up naturally from divergence of meaning. True homophones are separate
words which have, or have acquired, an illogical fortuitous identity.]

[Sidenote: False homophones.]

Now, wherever the same derivation of any two same-sounding words is
at all doubtful, such words are practically homophones:--and again in
cases where the derivation is certainly the same, yet, if the ultimate
meanings have so diverged that we cannot easily resolve them into one
idea, as we always can _draft_, these also may be practically reckoned
as homophones.

_Continent_, adjective and substantive, is an example of absolute
divergence of meaning, inherited from the Latin; but as they are
different parts of speech, I allow their plea of identical derivation
and exclude them from my list. On the other hand, the substantive
_beam_ is an example of such a false homophone as I include. _Beam_
may signify a balk of timber, or a ray of light. Milton's address to
light begins

O first created beam

and Chaucer has

As thikke as motes in the sonne-beam,

and this is the commonest use of the word in poetry, and probably in
literature: Shelley has

Then the bright child the plumèd seraph came