FYRD, f6rd. See MILITIA.
FYT, fit, JAN (c.1609-61). A Flemish painter and etcher, born in Antwerp. He was a pupil of Jan van Berch. In 1629 he became member of the Guild of Saint Luke, and in 1650 he was elected member of the Guild of the Romftnists, becoming dean in 1652. He visited Italy and spent some time studying in Rome. His painting is characterized by sunny effects, harmony of color, and remarkable detail, especially in the painting of the fur of animals and the plumage of birds. His subjects embrace animals hunting, fighting, and dead. He has been named the great est animal painter of the Flemish School, and was associated with Jordaens and \Villeborts; the latter painted the figures, while Fyt added the animals. He died in Antwerp in 1661. His etchings include three series of animal subjects: they show the same vigor and animation in style as his paintings. • There are three paintings at the Louvre, Paris; the "Bear Hunt" is in Munich; and he is well represented in Vienna and Paris.
seventh letter and fifth con sonant in the Grano - Roman al phabet. The greatest innovation made by the Romans when they took over the Greek alphabet was in the development of G. Up to the mid
dle of the third century B.C. the letter C was employed in Latin inscriptions for both e and g. The familiar abbreviations C. and CN. for Gains and Gnnus prove this fact beyond question. The inconvenience, however, of having only one character to distinguish the two sounds made necessary a slight differentiation, which finally gave the form G for the sonant guttural (g), and C for the surd guttural (c hard). The new character first appears in the epitaph on Scipio Barbatus, which Ritschl thinks cannot have been carved later than n.c. 234. This G took the seventh place in the alphabet, which had been occupied by Z in the old Italic alphabet. (See ALPHABET; LETTERS.) With reference to the name, it may be added that the Greek designa tion gamma has been usually supposed to be an adaptation of the Semitic gaml or giml, and to mean a camel. But in fact gim/ and gaml mean nothing as words, and although either may be the Semitic triliteral root meaning 'ripe,' there is no word of any such form from that root.