The Grammar of English Grammars Part 257

1. WHO, ho, hue, wha, hwa, hua, wua, qua, quha;--WHOSE, who's, whos, whois, whoise, wheas, quhois, quhais, quhase, hwaes;--WHOM, whome, quham, quhum, quhome, hwom, hwam, hwaem, hwaene, hwone.

2. WHICH, whiche, whyche, whilch, wych, quilch, quilk, quhilk, hwilc, hwylc, hwelc, whilk, huilic, hvilc. For the Anglo-Saxon forms, Dr.

Bosworth's Dictionary gives "_hwilc, hwylc_, and _hwelc_;" but Professor Fowler's E. Grammar makes them "_huilic_ and _hvilc_."--See p. 240.

_Whilk_, or _quhilk_, is a Scottish form.

3. WHAT, hwat, hwet, quhat, hwaet. This p.r.o.noun, whether relative or interrogative, is regarded by Bosworth and others as a neuter derivative from the masculine or femine [sic--KTH] _hwa_, who. It may have been thence derived, but, in modern English, it is not always of the neuter gender. See the last note on page 312.

4. THAT, Anglo-Saxon Thaet. Tooke's notion of the derivation of this word is noticed above in the section on Articles. There is no certainty of its truth; and our lexicographers make no allusion to it. W. Allen reaffirms it. See his _Gram._, p. 54.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--In the Well-Wishers' Grammar, (p. 39,) as also in L. Murray's and some others, the p.r.o.noun _Which_ is very strangely and erroneously represented as being always "of the _neuter_ gender." (See what is said of this word in the Introduction, Chap. ix, -- 32.) Whereas it is the relative most generally applied to _brute animals_, and, in our common version of the Bible, its application to _persons_ is peculiarly frequent. Fowler says, "In its origin it is a Compound."--_E. Gram._, p. 240. Taking its first Anglo-Saxon form to be "_Huilic_," he thinks it traceable to "_hwa_, who," or its ablative "_hwi_," and "_lie_, like."--_Ib._ If this is right, the neuter sense is not its primitive import, or any part of it.

OBS. 2.--From its various uses, the word _That_ is called sometimes a p.r.o.noun, sometimes an adjective, and sometimes a conjunction; but, in respect to derivation, it is, doubtless, one and the same. As a relative p.r.o.noun, it is of either number, and has no plural form different from the singular; as, "Blessed is the _man that_ heareth me."--_Prov._, viii, 34.

"Blessed are _they that_ mourn."--_Matt._, v, 4. As an adjective, it is said by Tooke to have been formerly "applied indifferently to plural nouns and to singular; as, 'Into _that_ holy orders.'--_Dr. Martin_. 'At _that_ dayes.'--_Id. 'That_ euyll aungels the denilles.'--_Sir Tho. More_. 'This pleasure undoubtedly farre excelleth all _that_ pleasures that in this life maie be obteined.'--_Id_."--_Diversions of Purley_, Vol. ii, pp. 47 and 48.

The introduction of the plural form _those_, must have rendered this usage bad English.

SECTION V.--DERIVATION OF VERBS.

In English, Verbs are derived from nouns, from adjectives, or from verbs.

I. Verbs are derived from _Nouns_ in the following different ways:--

1. By the adding of _ize, ise, en_, or _ate_: as, _author, authorize; critic, criticise; length, lengthen; origin, originate_. The termination _ize_ is of Greek origin, and _ise_ is most probably of French: the former is generally preferable in forming English derivatives; but both are sometimes to be used, and they should be applied according to Rule 13th for Spelling.

2. Some few verbs are derived from nouns by the changing of a sharp or hard consonant to a flat or soft one, or by the adding of a mute _e_, to soften a hard sound: as, _advice, advise; price, prize; bath, bathe; cloth, clothe; breath, breathe; wreath, wreathe; sheath, sheathe; gra.s.s, graze_.

II. Verbs are derived from _Adjectives_ in the following different ways:--

1. By the adding of _ize_ or _en_: as _legal, legalize; immortal, immortalize; civil, civilize; human, humanize; familiar, familiarize; particular, particularize; deaf, deafen; stiff, stiffen; rough, roughen; deep, deepen; weak, weaken_.

2. Many adjectives become verbs by being merely used and inflected as verbs: as, _warm_, to _warm_, he _warms; dry_, to _dry_, he _dries; dull_, to _dull_, he _dulls; slack_, to _slack_, he _slacks; forward_, to _forward_, he _forwards_.

III. Verbs are derived from _Verbs_ in the following modes, or ways:--

1. By the prefixing of _dis_ or _un_ to reverse the meaning: as, _please, displease; qualify, disqualify; organize, disorganize; fasten, unfasten; muzzle, unmuzzle; nerve, unnerve_.

2. By the prefixing of _a, be, for, fore, mis, over, out, under, up_, or _with_: as, _rise, arise; sprinkle, besprinkle; bid, forbid; see, foresee; take, mistake; look, overlook; run, outrun; go, undergo; hold, uphold; draw, withdraw_.

SECTION VI.--DERIVATION OF PARTICIPLES.

All _English_ Participles are derived from _English_ verbs, in the manner explained in Chapter 7th, under the general head of Etymology; and when foreign participles are introduced into our language, they are not participles with us, but belong to some other cla.s.s of words, or part of speech.

SECTION VII.--DERIVATION OF ADVERBS.

1. In _English_, many Adverbs are derived from adjectives by the addition of _ly_: which is an abbreviation for _like_, and which, though the addition of it to a noun forms an adjective, is the most distinctive as well as the most common termination of our adverbs: as, _candid, candidly; sordid, sordidly; presumptuous, presumptuously_. Most adverbs of manner are thus formed.

2. Many adverbs are compounds formed from two or more English words; as, _herein, thereby, to-day, always, already, elsewhere, sometimes, wherewithal_. The formation and the meaning of these are, in general, sufficiently obvious.

3. About seventy adverbs are formed by means of the prefix, or inseparable preposition, _a_; as, _Abreast, abroach, abroad, across, afar, afield, ago, agog, aland, along, amiss, atilt_.

4. _Needs_, as an adverb, is a contraction of _need is; prithee_, or _pr'ythee_, of _I pray thee; alone_, of _all one; only_, of _one-like; anon_, of the Saxon _an on_; i.e., _in one_ [instant]; _never_, of _ne ever_; i.e., _not_ ever. Prof. Gibbs, in Fowler's Grammar, makes _needs_ "the Genitive case of the noun _need_."--P. 311.

5. _Very_ is from the French _veray_, or _vrai_, true; and this, probably, from the Latin _verus. Rather_ appears to be the regular comparative of the ancient _rath_, soon, quickly, willingly; which comes from the _Anglo-Saxon "Rathe_, or _Hrathe_, of one's own accord."--_Bosworth_. But the parent language had also "_Hrathre_, to a mind."--_Id._ That is, to _one's_ mind, or, perhaps, _more willingly_.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--Many of our most common adverbs are of Anglo-Saxon derivation, being plainly traceable to certain very old forms, of the same import, which the etymologist regards but as the same words differently spelled: as, _All_, eall, eal, or aell; _Almost_, ealmaest, or aelmaest; _Also_, ealswa, or aelswa; _Else_, elles; _Elsewhere_, elleshwaer; _Enough_, genog, or genoh; _Even_, euen, efen, or aefen; _Ever_, euer, aefer, or aefre; _Downward_, duneweard; _Forward_, forweard, or foreweard; _Homeward_, hamweard; _Homewards_, hamweardes; _How_, hu; _Little_, lytel; _Less_, laes; _Least_, laest; _No_, na; _Not_, noht, or nocht; _Out_, ut, or ute; _So_, swa; _Still_, stille, or stylle; _Then_, thenne; _There_, ther, thar, thaer; _Thither_, thider, or thyder; _Thus_, thuss, or thus; _Together_, togaedere, or togaedre; _Too_, to; _When_, hwenne, or hwaenne; _Where_, hwaer; _Whither_, hwider, hwyder, or hwyther; _Yea_, ia, gea, or gee; _Yes_, gese, gise, or gyse.

OBS. 2.--According to Horne Tooke, "_Still_ and _Else_ are the imperatives _Stell_ and _Ales_ of their respective verbs _Stellan_, to put, and _Alesan_, to dismiss."--_Diversions_, Vol. i, p. 111. He afterwards repeats the doctrine thus: "_Still_ is only the imperative _Stell_ or _Steall_, of _Stellan_ or _Steallian_, ponere."--_Ib._, p. 146. "This word _Else_, formerly written _alles, alys, alyse, elles, ellus, ellis, ells, els_, and now _else_; is, as I have said, no other than _Ales_ or _Alys_, the imperative of _Alesan_ or _Alysan_, dimittere."--_Ib._, p. 148. These ulterior and remote etymologies are perhaps too conjectural.

SECTION VIII.--DERIVATION OF CONJUNCTIONS.

The _English_ Conjunctions are mostly of Anglo-Saxon origin. The best etymological vocabularies of our language give us, for the most part, the same words in Anglo-Saxon characters; but Horne Tooke, in his _Diversions of Purley_, (a learned and curious work which the advanced student may peruse with advantage,) traces, or professes to trace, these and many other English particles, to _Saxon verbs_ or _participles_. The following derivations, so far as they partake of such speculations, are offered princ.i.p.ally on his authority:--

1. ALTHOUGH, signifying _admit, allow_, is from _all_ and _though_; the latter being supposed the imperative of Thafian or Thafigan, _to allow, to concede, to yield_.

2. AN, an obsolete or antiquated conjunction, signifying _if_, or _grant_, is the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon verb Anan or Unan, _to grant, to give_.

3. AND, [Saxon, And,] _add_, is said by Tooke to come from "An-ad, the imperative of Ananad, _Dare congeriem_."--_D. of P._, Vol. i, p. 111. That is, "_To give the heap_." The truth of this, if unapparent, I must leave so.

4. AS, according to Dr. Johnson, is from the Teutonic _als_; but Tooke says that _als_ itself is a contraction for _all_ and the original particle _es_ or _as_, meaning _it, that_, or _which_.

5. BECAUSE, from _be_ and _cause_, means _by cause_; the _be_ being written for _by_.

6. BOTH, _the two_, is from the p.r.o.nominal adjective _both_; which, according to Dr. Alexander Murray, is a contraction of the Visigothic _Bagoth_, signifying _doubled_. The Anglo-Saxons wrote for it _butu, butwu, buta_, and _batwa_; i. e., _ba_, both, _twa_, two.

7. BUT,--(in Saxon, _bute, butan, buton_, or _butun_--) meaning _except, yet, now, only, else than, that not_, or _on the contrary_,--is referred by Tooke and some others, to two roots,--each of them but a conjectural etymon for it. "BUT, implying _addition_," say they, "is from Bot, the imperative of Botan, _to boot, to add_; BUT, denoting _exception_, is from Be-utan, the imperative of Beon-utan, _to be out_."--See _D. of P._, Vol. i, pp. 111 and 155.

8. EITHER, _one of the two_, like the p.r.o.nominal adjective EITHER, is from the Anglo-Saxon aether, or Egther, a word of the same uses, and the same import.

9. EKE, _also_, (now nearly obsolete,) is from "Eac, the imperative of Eacan, _to add_."

10. EVEN, whether a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a conjunction, appears to come from the same source, the Anglo-Saxon word Efen or aefen.

11. EXCEPT, which, when used as a conjunction, means _unless_, is the imperative, or (according to Dr. Johnson) an ancient perfect participle, of the verb _to except_.

12. FOR, _because_, is from the Saxon preposition _For_; which, to express this meaning, our ancestors combined with something else, reducing to one word some such phrase as, _For that, For this, For this that_; as, "Fortha, Fortham, Forthan, Forthamthe, Forthan the."--See _Bosworth's Dict._