GRAMMAR 
77fi ^ 
the fenfe, «nd can iiimfelf fiipply the words that are 
w.utri'ig. Thus if a perfon, after liftening to a roman- 
lic narrative, were to exclaim, would any man 
•of common lenfe fuppofe that tite w ord Jirange, becatife 
tittered alone, had lo/l the power of an adjeBive and be¬ 
come an interjcBion? No, lurely : every one fees that 
the exclamation is equivalent to, that is Jlrange, or, that 
is a Jlrange jlory. Real inrerjeftions are never employed 
to convey truth of any kind. They are not to be found 
amongft law.s, in books of civil inftitution, in hiftory, or 
in any treatile. of tileful arts or fciences ; but in rhe¬ 
toric and poetry, in novels, plays, and romances, where 
in Englifh, lb far from giving pathos to the ftyle, they 
.have generally an elFecl that is difgufting or ridiculous. 
Of derivation. 
Upon Etymo LOG Y in general we have fpoken in the 
preceding volume, p.44. But it may be proper to add 
Something relative to the derivation of Engliih words. 
Though there is little doubt but nouns were the firfl: 
words invented and ufed, yet in the prefent date of lan¬ 
guage we generally find the noun to be derived front 
the verb.—The thing implied in the verb, as done or 
produced, is commonly either the prefent of the verb ; 
as to love, luve\ to fright, a fright ; to fight, a fight ; or 
the preterite of the verb, as, to firike, 1 llrick or ftrook, 
a firoke. Tlte adlion is the fame with the participle 
prefent, as, loving, frighting, fighting, firiking. The 
agent, or perfon aching, is denoted by the lyllable er 
added to the veth, 'iS, lover, f ighter, firiker. Subftan- 
tives, adjedtives, and fometimes other parts of fpeech, 
are ciiauged into verbs; in which cafe the vowel is 
olten lengtliened, or the confonant foftened ; as, ahoufe, 
iohovfe-, bvdis, to braae-, g\dis, to glaze-, gvdis, to graze •, 
price, to prize ; breath, to breathe-, a fifh, to fijh ; oil, to 
til-, further, to further-, forward, to forward-, hinder, to 
hinder. Sometimes the termination en is added, efpe- 
cially to adjedtives: as, hafte, to hafien-, length, to 
lengthen-, firength, to firengthtn -, fliort, to Jhorten ; fall, to 
fajicn ; white, to whiten ; black, to blacken ; hard, to hard¬ 
en ; loft, to fiften. 
From lubitantives are formed adjedtives of plenty, 
by adding the termination jy; as, wealth, ; health, 
kealthy-, \\\\g\\X, mighty-, v-oxxh, worthy-, w 'xX, witty-, luft, 
lufiyViixxcx, watery-, fdXXh, earthy-, wood, a. w000, woody -, 
air, airy-, a heait, hearty-, a hand, handy. Or, by ad. 
ding tlie termination ful, denoting abundance ; as joy, 
joyful-, fruit, fruitful-, --joxxXb, youthful-, care, careful-, 
life, ufij'ul-, delight, delightful-, plenty, plentiful-, help, 
helpful. Sometimes, in almoit the fame lenfe, but with 
fome kind of diminution thereof, the termination fome 
is added, Ac woXxwg fomething, or in fome degree-, as de- 
Vxghx, delightjome; gdixxe, gamefome-, irk, irk/ome burden, 
hurdenjome-, trouble, troublefome-, light, lightfome-, hand, 
handjome-, alone, lonefome-, xoW, toiljome. 
On the contrary, the termination lefs added to fub- 
flantives, makes adjedtives fignifying want; as, worth- 
itfs, witlefs, heartlefs, joy lefs, carelcjs, helplefs. Thus, com¬ 
fort, cornfortlefs-, idp, JapleJ's. 'Privation or contrariety 
is very often denoted I)y the particle un prefixed to 
many adjectives, or in before words derived from the 
I.atin; ds, \Acdidx\X, unpleafant-, viife, unwife-, profitable, 
unprofitable-, p-dX\cr\X, impatient. Thus, unw or thy, unhealthy, 
unfruitful, unufeful, and many more. 
The origiii.J Englifh privative is un ; but as we often 
borrow from the Latin, or its defeendants, words al¬ 
ready fignifying privation, as, inejficacious, impious, indif- 
treet, the infepaiable particles un and in have fallen into 
confufion from which it is not eafy to difentangle them. 
Un is prefixed to all words originally Englifh ; as, un¬ 
true, untruth, untaught, unhandfome. Un is prefixed to all 
participles made privative adjectives ; as, unfeeling, un- 
ajjifiing, unpleafing, unaided, undelighted, untndeared. Un 
ougiti never to be prefixed to a participle prelent, to 
mark a forbearance of action, as unfighing ; but a priva. 
tion of habit, as, unpitying. Un is prefixed to moff fuh- 
ftantives which have an Englifh termin.ition, as, unfer. 
tilenefs, unperfeBnefs, which, if they have borrowed ter¬ 
minations, take in or im, vs, infertility, imperfeBion ; unci¬ 
vil, incivility ; unaBive, inaBivity. In borrowing adjec* 
fives, if we receive them already compounded, it is 
ufual to retain the particle prefixed ; as, indecent, inele¬ 
gant, improper-, but if we borrow the adjedtive, and add 
the privative particle, we commonly prefix a/?, as, unpo- 
lite, ungallant. 
The prepofitive particles dis and wm, derived from the 
des and mes of the French, fignify almoft the fame as j 
yet dis rather imports contrariety than privation, fince 
it anfwers to the Latin prepofition de. Mis infinuates 
fome error, and for the moft part may be rendered by 
the Latin words male or perperam. To like, to dijlike 
horxoxxr, dijhonour -, to honour, to grace, to difhonour, tt 
difgrace-, to deign, to difdeigtt chance, hap, mij'cliance, 
mijhap ; to take, to mijlake-, deed, mfdeed ; to ufe, to mif- 
ufe-, to employ, to mifemploy-, to apply., to mijapply. 
Words derived from Latin written with df^r-dls retain 
the fame fignification ; as, diflinguifk, diflinguo ; detraB', 
detraho ; defame, doidmo-, detain, deXmeo. 
The termination ly added to fiibftantives, and fome¬ 
times to adjedtives, forms adjedtives that import fome 
kind of fimilitude or agreement, being formed by con¬ 
traction ot lie or like. A giant, giantly, giantlike ; earth, 
earthly-, heaven, heavenly-, world, worldly-, God, godly. 
good, goodly. The fame termination ly added to adjec¬ 
tives, forms adverbs of like fignification ; as, beautiful, 
beautifully-, fw teX, fweetly-, that is, in a beautiful manner-, 
with fome degree of fweetnefs. The termination ^ added 
to adjedtives, imports diminution; and added to fub- 
Itantives, imports fimilitude or tendency to a character; 
as, green, greenifh ; wliite, whitifh ; foft, foftifh ; a thief, 
thievifh-, a wolf, wolvifk-, a child, childijh. We liave 
forms of diminutives in fiibftantives, though not fre¬ 
quent ; as, a hill, a hillock ; a cock, a cockrel-, a pike, « 
pickrel, this is a French termination ; a goofe, a gojling, 
this is a German termination; a lamb, a lanihkin-, a 
chick, a chicken ; a man, a manikin ; a pipe, a- pipkin ; 
and thus Halhin, whence the patronimic, Hawkins, WiL 
kins, Tomkins, and others. 
Of concrete adjedtives are made abftradl fiibftantives, 
by adding the termination nefs, and a few in hood or head^ 
noting character or qualities ; as, white, whitenefs-, hard, 
hardnefs-, grciX, greatnefs-, ik'\\ixx\, Jkilfulnefs, unjkilfulnefs\ 
godhead, manhood, maidenhead, widowhood, knighthood, priejb- 
hood, likelihood, falfehood. There are other abftradts, 
partly derived from adjedtives and partly from verbs, 
which are formed by the addition of the termination 
a fmall change being fometimes made ; as, long, length ; 
ftrong, firength-, broad, breadth-, wide, -width-, deep, 
depth-, true, truth-, warm, warmth-, dear, dearth-, flow, 
Jlowth-, merry, mirth-, heal, health-, well, weal, wealth-, 
dry, droughth ; young, youth ; and fo moon, month. 
Like thefe are fome words derived from verbs ; die, 
death-, till, tilth ; grow, growth ; mow, \d.Xcr-mow'tk, after- 
mow'th j commonly fpoken and written VoAor-math, after- 
math-, Acad, fiealth-, bear, birth-, rrxo, ruth-, and proba¬ 
bly earth from to ear or plow ; fly, flight ; weigh, weight-, 
ir-oy, fright-, to draw, draught. 
We have many words borrowed from the Latin ; but 
the greatefl part of them were communicated by the 
intervention of the French; as, grace, face, elegant, ele¬ 
gance, rejemble. Some verbs, which feem borrowed from 
the Latin, are formed from the prefent tenfe, and fome 
from the lupine. From the prefent are formed fpend, 
expend, expendo ; conduce, conducoj defpife, defpicio-; 
approve, approho-, conceive, coixc'xpid. From the ftipines, 
J'upplkate, lupplico ; demonjlrate, demonlho ; difpoj'e, dif- 
pono ; expatiate, expatior; Jupprefs, fiipprimo ; exempt, 
eximo. 
Some words purely French, not derived from the 
Latin, we Jvave transferred into our language 5_.as, gar- 
