New Word-Analysis - William Swinton

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lava, opera, piano, regatta, soprano, stucco, vista.

      Spanish: armada, cargo, cigar, desperado, flotilla, grandee, mosquito, mulatto, punctilio, sherry, sierra.

      Portuguese: caste, commodore, fetish, mandarin, palaver.

      9. Proportions.—On an examination of passages selected from modern English authors, it is found that of every hundred words sixty are of Anglo-Saxon origin, thirty of Latin, five of Greek, and all the other sources combined furnish the remaining five.

      By actual count, there are more words of classical than of Anglo-Saxon origin in the English vocabulary—probably two and a half times as many of the former as of the latter. But Anglo-Saxon words are so much more employed—owing to the constant repetition of conjunctions, prepositions, adverbs, auxiliaries, etc. (all of Anglo-Saxon origin)—that in any page of even the most Latinized writer they greatly preponderate. In the Bible, and in Shakespeare's vocabulary, they are in the proportion of ninety per cent. For specimens showing Anglo-Saxon words, see p. 136.

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      10. Classes by Origin.—With respect to their origin, words are divided into two classes—primitive words and derivative words.

      11. A primitive word, or root, is one that cannot be reduced to a more simple form in the language to which it is native: as, man, good, run.

      12. A derivative word is one made up of a root and one or more formative elements: as, manly, goodness, runner.

      The formative elements are called prefixes and suffixes. (See §§ 16, 17.)

      13. By Composition.—With respect to their composition, words are divided into two classes—simple and compound words.

      14. A simple word consists of a single significant term: as, school, master, rain, bow.

      15. A compound word is one made up of two or more simple words united: as, school-master, rainbow.

      In some compound words the constituent parts are joined by the hyphen as school-master; in others the parts coalesce and the compound forms a single (though not a simple) word, as rainbow.

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      16. A prefix is a significant syllable or word placed before and joined with a word to modify its meaning: as, unsafe = not safe; remove = move back; circumnavigate = sail around.

      17. A suffix is a significant syllable or syllables placed after and joined with a word to modify its meaning: as, safely = in a safe manner; movable = that may be moved; navigation = act of sailing.

      The word affix signifies either a prefix or a suffix; and the verb to affix means to join a prefix or a suffix to a root-word.

      EXERCISE.

      Tell whether the following words are primitive or derivative, and also whether simple or compound:—

      1 grace

      2 sign

      3 design

      4 midshipman

      5 wash

      6 sea

      7 workman

      8 love

      9 lovely

      10 white

      11 childhood

      12 kingdom

      13 rub

      14 music

      15 musician

      16 music-teacher

      17 footstep

      18 glad

      19 redness

      20 school

      21 fire

      22 watch-key

      23 give

      24 forget

      25 iron

      26 hardihood

      27 young

      28 right

      29 ploughman

      30 day-star

      31 large

      32 truthful

      33 manliness

      34 milkmaid

      35 gentleman

      36 sailor

      37 steamboat

      38 wooden

      39 rich

      40 hilly

      41 coachman

      42 warm

      43 sign-post

      44 greenish

      45 friend

      46 friendly

      47 reform

      48 whalebone

      49 quiet

      50 quietude

      51 gardener

      52 form

      53 formal

      54 classmate

      55 trust

      56 trustworthy

      57 penknife

      58 brightness

      59 grammarian

      60 unfetter

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      Rule 1.—Final "e" followed by a Vowel.

      Final e of a primitive word is dropped on taking a suffix beginning with a vowel: as, blame + able = blamable; guide + ance = guidance; come + ing = coming; force + ible = forcible; obscure + ity = obscurity.

      Exception 1.—Words ending in ge or ce usually retain the e before a suffix beginning with a or o, for the reason that c and g would have the hard sound if the e were dropped: as, peace + able = peaceable; change + able = changeable; courage + ous = courageous.

      Exception 2.—Words ending in oe retain the e to preserve the sound of the root: as, shoe + ing = shoeing; hoe + ing = hoeing. The e is retained in a few words to prevent their being confounded with similar words: as, singe + ing = singeing (to prevent its being confounded with singing).

      Rule II.—Final "e" followed by a Consonant.

      Final e

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