four moistures or liquids that entered into the human constitution and by the proportions of their admixture determined human temperament; next a man’s outstanding temperamental quality (the thing itself rather than the cause of it); then oddity which people may laugh at; then the spirit of laughter and good nature in general.  Normally we do not connect the idea of moisture with the word.  We may even speak of “a dry humor.”  But we should not say “now and then a dry humor crops out,” for then too many buried meanings lie in the same grave for the very dead to rest peacefully together.

Even apart from reading old literature and from having, when you use words, no ghosts of their pristine selves rise up to damn you, you may profit from a knowledge of how the meaning of a term has evolved.  For example, you will meet many tokens and reminders of the customs and beliefs of our ancestors.  Thus coxcomb carries you back to the days when every court was amused by a “fool” whose head was decked with a cock’s comb; crestfallen takes you back to cockfighting; and lunatic ("moonstruck"), disaster ("evil star"), and “thank your lucky stars” plant you in the era of superstition when human fate was governed by heavenly bodies.

Further, you will perceive the poetry of words.  Thus to wheedle is to wag the tail and to patter is to hurry through one’s prayers (paternoster).  What a picture of the frailty of men even in their holiness flashes on us from that word patter!  Breakfast is the breaking of the fast of the night. Routine (the most humdrum of words) is travel along a way already broken. Goodby is an abridged form of “God be with you.” Dilapidated is fallen stone from stone. Daisy is “the day’s eye,” nasturtium (from its spicy smell) “the nose-twister,” dandelion “the tooth of the lion.” A lord is a bread-guard.

You will perceive, moreover, that many a dignified word once involved the same idea as some unassuming or even semi-disreputable word or expression involves now.  Thus there is little or no difference in figure between understanding a thing and getting on to it; between averting something (turning it aside) and sidetracking it; between excluding (shutting out) and closing the door to; between degrading (putting down a step) and taking down a notch; between accumulating (heaping up) and making one’s pile; between taking umbrage (the shadow) and being thrown in the shade; between ejaculating and throwing out a remark; between being on a tension and being highstrung; between being vapid and having lost steam; between insinuating (winding in) and worming in; between investigating and tracking; between instigating (goading on or into) and prodding up; between being incensed (compare incendiary) and burning with indignation; between recanting (unsinging) and singing another tune; between ruminating (chewing) and smoking in one’s pipe.  Nor is there