PART II.

ETYMOLOGY.

79. Etymology treats of the different sorts of words, their various modifications, and their derivations.

WORDS.

80. A Word is an articulate sound used by common consent as the sign of an idea.

81. A few words consist of vocal or vowel sounds only; as, I, ah, awe, oh, owe, eye, etc.

82.-1. Words in respect of their Formation, are either Primitive or Derivative, Simple or Compound.

83. A Primitive word is one that is not derived from any other word in the language; as, boy, just, father.

84. A Derivative word is one that is derived from some other word; as, boyish, justice, fatherly.

Derivatives are usually formed either by prefixing or affixing syllables to simple words.

85. A Simple word is one that is not combined with. any other word; as, man, house, city.

86. A Compound word is one that is made up of two or more simple words; as, manhood, horseman.

87.-2. Words, in respect of Form, are either inAlected or uninflected.

88. An Inflected word is one which undergoes cer

tain changes of form or termination, to express the different relations of gender, number, person, case; degree; voice, mood, tense; usually termed in Grammar AccIDENTS; as, man, men; wise, wiser; love, loves, loved, etc.

89. In the changes which they undergo, nouns and pronouns are sometimes said to be declined, verbs, to be conjugated, adjectives and adverbs, compared (140, 209, 473, 536.)

90. An uninflected word is one which undergoes no change of form; as, and, beside, some, perhaps.

91. 3. In respect of signification and use, words are divided into different classes, called Parts of Speech.

92. The principle according to which words are classified is their use, or the part they perform in the expression of thought. Words which are names of objects are classed as nouns; those which qualify nouns are adjectives; those which attribute an action or state to some subject are verbs, etc. Hence, when the same word is used for different purposes-at one time as a name, at another to qualify a noun, and at another to express an action or state-it should, in parsing, be assigned to that class of words, the office of which it performs for the time; thus, "Before honor [noun] is humility." "Honor [verb] thy father and thy mother."

Structure of Words.

A simple word conveying a single notion, or idea, and of whose origin we can give no account, is called a root.

Derivatives are formed from these, and also from foreign roots.

1. By changing the vowel, or modifying the consonants in the root. Thus, from shake we have

shock; from strong, strength; from the Latin signum, or French signe, we have sign.

2. By prefixes and suffixes, added to the root, as, misguide, unable, withdraw, strengthen, shocking, reader, etc.

Latin roots are rarely used in English in their primitive form. Thus, in permit, submit, the root is mit; and in deport, porter, it is port, but these are in English inseparable, retaining, however, their original signification, and imparting it to the derivative; as (Latin), port to carry, er (suffix) one who; porter, a carrier.

A prefix is letter or syllable before the root of a derivative.

A suffix is a letter or syllable after the root.

The number of prefixes and suffixes is about two hundred, and their usual signification may be readily learned. It is estimated that there are not above ten thousand roots. The mastery, therefore, of these elements will put the learner in possession of more than one hundred thousand words, given in our standard dictionaries; whilst the exercise of verbal analysis is invaluable, in leading to nice discrimination in shades of meaning.

Prefixes.

The prefixes are, for the most part, of Saxon, Latin, or Greek origin. The most common are as follows:

* Ad sometimes changes d for the sake of euphony, and takes the forms, ac, af, ag, al, an, ap, ar, as, at; as, accede, affects, aggressor, allude, annex, append, arrest, assent, attend.

+ Anti sometimes, but to be distinguished from the Greek anti, against.

Con, for euphony, takes the forms, co, com, col; as, cohere, compel, collect.

For euphony, oc, of, op; as, occur, offend, opposite.

Synt (ovv)

with;

as, synthesis.

These prefixes have other meanings in composition; the particular sense can be determined only by use.

Many derivatives, and especially those of foreign roots, are used

* Euphonic forms, suc, suf, sur, as succor, suffer, surreptitious This takes, also, for euphony, the form, sym, syl; as sympathy, yllogism.