hile other words in this list, such for instance as
'hoyden'{213} (Milton, prose), 'shrew' (Chaucer), 'coquet' (Phillips,
_New World of Words_), 'witch' (Wiclif), 'termagant' (Bale), 'scold',
'jade', 'slut' (Gower), must be regarded in their present exclusive
appropriation to the female sex as evidences of men's rudeness, and not
of women's deserts.

{Sidenote: _Words used more accurately_}

The necessities of an advancing civilization demand a greater precision
and accuracy in the use of words having to do with weight, measure,
number, size. Almost all such words as 'acre', 'furlong', 'yard',
'gallon', 'peck', were once of a vague and unsettled use, and only at a
later day, and in obedience to the requirements of commerce and social
life, exact measures and designations. Thus every field was once an
'acre'; and this remains so still with the German 'acker', and in our
"God's acre", as a name for a churchyard{214}; it was not till about the
reign of Edward the First that 'acre' was commonly restricted to a
determined measure and portion of land. Here and there even now a
glebeland will be called "the acre"; and this, even while it contains
not one but many of our measured acres. A 'furlong' was a 'furrowlong',
or length of a furrow{215}. Any pole was a 'yard', and this vaguer use
survives in 'sail_yard_', 'hal_yard_', and in other sea-terms. Every
pitcher was a 'galon' (Mark xiv. 13, Wiclif), while a 'peck' was no more
than a 'poke' or bag{216}. And the same has no doubt taken place in all
other languages. I will only remind you how the Greek 'drachm' was at
first a handful ({Greek: drachme:} = 'manipulus', from {Greek: drasso:},
to grasp); its later word for 'ten thousand' ({Greek: myrioi}) implied
in Homer's time any great multitude; and with the accent on a different
syllable always retained this meaning.

{Sidenote: _Words used less accurately_}

Opposite to this is a counter-process by which words of narrower
intention gradually enlarge the domain of their meaning, becoming
capable of much wider application than any which once they admitted.
Instances in this kind are fewer than in that which we have just been
considering. The main stream and course of human thoughts and human
discourse tends the other way, to discerning, distinguishing, dividing;
and then to the permanent fixing of the distinctions gained, by the aid
of designations which shall keep apart for ever in word that which has
been once severed and s