"Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand, Of life, of crowne, and queene at once dispatcht; Cut off even in the blossomes of my sinne, Unhouzled, disappointed, unaneld.”—Shakspeare, “Hamlet. Unaneld' is unoiled, not having received the oil of extreme unction; disappointed means not prepared. To housel is to minister the communion to one who is on his deathbed. Housel comes from the Saxon husel, the host, or sacrifice of "the sacrament of the Lord's supper. Un, from the Latin unus, one, is exemplified in unanimous (animus, Lat. mind), of one mind; in uniparous, bearing one at a birth; in unison (sonus, Lat. sound), one single sound; in univocal (vox, Lat. a voice), having one voice or meaning. Un, of Saxon origin, has in some measure yielded to in; thus, for the old form unperfect we now say imperfect. "Unpossible" is quite obsolete. Under, of Saxon origin, is found in such words as undersell, underprop, undervalue, underwent. In the word understand, the derivative or secondary meaning is very remote from its primitive; namely, to stand under. Undertaker and underwriter have, in process of time, come to have very special significations. Undertaker, originally one who took on himself a certain duty, is at present applied to persons who are intrusted with the management of funerals; and underwriters, properly signifying those who wrote (their names) under a legal document, in Latin, subscriptor, is a word limited to persons who render themselves liable in a policy of marine insurance. Uni, of Latin origin (unus, one), occurs in unicorn (cornu, Lat. a horn), an animal with one horn; and uniform (forma, Lat. form), having one form. Up, of Saxon origin, is found in uphill, uphold, uplift, upspring. upstart, &c. Upbraid Richardson derives from a Saxon term not having the necessary import, and is in consequence obliged to twist his deductions into the most suitable shapes he can find. Upbraid comes from the classical Latin opprobrium, a reproach, through the low Latin word opprobrare, to reprouch. The up in this case comes from the Latin ob, changed for the sake of euphony into op and up. A summary of these prefixes arranged according to the sources whence they are derived, is presented in the following tables: GREEK. 1. A, not 2. Amb, about 3. Ana, up 4. Anti, opposite 5. Apo, from 6. Arch (k), first 7. Auto, himself 8. Cata, down 9. Deca, ten 10. Dia, through 11. En, in 12. Epi, upon 13. Eu, well 14. Hemi, half 1.-PREFIXES FROM THE 15. Hept, seven 18. Hier, sacred 29. Ortho, straight 31. Para, by the side of In this summary of prefixes in English, there are 41 prefixes of Greek origin, 58 of Latin origin, and 15 of Saxon origin, making in all 114 prefixes. This statement presents some curious facts in the way of deduc tions. Out of 114 prefixes in English, only fifteen belong to the language of our nurseries. How largely indebted then must the English be to the Greek and the Latin; and how necessary to every student of English is some acquaintance with those languages. Let it be observed, that it is not merely that in English there are ninety-nine prefixes derived from the Greek and the Latin; but these prefixes enter into combination, and form very many words, the exact meaning of which can be known by those only who are acquainted with their compound parts. Truly ours is a composite language. It is also a rich language, and has great flexibility, owing to the diverse sources whence its vocabulary comes. How poor comparatively would the language have been, but for the treasures it has derived from the classical tongues. Since so many of our prefixes are of foreign origin, our compound words must also be to a large extent of foreign origin. Consequently monosyllables may in general be regarded as Saxon. If we look at these prefixes in the state in which they appear in their originals, we find them for the most part to be prepositions or adverbs; as in a, ana, apo, bene, e, ex, extra, &c. Some, however, are adjectives, as melan, hex, magn. Again, some are nouns, as arche (ké), mort (mors). In these facts we may learn something as to the-origin of prefixes, and of particles generally. Appropriately is the term particle applied, for these words are little or broken parts of nouns or verbs, which once existed as nouns and verbs in the languages with which they are now connected as particles. I have given above the Greek, the Latin and the Saxon, as the sources whence our prefixes are derived. The French might have been added; but the French is not an original source; words derived by us from the French may in general be traced back to the Latin as their parent. A little attention may lead the student to suspect that there is some genealogical connexion between the three sources of our prefixes. By comparing particles together, he might be led to trace a resemblance between dia and dis; hemi and demi; hex and six; hept and seven; holo and whole; in and in; en and in; non and not, &c. In reality such a genealogical connexion does exist. The Greek, the Latin, and the Saxon (or Teutonic) are sister languages, being branches from the one stem called by linguists, the IndoGermanic or Indo-European stem, which comprises the Sanscrit, or the old sacred tongue of Hindostan, the Celtic, or parent of the Gaelic, the Erse, the Latin, the Welsh, the native Irish; and the Teutonic, the parent of the Greek, the German, the Dutch and the Saxon-English. This family of languages then extends, you see, with some exceptions, from the banks of the Ganges to the Western shores of Ireland. It extends also from the North Cape to the Straits of Gibraltar. The epithet Indo-Germanic is in origin prior to the epithet IndoEuropean. Indo-Germanic was intended to include two classes of languages, namely the Sanscrit (Indo), and the Germanic (Teutonic or Saxon), but when it had been ascertained that the Celtic was a kindred tongue, a more comprehensive epithet was required, and Indo-European was formed. But Indo-European errs somewhat in excess, since some dialects spoken in Europe are not of Indian, Celtic or Teutonic origin. That the English, as well as the Greek and Latin, is connected with the Sanscrit, may be seen by comparing together these numerals in the different tongues. German. English. Latin. Erse. Welsh. Sanscrit. Greek. To you there may not seem the close resemblance among these words, severally, which is obvious to the student who is aware of the changes which letters undergo in allied tongues, from laws and influences peculiar to each separate language; but surely there eight octo ocht wyth nine novem noi naw is enough in the tabular view just given to illustrate what I state as a fact; namely, that the languages, of which specimens appear above, are kindred languages. Look, for instance, at the forms through which the numeral three passes, thus: tri, treis, drei, three, tres, tri, tri. From these statements you will see that words which are found in the Sanscrit, the Greek, and the Latin; or, in the Sanscrit, the Saxon, and the Erse, may be designated Indo-European, inasmuch as they exist in the three great branches of that stalk, I mean in the Sanscrit, the Celtic, and the Teutonic. Of these three,-namely, the Sanscrit, the Celtic, and the Teutonic, the first may be considered as the most ancient tongue; the second stands next in age, and the third is the youngest. You have been led to regard monosyllables as to a large extent of Saxon origin. But many words, commonly considered Saxon, are rather Indo-European, being found in Sanscrit, in Greek, and in Latin, or in one of these besides the modern English. Such words as know, lick, break, yoke, sit, are the common property of the Sanscrit, the Latin, the Greek, the German, and the English. Had I space to exhibit the proofs of the relationship of these languages, I should dwell on the similarity which prevails in the modifications of number, person, case, tense, &c., which they severally undergo; but I can, in addition, do nothing more than set down in different tongues the variations of a few words of universal prevalence, which indicate a common origin. English. Sanscrit. Greek. Latin, Teutonic. Father Mother pitri (pader) pater pater vater Celtic. athair meter It is September. Hark! somebody is letting off a gun. They are shooting the poor birds. Here is a bird dropped down just at your feet. It is all bloody. Poor thing! How it flutter. Its wing is broken. It cannot fly any further. It is going to die. What bird is it? It is a partridge. Are you not sorry, Charles? It was alive a little while ago. Bring the ladder. Set it against the tree. Now bring a basket. We must gather apples. No, you cannot go up the ladder. You must have a little basket and pick up apples under the tree. Shake the tree. Down they come. II. SUFFIXES. WORDS are affected in their import not only by particles set before them, but also by particles set after them. In presumable, you have a word, the meaning of which is affected by both a foregoing and an after-coming particle. It may be divided thus: PREFIX. pre before ROOT. sum take SUFFIX. capacity The root of the word is the Latin sumo, I take. By the addition of pre, sum becomes presume, I take before; that is, before positive proof. If you add able, then you form presumable, which signifies what may be presumed. Having treated of prefixes, I pass on to suffixes, and shall give a list of the principal. LIST OF ENGLISH SUFFIXES. Abel, from the Gothic abal, strength, found in the Latin habilis, fit for, and in the Latin termination bilis; as, amabilis, loveable. It is found, also, in our word ability. In the sense of power or capacity, it occurs in many English words; as, reasonable, durable, &c. Sometimes it passes into the form ible; as, comprehensible, visible, &c. When preceded by v, the a or i blends with the v into u, as in soluble. "Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Milton, "Paradise Lost." Ade (ado), coming into the English through the French, the Italian, and the Spanish, gives us such words as brocade, embroiderea silk; comrade (comes, Lat. a companion; or from camara, Spanish, a chamber); scalade (scala, Lat. a ladder; escalar, Spanish, to climb); bravado, a boast, a boaster. "What can be more strange than that we should, within two months, have won one town of importance by scalade, battered another, and overthrown great forces in the field?"-Bacon. Age, from the Latin termination, ago, as in imago (an image), through the Spanish azgo, and the French age (as in avantage, an advantage): it denotes a state of being. "That to the utmost of our ability, we ought to repair any damage we have done to others is self-evident."-Beattie, "Moral Science." The term average is from the low Latin averagium (from avera (habeo, I have), a man's moveable property), which denoted a tax or general quit-rent, paid primarily in labour by the tenant to the lord. From average, and the custom it denotes, come avercorne and averpenny in old legal documents. "Whether the small town of Birmingham alone doth not upon an average circulate every week, one way or other, to the value of £50,000." -Berkeley, "Querist." Al from the Latin al, as in animal, an animal, and animalis, |