LESSONS IN ENGLISH. 



71 





now rarely used ; and in the oases in which it U chiefly used 

 namely, by tho poets, and by the Society of Friends the ett is 

 for tlio most part dropped. Iiuln <1, hut for its ooiwtant employ- 

 Bent in i !'. public prayers of Christian churches, it would now 

 probably I"- wholly out of use. Nor would the language suffer 

 by its dim-out inuumse; for, aa the person is marked by the pro- 

 noun MOII, there is no occasion for any inflection of tho verb, 

 and Mich iiitlivtion abates the euphony, and diminishes the 

 adaptability of our verbs. 



I in turr./ i Latin, turns, o tower), is a diminutive, a small 

 tower; coming 1 to us from the Italian 



" Now like a maiden queen she will behold, 



From her high turret*, hourly suitors come; 

 The cast with incense, and the west with gold, 

 Will stand like suppliants to receive her doom. 



Eth, tho old termination of the third person singular of the 

 present tense of tho English verb ; as e&teth, found in part in 

 the Latin legit, and found in full in the Anglo-Saxon bzurnd/i, 

 he burtu'th. 



" He that goeth forth and weepcfh." Ps. cxrvi. 6. 



Ette, of French origin, is found in words taken from the 

 French ; as, coquette, etiquette. Coquette is, with us, applied to 

 a female who employs her personal attractions to gain attention 

 from males. In French there is tho word coquet, a male coquette. 

 Coquet seems to come from coq, a cock, a showy and uxorious 

 animal ; and accordingly, it signifies a man who resembles a 

 cock in his attention to woman. By a natural step in the pro- 

 gross of language, the term was applied to females. 



" Coqwt and coy at once her air, 



Both studied, though both seem neglected ; 

 Careless she is with artful care, 



Affecting to seem unaffected." Congreve. 



Etiquette is the same word as our ticket, and originally denoted 

 the short inscriptions, or tickets, put on packages of goods to 

 point out what they contained. But similar etiquettes or tickets 

 were employed to declare certain observances required in a 

 public assembly ; and so the word came to signify forms and 

 formalities, a strict regard to custom ; and in general, social 

 conventionalism, particularly in relation to deportment. 



Eur, a French termination, from the Latin or : thus vendeur 

 (a seller) is from the Latin vendifor ; proditeur, a betrayer, from 

 the Latin proditor. It is similar in import to our ending er, and 

 denotes an actor : for example, producteitr, FT. a producer. Of 

 old many English words, now terminating in or, terminated in 

 ew ; as autheur for author. The termination is still retained 

 in certain nouns denoting abstract qualities : for instance, 

 grandeur (Latin, grandis, great) ; hauteur (French, haut, high), 

 derived immediately from the French. The notion of the actor 

 is retained in the French douceur (from tho French doux, sweet), 

 a sweetener ; a fee, or bribe. 



Ever, connected in origin with the Latin sevum, age ; and the 

 Greek cuwv (i'-own), age, comes to us directly from the Anglo- 

 Saxon cefre, and signifies always, an enduring reality, either in 

 time past (Ps. xxv. 6 ; xc. 2), time present (Ps. cxix. 98), or 

 time to come (Ps. cxi. 5). Ever, as a suffix, strengthens tho 

 word to which it is appended : thus, " whatever yon do " has 

 more force than " what you do." Ever is found in other com- 

 pounds; for example, whoever, however, wherever, whenever. 

 Additional force is given by tho insertion of tho particle so ; 

 as whosoever, whencesoover, whithersoever. Thia so used to 

 stand where ever is now placed ; as, whoso, howso, whatso. 



" Her cursed tongue (full sharp and short) 

 Appeared like aspis' sting, that closely kills, 

 Or cruelly doth wound whomao she wills." 



Spenser, "Faerie Queen*." 



Full, of Saxon origin, obviously the same as the adjective 

 full, gives an instance of tho origin of these particles in words 

 which originally hod a definite form and signification. According 

 to its root-meaning, full (now in combination written ful) denotes 

 a large portion of the quality indicated by the word to which it 

 is affixed ; as, hate, hate/uJ; thank, thank/ul ; grate/W,delight/uJ. 

 Full has for its opposite less; for example, merci/ul, merciless. 

 In the employment of words, you cadnot follow analogy alone, 

 but must consult authority: thus, you may say penniless, but 

 you cannot say penni/ul ; yet pitiful is as good as pit i 



w oft, my slice of pocket store consumed, 

 Still hungorintr. ptnnyUu, and far from bom*. 

 I fed on scarlet hip* and stony h*w>." Cowper, " Tack." 



Fy is from the Latin facio, I make. Facia, in combination, 

 becomes ficio, as in efyicio. The ft in thin word, writt* 

 the particle under consideration. It in teen in fructi/y, literally, 

 to make fruit ; that in, to make fruitful. 



" Calling drunkenneM, good-fellowtihip j pride, 

 valour ; bribery, gratijicativn." liithop Morton. 



Head or hood, from the Saxon had, head, in 

 denotes the essence of any person or thing ; it* 

 tion, viewed as a whole: thus, in Anglo-Saxon and 

 manhad, manhood; wifhad, wifehood, or womanhood; cildhad, 

 childhood ; brotherhad, brotherhood ; preosthad, priesthood. 

 " Canst thou, by reason, more of godhead know, 

 Than Plutarch, Seneca, or Cicero ?" 



Dryden, " Btlijio Laid." 



Head is sometimes employed with a more direct reference to the 

 moaning which it has ii. current use; as. in wrongkead and 

 wrong/leaded, etc 



" Much do I suffer, much to keep in peace, 



This jealous, waspish, isronghead, rhyming race." Pop*. 

 " Whether we [the Irish] can propoee to thrive so long as we enter- 

 tain a vronyheaded distrust of England," Bishop Berkeley. 



After a similar manner we use both heart and head, in faint- 

 hearted, lighthearted, hotheaded, lightheaded. 



Ible, see able, formerly explained under suffixes. 



Ic, ick, ich, have counterparts in the Latia termination icut, 

 and the German ich, isch ; as soporif tens (Latin, sopor, sleepiness), 

 soporific, ruaticus (Latin, rus, the country), rustic, cildwc in Anglo- 

 Saxon, childish in English ; book wfe. 



" The sweet showers of heaven that fell into the sea are turned into 

 its brackish taste." Bates. 



leal, an adjective-ending, from the Latin icaiis : for example, 

 arnica Zis, amical (friendly), grammatica/is, grammatical ; so 

 critical (Greek, Kpivw, pronounced kri'-no, I judge), which passe* 

 into a noun by dropping al, as critic ; so musical, music, mystical, 

 mystic. 



" Fool, thou didst not understand 



The mystic language of the eye nor hand." Donne. 

 Tie, from the Latin adjective termination ilis, to be seen in 

 dociJis (Latin, doceo, I teach), docile, teachable ; fragilis (Latin, 

 frango, I break), fragile, easily broken. Some Latin adjectives 

 in ilis are represented by adjectives in ful in our tongue, aa 

 utilis, use/ul. 



In, ine is from the Latin termination \nus, which denotes 

 sometimes a name, as Tarentine, an inhabitant of Tarentnm, 

 but in English more often a quality, as genuine, from the Latin 

 genuinus, which is derived in its turn from genus, a kind or 

 race that is, that which possesses the qualities belonging to its 

 kind, in opposition to spurious, which, in its Latin meaning, 

 signifies a bastard. 



" We use 



No foreign gums, iior essence fetched from far, 

 No volatile spirits, nor compounds that are 

 Adulterate ; but at Nature's cheap expenoa 

 With for more genuine sweets refresh the sense." Canm. 



In<7, in Anglo-Saxon, signifies son, as Edgar Athelin? ; that is, 

 Edgar the son of Athel, or Edgar of noble blood. In English, ing 

 forms tho ending of our active participles, as singing, from to 



'/ ; also a very large class of nouns ; thus, singing itself may 

 be employed as a noun, as the singing teas good. These noons, 

 as might bo expected from the meaning of tho Saxon ing, denote 

 existence ; thus, to sing is a verb, but singing is tho active of 

 the verb in actual being. When these words in ing are used an 

 nouns they should have the government of nouns ; thus, the 

 singing of the birds was delightful. Almost every English verb 

 may bo made into a noun by the suffix ing ; to eat, the eaiing ; 

 to diminish, tho diminishing ; to run, the running. Observe 

 that tho idea of activity is connected with nouns ending in in? ; 

 as, tho seeing ; tho hearing ; tho dancing ; the reporting that 

 is, tho act, tho process of dancing, reporting, etc. wherein those 

 nouns differ from other nouns which express the result of an 

 action ; as sight, tho result of tho act of seeing ; report, the 

 result of tho act of reporting. The former have been called 

 active, the latter class passive nouns, from the analogy the/ 

 boar to active and passive verbs. 



