5. Compounded with other words, it fometimes fupplies the place of the participle, as afleep for fleeping, and fometimes of the prepofition, on, as afoot for on foot, &c. iv. As an interjection, it is naturally used upon any fudden emotion of joy, grief, admiration, &c. and on fuch occafions is commonly enforced by adding the afpiration, as ab! and fometimes by doubling the a, as aba! III. As an abbreviation, A has long been used in a variety of cafes both by the ancients and moderns. The Romans used it, both in enacting new laws, and in trying criminal caufes. When a new law was propofed, or an amendment of an old one, each voter got two ballots, the one marked A, fignifying antiquo, q. d. antiquam volo, I like the ancient law, and the other V. R. for uti rogas, as you defire; and he gave his fuffrage, by putting the one or the other into the urn. In criminal caufes they used three ballots, which were delivered to each of the judges; one infcribed A, for abfolvo, I acquit, whence Cicero calls this letter litero falutaris, the faving letter; another marked C, for condemno, I condemn; and the third, N. L. for non liquet, it is not clear. From the majority of these caft into the urn, the prætor pronounced the fate of the prifoner. If the ballots marked A and C were equal in number, he was acquitted. In their ancient infcriptions on monuments, &c. the sense of the A is chiefly to be collected, from the general fcope, and connection of the words. A fingle stands for Aulus, Auguftus, agca, aiunt, ante, ades, ædilis, aula, anima, amicus, &c. When double it denotes the plural, Auli, Augufti, amici, &c. and when triple, auro, argento, are. When it occurs after the word miles, (a foldier), it denotes him to be young. On the ancient Greek and Roman medals, A commonly points out the place of coinage; as Argos, Antioch, Athenis, Aquileia, &c. but on modern French coins, A is the mark of the mint at Paris, and A A of that at Metz. The ancient Roman hiftorians used it as an abbreviation for Anno; thus A. U. C. ftands for Anno Urbis condita, in the year from the building of the city. The Greeks ufed it as a privative particle, when prefixed to a word. See PRIVATIVE. Modern hiftorians and chronologers alfo use it as an abbreviation for Anno, as A. M. Anno Mundi, in the year of the world; A. D. Anno Domini, A. A. C. anno ante Chriftum, in the year of our Lord, in the year before Chrift, &c. It is likewife a common abbreviation for artium; thus A. B. Artium baccaularius, Bachelor of Arts, A. M. artium magifter, Mafter of Arts. Among merchants, bank. ers, &c. both in England and France, it is put to bills of exchange, as a mark of acceptance. And it is ufed by phyficians, in their prescriptions, as a contraction of the Greek prepofition ave, to denote that equal parts are to be taken of the medicines fpecified; in which cafe it is wrote either fingle or double, A, ā, or āā. Among chemifts it is tripled, AAA, to exprefs an amalgam, or the operation of amalgamating. ABP. is an abbreviation for Archbishop; A. D. for Archduke, &c. IV. As a Numeral, A was ufed by the ancient Greeks, as well as by the Jews, to denote the

number one: and by the Romans, in the days of barbarifm, it stood for 500; but when written with a dash over it, thus A, it denoted 5000. Our merchants ftill continue the Greek and Hebrew cuftom, in numbering their books, by the letters, A, B, C, &c. instead of figures.—In algebra, A, or a, and the other first letters of the alphabet, are used to exprefs known quantities, and the last letters to express such as are unknown.

In the above account of the letter A, the reader will obferve, we have not copied exactly from any other Dictionary whatever; all of them, that we have hitherto feen, not excepting even Dr Johnfon's, appearing to be either erroneous or defective, in their definitions and diftinctions of its founds, as well as in their enumerations and arrangements of its ufes. No two founds of this letter, for instance, or indeed of almost any other in the whole alphabet, can be more distinct, than those of the A in face, place, &c. and of that in emulation, termination, and the like; both of which, however, the Doctor, and moft other léxi cographers, have uniformly confounded together, as one and the fame, by ranking them under the flender found. Nor, (without enlarging upon the omiffions of the ufes of the letter A, as a prepofition, numeral, &c.) can any thing of the kind be more furprifing, than Dr Johnfon's taking notice, that "A is fometimes, in familiar writings, put by a barbarous corruption for be, as, will a come? for will he come?" If such barbarous ufes of letters and words were to be uniformly inferted in Dictionaries, they might foon be fwelled beyond all bounds, by corruptions of words in common ufe, and in various dialects; which might be illuftrated and exemplified by number lefs quotations from the works of Swift, Smollet Fielding, and almost every other humorous write in the English language.

Confiftently with our plan, however, it is pro per, that we fhould here fubjoin Dr Johnson's ex amples and authorities, having already blended the fubftance of most of his definitions and illuftra tions of this letter, with the preceding remarks.

A, placed before a participle or participia noun, is confidered by Wallis as a contraction o at, when put before a word denoting fome action not yet finished; and in other cafes it feems t fignify to, like the French à.

They go a begging to a bankrupt's door. Dr May peace ftill flumber by the purling fountains Which we may every year

Wotton

Find when we come a fifhing here. -Now the men fell a rubbing of armour, whic a great while had lain oiled. Wotton.-He wi knap the fpears a pieces † with his teeth. More Antid. Athm.-Another falls a ringing a Pefcer nius Niger, and judiciously diftinguishes the foun of it to be modern. Addison on Medals.

*A, is ufed in burlefque poetry to lengthe out a fyllable, without adding to the fenfe :

For cloves and nutmegs to the line-a,

And even for oranges to China. Dryde * A in compofition feems to have fometim the power of the French a in these phrase adro

adroit, agauche, &c. and sometimes to be contracted from at, as afide, aflope, afoot, asleep, athir, a-aware.t

I gin to be a weary † of the fun,

And with the state of th' world were now undone. Shakespeare's Macbeth. And now a breeze from fhore began to blow; The failors ship their oars and cease to row; Then hoift their yards a-trip, † and all their fails Let fall to court the winds and catch the gales. Dryden's Ceyx and Alcyone. A little house with trees a row, t And like its master very low. Pope's Hor. AA, a large river in the duchy of Courland, which rifes in Samogitia, and runs into the bay of Riga.

Aa, a river of Picardy in France, which rifes in the department of Somme, beyond Ramilly le Compte, near Theroulanne, runs NE. through Artois, and becomes navigable near St Omers; whence it paffes N. to Gravelines, below which it falls into the English Channel.

Aa, a river in Weftphalia, which rifes near Munfter, waters that city, and falls into the river Embs.

AA, the name of several other rivers of less note in Germany, Switzerland, &c.

AABAM, a term used by fome French Alchemifts to fignify lead.

AB, at the beginning of the names of places generally fhews, that they have fome relation to an Abbey, as Abingdon. Gibson.

AACH, the name of a river in Germany. AACH, a little town fituated near the fource of the above river, in the circle of Suabia, and almost equidiftant from the Danube, and the lake Conftance. E. Lon. 9. o. Lat. 47. 55. It belongs to the house of Auftria.

AAHUS, a small diftrict in Germany, in the circle of Weftphalia, and bishopric of Munster. See next article.

AAHUS, a little town, though the capital of that district. It has a good caftle, and lies NE. of Coesfeldt. Lon. 7. 1. E. Lat. 52. 10. N. AALBORG, or AALBOURG, a bishopric of Denmark, in North Jutland. See next article. AALBORG, the capital of the bishopric of that name, lies on the S. coaft of Lymfurt, on the confines of the bishopric of Wiburg. Next to Copenhagen, it is the richest and most populous city in Denmark. The name fignifies Eel-town, great quantities of eels being caught there. It has an exchange for merchants, a safe and deep harbour, (though the entrance near Hals is fomewhat dangerous,) and a confiderable trade in corn, herrings, guns, piftols, faddles, gloves, &c. It was taken by the Swedes, in the years, 1643, and 1658. Lon. 9. 46. E. Lat. 56. 50. N.

AAM, or HAAM, a liquid measure, ufed by the Dutch, containing 128 mingles, (a measure weighing nearly 36 ounces avoirdupois,) or 288 pints English, or 1483 Paris meafure.

AAR, a small island in the Baltic.
AAR, a river in Weftphalia, in Germany.
A▲r, a large river in Switzerland, which has

its fource in a lake, near mount Saalberg, in the S. of the canton of Bern, and running NW. through the whole extent of the lakes of Brientz and Thun to Bern, takes a circuitous courfe to Soleure ; whence it flows E. to Arburg, and NE. to Brugg; below which, being joined by the Reufs and Limmat, it falls into the Rhine, oppofite Waldschut. AARASSUS, in ancient geography, a town of Pifidia, in Asia, supposed to be the Anaffus of Ptolemy.

AARHUUS, a large diocefe in N. Jutland, which extends, from that of Wiburg to Categat, about 15 miles in length, and between 8 and 9 in breadth, and is uncommonly fruitful; being interfected by many excellent rivers, ftreams, and lakes, abounding with fish, and adorned with a variety of large forefts. It contains about 70 feats of the principal nobility. See next article.

AARHUUS; or ARHUSEN, the capital of the bishopric of that name, lies between the fea and a lake, from which water is conveyed by a pretty broad canal, that divides the town into two unequal parts. It is large and populous, and has fix gates, two principal churches, two market places, an univerfity, a free school, and a well endowed hofpital. It carries on a good trade. The cathedral, which was begun in 1201, is 150 paces in length, 96 in breadth, and nearly 45 German ells in height.

AARON, [Heb. a mountaineer.] the brother of Mofes, and firft high priest of the Ifraclites, was great-grand-fon of Levi by the father's fide, and grand-fon by the mother's. He had a confiderable fhare in all his brother's exertions, for the de liverance of that people from the tyranny of the Egyptians; and feems only to have erred in the matter of the golden calf, which, according to fome authors, he made, in compliance with the people's defire, being afraid of falling a facrifice to their refentment. It is probable, too, that he hoped to elude their requeft, when he infifted that the women should contribute their ear-rings; thinking that they would rather reft contented without any visible Deity, than part with their perfonal ornaments, to make one. His history being fully narrated in the Pentateuch, it needs only be added here, that he died upon mount Hor, in the 123d year of his age, being the 40th after the departure from Egypt; A. M. 2522, of the Julian period, 3262, and before the Christian æra, 1452, See MOSES, and MAGICIAN.

AARON, St, a British martyr, who suffered along with St Julius, another native of Britain, under Dioclefian, about the fame time with St Alban, the British proto-martyr. The British names of thefe faints are not on record, the christian Britons have generally taken new names from the Greeks, Romans or Hebrews, when they were baptifed. Churches have been dedicated to each of them, and their conjunct feftival is placed in the Roman martyrology on the first of July.

AARON HARISCHON. See HARISCHON. AARON, or HAROUN, AL RASCHID, a celebrated khalif of the Saracen empire, of whom many fabulous legends are told. See Bagdad. A 2 AARSENS,

E TOTU.

is remarkable for Roman antiquities, as well as for its mineral waters, which are celebrated for curing various difeafes. Lon. 11. 56. E. Lat. 48. 53. N.

ABACINARE, or AABACINARE, [Ital. from bacino, a bafin, or bacio, a dark place,] a barbarous punishment, defcribed by writers of the middle age, wherein the criminal was blinded, by holding a red hot bafin, or bowel, before his eyes.

ABACISTA, ¡O. L.] an arithmetician. ABACK, or ABAKE, back, backwards, or be hind. Chaucer. In fea-language, it fignifies the fituation of the fails, when their furfaces are flatted against the maft by the force of the wind. They may be brought aback, either by a fudden change of the wind, or an alteration in the fhip's courte. They are laid aback to effect an immediate retreat, without turning either to the right or left, in order to avoid fome imminent danger.

ABACKE, adv. [from back.] backwards. Objolete.

But when they came, where thou thy fkill didit fhow,

They drew abacke, as half with fhame confound. Spenf. Paft. ABACO, a word ufed by ancient writers, and fill in ufe among the Italians, for arithmetic. ABACOT, a cap of state, worn in ancient times by the kings of England, the upper part of which was in the form of a double crown.

ABACTED, [from aba&tus, L.] drawn away by ftealth or violence.

ABACTOR, n. f. [Lat.] one who drives away or fteals cattle in herbs, or great numbers at once, in distinction from those that steal only a fheep or two. Blount.

ABACTUS, or ABIGEATUS, a word ufed by ancient medical writers, to exprefs an abortion procured by the force of medicines, in contradiftinction to Aborfus, a natural mifcarriage. But the moderns make no fuch diftinction. See ABOR

TION,

ABACUS, n. f. [Lat.] 1. A counting table anciently used in calculations. 2. [in architecture] The uppermoft member of a column, which ferves as a fort of crowning both to the capital and column. Dia.

ABACUS, among the ancients, was a kind of cup-board or buffet. Livy, defcribing the luxury into which the Romans degenerated after the conquest of Afia, fays they had their abaci, beds, &c. plated over with gold."

ABACUS, among the ancient mathematicians, fignified a table covered with duft, on which they drew their diagrams; the word in this sense being derived from the Phoenician abak, duft.

ABACUS, in architecture, as above defined by Dr Johnson, is faid to have had the folLowing droll accidental origin. Vitruvius tells is that the abacus was originally intended to reprefent a fquare tile laid over an urn, or rather over a basket.-An Athenian old woman happenng to place a basket thus, covered over with the root of an acanthus; the plant, fhooting up the following fpring, encompaffed the bafket all around, till meeting with the tile, it curled back a a kind of fcroll. Callimachus, an ingenious

fculptor, paffing by, took the bint, and immedi, ately executed a capital on this plan; represente ing the tile by the abacus, the leaves by the vo lutes, and the bafket by the vase, or body of the capital. The form of the abacus is not the fame in all orders: in the Tufcan, Doric, and Ionic, it is generally fquare; but in the Corinthian and Compofite, its four fides are arched inwards, and embellished in the middle with fome ornament, as a rofe or other flower. Scammozzi uses abacus for a concave moulding on the capital of the Tufcan pedestal; and Palladio calls the plinth above the echinus, or boultin, in the Tuscan and Doric orders, by the fame name.

ABACUS is alfo the name of an ancient inftrument for facilitating operations in arithmetic. It is variously contrived. That chiefly used in Europe is made by drawing any number of parallel lines at the diftance of two diameters of one of the counters used in the calculation. A counter placed on the lowest line, fignifies 1; on the 2d, 10; on the 3d, 100; on the 4th, 1000, &c. In the intermediate fpaces, the fame counters are ef timated at one half of the value of the line immediately fuperior, viz. between the 1st and 2d, 5; between the 2d and 3d, 50, &c. See Plate I.

ABACUS is likewise used by modern writers for a table of numbers ready caft up, to expedite the operations of arithmetic. In this fenfe we have Abaci of addition, of multiplication, and divifion. ABACUS, the Chinese. See SWANPAN.

ABACUS Pythagoricus, the common multiplication table, fo called from its being invented by Pythagoras.

ABACUS Logisticus, is a rectangled triangle, whofe fides, forming the right angle, contain the numbers from 1 to 60; and its area, the facta of each two of the numbers perpendicularly oppofite. This is alfo called a canon of fexagefimals,

ABACUS & Palmule, in the ancient mufic, denote the machinery, whereby the strings of Polyplectra, or inftruments of many ftrings, were itruck with a plectrum made of quills.

ABACUS Harmonicus, is used by Kircher for the ftructure and difpofition of the keys of a mufical inftrument, whether to be touched with the hands or the feet.

ABACUS Major, in metallurgic operations, the name of a trough used in the mines, wherein the ore is washed.

ABADDON, the name which St John in the Revelation gives to the king of the locufts, the angel of the bottomlefs pit. The infpired writer fays, this word is Hebrew, and in Greek fignifics AλλWY, i. e. a defroyer. That angel king is thought to be Satan.

ABADIR, a title which the Carthaginians gave to gods of the first order. In the Roman mythology, it is the name of a stone which Saturn (wallowed, by the contrivance of his wife Ops, believing it to be his new-born fon Jupiter: hence it ridiculously became the object of religious worfhip.

ABE, or ABA. See ABA.

* ABAFT, adv. [from a Saxon word which fignifies behind,] from the fore part of the ship towards the ftern.

ABAGI, a filver coin current in Perfia, worth at

at Tefflis and throughout all Georgia, about 36 fols, French money. Four chaouris, which are alfo called Sains, make one abagi.

* ABAISANCE. n. f. [from the Fr. abaifer, to deprefs, to bring down,] an act of reverence, a bow. Obeyfance is confidered by Skinner as a corruption of Abaijance, but is now univerfally ufed.

To ABAISE, to humble one's felf.
ABAISEMENT, humiliation.

ABAISSED, ABAISSE, in heraldry, an epithet applied to the wings of eagles, &c. when the tip looks downwards to the point of the shield, or when the wings are fhut, the natural way of bear ing them being extended.

ABAKA khan, the 18th emperor of the Moguls, a wife and clement prince, who is faid, by fome authors, to have been a Chriftian, as he joined in keeping the feaft of Eafter, a fhort time before his death. But this is no certain proof of his Christianity, fuch inftances of liberality being common among Chriftians and Mahometans, when they wish to compliment each other by joining in the fame feftivals. He reigned 17 years.

ABAKANSKOI, a town of Siberia, on the river Janefka, under the Ruffian government. It was founded in 1707 and rebuilt in 1725. It has a garrifon, and is provided with artillery. Lon. 94. 5. E. Lat. 53. 5. N.

ABALAK, a town in Siberia, two miles from Tobolsk, celebrated for an image of the Virgin, which is vifited by many pilgrims, and carried in proceffion annually to Tobolski. Lon. 68. 20. E. Lat. 58. 11. N.

* To ABALIENATE. v. a. [from abalieno, Lat.] to make that another's which was our own before. A term of the civil law, not much used in common speech.

ABALIENATION. n. f. [Lat. abalienatio.] the act of giving up one's right to another perfon; er a making over an eftate, goods, or chattels by fale, or due courfe of law. Dia.

ABALIENATUS, in medicine, when applied to the body, fignifies, that the part spoken of is in a state that requires amputation; and when applied to the mind, denotes its total derangement. ABALLABA, the ancient name of Appleby, a town in Weftmoreland, remarkable only for its antiquities, having been a Roman ftation. See APPLEBY.

ABALUS, in ancient geography, supposed by the ancients to be an island in the German ocean, called by Timæus, Bafilio, and by Xenophon Eampfacenus, Baltia. Here, according to Pliny, amber dropped from the trees.

ABANA, or AMANA, in ancient geography, a river of Phoenicia, called Chryforrhæa, by the Greeks, which, rising from mount Hermon, washed the fouth and weft fides of Damafcus, and falls into the Phoenician fea, north of Tripolis.

* To ABAND. v. a. [a word contracted from Abandon, but not now in ufe. See ABANDON.] To forfake.

They ftronger are

Than they which sought at first their helping hand,

* To ABANDON, v. a. [Fr. abandonner. Derived, according to Menage, from the Italian abandare, which fignifies to forfake his colours; bandum (vexillum) deferere. Pafquier thinks it a coalition of a ban douner, to give up to a profcription; in which fense we, at this day, mention the ban of the empire. Ban, in our own old dialect, fignifies a courfe; and to abandon, if confidered as compounded between French and Saxon, is exactly equivalent to diris devovere.] 1. To give up, refign, or quit, often followed by the particle to.

If the be so abandon'd to her forrow, As it is spoke, she never will admit me.

Shakefp. Twelfth Night.

The paffive gods behold the Greeks defile Their temples, and abandon to the spoil Their own abodes: we feeble, few, confpire To fave a finking town, involv'd in fire.

Dryd. Eneid. -Who is he fo abandoned to sottish credulity, as to think that a clod of earth in a fack, may ever, by eternal fhaking, receive the fabric of a man's body? Bentley's Sermons.

Muft he, whofe altars on the Phrygian shore, With frequent rites and pure, avow'd thy pow'r, Be doom'd the worft of human ills to prove, Unblefs'd, abandon'd to the wrath of Jove?

Pope's Odyfey, b. i. 1. 80. 2. To defert; to forfake; in an ill fenfe.-The princes using the paflions of fearing evil, and defiring to efcape, only to ferve the rule of virtue and to abandon one's felf, leapt to a rib of the ship. Sidney, b. ii.

3.

Seeing the hurt ftag alone

Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends,
'Tis right, quoth he, this misery doth part
The flux of company. Shak. As you like it.
What fate a wretched fugitive attends
Scorn'd by my foes, abandon'd by my friends!
Dryd. En. 2.

But to the parting goddess thus the pray'd;
Propitious ftill be present to my aid,
Nor quite abandon your once favour'd maid.
Dryd. Fab.

To forfake; to leave.

He boldly fpake; Sir knight, if knight thou be, Abandon this foreftalled place at erst, For fear of further harm, I counsel thee.

Spenf. Fairy 2. b ii. cant. 4. ftanza 39. * To ABANDON OVER. v. a. [a form of writing not ufual, perhaps not exact.] To give up to; to refign.

Look on me as on a man abandon'd o'er To an eternal lethargy of love :

To pull, and pinch, and wound me, cannot cure, And but disturb the quiet of my death. Dryd. Sp. Friar. ABANDONED. part. adj. corrupted in the highest degree, as, an abandoned wretch.-In this fenfe it is a contraction of a longer form, abandoned, (given up,) to wickedness.

* ABANDONING. [a verbal noun from abandon.] Defertion, forfaking.-He hoped his past meritorious actions might outweigh his prefent abandoning the thought of future action. Clarendon. b. viii.

ABANDONMENT. n. f. [abandonment,

Fr