Augmentatives express the opposite idea to that expressed by Diminutives: Classical: drunk-ard, wiz-ard. The suffix -ard, though ultimately of Teutonic origin, comes to us from Old French -ard. Sweetheart is a compound of sweet heart, and not, as has been thought, an augmentative, sweet-ard. Other augmentative endings appear in ball-oon, tromb-one (a big trumpet), milli-on (a big thousand). Denoting agent: (a) English: law-yer, garden-er, sail-or, li-ar. (b) Classical: act-or, preach-er, bombard-ier, engin-eer, secret-ary; (Greek) crit-ic, anarch-ist, enthusi-ast, patri-ot. Marking feminine gender: (a) English: spin-ster, vix-en. (b) Classical: govern-ess, testatr-ix, (Greek) hero-ine. Act, state, quality, are denoted by many suffixes: (a) English: free-dom, brother-hood, god-head, dark-ness, friendship, tru-th, gif-t, hat-red, slaughter. (b) Classical: bond-age, infam-y, matri-mony, just-ice, opin-ion, forti-tude, cruel-ty, cult-ure, prud-ence, brilli-ance. ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES. Denoting the possession of a quality: (a) English: quarrel-some, god-ly, wood-en, north-ern, thirst-y, wretch-ed. (6) Classical: leg-al, mund-ane, instant-aneous, lun-ar, div-ine, tim-id, sens-ible, frag-ile, nat-ive, test-y, brilli-ant. The -ed in 'wretched' is the ending of the past participle, but it is attached to nouns as well as to verbs to form adjectives, as in 'horn-ed,' 'feather-ed,' 'kind-heart-ed.' A great outcry was raised some years ago against the words gifted, talented, moneyed, and a few similar adjectives, on the ground that they are formed like participles, but that there are no verbs from which they come. If however we can talk of a ' wretch-ed beggar,' there seems no reason why we should not talk of a 'gift-ed poet.' The further objection was brought against talented and moneyed that they are hybrids, since talent comes from the Greek and money from the Latin. But the same objection might be urged against the past participle of every weak verb of foreign origin in the language, from preached down to telegraphed. Possession of a quality in a high degree is indicated by (English) care-ful, (Classical) verb-ose, glori-ous: in a low degree by (English) black-ish; and the absence of a quality by (English) fear-less, hope-less, where -less stands for loose, meaning 'free from,' and is not connected with the comparative adjective less. VERB SUFFIxes. Causative: (a) English: sweet-en; (b) Classical: magni-fy (Latin facio). Other verbal suffixes, of English origin, are seen in clean-se, start-le; and of Latin origin in flour-ish (floresco), facilit-ate. The common ending -ize, or -ise, is of Greek origin: critic-ize, theor-ise. Frequentative: (a) English: flut-t-er (from float), sput-t-er (from spout), scut-t-le (from scud). Hybrids. As our vocabulary is composed of words from Latin, Greek, and native sources, hybrids are naturally numerous. Indeed, as the grammatical forms of our language are almost entirely of English origin, any word from a Latin or Greek source which takes our English inflexions might in strictness be called a hybrid. The term is usually reserved however for words which obtrusively present a combination of different elements: such are bi-gamy and bi-cycle, because bi(s) is Latin and the remainder is Greek. Journal-ist combines Latin and Greek, mon-ocular Greek and Latin; shepherd-ess English and French, grand-father, French and English; false-hood, Latin and English; un-fortunate, English and Latin. 217. The following are a few of the principal Prefixes, classified as English, Latin, or Greek, according to their origin1. ENGLISH: a-, usual meaning 'on': a-foot, a-bed. be-, from preposition 'by': (i) changes the meaning of a transitive verb, be-hold, be-set: (ii) converts an intransitive to a transitive, be-moan, be-wail: (iii) has an intensive force, be-daub, be-praise. for-, not the preposition 'for': (i) intensive force, for-bear: (ii) privative, for-get, for-swear. Notice that fore-go ('to go without '), fore-do, should be for-go, for-do: the verb fore-go means 'to go before.' fore-, as in ‘be-fore': fore-tell, fore-see. mis-, with sense of ‘a-miss': mis-deed, mis-take. un-, (i) meaning 'not': un-wise, un-belief: (ii) marking the reversal of an action; un-fasten, un-wind, un-lock. with-, meaning 'against': with-stand, with-draw. LATIN: a-, ab-, abs-, 'from': a-vert, ab-rupt, abs-tain. ad-, 'to': ad-jective; variously modified, e.g. ab-breviate, ac-cuse, af-fable, ag-gravate, al-ly, an-nex, ap-pear, ar-rears, as-size, at-tain, a-vow. 1 For complete list see Skeat's Concise Etymological Dictionary, pp. 624-630, or Nesfield's English Grammar Past and Present, PP. 378-417. ante-, 'before,' ante-chamber. bi-, bis-, 'twice,' bi-ped, bis-cuit. contra-, 'against,' contra-dict, counter-march. in-, (i) 'in': in-fuse, im-pel, en-rol: (ii) 'not': in-sensible, impossible, ir-responsible. minus-, 'mis-chief,' with meaning of English prefix mis-, but of different origin. non-, 'not': non-conformity. per-, 'through': per-secute, pur-sue, per-jure, (compare ‘for-swear'). re-, ' again,' 'back': re-cur, re-turn. super-, 'over': super-fine, sur-vive, sir-loin. vice-, 'instead of': vice-roy, vis-count. GREEK: an-, a-, 'not': an-archy, a-theist. ana-, ‘again,' ‘back': ana-logy, ana-lyse. anti-, 'against': anti-pathy, ant-agonist. In anti-cipate however we have Latin ante. archi-, 'chief': archi-tect, arche-type, arch-bishop. auto-, 'self': auto-biography, auto-maton. ek-, ex-, 'out of': ec-logue, ex-odus. eu-, 'well': eu-logy, ev-angelical. hyper-, 'beyond': hyper-bolical. meta-, 'change': meta-phor. mono-, 'single': mono-poly, mon-arch. pan-, panto-, ‘all': pan-acea, panto-mime. para-, 'beside': para-graph. syn-, 'with': syn-od, syl-lable, sym-bol. 218. Division of Words into Syllables. A Syllable consists of a single vowel sound with or without accompanying consonants. It is pronounced by a single effort of the voice. Through is a single syllable, though it contains seven letters: ideality with eight letters has five syllables. In through there is one vowel sound, the long o of cool, here represented by ou: in ideality there are five distinct vowel sounds, with three consonants dispersed amongst them. There are no hard and fast rules for the division of words into syllables, when a division is necessary in writing. In this matter, as also in the matter of punctuation, writers are very much at the mercy of the printers. From the nature of the case, no division can be made in words of one syllable however long. Straight, scratch, drought, contain only one vowel-sound and must be written and printed entire. Two principles should regulate the separation of words of more than one syllable into parts: as far as possible we ought to follow (1) the etymology, (2) the pronunciation. Hence the hyphen is placed between the prefix or suffix and the root of derivatives, and between the constituent parts of compounds: en-large, duch-ess, free-man. But sometimes the division according to pronunciation is at variance with the division according to etymology. For example, orthography, geology, would be divided thus, if we follow the pronunciation as our guide,-orthog-raphy, geol-ogy, whereas their etymology would direct us to divide them thus,ortho-graphy, geo-logy. In cases of conflict of this kind it is generally best to place the hyphen consistently with the etymology'. QUESTIONS. I. Add to each of the following words the prefix which reverses the meaning:contented, proper, visible, pleasant, ingenuous, natural. 2. Define the terms prefix and suffix. Illustrate your answer by analysing the following words into their component parts:-believing, darling, forlorn, islet, nethermost, requital, spinster, uncouth. 3. Does the phrase ' Ærated bread' require correction? ['Ærated bread' would be bread made of bronze (Latin aes, aeris). What sort of bread is sold at the ABC shops, and whence does it get its name?] Break up the words mistrustfully, unwholesomeness, into syllables, and explain how each syllable contributes to the meaning of the words. 5. Why are the following words hybrids?—forbear-ance, duke-dom, somnambul-ist, un-just, social-ism, master-ship. 1 In practice the division is usually made so as to begin a new syllable with a consonant, if possible, and when two consonants come together, to put the former into one syllable and the latter into another. Accordingly we find such divisions as solilo-quy, peru-sal, fes-tive, particle. See Skeat's Student's Pastime, p. 119. 6. Give the derivation and history of the following words; and mention any case of double meaning, or of change of meaning alderman, defeat, drake, idiot, invalid, involve, kaleidoscope, middle, megrim, monk, orchard, pilgrim, scholar, uncouth. 7. What are the chief constituent elements of the English language? Give the derivation of the following words, pointing out any change of meaning:-ally, agony, dyspeptic, girl, journal, lord, person, ornithologist, poison, rival, sherry, silly, somersault, telegraph, villain, volume. 8. Give the derivation of the following words, showing from what languages they were taken:-caitiff, cardinal, frenzy, seraph, nightingale, welkin. 9. Give the etymology of the following words:―gazette, tinsel, blame, loyal, archbishop, sheriff. 10. Which is the right place for the hyphen in the following words? Why?-sui-cide or suic-ide; locom-otive or loco-motive; viad-uct or viaduct; apo-stle or apos-tle; epig-ram or epi-gram; dec-line or de-cline; sus-pect or suspect; kin-dred or kind-red; lanc-et or lan-cet; mor-ning or morn-ing; hil-lock or hill-ock; univers-ity or univer-sity; semin-ary or semi-nary; catas-trophe or cata-strophe. II. What is the force of each of the following prefixes, and from what language does it come? Give a word in illustration-with-, contra-, dia-, sub-, per-, sym-, arch-, un-, ab-. 12. Point out the prefixes in the following words and give their force:-extract, misuse, retrograde, antecedent, antipathy, outdo, besmear, accede, ignoble, immense. 13. What is the force of the -en in each of the following words?— gold-en, sweet-en, vix-en, childr-en, maid-en. 14. Give the force of the suffixes in these words:-black-ish, yeoman-ry, spin-ster, malt-ster, young-ster, doct-or, dar-ling, man-hood, god-head, free-dom, lanc-et, ring-let, shad-ow. 15. Give the Primary Derivatives from the following words :-hale, sit, weave, deep, lie, bath, love. [By a Primary Derivative is here meant a word formed from another word as its root, by the addition of a sound not significant alone, or by the modification of an existing sound. Thus from strong is formed strength, where we have both addition and modification; from glass is formed glaze, where we have modification only. Now if, from the Primary Derivatives, fresh words are formed by similar processes, these words are called Secondary Derivatives. So, from the Primary Derivative strength we form strengthen; from glaze, glazier. Strengthen and glazier are Secondary Derivatives.] |