The word signifies Divinity,
he says, among the old Saxon, German and all Teutonic Nations; the
adjectives formed from it all signify divine, supreme, or something
pertaining to the chief god. Like enough! We must bow to Grimm in matters
etymological. Let us consider it fixed that _Wuotan_ means _Wading_, force
of _Movement_. And now still, what hinders it from being the name of a
Heroic Man and _Mover_, as well as of a god? As for the adjectives, and
words formed from it,--did not the Spaniards in their universal admiration
for Lope, get into the habit of saying "a Lope flower," "a Lope _dama_," if
the flower or woman were of surpassing beauty? Had this lasted, _Lope_
would have grown, in Spain, to be an adjective signifying _godlike_ also.
Indeed, Adam Smith, in his Essay on Language, surmises that all adjectives
whatsoever were formed precisely in that way: some very green thing,
chiefly notable for its greenness, got the appellative name _Green_, and
then the next thing remarkable for that quality, a tree for instance, was
named the _green_ tree,--as we still say "the _steam_ coach," "four-horse
coach," or the like.
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