XII). In
fact, few things are more extraordinary in the history of our language
than the singularly capricious manner in which good and useful words
emerge into or disappear from use in "standard" talk, for no very
obvious reason. Such a word as _yonder_ is common enough still; but
its corresponding adjective _yon_, as in the phrase "yon man," is
usually relegated to our dialects. Though it is common in Shakespeare,
it is comparatively rare in the Middle English period, from the
twelfth to the fifteenth century. It only occurs once in Chaucer,
where it is introduced as being a Northern word; and it absolutely
disappears from record in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries.
Bosworth's _Anglo-Saxon Dictionary_ gives no example of its use, and
it was long supposed that it would be impossible to trace it in our
early records. Nevertheless, when Dr Sweet printed, for the first
time, an edition of King Alfred's translation of Pope Gregory's
_Pastoral Care_, an example appeared in which it was employed in the
most natural manner, as if it were in everyday use. At p. 443 of that
treatise is the sentence--"Aris and gong to geonre byrg," i.
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