D DThe fourth letter and third conso- nant in the Graeco-Roman alpha- bets. Its form is derived by a rounding of the sign A found in the West Greek inscriptions rather than from the familiar form of delta (tl) seen in most Greek scripts. (See Alphabet; Letters.) The Greek name of the letter, delta, is a modification of the Semitic word daleth (originally dalt) , which means a door. The Greek capital, A, still retains the shape of the opening of a tent, the kind of door niost familiar to a nomadic people. »S'oM»d. — In sound the English d is a dental or rather alveolar (lingual) voiced explosive, made by a contact of the tip of the tongue and the roof of the mouth near the upper front teeth. In French the contact is rather dental than alve- olar. The North German d is between the Eng- lish and the French. There is also in English a sliglitly more cerebral d as in drotni, made by bending up the tip of the tongue and touching the roof of the mouth farther back than in the so-called dental sound. This is due to its posi- tion before the lingual r. Source. — English d comes : ( 1 ) from Indo- Ger. dh (Gk., Lat. f, d (with r) , b) : as deer, Gk. Ot/p, Lat. fera: udder, Skt. iidhar, Lat. uher : (2) from Indo-Ger. * when not immedi- ately preceded by the accent; hund-red, Skt. cntdm, Gk. ^Kari'ii", Lat. centiim: (3) from Ger- manic j), with I; gold, Goth. gul>; (4) d arises as a special development from the affinity of n for d (as a ti-ansfer-sound) , in such words as Eng. gender, Lat gener, Eng. thunder (OE. ]>U}wr) , riband (ME. rihan) . The d sometimes disappears as in cruel (Lat. crudelis) . The let- ter d is often assimilated as affirm, accept, gos- sip (OE. <Jodsihh) : and in certain linguistic developments it interchanges phonetically with I, for example, /, I^at. TJ/ysses, from Gk. 'Odvaacvg, or with r in Lat. arbiter from ad betere. and b. belhiin from duellum. According to Grimm's Law. original d becomes t in English, z in German. "Thus Indo-Ger. *del:m, Eng. ten, Ger. zehn. Di followed by a vowel becomes /, as in journal from diurnal. As Sinnbnl. — (1) As a numeral, D = 500: f) — 5000. This use of D to denote 500 arose from a confusion with <T). the original svmbol for that number. (2) In Roman names. D = Deci- mus. Divus, Bominus, and Deus. (3) In aca- demic degrees, D* stands for Doctor. (4) In music, D is the second note of the natural scale, and is a whole tone above C. It is written in the first added space below the treble clef or on the fourth line; in the bass clef it is on the third line or in the second added space above. (See Musical Notation.) (5) In chemistry I) = didymium, ( 6 ) In reckoning English money (£ s. d.) , d = pence, penny (Lat. demi- rius) . (7) In mathematics D = derivation. d = differentiation, A = differencing, and d = varia- tion. DAB ( probably from dab, gentle blow ) . A fisli {Limanda limanda) closely related to the plaice and llounder (qq.v.) and sometimes in- cluded with them in the same genus. It is com- mon on the sandy shores of northern Europe. It can easily be distinguished from the common flounder by the distinct arch in the lateral line at the anterior end. It attains a length of 12 inches and is much esteemed as food. A nearly related species, the rusty dab (Limanda fcr- riKjinea), possessing smaller scales, is rather abundant on the eas'tern coast of North America. There are other less common species of dab. DAB, DABB, or DHABB (Ar. dabb, lizard). A lizard of northeastern Africa, as the common spiny-tailed agamoid Uromastix acnnthinuriis.. Two or more species, about a foot in length, are common in Algeria. Tunis, and Egypt : and in Algeria are called iezards des palmiers,' per- haps because they eat dates, besides grass, berries, and various flowers. This genus has no voice, and their color, which is very changeable, de- pends upon the weather, being dull on cool days and much brighter when it is warm. The term IS also given to the dried flesh of lizards, espe- cially of the skink (Seincus officinalis), pre- served for use in medicine among the Arabs. DAB'BAT (Ar. dabbat. reptile). The third sign of the coming of the judgment, the Apoca- Ivptic beast of the ^lohammedan religion. DABCHICK (variant of dob-chick, a diving bird, from dap, to drop bait into water, AS. doppa, a water-bird, from dypettan. to dive, from di/pan, to dip). A small grebe, as (1) in the United States, the pied-billed grebe (Podi- lymhus podieeps) ; (2) in England, the little grebe {Podieeps minor). See Geebe. DABNEY, dab'ni. Robert Lewis (1820—). .
American Presbyterian clergyman. He was
born in Louisa County. Va.. and studied at Hampden Sidney College, at the I^niversity of Virginia, and at the Union Theological Seminary
