among the Greeks, was a long portico, open or covered at the top, where the athlete practised wrestling and running. The gladiators who practised in it were called xystici. Among the Romans, the xystus was only an alley, or double row of trees, meeting like an arbour, and forming a shade to walk under.

Y.

Y or y, the twenty-fourth letter of our alphabet. Its sound is formed by expressing the breath with a sudden expansion of the lips from that configuration by which we express the vowel u. At the beginning of words, it is uncommonly taken for a consonant, being placed before all vowels, as in yard, yield, young, &c., but before no consonant. At the end of words it is a vowel, and is substituted for the sound of i, as in try, desery, &c. In the middle of words it is not used so frequently as i, unless in words derived from the Greek, as in chyle, empyrean, &c., though it is admitted into the middle of some pure English words, as dying, flying, &c. The Romans had no capital of this letter, but used the small one in the middle and last syllables of words, as in corymbus, onyx, martyr. Y is also numeral, signifying 150, or, according to Baroniuss, 159, and with a dash over it, as Y, it signified 150,000.