DUPLICATE WORDS OR DOUBLETS.

Apt alliteration’s artful aid.

To this period belong the writings of the poet Cædmon and of King Alfred.

12.EARLY ENGLISH, 1100-1250.—The Normans had seized all power in the state and in the church, and had held it since the year 1066. During the early part of this period, English was not written, had ceased to be employed in books; and French words began to creep in even among the spoken words of the English people. The inflections of words began to drop off, or to be carelessly used, and then to be mixed up and confused with each other. One of the chief writers of this period is a priest calledLayamon, who wrote a poem called theBrut(Brutus), which gave some account of the beginnings of the English people, who were believed to be descended from Brutus, the fabled son of Æneas of Troy.

13.MIDDLE ENGLISH, 1250-1485.—Nouns and adjectives during this period lost almost all their inflections. The inflections of verbs were very much altered and greatly simplified.—In the year 1349, boys in school were allowed to cease translating their Latin into French, and began to translate it into English. In the year 1362 Edward III. passed an act of parliament ordering the use of English in the pleadings of cases in all courts of law, instead of Norman-French, which had hitherto been employed. To the first half of this period belong such works as theMetrical Chronicleand theLives of the Saints, supposed to have been written and translated by Robert of Gloucester; to the second half belong the works of the great poet Chaucer, of William Langland, and of the reformer Wicliffe.

14.MODERN ENGLISH, 1485-1882.—The year 1485 marksthe accession of the House of Tudor to the throne, in the person of Henry VII. By this time almost all inflections had disappeared from our language. Many hundreds of French words had come into the language. From the time of the Revival of Letters[6]—which may be said to have begun in the sixteenth century—several thousands of Latin words were poured into the English vocabulary. The period which lies between 1485 and 1603—the year in which James I. came to the throne—is sometimes called the period ofTudor English. Its greatest verse-writer is Shakspeare; its greatest prose-writer is Hooker, who wroteThe Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.

15.ENGLISH WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.—The English language has for centuries been importing words from many foreign tongues into its own vocabulary; and it has given a hearty welcome to all kinds of strangers. So much is this the case, and so far has this habit of taking in strangers gone, that we can now quite accurately say:Most of the words in our English language are not English.There are more Latin words in our tongue than there are English. But this statement is true only of our words as we find themin the dictionary. The words which we use every day—the languageof the mouth—is almost entirely English. Thefixed vocabulary—the vocabulary printed in the dictionary—is more Latin than English; themoving vocabulary—the words which are daily spoken—is English. Thus, if we take a passage in our translation of the Four Gospels, we shall find from 90 to 96 per cent. of the words used are English—and pure English. In theProloguewhich Chaucer wrote to his famous set of poems calledThe Canterbury Tales, 88 per cent. of the words are English; while, in Mrs Browning’sCry of the Children, the English words rise to the large proportion of 92 per cent.

The following is a list of a few more percentages ofpurely English words in the writings of well-known authors:

16.CHANGES IN ENGLISH.—Let us take a passage from the Saxon translation of the Old Testament—and it is the oldest English version we have—and notice what differences there are between this English and the English of the present day. This translation was made by Abbot Ælfric, who lived and wrote late in the tenth century. He translated into English the five books of Moses—commonly called the Pentateuch—Joshua, Judges, and part of the book of Job. Let us see how he writes (Genesis, ix. 1):

Now every word in the above verse is modern English; but every word has been changed—with the exception ofGod,his, andand. All the other words have changed enormously in the course of the eight centuries since the verse was written. The words have changed; and the grammar has changed. The wordbletsianhas becomebless. The grammar of the verbs has changed enormously. For example, the imperative endingathinVeahxathandâfyllathhas quite fallen away. It existed, in the form ofeth, down to the time of Chaucer, who writesStandeth up!in addressing several persons.—Next, we ought to notice thatallthe words are pure English. The modernversion which we still use, and which was published in 1611, has been obliged to use Latin and French words. It says—and the words in italics are all foreign words: ‘Befruitful, andmultiplyandreplenishthe earth’! That is, it employs three Latin words in the most important parts of the sentence.

17.LOSS AND GAIN.—But, while the English language has, in the course of centuries, lost almost all its inflections, it has been all that time gaining new words, and at the same time gaining new powers of expression. In fact, the history of our language is a history of both loss and gain. It has lostinflectionsand gained newwords. An inflected language is generally called aSynthetic Language, because it expresses changes of relations by theadding-on(synthesis) of something to the end of the word. A language which expresses relations by little words like prepositions is called ananalytic language. We may therefore say that:

English was in its earlier forms a synthetic language; but it is now an analytic language.

So much for the form or grammar of it. But, on the other hand, if we look at the matter or words or vocabulary of it, we shall find that:

English was originally a pure or unmixed language; but is now an extremely composite one.

18.THE FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH.—These have come into our language chiefly because the English people have come so much into contact with other peoples and tribes and nations. They came over to this island in the fifth century, and found Kelts here; and from them they took some Keltic words. About the end of the eighth century, the Danes came to them; and a number of Danish words entered the language. Then another set of Danes or Scandinavians—called Normans—came to them, conquered them, and gave them many hundred Norman-French words. Then, with the Revival of Letters, many scholars came over here, taught the English people to read Greek and Latin books; and these books gave the language several thousand words. Then the English people have always been thegreatest travellers in the world. They have gone to China and brought home Chinese words (as well as things); they have long held India, which has given us Hindu words; they have imported names and terms from North and from South and Central America; they have borrowed from Spaniards and Italians; they have taken words, nearer home, from the Dutch and from the Germans; they have gone to the farthest east and to the farthest west, and there is hardly a language on the face of the globe from which they have not imported some words that live and make themselves useful in our language.

19.WELSH.—When the English settled in this island, they found a people who were called Britons, and who spoke a language calledBritishorKymric. It is a language very different from English; and at first the English warriors and the British people did not understand one single word of what each other said. The Old English word forforeignerswasWealhas—or, as we call it now,Welsh; and the English fighting men who came over called the British people, not by the name which they themselves used, but simply theforeigners—theWelsh. In the same way, a German to this day calls an Italian or a Frenchman aWelshman; and he calls France or ItalyWelshland. The language spoken by the Welsh belongs to theKeltic groupof languages. This group contains alsoErse, which is spoken in the west of Ireland;Manx, which is spoken in the Isle of Man;Gaelic, which is spoken in the Highlands of Scotland; andBreton, which is spoken in Brittany—a mountainous and rugged peninsula in the north-west of France. It at one time embraced alsoCornish—the language spoken in Cornwall, which was also calledWest Wales. But that language died out in 1778; and it is not now spoken by any one. The following is a table of the Keltic group:

20.THE KELTIC ELEMENT.—The words given to the English language by the Kelts are of two kinds:

(i) Names of mountains, rivers, lakes, and other natural features;

(ii) Names of common things, which the English picked up in their daily intercourse with the British or Welsh.

(i) The Keltic name for a mountain isPen—a word which we find inPennineandApennine. The Gaelic or Scotch Keltic form of the word isBen. Thus we haveBen More—which means theBig Mountain—Ben Nevis, and many others. The commonest Keltic word for a river isAvon. There are fourteen Avons in Great Britain.Eskis another common Keltic name for a river; and there are eightEsksin Scotland alone. In England the name takes the form ofExorExe(the consonants having changed places,Ex=Eks). The name appears asExinExeter(the old form wasExanceaster)—that is,the camp on the Ex; asAxinAxminster; asOxinOxford; asUxinUxbridge; asUsk, in Wales; and even asOuse, in Yorkshire and other counties.—Aberis a Keltic word which meansthe mouth of a river; and we find it inAberdeen(the town at the mouth of the Dee);Arbroath, which is =Aberbrothock;Aberystwith;Berwick—the old form of which wasAberwick.Berwickaccordingly means thewickor town at the mouth of the Tweed.CarorCaeris the Keltic word forcastleorstronghold; and we find this name inCarlisle,Cardiff,Caernarvon, and others.

(ii) The names of common things which we have received from the Kelts are—basket,bran,cradle,crockery,clout,cuts(=lots),darn. Such words asbutton,ribbon,barrel,car, andcart, are also Keltic, but have come into the English language through the Norman-French, who received them from the descendants of the ancient Gauls. Some Keltic words have come to us from Scotland—such aspony,clan,whisky,claymore(a kind of sword),pibroch, andplaid; and it is chiefly to Sir Walter Scott’s writings that we owe the common use of these words. Ireland has also sent us a few Keltic words, such asTory,brogue, andshamrock.

21.THE LATIN ELEMENT OF THE FIRST PERIOD(i).—TheRoman power, as is generally known, was settled in Britain from the year 43 till the year 410. In the beginning of the year 410, the very existence of the Roman Empire was threatened by the Goths and other warlike peoples; and the Roman forces were withdrawn to defend the very heart of the empire. The Romans, though conquerors, were true benefactors. They gave the Britons good laws; cut roads for them through the island; established camps; built forts and strongholds; dug harbours or ports; and planted military settlements—which they calledcolonies—here and there among the conquered people. When the Romans went away, they left these important benefits behind them; and, with the things themselves, the words also remained. But they left only six words behind them, and all of these have combined themselves, or gone into composition, with words that are purely English. The following are the six words:Castra, acamp;Strata(via), apaved road;Vallum, arampart;Fossa, aditch;Colonia, asettlement; andPortus, aharbour.

22.THE LATIN ELEMENT OF THE FIRST PERIOD(ii).—(a) The Latin wordCastrahas becomechester,caster,cester, and eventer(inExeter). We generally find it in the form ofchesterin the south and west;cesterin the middle; andcasterin the north and east of England. Thus we have Chester, Manchester, and Winchester in the west and south; Leicester and Towcester in mid-England; and Tadcaster, Doncaster, and Lancaster in the north.

(b)Strata.—The Romans drove a strongly-built military road from the south-east to the north-west of the island—fromRichborough, near Dover, up to the standing camp on the river Dee, which is now calledChester. This wastheStrataorStreet. It was afterwards carried farther north, and even into Scotland. It went right over the crest of a hill in Westmoreland, which is calledHigh Streetto this day. We can trace the path of this great military road by the names of the towns and villages that are strung upon it. Thus there areStreatham (near London),Stretton,Stratford-on-Avon, StonyStratford,Stretford (near Manchester),Stradbroke, and many others.

(c)Vallumis found inwall.

(d)Fossais found in the namesFossway,Fosbrooke,Fosbridge, and others.

(e)Coloniais found inColne,Colchester,Lincoln, and others.

(f)Portusappears inPortsmouth,Portsea,Bridport, and some other names.

23.THE LATIN ELEMENT OF THE SECOND PERIOD(i).—This element was not introduced by the Romans themselves, but by Christian missionaries who came from Rome, sent by Pope Gregory the Great to convert, not the Britons, but the English, to Christianity. A band of forty monks, with St Augustine at their head, landed in Kent in the year 597. For four centuries from this date a large number of Latin words came into the English language, chiefly words relating to the church and church observances.

Church Terms.—Calic, fromcalix, a cup;cluster, fromclaustrum, a closed place;priest, frompresbyter, an elder;sanct, fromsanctus, a holy man;sacrament, fromsacramentum, a sacred oath;predician, fromprædicare, to declare;regul, fromregula, a straight piece of wood. But the old form of most of these words has disappeared, to make room for Norman-French forms from the same Latin source. Along with these were adopted a few Greek words—such asbishop, fromepiskopos, an overseer;angel, fromanggelos, a messenger;apostle, fromapostolos, a person sent;monk, frommonăchos,[7]a person who lives alone; and a few others.

24.THE LATIN ELEMENT OF THE SECOND PERIOD(ii).—The introduction of Christianity proved to be the beginning of an intercourse with Rome, Italys, and the Continent; and this intercourse brought with it commerce. Commerce imported many new things; and the names of these things came into the island along with the things themselves. Thus we havebutterfrombutŷrum;cheesefromcaseus; andtunicfromtunica. We have alsofigfromficus;pearfrompirum;lettucefromlactuca, which itself comes fromlac—milk (and hence meansthe milky plant); andpeasefrompisum.(Peaseis really the singular; andpeais a false singular—not a plural.) We have also from the same source some names of animals. Such arecamelfromcamēlus;lionfromleo;oysterfromostrea;troutfromtrutta. A few miscellaneous words have also come to us from this quarter—such aspoundfrom the Latinpondus, a weight;candlefromcandēla; andtablefromtabŭla. The Latin worduncia, which means the twelfth part of anything, is, as it were, split up into two—and gives the two wordsinchandounce, which are fundamentally but two forms of one word. (But with regard to this class of words also it should be observed that the words directly introduced from the Latin have either been greatly changed in form; or they have been subsequently borrowed again from the French.)

25.THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT(i).—In the year 787, the Northmen, Norsemen, or Normans of Scandinavia, began to make descents on the east coast of England. These attacks were so dreaded by the English that prayers were regularly used in the churches against them; and a part of the Litany of the time contained the utterance: ‘From the incursions of the Normans, good Lord, deliver us!’ These attacks went on for three centuries. In the ninth century, these Danes obtained a permanent footing in the northern and eastern parts of England; and by the eleventh century they had become so strong that Danish kings sat upon the throne of England from 1016 to 1042. These Norsemen were Teutons. They were Teutons who had migrated to the north. As northern people generally do, they preferred hard sounds to aspirates. They preferred akto ach; apto anf. The probable reason is that, in the cold mists of the north, they had learned not to open too much their mouths and throats; and thus they formed the habit of using a shut sound likekto a sound likech(inloch), which requires a stream of air to be passed through the throat. We must not forget that it was thespokenlanguage of England that was affected by the Danes; not thewrittenlanguage; for the simple reason that, in these times, not more than one man in a thousand—either among Danes or Englishmen—could read and write.

26.THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT(ii).—The Danish contribution is, like the Keltic, of two kinds: (a) Names of places; and (b) Common words.

(a) The most remarkable example of the place-name is the nounby, which meanstown. There are in England more than six hundred names ending inby. Almost all of these lie to the north and east of Watling Street; to the south of it, there is scarcely one. Thus we haveWhitby, theWhite Town;Tenby, in Wales,Dane’s town; andGrimsby,the town of Grim. We find the wordbyalso in the compoundby-law. The following words are also derived from the Danes:

(b) To the Norsemen we also owe the wordsare, which pushed out the pure Englishsyndon;talk;tarn;busk(dress);sky;hustings;fellow;odd;blunt;kid; and many more.

27.THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT(iii).—One result of this mixture of Danes with Englishmen was that both, in trying to speak the language or to use the words of each other, would naturally take firm hold of therootof the word, and allow the inflections to take care of themselves. Hence English words would lose their inflections; and this process, after it had once begun, would go on at an increased speed, the greater became the communication at church and at market between the English and the Danes. The sameprocess is now going on in the United States. Thousands upon thousands of Germans have settled there among an English-speaking people. These Germans are rapidly falling into the habit of using their German words without inflections at all.

28.LATIN ELEMENT OF THE THIRD PERIOD(i).—This element is really Norman-French. French is Latin, with many of the inflections lost or changed, and with the pronunciation of the vowel-sounds enormously altered. But it did not come from the written Latin of books; but from the spoken Latin of soldiers and country-people (thelingua Romana rustica). Norman-French is the French spoken by the Normans, who lost their own Norsk or Danish speech, and learned French from their French wives and children. In the year 912, the Normans, under Duke Rolf or Rollo, wrested from King Charles the Simple the beautiful valley of the Seine, which was afterwards called by the name of Normandy. Norman-French was a dialect of French, and it differed in many respects from the French spoken in the other parts of France. This Norman-French was introduced into England as a court language by Edward the Confessor, in the year 1042; but it was brought into this country as a folk-speech by bands of Norman-French under the leadership of Duke William, the seventh Duke of Normandy, in the famous year 1066. This Norman-French, which they brought with them, became in England the language of the ruling classes, of the court, of the lawyers, and of all priests high in the ranks of the church. Books ceased to be written in English; boys translated their Latin into French; an English churl had to employ a lawyer who used only French in his law-papers and his pleadings; and even ‘uplandish’ or country people tried ‘to speak Frensch, for to be more ytold of.’ The saturation of English with French words probably reached its highest point at the end of the fourteenth century; and about that time a reaction set in. As has been before pointed out, in 1349, boys were allowed to translate their Latin into English; in 1362, Edward III. passed an act of parliament to authorise the useof English in courts of law; and even the Normans who lived in London had begun to use English in their families. But, by the time French had ceased to be the language of the upper classes, several thousand French words had found their way into our vocabulary, which had become to a large extentbilingual.[8]

29.NORMAN-FRENCH(ii).—The words which have been introduced into our pure English speech from the Normans fall easily into classes.

(a)Feudalism[9]and War.—Armour, chivalry, captain, battle, duke, fealty, realm.

The English word forarmourwasharness; and Macaulay usesharnessin this sense in one of hisLays:

Now while the three were tighteningTheir harness on their backs.

—Chivalrycomes from the Fr.cheval, which is a broken-down form of the Low Latin wordcaballus, a horse.—Captaincomes from the Lat.caput, a head.—Battlecomes from the Fr.battre, to beat.—Dukecomes from the Fr.duc—which comes from the Lat.dux(accusativeducem, most French nouns being borrowed from the accusative, not the nominative form of the Latin noun), a leader.—Fealtyis the Norman-French form of the wordfidelity, from the Lat.fidelitas, faithfulness.—Real-mis the noun from the adjectivereal, which comes from Lat.regal-is; it is the land ruled over by arexorré(a king).

30. (b)Hunting.—Forest, leveret, quarry, couple, venison.

Forestcomes from the Low Lat.[10]foresta; from Lat.foris, out-of-doors. A forest does not necessarily contain trees; it is merely the name for theopenhunting-ground as contrasted with the inclosed space called a park.—Leveret, a young hare, from the Fr.lièvre; from the Lat.lepus(-oris).—Quarrycomes from the Lat.cor, the heart, and at first meant the heart and intestines, which were thrown to the dogs who hunted down the wild beast. Milton has the phrase, ‘scents his quarry from afar.’—Couplecomes from the Lat.copula, a band.—Venisonmeanshunted flesh, and comes from the Fr.venaison, which comes from the Lat. verbvenari, to hunt.

31. (c)Cookery.—Beef, veal, pork, mutton, pullet.

The Saxon hind had the charge of the cattle and animals on the farm while they were alive; but he never saw anything of them after they were killed. He never met them at dinner. The flesh of these animals received French names from the Norman-Frenchmen who ate them; and their Saxon or English names were forgotten. A German sayscalf’s flesh, but we use the Norman-French wordveal. Thus the corresponding English words to those printed above areox,calf,swine,sheep, andfowl. The wordbeefcomes from the Fr.bœuf, which comes from the Lat.bos(acc.bovem), an ox.—Vealcomes from the old French wordveel, which comes from the Lat.vitellus, a little calf.—Porkcomes from Fr.porc, which is derived from the Lat.porcus, a pig.—Muttoncomes from the Fr.mouton, from the Low Latin wordmulto, a sheep.—Pulletcomes from Fr.poulet, which comes from the Low Latin wordpulla, a hen.

32. (d)Law.—Chancellor, judge, parliament, court, assize, sue, damages, and many others.

The wordchancellorcomes from the Fr.chancelier; from the Lat.cancellarius, the keeper of written papers. ‘The officer who had the care of the records stood behind the screen of lattice-work or of cross-bars which fenced off the judgment-seat.’Canceris the Latin name for a crab;cancellusis a little crab;cancelliare cross-bars or lattice-work, like the claws of crabs crossed. Hence also tocancel, which means to draw cross strokes through writing.—Judgecomes from the French wordjuge, which comes from the Lat.judex(=jus-dic-s, a sayer of right). The old English term wasdempster,from the verbdeem; noun,doom.—Parliamentcomes from the Fr.parler, to speak; from Low Lat.parabolāre, to talk; whence alsoparlour, a room for speaking in.—Courtcomes from the old Fr.cort; from Lat.cohorsorcors, an inclosed space. Acohorswas a sheep-pen; but it was afterwards applied to a number of soldiers.—Assizecomes from the old Fr.assise, an assembly of judges; from the Lat.assidēre, to sit beside.—Suecomes from the old Fr.suir(modern Fr.suivre); from the Lat.sequi, to follow. We have from the same root the wordssuit,suite,pursue,ensue,issue.—Damages, from the old Fr.damáge, which comes from the Low Lat.damnaticum, harm; which comes from the Lat.damnum, loss.

33. (e)Church.—Friar, relic, tonsure, ceremony, etc.

Friaris a word which comes from the old Fr.freire, which is derived from the Lat.frater, a brother.—Relic, chiefly used in the plural, from Fr.reliques; from Lat.reliquiæ, remains.—Tonsurecomes from the Fr.tonsure; from Lat.tonsura, a cutting.—Ceremony, from the Fr.cérémonie, a rite; from Lat.cærimonia.

34.SYNONYMS GIVEN US BY NORMAN-FRENCH.—Among other benefits which we have received from the coming in of Norman-French into our language, is a number of synonyms.[11]These have enabled us to give a different shade or colouring to certain words, or to put them to a special use. Thus we speak of theblessingof God, and thebenedictionof a clergy-man; of thebloomon a peach, and theflowerof a lily; of a person as amemberof a learned society, but not alimb. Nowblessing,bloom, andlimbare all English;benediction,flower, andmemberare all Latin words—Latin words which have come to us through the doorway of the French language. The following are some more of these synonyms; and, after examining them, it will generally be found that the Englishwords are stronger, simpler, and more homely than the French words.

35.BILINGUALISM.—During the three centuries which lay between 1066 and 1362, the English and the Normans had to meet each other constantly in the field, in the church, at markets, and in towns and villages. They had to buy and sell from each other; to give and take orders from and to each other; and to speak with each other on many kinds of business. They also intermarried. Thus the Norman got slowly into the habit of joining an English word with his French word—so as to make it clear to the Englishman; while the Englishman, on his side, joined the corresponding French word—when he happened to know it—to the English word he had to employ. These words, ever after, ran in couples; and this habit of going in couples became a habit of the language. Hence it is that, in the opening words of our Prayer-Book, we use such couples asassembleandmeet together;acknowledgeandconfess;dissembleandcloak; andhumbleandlowly. The wordsmeet together,acknowledge,cloak, andlowly, represent the purely English part of the congregation; while the Norman-French supplies such words asassemble,confess,dissemble, andhumble. The great poet of the fourteenth century—Chaucer—has hundreds of examples of such phrases. He gives us, for example,huntingandvenerye;mirthandjollity;careandheed;swinkeandlabour;prayandbeseech; awrightandcarpenter. The practice of using these pairs of words has very greatly diminished in our day; but a few examples still keep their place in the language. Such arewill and testament,use and wont,aid and abet, and several others.

36.DOUBLETS.—It is chiefly to the same Norman-French influence that we owe a minor phenomenon of the language—the appearance of two forms of the same word. These two forms are calleddoublets. The Norman-French could not pronounce our semi-vowelw. They had either to make avof it, or a hardg. They preferred the hardg; and, to keep it hard, they added au. Thus, forwile, they saidguile; forwise(=manner), they saidguise; forward,guard; forwarden,guardian; forwardrobe,garderobe; forwarrant,guarantee; and so on.

37.DOUBLETS FROM DIALECTS AND OTHER SOURCES.—Besides the doublets due to Norman-French influences, there are many interesting cases which may be referred to. Some are evidently due to differences of dialect. The English language grew up from different centres, which had little or no connection with each other, on account of the difficulties of travelling. Hence a word would take different forms in different dialects—likechurchin the south of the English-speaking country, andkirkin the north; so also withcole, of which the northern form iskail. Sometimes one word is merely a later and modified form of another, asdrawofdrag. In all cases doublets are forms of the same word, which have come through different experiences of place, or time, or other influence. In short, they should be recognised as really one word, with a difference in spelling and meaning, resulting from its history. Other specimens of doublets aredownanddune;shriekandscreech;shellandscale;wagonandwain.

38.PRONUNCIATION.—The Norman-French refined our mode of speaking; made the existing vowel-sounds less coarse; gave us some new vowel-sounds; and, above all, taught us to give up most of our rough throat-sounds or gutturals. They gradually turned out the gutturals from the beginning of words; andgenohbecameenough, andgif,if. They turned them out of the middle of words; andnagelbecamenail, andhagel,hail. They got rid of them at the ends of words; and we no longer pronounce the guttural inflight,might,right, andsight. This is all the more absurdand remarkable that we writethe sound that once was therewith two strong gutturals,gandh. Sometimes the influence of the Norman-French was to turn the guttural into a kind of hissing sound or sibilant; and it is in this way that we came to sayteach,beseech, andcatch. But thechin these words comes back to its older use, and becomes aghagain, in the past tense—intaught,besought, andcaught.

39.LATIN OF THE FOURTH PERIOD.—The Latin introduced into our language by the Norman-French was aspokenLatin. It was the Latin of theear and mouth. It was the everyday speech of the people; and underwent very great change. The Latin introduced into our language by learned men was awrittenorprintedLatin. It was the Latin ofthe eye and pen. This Latin is called theLatin of the Fourth Period; and it was brought into our language by a powerful movement known as theRevival of Learning.—When the Turks took Constantinople in 1453, the learned Greeks of that capital fled from the city, carrying with them their precious manuscript copies of Greek and Latin writers. They fled into Italy, into Germany, and into France and England. They taught Greek and Latin in the universities of these countries; and very soon the study of Greek and Latin became the fashion among all persons of leisure; and the stores of thought and beauty in Homer and Sophocles, in Virgil and Horace, were diligently studied and appropriated. Queen Elizabeth was a good Greek scholar, and could both speak and write good Latin. Now began to come into our language thousands of Latin words; until, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, an eminent writer complains that Englishmen will have ‘to learn Latin to understand English, and a work will prove of equal facility in either.’ Unlike the Latin words of the Third Period, the Latin words introduced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries suffered little or no change. They were transferred from Latin books just as they were—by the accurate aid of the hand and eye, and underwent no process of change or corruption. The Latinopiniobecameopinion;notio,notion;suggestio,suggestion;separatum,separate;iteratum,iterate; and so on. It would be a great mistake,however, to suppose that all the Latin of thisFourth Periodcamedirectlyfrom the Latin. Most of it came through the medium of French, as did the Latin of theThird Period; but unlike it, it was not the language of the people. In French, as in English, it was the language merely of books, of the literary and of learned men.—It is worthy of notice that many words which we use every day, and which we think mustalwayshave been in the language, only came in about this period, and are therefore comparatively new. Thus Mr Gill, the high-master of St Paul’s School in 1619, and the teacher of John Milton in his boyhood, complains of the introduction of words which are now quite common to all of us. He says: ‘O harsh lips! I now hear all around me such words ascommon,vices,envy,malice; evenvirtue,study,justice,pity,mercy,compassion,profit,commodity,colour,grace,favour,acceptance.’ The wonder nowadays would be how we could possibly get on without these words, and how we could ever have done without them.

40.MOUTH LATIN AND BOOK LATIN.—The introduction of Latin words into our English speech by two doors—by the living conversation of living people, and by the silent door of books, has given rise to a phenomenon of the same kind as that described in section 36. But the phenomenon of duplicates ordoubletspresents itself to our notice on a much larger scale now; and, in every case, the duplicate word becomes in reality two separate words—employed for separate purposes, and with perfectly distinct meanings. Thus, thoughlegal,leal, andloyalare, in their origin, fundamentally the same word, their meanings are perfectly distinct and even widely different;hospitalandhotelare the same words, but they are no longer used in the same sense; whilefactandfeathave also widely diverged from each other in use and in signification. The Latin words that have come from the Latin language by the path of books, have kept their Latin shape, and may be calledBook Latin. The Latin words that have come to us by the path of Norman-French have undergone great alterations; and they may be calledspoken Latin. The chief process of alterationundergone by them is that ofsqueezing; three syllables have generally been squeezed into two. The following is a list:

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