritual and temporal divifions of country : though Fiovano no longer fignifies a minifter of Juftice, but is appropriated to the fpiritual fun^lion. The Bar, or Par, was alfo called Mage, whence the word Magus: thence certain diftri(fts, more or lefs large, received the name of Pag us. The Chriftians, it has been faid, having embraced the Imperial Government of Rome, gave the name of Fagans to fuch as adhered to the Druidical fyftem, which was fo, compounded of the fpiritual and judiciary as not to admit eafily a diftinffion, and remained longer in force in the Fagi or Country-- diftri6ls than in the capitals or townsr Reich
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