APPENDIX I
Elementary Hints on Etymology
(1) In borrowed words, especially when the borrowing language, as English, does not deal largely in sounding terminations, it is a common practice to let the termination drop, either altogether or partly, and leave only the simple root, as from λαμπάδα,lamp; from δημοκÏατία,democracy; from κακοφωνία,cacophony, and other such feminines, astheology,philology, where the α is dropped, and the accent transferred to the antepenultimate after the favourite English fashion, while the German, more faithful to the Greek, preserves the accented ι, and marks the presence of the α by ane, as inTheologié,Philologié.
(2) As the Greek element in the English language often comes to us not directly from the Greek, but indirectly through the Latin of the Middle Ages, it sometimes happens that we find a pure Greek word with a Latin termination attached to it naturalised in English, as incathédral, from καθÎδÏα, and inephemeral, from á¼Ï†Î®Î¼ÎµÏος. In this example the terminational, so common in Latin, takes the place of the Greek ος, with the same adjectival force; but in not a few cases, asoptical,ethical,clinical,political, thealis an unmeaning superfluity, as the adjectival character of the word is already fixed by the Greek termination κος, as in κλινικός from κλίνη. In verbs the terminationateis pure Latin, but appears sometimes barbarously appended to a pure Greek verb, ashomologate, from á½Î¼Î¿Î»Î¿Î³á¿¶.
(3) It is a general rule in etymology that cognate letters, that is,letters pronounced by the same organs, or a similar modification of the vocal organs, easily pass into one another; thus σ and Ï„ being both dental, Ï„ a pure dental, and σ a sibilant dental, and δ being only the blunt form of Ï„, these three letters pass into one another, as in Attic Ï€Ïάττω for Ï€Ïάσσω, and ῥόδον, Englishrose. So in Germandasfor Englishthat. In like manner, λ and Ï being both liquids, λείÏιον becomeslily, and the LatinTiburbecomes the ItalianTivoli, by the interchange of the labials and of the liquids.
(4) The terminationsin the names of many of the sciences, asoptics,acoustics,mechanics, is simply the sign of the plural in English, put for ά the neuter plural in Greek, as in Ï„á½° πολιτικά,things belonging to the state; Ï„á½° ὀπτικά,things belonging to vision, which, however, the Greeks often express by ἡ ὀπτική in the nominative singular feminine, with Ï„Îχνη,art, or θεωÏία,theory, understood.
(5) The terminationiseorize, so common in English, generally though not always with an active signification, as inadvertise,solemnise, is the ίζω of Greek, as in σοφίζω,I make wise, with σοφίζομαι, in the middle voice,I profess myself wise. The word σοφιστής from this verb, in Englishsophist, is the person who makes this profession, as inbaptist,theorist,atheist, and other pure Greek words for an agent, with only the loss of the termination ής; sometimes in a hybrid wayistis added to a Latin root, as indeist, etymologically but not colloquially identical withtheist.
(6) Sometimes not only is the terminational syllable cut off, but the initial also, either wholly or in part; so á¼Ï€Î¯ÏƒÎºÎ¿Ï€Î¿Ï‚, with the change of Ï€ into the kindred labial β, becomesbishop.
(7) When two consonants of different kinship come together, one of them, specially that not belonging to the root, disappears, as from λάπτω,lap; from Ï„Ïπτω, Ï„Ïπος,type.
(8) The aspirateh, in Greekspiritus asper, has a close affinity with the sibilants; so for ἕξ we have in Latinsex, in Englishsix; ὗς forsow; ἕδος,sedes,seat.
(9) When a word in Latin or Greek commences with ap, by aspiration it becomesfin English and the Teutonic languages; thus for Ï€á¿¦Ï we havefire, for ποδ-foot, for πατήÏ,father, etc.
(10) The Englishwis closely connected with the vowels, as appears fromwaterandooater; hence it disappears in Greek altogether, or is represented by a breathing, as in οἶνος,wine; ὕδωÏ,water; ὑετός,wet.
(11) In some adjectives the Latinan, likeal, is superfluously appended to the Greek termination in κός, asrhetorician, from ῥητοÏικός.
(12) The Greek κ, as in κÏων, andcornuin Latin, appears in the Teutonic languages ash, sohound,horn; κολώνη,collis,hill.
(13) The lettermat the end of an English word curtailed from Greek signifies the thing done, the product of the verb, as ποίημα,poem, the thing made, a poem, from ποιÎω,I make; sobaptismfrom βαπτίζω, andchrismfrom χÏίω,I anoint, and otherisms.
(14) Finally, as at least two-thirds of the technical words used in our scientific nomenclature, and not a few even outside of the range, are of Greek extraction, the student would act wisely if at starting he were to make a list of all such terms in familiar use, with their Greek form and Greek analysis in an opposite column; as—
He will thus find that he knows already some two or three hundred Greek words in a slightly disguised English form.