8.  AMID, [i. e., at mid or middle,] is from a and mid; and AMIDST [, i.e., at midst,] is from a and midst, contracted from middest, the superlative of mid.

9.  AMONG, mixed with, is probably an abbreviation of amongst; and AMONGST, according to Tooke, is from a and mongst, or the older “Ge-meneged,” Saxon for “mixed, mingled.”

10.  AROUND, about, encircling, is from a and round, a circle, or circuit.

11.  AT, gone to, is supposed by some to come from the Latin ad; but Dr. Murray says, “We have in Teutonic AT for AGT, touching or touched, joined, at.”—­Hist. of Lang., i, 349.

12.  ATHWART, across, is from a and thwart, cross; and this from the Saxon Thweor.

13.  BATING, a preposition for except, is the imperfect participle of bate, to abate.

14.  BEFORE, [i.e., by-fore,] in front of, is from the prefix be and the adjective fore.

15.  BEHIND, [i.e., by-hind,] in rear of, is from the prefix be and the adjective hind.

16.  BELOW, [i.e., by-low,] meaning under, or beneath, is from be and the adjective low.

17.  BENEATH [, Sax. or Old Eng.  Beneoth,] is from be and neath, or Sax.  Neothe, low.

18.  BESIDE [, i.e., by-side,] is probably from be and the noun or adjective side.

19.  BESIDES [, i.e., by-sides,] is probably from be and the plural noun sides.

20.  BETWEEN, [Sax.  Betweonan, or Betwynan,] literally, by-twain, seems to have been formed from be, by, and twain, two—­or the Saxon Twegen, which also means two, twain.

21.  BETWIXT, meaning between, [Sax.  Betweox, Betwux, Betwyx, Betwyxt, &c.,] is from be, by, and twyx, originally a “Gothic” word signifying “two, or twain.”—­See Tooke, Vol. i, p. 329.

22.  BEYOND, past, [Sax.  Begeond,] is from the prefix be, by, and yond, [Sax.  Geond,] past, far.

23.  BY [, Sax.  Be, Bi, or Big,] is affirmed by Tooke to be “the imperative Byth, of the Anglo-Saxon verb Beon, to be.”—­Diversions of P., Vol. i, p. 326.  This seems to be rather questionable.

24.  CONCERNING, the preposition, is from the first participle of the verb concern.

25.  DOWN, the preposition, is from the Anglo-Saxon Dune, down.

26.  DURING, prep. of time, is from the first participle of an old verb dure, to last, formerly in use; as, “While the world may dure.”—­Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale.

27.  ERE, before, prep. of time, is from the Anglo-Saxon AEr, a word of like sort.