112 TRANSACTIONS iSqQ-'oO 



go or ko, as seen in Greek adjectives ending in kos, like physikos, 

 logikos, etc., and in Latin words like antiquus, pudiais, unicus, 

 served when added to substantives to produce a slight modifica- 

 tion of meaning, the derivative signifying something tantamount 

 to, or in a general way resembling, the original. "Hence," says 

 Brugmann, it was often used to form diminutives — precisely like 

 our " ing." 



An interesting illustration of what can be done by the aid of 

 the ko or ki element — the vowel in such a case does not count for 

 much — is afforded by the word reciprocal, which of course we get 

 from the Latin " reciprocus," or as we ought to call it, 

 ' ' rekiprocus. ' ' The first half of the word would suggest the 

 verb "recipere ;" but there is no thoroughfare in that direction. 

 To understand the etymology of the word ' ' reciprocus ' ' we 

 must divide it into four parts — re-ki-pro-kus ; and we shall then 

 see that it consists of the prepositions "re" and "pro," with 

 the " ki " sufl&x appended to each, and that its exact significa- 

 tion, therefore is " backward-like, forward-like," in other words, 

 ' ' in a backward direction, in a forward direction. ' ' Is not this 

 just what we understand by " reciprocal," working both zvaysf 



A very considerable essay could be written on the sufiix 

 ** ki." As already mentioned it is sometimes used with diminu- 

 tive effect. Brugmann cites examples from the old Aryan 

 speech as well as from Greek and Latin. A Latin example is 

 homuncio, meaning "mannikin," from homo \ but, as a usual 

 thing, the "ki" in Latin was associated with a second diminutive 

 element "lo." Thus /?£'»iz/wa^ becomes ho?nu?iculus; and the same 

 combination appears in wz^^^cM/a, "a little cloud," musculus, cor- 

 pusculum, cubiculum and many others. It has been the fate of 

 diminutives in most languages to lose after a time their diminu- 

 tive force; and sometimes what was once a diminutive will re- 

 place and displace the word from which it was formed. The 

 words "spectacle," "article," "receptacle," and many others are 

 diminutive in form but not in sense. On the subject of diminu- 

 tives in general the remarks of Earle in his "Philology of the 

 English Tongue," are sound and penetrating. "The general 

 motive," he says, "of the employment of such words is to escape 

 conventionality ; that is to escape the triteness and dryness of 

 that which is current and hackneyed, and this because the speak- 



