A LITTLE WORD LORE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 79

A LITTLE WORD LORE.

Do you remember reading, three or four •weeks ago, that the Kuspians were " vanicky " ? One of our teachers, when going through the "-cables" with his upper stendards, asked the pupils — they are all provided with ihe Twentieth Century Dictionary — to look up the derivation. (Did it strike any of you to get to its root meaning?) It turns out that " panicky '"—a colloquial word — and ""panio" are connected with the old god "Pan," and that his name means " all," or " everything," or "complete," etc. "He was the god of shepherds, of huntsmen, and of all the inhabitants of the country. He wasn't « particularly pleasant fellow to look at, and when his intended nurse saw him she wa3 so terrified , at the monster's appearance that she fled for her life. His father then wrapped him up in the skins of beasts and took him to heaven, where Jupiter. Bacchus, and the other gods 'entertained themselves with the oddity of his appearance. " He was one of the eight principal gods of the Egyptians, and in the town of Mendes, a word signifying " goat," a goat was kept in honour of bim, and treated with ceremonious sanctity. As 1 have said, in appearance he wasn't a very presentable young man. HeTiad two horns projecting from the sides of his head, representing, same' say, tbe rays of the sun; a' star on bis breast, the symbol of the firmament ; a ruddy complexion, a flat, nose, and his legs, feet, and tail were those of a goat, the hairs on the parts representing the inferior parts of the carth — woods, plants, etc. But ugly as he was, he managed to make some of the goddesses — Diana, the goddsss of hunting, was one — fall in love with him. Well, you can imagine that country folk were not particularly anxious to meet Pan, and to say ha was coming was enough to make people run ; hence, fear which is only imaginary is " panicky.*' i Then " Pan " suggests " Pandora," which contains the sam<3 Greek word meaning "all." She was "V, beautiful but deceitful woman, sent to the -earth by the gods in revenge for Prornetheus's theft of fire fiom heaven." " She was made from clay by "Vulcan at the- request of Jupiter. "Venus gave her beauty and the art of pleasing; the Graces gave her the art of captivating; Apollo taught her how to sing; Mercury instructed her in eloquence, and Minerva gave her the most rich and splendid ornaraents. From all these valuable presents which she had received from the gods, the woman was called Pandora., which intimates that she had received! every necessary gift. Jusb before descending to the earth, Jupiter gave her a beautiful box, which was to be opened by the man who married her, and Mercury arranged that she was 'to meet Prometheus, upon whom the gods wished to be avenged." But he was proof against her oharnis ; not so his brother, Epimetheus. He married her and opened the box, whereupon there issued a " multitude of evils and distempers, -whioh dispersed themselves all over the world, and which, from that fatal moment, have never oea-sed to afflict the human race. Hope — delusive hope — was the only one who remained .at the bottom of the box, and it is she alone who has the wonderful power of casing the labours of man and of rendering his troubles and his sorrows less painful in life." There are other names containing the ,_root Pan connected with classical mytholcinr-

but if you are further interested in tho subject look them up for yourselves. There are many familiar words containing t!w same root. Pantheon, the name of a fine circular Roman temple dedicated to ALT, the gods ; Pan- American, a 1 ! the Americas ; Pan-Ang'iean, representing all the Anglicans ; Pan-Presbyterian, all the Presbyterians,— these, and others of a similar construction, are in common u=e. Pandemonium, the council chamber of ALL the r>HMOXS ; pancreas (th-e sweetbreac'). all the flesh ; pancreatic, having all powers ; pan-pipes — Pan invented them ; pandemic, an epidemic, afflicting ALL the people ; panorama, c. COMPLETE sight ; pantheism, assuming all things to be manifestation of on-e god ; pantograph, an instrument for weitixg or drawing all sizes; — rhese are a few examples of wcrds in common use where pan has coalesced and the word has e<?ase<l to be — if it ever were — a compound word. There are many more words containing taic; but again, if you are at all cunoud to dip into derivations, and if you are a member of the Athenaeum, go" into the reference library, and look up Webster's International. the Standard ' Dictionary (Funk and Wagnali's), and Murray's large, but as yet incomplete, work. A young 1 friend of mine early one evening took down one of these large dictionaries in his home, and when his father returned rather late, the son was still ferreting out meanings'. Like the Yankee who had a dictionary sent him to review, ho found tho reading matter rather disconnected, but very in:eresting.