Lindsay: An Etymological Study 
13 
how much of the index value should be credited to either 
source, such numbers are dropped altogether from considera- 
tion. For the reason just mentioned sometimes it happens 
that instead of a number in the third column the letter “i’’ in 
parentheses is found. This signifies that the number to be 
credited to that source word is indeterminable. 
The number in column four simply shows how many de- 
rivatives the Latin source word preceding it has in Thorn- 
dike’s Teacher’s Word Book. 
At the top of the page above the fifth column is the word 
“Rank”. This indicates that the number in the fifth column 
represents the rank of the Latin source word preceding it 
as compared with all the other Latin source words in this list. 
The first basis for the ranking is the index number in column 
three, since this number indicates the frequency of use of 
the derivatives of the particular source word when taken all 
together. The word followed by the highest index number 
in column three has the first rank (rank 1), and from it the 
ranking proceeds from the words of higher index numbers 
toward those of lower numbers. If two words have the same 
index number but differ in the number of derivatives as indi- 
cated by the number in column four, the word with the greater 
number of derivatives is ranked ahead of the one with the 
smaller number. Since some words do not differ in either or 
these numbers, sometimes it happens that there are two or 
more words having a given rank. Columns six and seven 
contain the derivatives of each source word. Column six con- 
tains those derivatives that occur among the 5,000 words of 
higher frequency in the Teacher’s Word Book. Column seven 
contains those derivatives among the 5,000 words of less fre- 
quency. In some cases a Latin derivative traces back to two 
Latin source words : e.g., “navigate” from “navis” and 
“agere”. In such a case, if a verb was involved, it was as- 
signed to the verb as its source word rather than to the noun. 
If two nouns were involved, the derivative was assigned to 
the noun that formed the first syllable of the word. 
3. The Greek Word List. The Greek word list has been 
formed on absolutely the same plan as the Latin word list. 
It must be confessed, however, that the ultimate source words 
have not been sought so consistently as in the Latin list. This 
was due to the fact that the derivatives from any one word 
