Part 1 (1/2)

New Word-a.n.a.lysis.

by William Swinton.

PREFACE.

The present text-book is a new-modeling and rewriting of Swinton's _Word-a.n.a.lysis_, first published in 1871. It has grown out of a large amount of testimony to the effect that the older book, while valuable as a manual of methods, in the hands of teachers, is deficient in practice-work for pupils.

This testimony dictated a double procedure: first, to retain the old _methods_; secondly, to add an adequate amount of new _matter_.

Accordingly, in the present manual, the few Latin roots and derivatives, with the exercises thereon, have been retained--under ”Part II.: The Latin Element”--as simply a _method of study_.[1] There have then been added, in ”Division II.: Abbreviated Latin Derivatives,” no fewer than two hundred and twenty Latin root-words with their most important English offshoots. In order to concentrate into the limited available s.p.a.ce so large an amount of new matter, it was requisite to devise a novel mode of indicating the English derivatives. What this mode is, teachers will see in the section, pages 50-104. The author trusts that it will prove well suited to cla.s.s-room work, and in many other ways interesting and valuable: should it not, a good deal of labor, both of the lamp and of the file, will have been misplaced.

To one matter of detail in connection with the Latin and Greek derivatives, the author wishes to call special attention: the Latin and the Greek roots are, as key-words, given in this book in the form of the _present infinitive_,--the present indicative and the supine being, of course, added. For this there is one sufficient justification, to wit: that the present infinitive is the form in which a Latin or a Greek root is always given in Webster and other received lexicographic authorities. It is a curious fact, that, in all the school etymologies, the present indicative should have been given as the root, and is explicable only from the accident that it is the key-form in the Latin dictionaries. The change into conformity with our English dictionaries needs no defense, and will probably hereafter be imitated by all authors of school etymologies.

In this compilation the author has followed, in the main, the last edition of Webster's Unabridged, the etymologies in which carry the authoritative sanction of Dr. Mahn; but reference has constantly been had to the works of Wedgwood, Latham, and Haldeman, as also to the ”English Etymology” of Dr.

James Dougla.s.s, to whom the author is specially indebted in the Greek and Anglo-Saxon sections.

W.S.

NEW YORK, 1879.

WORD-a.n.a.lYSIS.

PART I.--INTRODUCTION.

I.--ELEMENTS OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY.

1. ETYMOLOGY[2] is the study which treats of the derivation of words,--that is, of their structure and history.

2. ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY, or word-a.n.a.lysis, treats of the derivation of English words.

3. The VOCABULARY[3] of a language is the whole body of words in that language. Hence the English vocabulary consists of all the words in the English language.

I. The complete study of any language comprises two distinct inquiries,--the study of the _grammar_ of the language, and the study of its _vocabulary_. Word-a.n.a.lysis has to do exclusively with the vocabulary.

II. The term ”etymology” as used in grammar must be carefully distinguished from ”etymology” in the sense of word-a.n.a.lysis.

Grammatical etymology treats solely of the grammatical changes in words, and does not concern itself with their derivation; historical etymology treats of the structure, composition, and history of words.

Thus the relation of _loves, loving, loved_ to the verb _love_ is a matter of grammatical etmology; but the relation of _lover, lovely_, or _loveliness_ to _love_ is a matter of historical etymology.

III. The English vocabulary is very extensive, as is shown by the fact that in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary there are nearly 100,000 words.

But it should be observed that 3,000 or 4,000 serve all the ordinary purposes of oral and written communication. The Old Testament contains 5,642 words; Milton uses about 8,000; and Shakespeare, whose vocabulary is more extensive than that of any other English writer, employs no more than 15,000 words.

4. The PRINc.i.p.aL ELEMENTS of the English vocabulary are words of Anglo-Saxon and of Latin or _French-Latin_ origin.

5. ANGLO-SAXON is the earliest form of English. The whole of the grammar of our language, and the most largely used part of its vocabulary, are Anglo-Saxon.

I. Anglo-Saxon belongs to the Low German[4] division of the Teutonic stock of languages. Its relations to the other languages of Europe--all of which are cla.s.sed together as the Aryan, or Indo-European family of languages--may be seen from the following table:--

/ CELTIC STOCK..........................as Welsh, Gaelic.

SLAVONIC STOCK........................as Russian.