The Grammar of English Grammars

Chapter 7th, under the general head of Etymology; and when foreign participles are introduced into our language, they are not participles with us, but belong to some other cla.s.s of words, or part of speech.

1. WHO, ho, hue, wha, hwa, hua, wua, qua, quha;--WHOSE, who"s, whos, whois, whoise, wheas, quhois, quhais, quhase, hwaes;--WHOM, whome, quham, quhum, quhome, hwom, hwam, hwaem, hwaene, hwone.

2. WHICH, whiche, whyche, whilch, wych, quilch, quilk, quhilk, hwilc, hwylc, hwelc, whilk, huilic, hvilc. For the Anglo-Saxon forms, Dr.

Bosworth"s Dictionary gives "_hwilc, hwylc_, and _hwelc_;" but Professor Fowler"s E. Grammar makes them "_huilic_ and _hvilc_."--See p. 240.

_Whilk_, or _quhilk_, is a Scottish form.

3. WHAT, hwat, hwet, quhat, hwaet. This p.r.o.noun, whether relative or interrogative, is regarded by Bosworth and others as a neuter derivative from the masculine or femine [sic--KTH] _hwa_, who. It may have been thence derived, but, in modern English, it is not always of the neuter gender. See the last note on page 312.

4. THAT, Anglo-Saxon Thaet. Tooke"s notion of the derivation of this word is noticed above in the section on Articles. There is no certainty of its truth; and our lexicographers make no allusion to it. W. Allen reaffirms it. See his _Gram._, p. 54.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--In the Well-Wishers" Grammar, (p. 39,) as also in L. Murray"s and some others, the p.r.o.noun _Which_ is very strangely and erroneously represented as being always "of the _neuter_ gender." (See what is said of this word in the Introduction, Chap. ix, -- 32.) Whereas it is the relative most generally applied to _brute animals_, and, in our common version of the Bible, its application to _persons_ is peculiarly frequent. Fowler says, "In its origin it is a Compound."--_E. Gram._, p. 240. Taking its first Anglo-Saxon form to be "_Huilic_," he thinks it traceable to "_hwa_, who," or its ablative "_hwi_," and "_lie_, like."--_Ib._ If this is right, the neuter sense is not its primitive import, or any part of it.

OBS. 2.--From its various uses, the word _That_ is called sometimes a p.r.o.noun, sometimes an adjective, and sometimes a conjunction; but, in respect to derivation, it is, doubtless, one and the same. As a relative p.r.o.noun, it is of either number, and has no plural form different from the singular; as, "Blessed is the _man that_ heareth me."--_Prov._, viii, 34.

"Blessed are _they that_ mourn."--_Matt._, v, 4. As an adjective, it is said by Tooke to have been formerly "applied indifferently to plural nouns and to singular; as, "Into _that_ holy orders."--_Dr. Martin_. "At _that_ dayes."--_Id. "That_ euyll aungels the denilles."--_Sir Tho. More_. "This pleasure undoubtedly farre excelleth all _that_ pleasures that in this life maie be obteined."--_Id_."--_Diversions of Purley_, Vol. ii, pp. 47 and 48.

The introduction of the plural form _those_, must have rendered this usage bad English.

SECTION V.--DERIVATION OF VERBS.

In English, Verbs are derived from nouns, from adjectives, or from verbs.

I. Verbs are derived from _Nouns_ in the following different ways:--

1. By the adding of _ize, ise, en_, or _ate_: as, _author, authorize; critic, criticise; length, lengthen; origin, originate_. The termination _ize_ is of Greek origin, and _ise_ is most probably of French: the former is generally preferable in forming English derivatives; but both are sometimes to be used, and they should be applied according to Rule 13th for Spelling.

2. Some few verbs are derived from nouns by the changing of a sharp or hard consonant to a flat or soft one, or by the adding of a mute _e_, to soften a hard sound: as, _advice, advise; price, prize; bath, bathe; cloth, clothe; breath, breathe; wreath, wreathe; sheath, sheathe; gra.s.s, graze_.

II. Verbs are derived from _Adjectives_ in the following different ways:--

1. By the adding of _ize_ or _en_: as _legal, legalize; immortal, immortalize; civil, civilize; human, humanize; familiar, familiarize; particular, particularize; deaf, deafen; stiff, stiffen; rough, roughen; deep, deepen; weak, weaken_.

2. Many adjectives become verbs by being merely used and inflected as verbs: as, _warm_, to _warm_, he _warms; dry_, to _dry_, he _dries; dull_, to _dull_, he _dulls; slack_, to _slack_, he _slacks; forward_, to _forward_, he _forwards_.

III. Verbs are derived from _Verbs_ in the following modes, or ways:--

1. By the prefixing of _dis_ or _un_ to reverse the meaning: as, _please, displease; qualify, disqualify; organize, disorganize; fasten, unfasten; muzzle, unmuzzle; nerve, unnerve_.

2. By the prefixing of _a, be, for, fore, mis, over, out, under, up_, or _with_: as, _rise, arise; sprinkle, besprinkle; bid, forbid; see, foresee; take, mistake; look, overlook; run, outrun; go, undergo; hold, uphold; draw, withdraw_.

SECTION VI.--DERIVATION OF PARTICIPLES.

All _English_ Participles are derived from _English_ verbs, in the manner explained in Chapter 7th, under the general head of Etymology; and when foreign participles are introduced into our language, they are not participles with us, but belong to some other cla.s.s of words, or part of speech.

SECTION VII.--DERIVATION OF ADVERBS.

1. In _English_, many Adverbs are derived from adjectives by the addition of _ly_: which is an abbreviation for _like_, and which, though the addition of it to a noun forms an adjective, is the most distinctive as well as the most common termination of our adverbs: as, _candid, candidly; sordid, sordidly; presumptuous, presumptuously_. Most adverbs of manner are thus formed.

2. Many adverbs are compounds formed from two or more English words; as, _herein, thereby, to-day, always, already, elsewhere, sometimes, wherewithal_. The formation and the meaning of these are, in general, sufficiently obvious.

3. About seventy adverbs are formed by means of the prefix, or inseparable preposition, _a_; as, _Abreast, abroach, abroad, across, afar, afield, ago, agog, aland, along, amiss, atilt_.

4. _Needs_, as an adverb, is a contraction of _need is; prithee_, or _pr"ythee_, of _I pray thee; alone_, of _all one; only_, of _one-like; anon_, of the Saxon _an on_; i.e., _in one_ [instant]; _never_, of _ne ever_; i.e., _not_ ever. Prof. Gibbs, in Fowler"s Grammar, makes _needs_ "the Genitive case of the noun _need_."--P. 311.

5. _Very_ is from the French _veray_, or _vrai_, true; and this, probably, from the Latin _verus. Rather_ appears to be the regular comparative of the ancient _rath_, soon, quickly, willingly; which comes from the _Anglo-Saxon "Rathe_, or _Hrathe_, of one"s own accord."--_Bosworth_. But the parent language had also "_Hrathre_, to a mind."--_Id._ That is, to _one"s_ mind, or, perhaps, _more willingly_.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--Many of our most common adverbs are of Anglo-Saxon derivation, being plainly traceable to certain very old forms, of the same import, which the etymologist regards but as the same words differently spelled: as, _All_, eall, eal, or aell; _Almost_, ealmaest, or aelmaest; _Also_, ealswa, or aelswa; _Else_, elles; _Elsewhere_, elleshwaer; _Enough_, genog, or genoh; _Even_, euen, efen, or aefen; _Ever_, euer, aefer, or aefre; _Downward_, duneweard; _Forward_, forweard, or foreweard; _Homeward_, hamweard; _Homewards_, hamweardes; _How_, hu; _Little_, lytel; _Less_, laes; _Least_, laest; _No_, na; _Not_, noht, or nocht; _Out_, ut, or ute; _So_, swa; _Still_, stille, or stylle; _Then_, thenne; _There_, ther, thar, thaer; _Thither_, thider, or thyder; _Thus_, thuss, or thus; _Together_, togaedere, or togaedre; _Too_, to; _When_, hwenne, or hwaenne; _Where_, hwaer; _Whither_, hwider, hwyder, or hwyther; _Yea_, ia, gea, or gee; _Yes_, gese, gise, or gyse.

OBS. 2.--According to Horne Tooke, "_Still_ and _Else_ are the imperatives _Stell_ and _Ales_ of their respective verbs _Stellan_, to put, and _Alesan_, to dismiss."--_Diversions_, Vol. i, p. 111. He afterwards repeats the doctrine thus: "_Still_ is only the imperative _Stell_ or _Steall_, of _Stellan_ or _Steallian_, ponere."--_Ib._, p. 146. "This word _Else_, formerly written _alles, alys, alyse, elles, ellus, ellis, ells, els_, and now _else_; is, as I have said, no other than _Ales_ or _Alys_, the imperative of _Alesan_ or _Alysan_, dimittere."--_Ib._, p. 148. These ulterior and remote etymologies are perhaps too conjectural.

SECTION VIII.--DERIVATION OF CONJUNCTIONS.

The _English_ Conjunctions are mostly of Anglo-Saxon origin. The best etymological vocabularies of our language give us, for the most part, the same words in Anglo-Saxon characters; but Horne Tooke, in his _Diversions of Purley_, (a learned and curious work which the advanced student may peruse with advantage,) traces, or professes to trace, these and many other English particles, to _Saxon verbs_ or _participles_. The following derivations, so far as they partake of such speculations, are offered princ.i.p.ally on his authority:--

1. ALTHOUGH, signifying _admit, allow_, is from _all_ and _though_; the latter being supposed the imperative of Thafian or Thafigan, _to allow, to concede, to yield_.

2. AN, an obsolete or antiquated conjunction, signifying _if_, or _grant_, is the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon verb Anan or Unan, _to grant, to give_.

3. AND, [Saxon, And,] _add_, is said by Tooke to come from "An-ad, the imperative of Ananad, _Dare congeriem_."--_D. of P._, Vol. i, p. 111. That is, "_To give the heap_." The truth of this, if unapparent, I must leave so.

4. AS, according to Dr. Johnson, is from the Teutonic _als_; but Tooke says that _als_ itself is a contraction for _all_ and the original particle _es_ or _as_, meaning _it, that_, or _which_.

5. BECAUSE, from _be_ and _cause_, means _by cause_; the _be_ being written for _by_.

6. BOTH, _the two_, is from the p.r.o.nominal adjective _both_; which, according to Dr. Alexander Murray, is a contraction of the Visigothic _Bagoth_, signifying _doubled_. The Anglo-Saxons wrote for it _butu, butwu, buta_, and _batwa_; i. e., _ba_, both, _twa_, two.

7. BUT,--(in Saxon, _bute, butan, buton_, or _butun_--) meaning _except, yet, now, only, else than, that not_, or _on the contrary_,--is referred by Tooke and some others, to two roots,--each of them but a conjectural etymon for it. "BUT, implying _addition_," say they, "is from Bot, the imperative of Botan, _to boot, to add_; BUT, denoting _exception_, is from Be-utan, the imperative of Beon-utan, _to be out_."--See _D. of P._, Vol. i, pp. 111 and 155.

8. EITHER, _one of the two_, like the p.r.o.nominal adjective EITHER, is from the Anglo-Saxon aether, or Egther, a word of the same uses, and the same import.

9. EKE, _also_, (now nearly obsolete,) is from "Eac, the imperative of Eacan, _to add_."

10. EVEN, whether a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a conjunction, appears to come from the same source, the Anglo-Saxon word Efen or aefen.

11. EXCEPT, which, when used as a conjunction, means _unless_, is the imperative, or (according to Dr. Johnson) an ancient perfect participle, of the verb _to except_.

12. FOR, _because_, is from the Saxon preposition _For_; which, to express this meaning, our ancestors combined with something else, reducing to one word some such phrase as, _For that, For this, For this that_; as, "Fortha, Fortham, Forthan, Forthamthe, Forthan the."--See _Bosworth"s Dict._

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