On the other hand, you will find that many words were once more general in import than they have since become.Fondoriginally meant foolish, then foolishly devoted, then (becoming more general again) devoted.Nostrummeant our own, then a medicine not known by other physicians, then a quack remedy.Shamefastmeant confirmed in modesty (shame); then through a confusion offastwithfaced, a betrayal through the countenance of self-consciousness or guilt.Counterfeitmeant a copy or a picture, then an unlawful duplication, especially of a coin.Lustmeant pleasure of any sort, then inordinate sexual pleasure or desire.Virtue(to trace only a few of its varied activities) meant manliness, then the quality or attribute peculiar to true manhood (with the Romans this was valor), then any admirable quality, then female chastity.Penmeant a feather, then a quill to write with, then an instrument for writing used in the same way as a quill. Agroommeant a man, then a stableman (inbridegroom, however, it preserves the old signification).Heathen(heath-dweller),pagan(peasant), anddemon(a divinity) had in themselves no iniquitous savor until early Christians formed their opinion of the people inaccessible to them and the spirits incompatible with the unity of the Godhead. Words betokening future happenings or involving judgment tend to take a special cast from the fears and anxieties men feel when their fortune is affected or their destiny controlled by external forces. Thusomen(a prophetic utterance or sign) andportent(a stretching forward, a foreseeing, a foretelling) might originally be either benign or baleful; but nowadays, especially in the adjectival formsominousandportentous, they wear a menacing hue. Similarlycriticism,censure, anddoom, all of them signifying at first mere judgment, have come—the first in popular, the other two in universal, usage—to stand for adverse judgment. The old sense ofdoomis perpetuated, however, inDoomsday, which means the day on which we are all to be, not necessarily sent to hell, but judged.
You will furthermore perceive that the exaggerated affirmations people are always indulging in have led to the weakening of many a word.Fretmeant eat; formerly to say that a man was fretting was to use a vigorous comparison—to have the man devoured with care.Mortifymeant to kill, then killed with embarrassment, then embarrassed.Qualmmeant death, but our qualms of conscience have degenerated into mere twinges. Oaths are shorn of their might by overuse;confound, once a tremendous malinvocation, may now fall from the lips of respectable young ladies, andfie, in its time not a whit less dire, would be scarcely out of place in even a cloister. Words designating immediacy come to have no more strength than soup-meat seven times boiled.Presentlymeant in the present,soonandby and bymeant forthwith. How they have lost their fundamental meaning will be intelligible to you if you have in ordering something been told that it would be delivered "right away," or in calling for a girl have been told that she would be down "in a minute."
You will detect in words of another class a deterioration, not in force, but in character; they have fallen into contemptuous or sinister usage. Many words for skill or wisdom have been thus debased.Cunningmeant knowing,artfulmeant well acquainted with one's art,craftymeant proficient in one's craft or calling,wizardmeant wise man. The present import of these words shows how men have assumed that mental superiority must be yoked with moral dereliction or diabolical aid. Words indicating the generality—indicating ordinary rank or popular affiliations—have in many instances suffered the same decline.Trivialmeant three ways; it was what might be heard at the crossroads or on any route you chanced to be traveling, and its value was accordingly slight.Lewdmeant belonging to the laity; it came to mean ignorant, and then morally reprehensible.Commonmay be used to signify ill-bred;vulgarmay be and frequently is used to signify indecent.Sabotage, from a French term meaning wooden shoe, has come to be applied to the deliberate and systematic scamping of one's work in order to injure one's employer.Idiot(common soldier) crystallizes the exasperated ill opinion of officers for privates. (Infantry—an organization of military infants—has on the contrary sloughed its reproach and now enshrines the dignity of lowliness.) Somewhat akin to words of this type isknave, which first meant boy, then servant, then rogue. Terms for agricultural classes seldom remain flattering. Besides such epithets ashayseedandclodhopper, contemptuous in their very origin,villain(farm servant),churl(farm laborer), andboor(peasant) have all gathered unto themselves opprobrium;villainnow involves a scoundrelly spirit,churla contumelious manner,boora bumptious ill-breeding; not one of these words is any longer confined in its application to a particular social rank. Terms for womankind are soon tainted.Wenchmeant at first nothing worse than girl or daughter,queanthan woman,hussythan housewife; evenwomanis generally felt to be half-slighting. Terms affirming unacquaintance with sin, or abstention from it, tend to be quickly reft of what praise they are fraught with; none of us likes to be saluted asinnocent,guileless, orunsophisticated, and to be dubbedsillyno longer makes us feel blessed. Besides these and similar classes of words, there are innumerable individual terms that have sadly lost caste. Animpwas erstwhile a scion; it then became a boy, and then a mischievous spirit. Anoisemight once be music; it has ceased to enjoy such possibilities. To live near a piano that is constantly banged is to know hownoiseas a synonym for music was outlawed.
A backward glance over the history of words repays you in showing you the words for what they are, and in having them live out their lives before you. Do you know what anumpireis? He is a non (or num) peer, a not equal man, an odd man—one therefore who can decide disputes. Do you know what anicknameis? It is an eke (also) name, a title bestowed upon one in addition to his proper designation. Do you know what afellow, etymologically speaking, is? He is a fee-layer, a partner, a man who lays his fee (property) alongside yours. Do you know thatmatinée, though awarded to the afternoon, meant primarily a morning entertainment and has traveled so far from its original sense that we call an actual before-noon performance a morning matinée? Do you know the past of such words asbedlam,rival,parson,sandwich,pocket handkerchief?Bedlam, a corruption ofBethlehem, was a hospital for the insane in London; it came to be a general term for great confusion or discord.Rivalswere formerly dwellers—that is, neighboring dwellers—on the bank of a stream; disputes over water-rights gave the word its present meaning. Apersonorparson, for the two were the same, was a mask (literally, that through which the sound came); then an actor representing a character in a play; then a representative of any sort; then the representative of the church in a parish. Asandwichwas a stratification of bread and meat by the Earl of Sandwich, who was so loath to leave the gaming table that he saved time by having food brought him in this form. Akerchiefwas originally a cover for the head, and indeed sundry amiable, old-fashioned grandmothers still use it for this purpose. Afterward people carried it in their hands and called it ahandkerchief; and when they transferred it to the pocket, they called it apocket handkerchiefor pocket hand head-cover. A scrutiny of such words should convince you that the reading of the dictionary, instead of being the dull occupation it is almost proverbially reputed to be, may become an occupation truly fascinating. For clustered about the words recorded in the dictionary are inexhaustible riches of knowledge and of interest for those who have eyes to see.
EXERCISE - Past
1. For each of the following words look up (a) the present meaning if you do not know it, (b) the original meaning, (c) any other past meanings you can find.
Exposition Corn CattleInfluence Sanguine TurmoilSinecure Waist ShrewPotential Spaniel CrazyCharacter Candidate IndomitableInfringe Rascal AmorphousExpend Thermometer CharmRather Tall StepchildWedlock Ghostly HaggardBridal Pioneer PluckNoon Neighbor Jimson weedCourteous Wanton RosemaryCynical Street PlausibleGrocer Husband AllowWorship Gipsy InsaneEncourage Clerk DiseaseAstonish Clergyman BoulevardRealize Hectoring CanaryBombast Primrose DiamondBenedict Walnut AbominatePiazza Holiday BarbarousDisgust Heavy KindVirtu Nightmare DevilGospel Comfort WhistMermaid Pearl OnionEnthusiasm Domino BookFanatic Grotesque CheatAuction Economy IllegibleQuell Cheap IllegitimateSheriff Excelsior EmasculateDanger Dunce ChampionShibboleth Calico AdieuEssay Pontiff MacadamizeWages Copy StentorianQuarantine Puny SaturnineBuxom Caper DerrickIndifferent Boycott MercurialGaudy Countenance PoniardMajority Camera Chattel.
2. The following words are often used loosely today, some because their original meaning is lost sight of, some because they are confused with other words. Find for each word (a) what the meaning has been and (b) what the correct meaning is now.
Nice Awful AtrociousGrand Horrible PitifulBeastly Transpire ClaimWeird Aggravate UncannyDemean Gorgeous ElegantFine Noisome Mutual (in "a mutual friend")Lovely Cute StunningLiable Immense.
3. The following sentences from standard English literature illustrate the use of words still extant and even familiar, in senses now largely or wholly forgotten. The quotations from the Bible and Shakespeare (all the Biblical quotations are from the King James Version) date back a little more than three hundred years, those from Milton a little less than three hundred years, and those from Gray and Coleridge, respectively, about a hundred and seventy-five and a hundred and twenty-five years. Go carefully enough into the past meanings of the italicized words to make sure you grasp the author's thought.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these ischarity.(1Corinthians13:13)
Ipreventedthe dawning of the morning. (Psalms119:147)
Our eyeswaitupon the Lord our God. (Psalms123:2)
The times of this ignorance Godwinkedat. (Acts17:30)
And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me; for I perceive thatvirtueis gone out of me. (Luke8:46)
To judge thequickand the dead. (1Peter4:5)
Be not wise in your ownconceits. (Romans12:16)
In maiden meditation,fancy-free. (Shakespeare:A MidsummerNight's Dream)
Is it sonominatedin the bond? (Shakespeare:The Merchant of Venice)
Would I had met mydearestfoe in heaven. (Shakespeare:Hamlet)
Theextravagantanderringspirit. (Said of a spirit wandering from the bounds of purgatory. Shakespeare:Hamlet)
Themodestyof nature. (Shakespeare:Hamlet)
It is a nipping and aneagerair. (Shakespeare:Hamlet)
SecurityIs mortals' chiefest enemy. (Shakespeare:Macbeth)
Mostadmireddisorder. (Shakespeare:Macbeth)
Upon thishintI spake. (From the account of the wooing ofDesdemona. Shakespeare:Othello)
This Lodovico is aproperman. A very handsome man.(Shakespeare:Othello)
Mice and rats and such smalldeer. (Shakespeare:King Lear)
This is no soundThat the earthowes. (Shakespeare:The Tempest)
Every shepherdtellshistale. (Milton:L'Allegro) Bring theratheprimrose that forsaken dies. (Rathesurvives only in the comparative formrather. Milton:Lycidas)
Can honor's voiceprovokethe silent dust? (Gray:Elegy)
Thesillybuckets on the deck. (Coleridge:The AncientMariner)
4. In technical usage or particular phrases a former sense of a word maybe embedded like a fossil. The italicized words in the following listretain special senses of this kind. What do these words as thus used mean?Can you add to the list?TowitMight andmainTime andtideChristmas_tide_SadbreadA banktellerTotellone'sbeadsAid andabetMeatand drinkShop_lifter_Fishing-tackleGetting offscot-freeAnearnestof future favorsAbraveold hearthstoneConfusionto the enemy!Giving aid andcomfortto the enemyWithoutletor hindranceAletin tennis_Quick_limeCut tothe quickNeat-foot oilTosound intort (Legal phrase)To bid one God_speed_I had asliefas notThe childfavorsits parentsOnpainof deathWidow'sweedsI amboundfor the Promised LandTocarrya girl to a party (Used only in the South)To give a person so muchto boot
5. Each of the subjoined phrases contradicts itself or repeats its idea clumsily. The key to the difficulty lies in the italicized words. What is their true meaning?
A weeklyjournalUltimateend FinalultimatumFinalcompletion PreviouspreconceptionsNauseatingseasicknessJointogetherDescenddownPreferbetterArgentsilver CompletelyannihilateUnanimouslyby all Mostuniqueof all The otheralternativeEndorseon the backIncredibleto believe Acriterionto go by Anappetiteto eatA panaceafor all illsPopularwith the peopleBiographyof his lifeAutobiographyof his own lifeVitallyalive A new,novel, and ingenious explanationMutualdislike for each otherOmniscientknowledge of all subjects Amaterialgrowth in mental powerPeculiarfaults of his own Fly into anebullientpassion Tosaturateoneself with gold and silver Elected byacclamation ona secret ballot.
Our investigation into the nature, qualities, and fortunes of single words must now merge into a study of their family connections. We do not go far into this new phase of our researches before we perceive that the career of a word may be very complicated. Most people, if you asked them, would tell you that an individual word is a causeless entity—a thing that was never begotten and lacks power to propagate. They would deny the possibility that its course through the world could be other than colorless, humdrum. Now words thus immaculately conceived and fatefully impotent, words that shamble thus listlessly through life, there are. But many words are born in an entirely normal way; have a grubby boyhood, a vigorous youth, and a sober maturity; marry, beget sons and daughters, become old, enfeebled, even senile; and suffer neglect, if not death. In their advanced age they are exempted by the discerning from enterprises that call for a lusty agility, but are drafted into service by those to whom all levies are alike. Indeed in their very prime of manhood their vicissitudes are such as to make them seem human. Some rise in the world some sink; some start along the road of grandeur or obliquity, and then backslide or reform. Some are social climbers, and mingle in company where verbal dress coats are worn; some are social degenerates, and consort with the ragamuffins and guttersnipes of language. Some marry at their own social level, some above them, some beneath; some go down in childless bachelorhood or leave an unkempt and illegitimate progeny. And if you trace their own lineage, you will find for some that it is but decent and middle-class, for some that it is mongrelized and miscegenetic, for some that it is proud, ancient, yea perhaps patriarchal.
It is contrary to nature for a word, as for a man, to live the life of a hermit. Through external compulsion or internal characteristics a word has contacts with its fellows. And its most intimate, most spontaneous associations are normally with its own kindred.
In our work hitherto we have had nothing to say of verbal consanguinity. But we have not wholly ignored its existence, for the very good reason that we could not. For example, in the latter portions of Chapter IV we proceeded on the hypothesis that at least some words have ancestors. Also in the analysis of the dictionary definition oftensionwe learned that the word has, not only a Latin forebear, but French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian kinsmen as well. One thing omitted from that analysis would have revealed something further—namely, that the word has its English kinfolks too. For the bracketed part of the dictionary definition mentions two other English words,tendandtense, which from their origin involve the same idea as that oftension— the idea of stretching.
Now words may be akin in either of two ways. They may be related in blood. Or they may be related by marriage. Let us consider these two kinds of connection more fully.
As an illustration of blood kinships enjoyed by a native English word take the adjectivegood. We can easily call to mind other members of its family: goodly, goodish, goody-goody, good-hearted, good-natured, good- humored, good-tempered, goods, goodness, goodliness, gospel (good story), goodby, goodwill, goodman, goodwife, good-for-nothing, good den (good evening), the Good Book. The connection between these words is obvious.
Next consider a group of words that have been naturalized: scribe, prescribe, ascribe, proscribe, transcribe, circumscribe, subscriber, indescribable, scribble, script, scripture, postscript, conscript, rescript, manuscript, nondescript, inscription, superscription, description. It is clear that these words are each other's kith and kin in blood, and that the strain or stock common to all isscribeor (as sometimes modified)script. What does this strain signify? The idea of writing. Thescribesare a writing clan. Some of them, to be sure, have strayed somewhat from the ancestral calling, for words are as wilful—or as independent—as men.Ascribe, for example, does not act like a member of the household of writers, whatever it may look like. We should have to scrutinize it carefully or consult the record for it in that verbal Who's Who, the dictionary, before we could understand how it came by its scribal affiliations honestly. But once we begin to reflect or to probe, we find we have not mistaken its identity.Ascribeis the offspring ofad(to) andscribo(write), both Latin terms. It originally meant writing to a person's name or after it (that is, imputing to the person by means of written words) some quality or happening of which he was regarded as the embodiment, source, or cause. Nowadays we may saddle the matter on him through oral rather than written speech. That is,ascribehas largely lost the writing traits. But all the same it is manifestly of the writing blood.
Thescribesare of undivided racial stock, Latin. Consider now themanu, orman, words which sprang from the Latinmanus, meaning "hand." Here are some of them: manual, manoeuver, mandate, manacle, manicure, manciple, emancipate, manage, manner, manipulate, manufacture, manumission, manuscript, amanuensis. These too are children of the same father; they are brothers and sisters to each other. But what shall we say of legerdemain (light, or sleight, of hand), maintain, coup de main, and the like? They bear a resemblance to theman'sandmanu's, yet one that casual observers would not notice. Is there kinship between the two sets of words? There is. But not the full fraternal or sororal relation. Themainsare children ofmanusby a French marriage he contracted. With this French blood in their veins, they are only half-brothers, half-sisters of themanu'sand theman's.
Your examination of the family trees of words will be practical, rather than highly scholastic, in nature. You need not track every word in the dictionary to the den of its remote parentage. Nor need you bother your head with the name of the distant ancestor. But in the case of the large number of words that have a numerous kindred you should learn to detect the inherited strain. You will then know that the word is the brother or cousin of certain other words of your acquaintance, and this knowledge will apprise you of qualities in it with which you should reckon. To this extent only must you make yourself a student of verbal genealogy.
EXERCISE - Blood
(Simple exercises in tracing blood relationships among words are given at the end of the chapter. Therefore the exercises assigned here are of a special character.)
1. Each of the following groups is made up of related words, but the relationship is somewhat disguised. Consult the dictionary for each word, and learn all you can as to (a) its source, (b) the influence (as passing through an intermediate language) that gave it its present form, (c) the course of its development into its present meaning.
Captain Cathedral GovernorCapital Chaise GubernatorialDecapitate ChairChef Shay GuardianChieftain WardCampCavalry Campaign GuaranteeChivalry Champion Warrant
Camera Inept IncipientChamber Apt Receive
Serrated Inimical PoorSierra Enemy Pauper
Influence Espionage WorkInfluenza Spy WroughtPlaywrightIsolateInsular
2. The variety of sources for modern English is indicated by the following list. Do not seek for blood kinsmen of these particular words, but think of all the additional words you can that have come into English from Indian, Spanish, French, any other language spoken today.
Alphabet (Greek) Piano (Italian)Folio (Latin) Car (Norman)Boudoir (French) Rush (German)Binnacle (Portuguese) Sky (Icelandic)Anger (Old Norse) Yacht (Dutch)Isinglass (Low German) Hussar (Hungarian)Slogan (Celtic) Samovar (Russian)Polka (Polish) Chess (Persian)Shekel (Hebrew) Tea (Chinese)Algebra (Arabic) Kimono (Japanese)Puttee (Hindoo) Tattoo (Tahitian)Boomerang (Australian) Voodoo (African)Potato (Haytian) Skunk (American Indian)Guano (Peruvian) Buncombe (American)Renegade (Spanish)
That words marry and are given in marriage, is too generally overlooked. Any student of a foreign language, German for instance, can recall the thrill of discovery and the lift of reawakened hope that came to him when first he suspected, aye perceived, the existence of verbal matrimony. For weeks he had struggled with words that apparently were made up of fortuitous collocations of letters. Then in some beatific moment these huddles of letters took meaning; in instance after instance they represented, not a word, but words—a linguistic household. Let them be what they might—a harem, the domestic establishment of a Mormon, the dwelling-place of verbal polygamists,—he could at last see order in their relationships. To their morals he was indifferent, absorbed as he was in his joy of understanding.
In English likewise are thousands of these verbal marriages. We may not be aware of them; from our very familiarity with words we may overlook the fact that in instances uncounted their oneness has been welded by a linguistic minister or justice of the peace. But to read a single page or harken for thirty seconds to oral discourse with our minds intent on such states of wedlock is to convince ourselves that they abound. Consider this list of everyday words: somebody, already, disease, vineyard, unskilled, outlet, nevertheless, holiday, insane, resell, schoolboy, helpmate, uphold, withstand, rainfall, deadlock, typewrite, football, motorman, thoroughfare, snowflake, buttercup, landlord, overturn. Every term except one yokes a verbal husband with his wife, and the one exception (nevertheless) joins a uxorious man with two wives.
These marriages are of a simple kind. But the nuptial interlinkings between families of words may be many and complicated. Thus there is a family ofgraph(or write) words: graphic, lithograph, cerograph, cinematograph, stylograph, telegraph, multigraph, seismograph, dictograph, monograph, holograph, logograph, digraph, autograph, paragraph, stenographer, photographer, biographer, lexicographer, bibliography, typography, pyrography, orthography, chirography, calligraphy, cosmography, geography. There is also a family ofphone(or sound) words: telephone, dictaphone, megaphone, audiphone, phonology, symphony, antiphony, euphonious, cacophonous, phonetic spelling. It chances that both families are of Greek extraction. Related to thegraphs—their cousins in fact—are thegrams: telegram, radiogram, cryptogram, anagram, monogram, diagram, logogram, program, epigram, kilogram, ungrammatical. Now a representative of thegraphsmarried into thephonefamily, and we have graphophone. A representative of thephonesmarried into thegraphfamily, and we have phonograph. A representative of thegramsmarried into thephonefamily, and we have gramophone. A representative of thephonesmarried into thegramfamily, and we have phonogram. Of such unions children may be born. For example, from the marriage of Mr. Phone with Miss Graph were born phonography, phonographer, phonographist (a rather frail child), phonographic, phonographical, and phonographically.
Intermarriage between thephonesand thegraphsorgramsis a wedding of equals. Some families of words, however, are of inferior social standing to other families, and may seek but not hope to be sought in marriage. Compare theex'swith theports. Anex, as a preposition, belongs to a prolific family but not one of established and unimpeachable dignity. Hence theex's, though they marry right and left, lead the other words to the altar and are never led thither themselves. Witness exclude, excommunicate, excrescence, excursion, exhale, exit, expel, expunge, expense, extirpate, extract; in no instance doesexfellow its connubial mate—it invariably precedes. Theports, on the other hand, are the peers of anybody. Some of them choose to remain single: port, porch, portal, portly, porter, portage. Here and there one marries into another family: portfolio, portmanteau, portable, port arms. More often, however, they are wooed than themselves do the pleading: comport, purport, report, disport, transport, passport, deportment, importance, opportunity, importunate, inopportune, insupportable. From our knowledge of the two families, therefore, we should surmise that if any marriage is to take place between them; anexmust be the suitor. The surmise would be sound. There is such a term asexport, but not asportex.
Now it is oftentimes possible to do business with a man without knowing whether he is a man or a bridal couple. And so with a word. But the knowledge of his domestic state and circumstances will not come amiss, and it may prove invaluable. You may find that you can handle him to best advantage through a sagacious use of the influence of his wife.
EXERCISE - Marriage
1. For each word in the lists of EXERCISE - Dictionary and Activity 1 for EXERCISE - Past, determine (a) whether it is single or married; (b) if it is married, whether the wedding is one between equals.
2. Make a list of the married words in the first three paragraphs of the selection from Burke (Appendix 2). For each of these words determine the exact nature and extent of the dowry brought by each of the contracting parties to the wedding.
Hitherto in our study of verbal relationships we have usually started with the family. Having strayed (as by good luck) into an assembly of kinsmen, we have observed the common strain and the general characteristics, and have then "placed" the individual with reference to these. But we do not normally meet words, any more than we meet men, in the domestic circle. We meet them and greet them hastily as they hurry through the tasks of the day, with no other associates about them than such as chance or momentary need may dictate. If we are to see anything of their family life, it must be through effort we ourselves put forth. We must be inquisitive about their conjugal and blood relationships.
How, then, starting with the individual word, can you come into a knowledge of it, not in its public capacity, but in what is even more important, its personal connections? You must form the habit of asking two questions about it: (1) Is it married? (2) Of what family or families was it born? If you can get an understanding answer to these two questions, an answer that will tell you what its relations stand for as well as what their name is, your inquiries will be anything but bootless.
Let us illustrate your procedure concretely. Suppose you read or hear the wordconchology. It is a somewhat unusual word, but see what you can do with it yourself before calling on the dictionary to help you. Observe the word closely, and you will obtain the answer to your first question.Conchologyis no bachelor, no verbal old maid; it is a married pair.
Your second and more difficult task awaits you; you must ascertain the meaning of the family connections. With Mr. Conch you are on speaking terms; you know him as one of the shells. But the utmost you can recall about his wife is that she is one of a whole flock ofologies. What significance does this relationship possess? You are uncertain. But do not thumb the dictionary yet. Pass in mental review all theologiesyou can assemble. Wait also for the others that through the unconscious operations of memory will tardily straggle in. Be on the lookout forologiesas you read, as you listen. In time you will muster a sizable company of them. And you will draw a conclusion as to the meaning of the blood that flows through their veins.Ologyimplies speech or study.Conchology, then, must be the study of conches.
Your investigations thus far have done more than teach you the meaning of the word you began with. They have brought you some of the by-products of the study of verbal kinships. For you no longer pass theologiesby with face averted or bow timidly ventured. You have become so well acquainted with them that even a new one, wherever encountered, would flash upon you the face of a friend. But now your desires are whetted. You wish to find out how much youcanlearn. You at last consult the dictionary.
Here a huge obstacle confronts you. Theologies, like theports(above), are a haughty clan; they are the wooed, rather than the wooing, members of most marital households that contain them. Now the marriage licenses recorded in the dictionary are entered under the name of the suitor, not of the person sought. Hence you labor under a severe handicap as you take the census of theologies. Let us imagine the handicap the most severe possible. Let us suppose that noologyhad ever been the suitor. Even so, you would not be entirely baffled. For you could look up in the dictionary theologiesyou your self had been able to recall. To what profit? First, you could verify or correct your surmise as to what theologicalblood betokens. Secondly, you could perhaps obtain cross-references to yet otherologiesthan those you remembered.
But you are not reduced to these extremities. Theologies, arrogant as they are, sometimes are the applicants for matrimony, and the marriage registry of the dictionary so indicates. To be sure, they do not, when thus appearing at the beginning of words, take the formology. They take the formlog. But you must be resourceful enough to keep after your quarry in spite of the omission of a vowel or two. Also from some lexicons you may obtain still further help. You may findology, logy, logo, orloglisted as a combining form, its meaning given, and examples of its use in compounds cited.
By your zeal and persistence you have now brought together a goodly array of theologies—all or most, let us say, of the following: conchology, biology, morphology, phrenology, physiology, osteology, histology, zoology, entomology, bacteriology, ornithology, pathology, psychology, cosmology, eschatology, demonology, mythology, theology, astrology, archeology, geology, meteorology, mineralogy, chronology, genealogy, ethnology, anthropology, criminology, technology, doxology, anthology, trilogy, philology, etymology, terminology, neologism, phraseology, tautology, analogy, eulogy, apology, apologue, eclogue, monologue, dialogue, prologue, epilogue, decalogue, catalogue, travelogue, logogram, logograph, logo-type, logarithms, logic, illogical. (Moreover you may have perceived in some of these words the kinship which exists in all for theloquygroup—see (1) Soliloquy below.) Of course you will discard some items from this list as being too learned for your purposes. But you will observe of the others that once you know the meaning ofology, you are likely to know the whole word. Thus from your study ofconchologyyou have mastered, not an individual term, but a tribe.
Inconchologyonly one element,ology, was really dubious at the outset. Let us take a word of which both elements give you pause. Suppose your thought is arrested by the wordeugenics. You perhaps know the word as a whole, but not its components. For by looking at it and thinking about it you decide that its state is married, that it comprises the household of Mr. Eu and his wife, formerly Miss Gen. But you cannot say offhand just what kind of person either Mr. Eu or the erstwhile Miss Gen is likely to prove.
Have you met any of theEu'selsewhere? You think vaguely that you have, but cannot lay claim to any real acquaintance. To the dictionary you accordingly betake yourself. There you find that Mr. Eu is of a family quite respectable but not prone to marriage.Euphony, eupepsia, euphemism, euthanasiaare of his retiring kindred. The meaning of theeublood, so the dictionary informs you, is well. Thegenblood, as you see exemplified in gentle, general, genital, engender, carries with it the idea of begetting, of producing, of birth, or (by extension) of kinship.Eugenics, then, is an alliance of well and begotten (or born).
Your immediate purpose is fulfilled; but you resolve, let us say, to make the acquaintance of more of thegens, whose number you have perceived to be legion. You are duly introduced to the following: genus, generic, genre, gender, genitive, genius, general, Gentile, gentle, gentry, gentleman, genteel, generous, genuine, genial, congeniality, congener, genital, congenital, engender, generation, progeny, progenitor, genesis, genetics, eugenics, pathogenesis, biogenesis, ethnogeny, palingenesis, unregenerate, degenerate, monogeny, indigenous, exogenous, homogeneous, heterogeneous, genealogy, ingenuous, ingenious, ingenue, engine, engineer, hygiene, hydrogen, oxygen, endogen, primogeniture, philoprogeniture, miscegenation. Some of these are professional rather than social; you decide not to leave your card at their doors. Others have assumed a significance somewhat un_gen_-like, though the relationship may be traced if you are not averse to trouble, Thusenginein its superficial aspects seems alien to the idea of born. But it is the child ofingenious(innate, inborn);ingeniousis the inborn power to accomplish, andengineis the result of the application of that power. Whether you care to bother with such subtleties or not, enoughgensare left to make the family one well worth your cultivation.
Thus by studying two words,conchologyandeugenics, you have for the first time placed yourself on an intimate footing with three verbal families—theologies, theeu's,and thegens. Observe that though you studied theologiesapart from theeu'sand thegens, your knowledge—once you have acquired it—cannot be kept pigeonholed, for theologieshave intermarried with both the other families. Hence you on meetingeulogycan exclaim: "How do you do, Mr. Eu? I am honored in making your acquaintance, Mrs. Eu—I was about to call you by your maiden name; for I am a friend of your sister, the Miss Ology who married Mr. Conch. And you too, Mr. Eu—I cannot regard you as a stranger. I have looked in so often on the family of your brother—the Euphony family, I mean. What a beautiful literary household it is! Yet it has been neglected by the world-yea, even by the people who write. Well, the loss is theirs who do the neglecting." Andgenealogyyou can greet with an equal parade of family lore: "Don't trouble to tell me who you are. I am hob and nob with your folks on both sides of the family, and my word for it, the relationship is written all over you. Mr. Gen, I envy you the pride you must feel in the prominence given nowadays to theeugenicshousehold. And it must delight you, Miss Ology-that-was, that connoisseurs are so keenly interested inconchology. How are Grandfather Gen and Grandmother Ology? They were keeping up remarkably the last time I saw them." Do you think words will not respond to cordiality like this? They will work their flattered heads off for you!
EXERCISE - Relationships
1. For each of the following words (a) determine what families are intermarried, (b) ascertain the exact contribution to the household by each family represented, and (c) make as complete a list as possible of cognate words.
Reject Oppose Convent Defer Omit Produce Expel
2. Test the extent of the intermarriages among these words by successively attaching each of the prefixes to each of the main (or key) syllables. (Thus re-ject, re-fer, re-pel, etc.)
In tracing verbal kinships you must be prepared for slight variations in the form of the same key-syllable. Consider these words: wise, wiseacre, wisdom, wizard, witch, wit, unwitting, to wit, outwit, twit, witticism, witness, evidence, providence, invidious, advice, vision, visit, vista, visage, visualize, envisage, invisible, vis-à-vis, visor, revise, supervise, improvise, proviso, provision, view, review, survey, vie, envy, clairvoyance. Perhaps the last six should be disregarded as too exceptional in form to be clearly recognized. And certainly some words, asprudencefromprovidentia, are so metamorphosed that they should be excluded from practical lists of this kind. But even in the words left to us there are fairly marked divergences in appearance. Why? Because the key-syllable has descended to us, not through one language, but through several. As good verbal detectives we should be able to penetrate the consequent disguises; forwis, wiz, wit, vid, vic, andvisall embody the idea of seeing or knowing.
On the other hand, you must take care not to be misled by a superficial
resemblance into thinking two unrelated key-syllables identical. Let us
consider two sets of words. The first, which is related to thetaingroup (see
Each of the key-syllables given below is followed by (1) a list of fairly familiar words that embody it, (2) a list of less familiar words that embody it, (3) several sentences containing blank spaces, into each of which you are ultimately to fit the appropriate word from the first list. (The existence of the two lists will show you that learned words may have commonplace kinfolks.)
First, however, you are to study each word in both lists for (1) its exact meaning, (2) the influence of the key-syllable upon that meaning, (3) any variation of the key-syllable from its ordinary form. (A few words have been introduced to show how varied the forms may be and yet remain recognizable.)
Also, as an aid to your memory, you are to copy each list, underscoring the key-syllable each time you encounter it.
(The lists are practical, not meticulously academic. In many instances they contain words derived, not from a single original, but from cognates. No list is exhaustive.)
Sentences(inflect forms if necessary; for example, use the past tense, participle, or infinitive of a verb instead of its present tense): It was ____ into law. The legislators had been ____ by honest motives, but the popular ____ was immediate. The ____ of the mining company refused to let us proceed with the ____. Nothing could ____ the offense. The father was ____, the son ____. The student handed in his ____ at the ____ time designated. Though ____ enough on land, he could not ____ a ship. The ____ by missing his cue so ____ the manager that his good work thereafter could not ____ the ill impression.
Sentences: He plucked a ____ from the ____. The ____ hair of the ____ was so glossy it seemed ____. He ____ his sword and bore the ____ of the conflict. After drinking so much ____ he saw snakes in his imagination, he staggered off into the woods and met Old ____ in reality.
Sentences: The period was a ____ one. He gave but ____ attention to the ____ of the music. On this ____ an ____ befell him. To the general it was a mere ____ that his ____ were heavy. As a result of this ____ he was accused of trying to ____ them.
Sentences: He ____ the existence of a ____ that justified such ____. The delegate ____ his authority when he consented to ____ the territory. He would not ____ from his position or ____ for mercy. At ____ the pupils ____ in forming a ____. His ____ was suffering from an ____ at the time the Southern states ____. His agony ____ only with his ____.
Sentences: Though she ____ the officers, she did not prevent the ____ of the fugitive. He ____ that the man was very ____. The mayor skilfully ____ the alderman and proposed that ____ bonds be issued. The sight of the money ____ him and he quickly gave me a ____. He uttered musty ____, which were not always given a friendly ____. From the ____ of the movement he plotted to ____ the leadership in it. The ____ took part in the ____, but failed to ____ any of the game.
Sentences: He could not ____ whether to make the ____ with a ____ or a pair of ____. There was ____ evidence that he was the ____. In a few ____ sentences he explained why his friend could never have been a ____. The prim old lady had very ____ manners of speech.
Sentences: He ____ in the request that payment be made in ____. The ____ was so strong that the ____ by steamer had to be abandoned. In the ____ of his remarks he had ____ to various shifts and evasions. By his ____ with one faction, though it was but ____, he ____ the enmity of the other. It was a disgraceful ____.
Sentences: The man ____ to drugs was ____ for ____ treatment of his wife, and the ____ were that the ____ would be against him. He said, on the contrary, that his character would be ____. The attorney for the defense ____ that the judge would rule that the matter did not lie within his ____. This would leave the prosecution in a ____. But the prosecution issued a strong ____ of this theory, and said ____ were favorable for proving the man guilty.
Sentences: We ____ the company to ____ the fare. They ____ ten cents from the wages of each man, an average ____ of four per cent. They ____ us when they say we have wilfully lessened ____. The highwaymen ____ the ____. If you have an ____, you can ____ an idea in other words.
Sentences: That ____ fellow came on a special ____ to tell us we had made an ____. And his statement was ____ at that!
Sentences: The opposing ____ by incredible ____ had found it ____ to take over the ____ of the goods. By this ____ it ____ what goodwill the owner of the ____ had for it, but it won the ____ of the public. The owner, though seemingly ____ at first, soon ____ a scheme to make the success of the enterprise more ____. By an ____ lowering of the price of his own goods and by ____ that those of his rivals were ____, he hoped to ____ the public mind with unjust suspicions. But all this did not ____. In truth the ____ of it was the hastening of his own ____ and a ____ heightening of the public ____ toward his rivals. His directors, seeing that his policy had failed to ____ itself, met in his ____ and urged him to take a more ____ attitude.
Sentences: With real ____ to their wishes he ____ to ____ the goods by ____. The ____ of the sporting writers was that the ____ was ____ to his duties. After ____ apart, the farmers ____ the use of their most ____ acres for this experiment. To be mortal is to ____.
Sentences: He was ____ that the man was an ____. He had ____ in a ____ rascal. He had been ____ for years and had proved his ____. Though we are somewhat ____ in making it, you may be sure it is a ____ offer. His attitude toward his father is one of gross ____.
Sentences: His failure to ____ from college made him feel ____ especially as his cronies all received their ____. The engine lost speed ____ as it climbed the long ____. I ____ to remark that some members of ____ are more ____ than ____.
Sentences: The ____ of the island ____ an ____ to live without permanent ____. It was his ____ to glance first at the ____ side of his ledger, as he was much worried about his ____. Most women favor ____.
Sentences: Though he lived in a ____ climate, he was ____. The food was ____, the man ____ and hearty. He did not think of a ____ as ____. We had ____ in our garden almost until ____. He wept at hearing the ____ name of his mother. For a ____ month the wound refused to ____.
Sentences: The ____ was broken. It was his ____ shipment of ____ goods, and they suffered a good deal in ____. His ____ was to be regarded as a man of great ____. His ____ was less effective than his entrance.
Sentences: With ____ mien he watched the waves lash the ____. His scheme was ____ to much ridicule and then ____, and he himself was ____ from the room. From a pipe that ____ from the corner of the building came a ____ of dirty water. He could only ____ what their ____ was. The ____ brought immediate relief.
Sentences: The eminent ____ said the matter did not lie within his ____. Though ____ in most matters, he admitted to ____ in this. The ____ said he would comment in an unofficial rather than a ____ way. She could not ____ her suspicions. He was not only ____ himself, but devoted to ____.
Sentences: A ____ force had entered their ____ relationships. At this ____ he gave the ____ that disturbances should cease. The tramp halted at the ____ to eat his lunch and ____ his knapsack.
Sentences: They ____ their loyalty. He ____ them to remember their duty as ____. The ____ held the ____ guilty of ____.
Sentences: In ____ he listened to the ____ and took an occasional note in an ____ hand. She ____ an ____ costume. They ____ the only man who was ____. He did not ____ to take up the ____. He was ____ rather than ____. Her mind was too ____ to ____ all the circumstances.
Sentences: It was a pleasure that knew no ____. To belong to the ____ carries ____. In studying anatomy you learn all about ____ and ____. The two nations were in ____. We may be sure of their ____. We will take a ____ upon your property. As a ____ officer he was ____ for the equipment which our ____ reported lost.
Sentences: The ____ author spoke very ____. He gave us a ____ explanation of a very abstruse subject. The material was ____ even to the rays of the feeblest of the heavenly ____. He ____ his theory by the following anecdote. This deed added ____ to his fame.
Sentences: The superior court issued a writ of ____. The case was ____ to the lower court. His instructions were not discretionary, but ____. At your ____ the ____ has been issued. The ____ promptly ____ the orders of the offending officer.
Sentences: The ____ could only ____ why so many of his people had not attended ____. The ____ contained a ____ that no one would be held ____. The request was ____ that he would please ____. He ____ to his ____ without a protest. A ____ was appointed to investigate whether the territory should be granted ____ as a state. His ____ was such as to ____ him to tarry if he chose.
Sentences: The next ____ was his, and his ____ was profound. The ____ of the ____ from across the alley enabled the ____ to surge in a threatening ____ toward the rear of the building. At this ____ the ____ was great. The officer whose ____ had seemed so ____ was now enabled to ____ strong forces for the campaign. The ____ began a slow ____ forward. His exact ____ was not known.
Sentences: With an ____ countenance he spoke of the ____ of our Lord. The ____ of the story moved her to ____. He allowed his ____ no further expression than through that one ____ shrug. With a ____ smile he settled back into dull ____. His plea was ____.
Sentences: A ____ suggested that we could ____ matters by each mounting a ____. The loss of the ____ was a serious ____ to the rider of the bicycle. The ____ had me place my foot on an artist's ____. The purpose of this nautical ____ was to capture a live ____. The ____ of having so large a ____ for the statue had not occurred to us. A ____ scarcely recognizable as human occupied my ____.
Sentences: After the ____ of the attack the mists along the lowlands were ____. His manner was ____, even ____. The revolutions of the ____ soon ____ the boatmen to shove farther off. After his ____ he ____ for a rehearing of his case. The act was ____, but he felt an ____ toward it anyhow.
Sentences: The veterans felt great ____ while action regarding their ____ was ____. We shall ____ you. An arm of it stood in a position ____ to the ____ mass. He knew that fate was ____, and he watched the ____ swing back and forth slowly. He gave a ____ argument in favor of the ____ of the money. There is ____, that's for thoughts. Let us ____ the question whether the ____ is needful. She was a woman of rare social ____. Penny-wise, ____ foolish.
Sentences: A great ____ force keeps the planets circling about the sun. The complaints of a ____ woman led him to ____ for the prize. The sexual ____ leads men to ____ the race. The ____ was pronounced upon ____ authority to be ill drawn up. With ____ wrath he ____ the assertion. The ____ became noticeably weaker.
Sentences: We ____ the thief's ____ with questions. He ____ that others were ____ with him. The king ____ to the ____ that such ____ must never be ____ in the realm thereafter. It would be a ____ matter to ____ the order. The manager had ____ confidence in his ____. She admired his courage in this ____, perceived his ____ in the crime, and deplored his participation in the ____. They ____ him for an ____ promise that mercy would be shown. She was in a ____, for she had not had time to arrange her hair in its usual broad ____. He was ____ of body. The ____ was refused.
Sentences: The ____ said he would ____ the manner in which the cashier had made away with the ____. The true ____ of the ____ was now known, yet he retained his ____. For you to make yourself an ____ of these wild theories is an ____ on your friends. The closing hour at the ____ is ____ thirty minutes on account of the rush of Christmas mail. He was ____ that his ____ had ____ the letter. One of the ____ elements in his ____ was gloom.
Sentences: He had no ____ as to what the ____ would ____. His ____ was so great that he could scarcely ____ the fact that the ____ was his. The judge ____ them of the likelihood that they would be ____.
Sentences: The young ____ was placed on ____. The will was brought into the ____ court. It is ____ that such ____ as his will win the ____ of evil-doers.
Sentences: The volcano was in ____. Though ____, he remained ____. The ____ of the barbarians ____ these reforms. The organization was ____ after having already been put to ____. The ____ he had chosen led to a ____ in their relationships. It was ____ work.
Sentences: The ____ was so small that he scarcely noticed he ____ it. The officer was ____ in making the ____ upon every tax-payer fair. During the ____ Congress remained in ____. He ____ in the city and has a ____ occupation. When the officer who ____ is firm, such commotions will quickly ____. He ____ the disgraced commander.
Sentences: On the ____ day they continued the ____. In the ____ chapter of the ____ the heroine is ____. The ____ of events is hard to follow. The ____ was that her brother began to ____ her ____. The district attorney ____ six ____ offenders, but thought it useless to bring any ____ offender to trial. It was a ____ occasion.
Sentences: The ____ had on his face a ____ made by a ____ thrown at him. In that ____ an old custom for every one to ____ in the ____ the sheep. There was, instead of the usual ____, a cliff that rose from the sea. All ____ as the freshman was, he had hardly a ____ of his former dignity. The ____ was very one-sided. A ____ of mist was about him.
Sentences: He ____ his approval of the ____. The disturbance caused by his ____ was ____. He ____ no reason for ____ those particular men. As he could not write his own ____, I ____ the document for him. It was a ____ defeat.
Sentences: On account of his ____ course he had given his parents many a problem to ____. He ____ the powder in a cupful of water and ____ to give it to the patient. This ____ of the difficulty did not win the ____ approval of his employer. The obstacles were many, but he was ____.
Sentences: His ____ was conducted in such a manner as to show the utmost ____. In ____ she noticed an odor of ____. From his ____ you would have taken him to be a ____ of wild animal. The ____ was better than we had ____ it to be. Though you have no ____ fondness for children, you will enjoy the ____ of them playing together. The ____ did not ____ what underhand tactics some of the players were resorting to. In ____ of all this, we made a ____ showing. The ____ is one you cannot ____. ____ this ____ of matters, she did not ____ the cause of her ____, but let him ____ what it might be.
Sentences: At the ____ of a few days it ____ that a ____ had actually been formed. The ____ of the division was such that every man ____ to meet the enemy forthwith. He was a man of much ____ and marked powers of ____. As he lay there, he merely ____ and ____; he had no thought whatsoever of things ____.