ime by many, 's_c_ite', 's_c_ituate',
's_c_ituation'; but it did not continue with these. Again, 'whole', in
Wiclif's Bible, and indeed much later, occasionally as far down as
Spenser, is spelt 'hole', without the 'w' at the beginning. The present
orthography may have the advantage of at once distinguishing the word to
the eye from any other; but at the same time the initial 'w', now
prefixed, hides its relation to the verb 'to heal', with which it is
closely allied. The 'whole' man is he whose hurt is 'healed' or
covered{249} (we say of the convalescent that he 'recovers'){250};
'whole' being closely allied to 'hale' (integer), from which also by
its modern spelling it is divided. 'Wholesome' has naturally followed
the fortunes of 'whole'; it was spelt 'holsome' once.

Of 'island' too our present spelling is inferior to the old, inasmuch as
it suggests a hybrid formation, as though the word were made up of the
Latin 'insula', and the Saxon 'land'. It is quite true that 'isle' _is_
in relation with, and descent from, 'insula', 'isola', 'ile'; and hence
probably the misspelling of 'island'. This last however has nothing to
do with 'insula', being identical with the German 'eiland', the
Anglo-Saxon 'ealand'{251} and signifying the sea-land, or land girt,
round with the sea. And it is worthy of note that this 's' in the first
syllable of 'island' is quite of modern introduction. In all the earlier
versions of the Scriptures, and in the Authorized Version as at first
set forth, it is 'iland'; while in proof that this is not accidental, it
may be observed that, while 'iland' has not the 's', 'isle' has it (see
Rev. i. 9). 'Iland' indeed is the spelling which we meet with far down
into the seventeenth century.

{Sidenote: _Folk-etymologies_}

What has just been said of 'island' leads me as by a natural transition
to observe that one of the most frequent causes of alteration in the
spelling of a word is a wrongly assumed derivation. It is then sought to
bring the word into harmony with, and to make it by its spelling
suggest, this derivation, which has been erroneously thrust upon it.
Here is a subject which, followed out as it deserves, would form an
interesting and instructive chapter in the history of language{252}. Let
me offer one or two small contributions to it; noting first by the way
how remarkable an evidence we have in this fact, of the manner in which
not the learned only, but all persons learned and unlearned al