OBS. 2.—­According to Horne Tooke, “Still and Else are the imperatives Stell and Ales of their respective verbs Stellan, to put, and Alesan, to dismiss.”—­Diversions, Vol. i, p. 111.  He afterwards repeats the doctrine thus:  “Still is only the imperative Stell or Steall, of Stellan or Steallian, ponere.”—­Ib., p. 146.  “This word Else, formerly written alles, alys, alyse, elles, ellus, ellis, ells, els, and now else; is, as I have said, no other than Ales or Alys, the imperative of Alesan or Alysan, dimittere.”—­Ib., p. 148.  These ulterior and remote etymologies are perhaps too conjectural.

SECTION VIII.—­DERIVATION OF CONJUNCTIONS.

The English Conjunctions are mostly of Anglo-Saxon origin.  The best etymological vocabularies of our language give us, for the most part, the same words in Anglo-Saxon characters; but Horne Tooke, in his Diversions of Purley, (a learned and curious work which the advanced student may peruse with advantage,) traces, or professes to trace, these and many other English particles, to Saxon verbs or participles.  The following derivations, so far as they partake of such speculations, are offered principally on his authority:—­

1.  ALTHOUGH, signifying admit, allow, is from all and though; the latter being supposed the imperative of Thafian or Thafigan, to allow, to concede, to yield.

2.  AN, an obsolete or antiquated conjunction, signifying if, or grant, is the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon verb Anan or Unan, to grant, to give.

3.  AND, [Saxon, And,] add, is said by Tooke to come from “An-ad, the imperative of Ananad, Dare congeriem.”—­D. of P., Vol. i, p. 111.  That is, “To give the heap.”  The truth of this, if unapparent, I must leave so.

4.  AS, according to Dr. Johnson, is from the Teutonic als; but Tooke says that als itself is a contraction for all and the original particle es or as, meaning it, that, or which.

5.  BECAUSE, from be and cause, means by cause; the be being written for by.

6.  BOTH, the two, is from the pronominal adjective both; which, according to Dr. Alexander Murray, is a contraction of the Visigothic Bagoth, signifying doubled.  The Anglo-Saxons wrote for it butu, butwu, buta, and batwa; i. e., ba, both, twa, two.

7.  BUT,—­(in Saxon, bute, butan, buton, or butun—­) meaning except, yet, now, only, else than, that not, or on the contrary,—­is referred by Tooke and some others, to two roots,—­each of them but a conjectural etymon for it.  “BUT, implying addition,” say they, “is from Bot, the imperative of Botan, to boot, to add; BUT, denoting exception, is from Be-utan, the imperative of Beon-utan, to be out.”—­See D. of P., Vol. i, pp. 111 and 155.