lucky Thirteenth Century, that we had to import from abroad even our terminations, if we wanted to frame new English nouns and adjectives. We were in process of time to make strange compounds like godd-ess, forbear-ance, odd-ity, nigg-ard, upheav-al, starv-ation, trust-ee, fulfil-ment, latch-et, wharf-inger, king-let, fish-ery, tru-ism, love-able, whims-ical, talk-ative, slumbr-ous.[1] What a falling off is here! what a lame ending for a Teutonic root!
Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne.
We were also to forget the good Old English adjectival isc or ish, and to use foreign endings for proper names like Alger-ine, Gael-ic, Syri-ac, Chin-ese, Wykeham-ist, Wesley-an, Irving-ite, Dant-esque.[2] Cromwell in his despatches talks of the Lincoln-eers.
By-and-by French prefixes drove out their English brethren, even when the root of the word was English; we are now doomed to write embolden and enlighten, and to replace the old edniwian by renew. Mistrust has been almost wholly driven out by distrust. We have happily two or three Teutonic endings still in use, when we coin new adjectives and nouns; one of these is ness. It had English rivals in full vigour at the end of the Fourteenth
- ↑ Bowyer, in Robert of Gloucester, may descend from some overlooked English bog-er, though ier is a French ending; there may be a confusion between the two endings. The worst compound I ever met with was mob-ocracy. I half fear to point it out, lest the penny-a-liners should seize upon it as a precious jewel. What a difference does the Irish ending een make when added to squire!
- ↑ In this last word the old Teutonic ending isc has gone from Germany to Italy, then to France, and at last to England.
