66 wyrhta," or Sweigen, a Shieldmaker; "Aegelpig, Munuc," Acgelpig, a Monk; " 'Eádwig, his maeg," Eadwig, his Friend or Kinsman; Aelmaer, Aelfrices sunu," Aelmaer, Aelfric's Son; " Wulfrig Madding," Wulfrig, the Son of Madd, or Maddson. Hence the names of the Blakes, Whites, Blacks, Cliffords, Brightons, Aldermans, Cooks, Smiths, Canons, Friends, Johnsons, Eppings, and the like, and those which owe their origin to ridicule or derision, and to other causes. But it was not until after the Norman conquest, that surnames became generally established in England. "Ric" is used in the composition of male names both as a prefix and as a termination. There are some words which are frequently met with as terminations in the names of men and women among the Anglo-Saxons: as, "bearn," son, issue; 66 beorht," bright; "burh," a city, fortress, which, very common in the names of the fair sex, is equally expressive, and gives us an insight into the Saxon estimate of the female character; "heort," heart; "nóth," daring, bold; wald," a ruler, lord; "wulf," a wolf, besides the others adduced above, and the like. There are some terminations which are common to names of CHAPTER IV. ADJECTIVES. § 77. Adjectives in Anglo-Saxon have variable terminations, to correspond with the nouns which they describe. § 78. They have two forms of declension, the Indefinite, and the Definite. § 79. The Indefinite form is used when the adjective stands alone with its substantive: the Definite, when it is preceded by an article, or by a demonstrative, possessive, or personal pronoun, even when the last is governed in the Genitive. places, as, "burh," a city; "tún," a town; "ceaster," or "cester," from the Latin "castrum," a fortified camp, cities so called being on such sites; "-wic," the present -wich, as well as -wick, a dwelling, station, village, castle, or bay, according to the situation of the places; "burne," a brook, stream, bourn, used also as a prefix, and now appearing as -burn, or Burn-, -bourn, -braun, -brown, and -bran, or Brownand Bran-; "den," a valley; "holm," a holm, or river-island; "hýth," a shore; "hám," "hóm," a home, likewise a prefix, and others. The distinct terminations for the Ablative singular are: § 81. All Adjectives of one syllable, except those which contain aé before a single consonant; also those ending in -e, participles in -ende,' -od, -ed; dissyllables in -el, etc., are declined in the following manner:— 'Nouns in -end nearly related to Indefinite Participles, and denoting the agent, are declined, as before stated, according to the 1st declension, and should never be confounded with the participles themselves. The Anglo-Saxon writers always made the distinction. It will be observed, however, that in many instances the Nominative and Accusative plural of such nouns take the participial ending -e, instead of -as, while in others, those cases are like the same cases singular; as, "wígend," a warrior, N. and A. plural, "wigende," or "wigend," or, as the latter form should very often be written, "wígend'."-See § 19, Note. § 82. Monosyllables ending in a single consonant preceded by ae, whenever the same consonant is followed by a, e, o, or u, in the course of inflection change ae into a; and these, as well as polysyllabic adjectives formed by the derivative terminations, -ful, -ig, -isc, -leás, -lic, -sum, etc., and participles passive of the 2d and 3d conjugations in -en, make the Nominative singular feminine, and the Nominative and Accusative plural neuter in -u,' as :— 1 late. § 83. Adjectives ending in -e, drop the e in declining, as: Adjectives formed by derivative terminations, and participles in -en, are found, however, without the feminine in -u, while the neuter plural terminates in -e. Uniformity as to the change of ae into a also must not be expected. 2 Laet, lat. |