First published in Great Britain in 1958

by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd

Second edition (with some corrections
and additions) 1959
Third edition (with corrections and additions) 1961
Fourth edition
(with numerous revisions and some substantial
additions) 1966

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.

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© Eric Partridge 1958, 1959, 1961, 1966

No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form without permission from the
publisher, except for the quotation of brief
passages in criticism

ISBN 0-203-42114-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-37182-8 (Adobe eReader Format)

ISBN 0 415 050 774 (Print Edition)
 piam in memoriam

CECIL ARTHUR FRANKLIN

a kindly and generous man and a remarkable publisher

Philologists who chase
A panting syllable through time and space,
Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark,
To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah’s Ark.
Cowper, Retirement