James A. H. Murray to GE, London, 6 December 1879
Title
James A. H. Murray to GE, London, 6 December 1879
Title
James A. H. Murray to GE, London, 6 December 1879
Sender
James A. H. Murray
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1879-12-06
Place
London
Letter Content
James A. H. Murray to GE, London, 6 December 1879
MS: Brotherton Library, Leeds.
Mill Hill, Middlesex, N.W. | 6 December 1879.
Dear Madam
Many thanks for your obliging note, and for the [slip] now returned.
Your [instinct] -- shall I call it? -- was quite correct as to adust, which, in strictest analogy, means in a dusty state, i.e. not merely dusty but "affected by dust," in every way that it could affect clothes, skin, eyes, or throat. It really differs from dusty, as a-fire does from fiery, or a-cold "poor Tom's a-cold" 509 from "cold" merely. It is of course by such extension of analogy, -- instinctive most of it -- that language is made; not by conscious synthesis of roots and particles which 'ablive'bb have independent existence only on paper, but exist in living speech in the concrete, and by analogy produce other living words "living creatures after their kind." 510
I am happy to have had, so to say, a peep at such a genius, and am, Dear Madam,
Yours very truly
James A. H. Murray.
MS: Brotherton Library, Leeds.
Mill Hill, Middlesex, N.W. | 6 December 1879.
Dear Madam
Many thanks for your obliging note, and for the [slip] now returned.
Your [instinct] -- shall I call it? -- was quite correct as to adust, which, in strictest analogy, means in a dusty state, i.e. not merely dusty but "affected by dust," in every way that it could affect clothes, skin, eyes, or throat. It really differs from dusty, as a-fire does from fiery, or a-cold "poor Tom's a-cold" 509 from "cold" merely. It is of course by such extension of analogy, -- instinctive most of it -- that language is made; not by conscious synthesis of roots and particles which 'ablive'bb have independent existence only on paper, but exist in living speech in the concrete, and by analogy produce other living words "living creatures after their kind." 510
I am happy to have had, so to say, a peep at such a genius, and am, Dear Madam,
Yours very truly
James A. H. Murray.
Signature
James A. H. Murray.
Citation
James A. H. Murray, James A. H. Murray to GE, London, 6 December 1879, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/95153