Nor is there much
difference in figure between sarcasm (a tearing of the flesh) and taking
the hide off; between sinister (left-handed) and backhanded; between
preposterous (rear end foremost) and cart before the horse; between salary
(salt-money, an allowance for soldiers) and pin-money; between pedigree
(crane's foot, from the appearance of genealogical diagrams) and crowsfeet
(about the eyes); between either precocious (early cooked), apricot (early
cooked), crude (raw), or recrudescence (raw again) and half-baked. To
ponder is literally to weigh; to apprehend an idea is to take hold of it;
to deviate is to go out of one's way; to congregate is to flock together;
to assail or insult a man is to jump on him; to be precipitate is to go
head foremost; to be recalcitrant is to kick.
Again, you will perceive that many words once had more literal or more
definitely concrete meanings than they have now. To corrode is to gnaw
along with others, to differ is to carry apart, to refuse is to pour back.
Polite is polished, absurd is very deaf, egregious is taken from the
common herd, capricious is leaping about like a goat, cross (disagreeable)
is shaped like a cross, wrong is wrung (or twisted).
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