[1.] ROOTS; INFLUENCE OF IMITATION ON LANGUAGE.—The question of the origin of language is an extremely interesting one, which has been long and keenly discussed. But it is one on which the opinions of the learned are not agreed, and we cannot dwell upon it here. There is an established fact, however, which is of the highest interest and importance: most of the words of the great family of Indo-European languages can be traced to a few hundred roots; and these roots are common to the whole family. It is the greatest achievement of philological science to have clearly established this fact. How these roots have originated, is a more uncertain inquiry: in fact, is just the question of the origin of language presented in another form. It is the theory of some that words have arisen from the imitation of natural sounds; the names of animals, for instance, being imitations of the sounds they utter. Though this has been ridiculed under the nickname of the bow-wow theory, there seems to be some truth in it: at anyrate no one will deny that in the English, as in all other languages, a great many words exist which are imitative of natural sounds. Among such words the following may be mentioned: Babble, boom, chatter, chirp, clang, clatter, clink, crash, croak, cuckoo, fizz, giggle, gurgle, hiss, howl, hum, hush, murmur, quack, scream, shriek, squeal, thud, thump, thwack, twang, whack, wheeze, whirr, whizz.
Of course these words were not all originally English. Clang and murmur, for instance, are Latin words; but they also are of imitative origin.
[2.] HYBRIDS.—A hybrid is a word composed of a mixture of foreign and native elements. Sometimes an English word has a Latin ending; sometimes a Latin word has an English ending. All such words are called hybrids. One of the most interesting of the earliest hybrids in English was the word bondage, which is said to have been introduced in the year 1303. The word bond comes to us from the Icelandic or Norwegian word bondi, which means farmer or tiller of the soil. Farmers in Norway are to this day called bonders. The suffix age is Latin; but it has come to us through Norman-French. The full Latin ending is atĭcum, which, in France, in the course of generations, was compressed into age. There are other hybrids with this ending, such as tillage (which has pushed out the pure English tilth), cartage, stowage, and others.—The ending able, which comes to us from Latin, combines very easily with words which are purely English. Thus we have lovable, biddable, laughable, breakable, and others.—The Latin ending osus means full of. Thus, vinum is wine, and vinosus is full of wine. This ōsus becomes in English ous; and we find this Latin suffix added to words which are purely English. Thus we have wondrous from wonder, and ravenous from raven. We have also righteous, which was originally rightwîs, and the change into righteous was a corruption of the spelling.—Dis is a Latin prefix, and it is added to English words. Thus we have dislike and disown. We have also dishearten, an old word, in which the prefix dis contradicts the suffix en (which means to put or make).—Re, another Latin prefix, unites with purely English words, and we find renew, reopen, rebuild, reclothe, and others.—French words with English prefixes are also found. Thus we have besiege; the word siege, a seat, being French. To besiege means to take a seat in front of a town, with your mind made up not to go till you have taken it.—Latin words with English endings are found in useful, useless, usefulness, uselessness, and others. English words with Latin or French endings are not uncommon. Thus we have goddess, forbearance, hindrance, oddity, and others. In old-fashioned English, and even in Wordsworth, who died in 1850, we find such curious formations as oddments, needments, eggments (eggings on or incitements), and a few others.
[3.] WORDS DISGUISED IN FORM OR IN MEANING.
Abase, to bring or make low. From a Low Latin word bassus, low.
Abate, to beat down. Low Lat. abbattĕre.
Adder, O. E. nadder. The n has dropped from the noun, owing to the mistaken notion that it belonged to the article. Compare umpire for numpire (non par—that is, not equal), orange for norange (Pers. náranj), apron for napron. The dropping of the n is probably owing to the prefixing of an and mine.
Adrift, on or in the drift. From the verb drive. Compare give, gift; shrive, shrift.
Alligator is Spanish el lagarto, the lizard (par excellence), from Lat. lacerta, a lizard.
Aloft, on-loft, in the lift (air). Northern Eng. or ‘Scotch’ lift, the air.