PART II.

DERIVATION.

WORDS are either Primitive, Compound, or Derivative.

A Primitive word cannot be reduced to a simpler word in the language: as man, king, fruit.

Many words considered as primitives in English, are derivatives from the Latin, Greek, and other languages.

A Compound word consists of two or more words, each of which has a meaning by itself; as rose-bush, apple-tree, tea-spoon.

In a compound word, it is the first word which modifies the meaning of the second. Apple-tree means a particular kind of tree, namely, one that bears apples. Tea-spoon is a particular kind of spoon, used for stirring tea.

A Derivative word is one that is formed from a primitive word, either by a change of letters, or by the addition of prefixes or suffixes, which modify its meaning.

A prefix is a letter or syllable placed before the primitive word or root; as a-shore, mis-manage, with-hold.

A suffix or affix is a letter or syllable placed after the primitive; as king-dom, lamb-kin, man-hood.

The change of termination which serves to denote the change of number, person, tense, case, &c., is termed Inflexion.

All inflected forms are therefore derivative words.

N

COMPOUND WORDS.

§ 1. Compound Nouns.

COMPOUND NOUNS may be formed of:— 1. A Noun preceded by a noun; as, ink-stand, walking*-stick, book-case, &c.

2. A Noun preceded by an adjective; as, humming-top, half-penny, quick-silver, sweet-heart, byeway, &c.

3. A Verb preceded by a noun; as sun-shine, &c. 4. A Noun preceded by an adverb; as, fore-noon, after-thought, &c.

5. A Noun or pronoun preceded by a verb; as, turn-spit, save-all, &c.

In this class, the latter word is not modified in meaning by the former, but governed by it.

Exercise 1.t

Classify, as above, the following compound nouns: Round-head, salt-spoon, freeman, fire-engine, forepart, godsend, blackbird, turning-lathe, plaything, breakfast, coal-hole, pickpocket, bluebeard, cornfield, makeweight, bedroom, foresight, underwriter, corkscrew, turncock, milkpail, upholder, locksmith, rocking-horse, riding-whip, stopgap,

*The word ending in ing in these compounds, is a noun, similar to the gerund in Latin; thus a walking-stick is a stick used for walking.

In the next class, the word ending in ing, is a participle (verbal adjective); thus, a humming-top is a top that hums.

† Additional exercises in this and the following sections may be readily given, by requiring the pupil to make or select a certain number of examples in each class, either writing them out separately, or introducing them in short and appropriate sentences.

Thus, Roundhead, a noun compounded of the adjective round and the noun head.

busy-body, moonlight, nose-bag, playground, gunpowder, rifleman, midshipman, quicksilver, framework, earthquake.

§ 2. Compound Adjectives.

COMPOUND ADJECTIVES may be formed of:1. An Adjective preceded by a noun; as, snowwhite, pitch-dark, knee-deep, &c.

2. An Adjective or participle, preceded by an adverb, or some other word, used adverbially; as, well-known, red-hot, underdone, &c.

3. A Present participle preceded by a noun; (its object,) as, peace-making, heart-stirring, &c.

4. A Past participle preceded by a noun; as, heart-broken, storm-tossed, &c.

5. A Noun, with the suffix d or ed, and preceded by a noun or adjective; as, eagle-eyed, hot-tempered, faint-hearted, &c.

Exercise 2.

Classify, as above, the following compound adjec

tives:

Sky-blue, truth-telling, far-seeing, bed-ridden, river-borne, sea-sick, slipshod, old-fashioned, seagirt, hare-brained, gin-drinking, long-waisted, yardlong, skin-deep, blood-red, grey-haired, new-born, hook-nosed, sinful, childlike, wry-necked, timeserving, downright, bow-legged, third-rate, webfooted, over-done, heart-rending, thunderstruck, underfed, all-powerful, fire-proof.

§ 3. Compound Verbs.

COMPOUND VERBS may be formed of:

1. A Verb preceded by a noun, (its object,) as back-bite, &c.*

*These occur for the most part in a participial form.

2. A. Verb preceded by an adverb; as over-throw, undertake, &c.

§ 4. Compound Adverbs.

COMPOUND ADVERBS may be formed of :— 1. A Noun preceded by an adjective; as, always, sometimes, &c.

2. An Adverb preceded by an adjective; as, nowhere, elsewhere, &c.

3. An Adverb preceded by an adverb; as, hereabout, henceforth, &c.

4. A Preposition preceded by an adverb; as, thereat, herein, &c.

5. A Noun preceded by a preposition; as, inside, &c.

6. A Noun preceded by a noun; as, edgeways, &c.

§ 5. Compound Prepositions.

COMPOUND PREPOSITIONS may be formed of:~ Two Prepositions, as, throughout, upon, &c.

Exercise 3.

Classify the following compound verbs, adverbs, and prepositions :

Overthrow, henceforward, into, hereby, somewhere, ofttimes, wherein, somehow, understand, hamstring, uproot, within, hereafter, overspread, lengthways, downhill, underlet, outside, whereupon, backbite, upstairs, straightforward, outbid, beforehand, sideways, overlook, outnumber.

DERIVATIVE WORDS.

I. INFLEXIONAL FORMS.

§ 1. Plurals of Nouns,

1. The plural of nouns is commonly formed by adding s to the singular.

2. Nouns ending in s, ss, sh, ch soft, x, and z, form their plurals by the addition of es to the singular; as gas, gases; kiss, kisses; bush, bushes ; church, churches; box, boxes; chintz, chintzes.

Nouns in ch hard, form their plurals by adding s; as monarch, monarchs.

3. Nouns ending in a single for fe, form their plurals in ves; as, loaf, loaves; wolf, wolves; wife, wives.

Except, fife, fifes; strife, strifes; gulf, gulfs.

4. Nouns ending in ff, rf, ief, and oof, form their plurals by adding s; as muff, muffs; dwarf, dwarfs ; chief, chiefs; hoof, hoofs.

Except staff, staves; thief, thieves.

5. Nouns ending in io, with canto, junto, grotto, motto, portico, quarto, solo, and tyro, form their plurals by adding s.

Other nouns ending in o, form their plurals in es, as potato, potatoes.

6. Nouns ending in y, preceded by a consonant, form their plurals by changing y into ies; as beauty, beauties.

7. Nouns ending in y, preceded by a vowel, form their plurals by adding s; as boy, boys.

Inch, miss, wharf, omnibus, hero, body, wolf,