"--_Dilworth's_, p.
63. "Cotton, at 2s. 6d. _per_ pound."--_Morrison's_, p. 75. "Exchange, at
12d. _per_ livre."--_Jackson's_, p. 73. It is to be observed that _an_, as
well as _a_, is used in this manner; as, "The price is one dollar _an_
ounce." Hence, I think, we may infer, that this is not the old preposition
_a_, but the article _an_ or _a_, used in the distributive sense of _each_
or _every_, and that the noun is governed by a preposition understood; as,
"He demands a dollar _an_ hour;" i. e., a dollar _for each_ hour.--"He
comes twice _a_ year:" i. e., twice _in every_ year.--"He sent them to
Lebanon, ten thousand _a_ month by courses:" (_1 Kings_, v, 14:) i. e., ten
thousand, _monthly_; or, as our merchants say, "_per month_." Some
grammarians have also remarked, that, "In mercantile accounts, we
frequently see _a_ put for _to_, in a very odd sort of way; as, 'Six bales
marked 1 _a_ 6.' The merchant means, 'marked _from_ 1 to 6.' This is taken
to be a relic of the Norman French, which was once the law and mercantile
language of England; for, in French, _a_, with an accent, signifies _to_ or
_at_."--_Emmons's Gram._, p. 73. Modern merchants, in stead of accenting
the _a_, commonly turn the end of it back; as, @.

OBS. 26.--Sometimes a numeral word with the indefinite article--as _a few,
a great many, a dozen, a hundred, a thousand_--denotes an aggregate of
several or many taken collectively, and yet is followed by a plural noun,
denoting the sort or species of which this particular aggregate is a part:
as, "A few small fishes,"--"A great many mistakes,"--"A dozen bottles of
wine,"--"A hundred lighted candles,"--"A thousand miles off." Respecting
the proper manner of explaining these phrases, grammarians differ in
opinion. That the article relates not to the plural noun, but to the
numerical word only, is very evident; but whether, in these instances, the
words _few, many, dozen, hundred_, and _thousand_, are to be called nouns
or adjectives, is matter of dispute. Lowth, Murray, and many others, call
them _adjectives_, and suppose a peculiarity of construction in the
article;--like that of the singular adjectives _every_ and _one_ in the
phrases, "_Every_ ten days,"--"_One_ seven times more."--_Dan._, iii, 19.
Churchill and others call them _nouns_, and suppose the plurals which
follow, to be always in the objective case governed by _of_, understood:
as, "A few [of] years,"--"A thousand [of] doors;"--like the phrase