8 Frederic E. Clements 



sonal choice would simply lead to greater confusion. For these 

 reasons, changes in words where the etymology is not expressly 

 indicated or clearly evident should not be made, unless the proper 

 formation of such a word in Greek or Latin fails to give a name 

 of any possible meaning. The correction of such words as fall 

 under this rule can only be made upon the basis of greatest 

 probability, which, unsatisfactory as it may be, will conduce to 

 the ends sought. 



WORD FORMATION IN GREEK 



Greek words arise by derivation or by composition. In deri- 

 vation, roots or stems acquire a new meaning through the addi- 

 tion of a sufifix, a termination having no separate existence in 

 the language, except in the rare case of certain words which 

 have lost their real significance and are now found only as suf- 

 fixes. In composition, two, rarely more, words are united ac- 

 cording to certain rules to form a new term, or compound, in 

 which the meaning of each may be traced. Formation by pre- 

 fixes is really a sort of composition, except in the case of a few 

 inseparable particles, which properly belong under the head of 

 derivation. For the sake of convenience, however, all formation 

 by prefixes will be considered under composition. 



Greek has obtained its stems by derivation, i. e., by adding 

 suffixes to roots, a process to which the origin of all simple words 

 may be traced. Derivation belongs chiefly to the earlier devel- 

 opment of the language, and, indeed, is very largely prehistoric, 

 especially in the case of primary derivation. Composition, on 

 the other hand, is a much later development, and must have at- 

 tained its maximum in the classical period of Greek literature. 

 Both derivation and composition afford the biologist the means 

 of coining new words. For various reasons, among them con- 

 venience and usage, scientific terms have been taken directly 

 from the Greek lexicon (sometimes, of course, they have been 

 found already borrowed in Latin), or new words have been 

 formed by composition. Formation by derivation is equally 

 valid, and the fact that it almost invariably gives shorter words, 

 leads one to wonder that it should not have come into general 

 use. The reason may be found in the fact that word-formation 



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