[39.] Latin of the Fourth Period.—(iii) What happened in the case of the Norman-French contribution, happened also in this. The language became saturated with these new Latin words, until it became satiated, then, as it were, disgusted, and would take no more. Hundreds of

“Long-tailed words in osity and ation”

crowded into the English language; but many of them were doomed to speedy expulsion. Thus words like discerptibility, supervacaneousness, septentrionality, ludibundness (love of sport), came in in crowds. The verb intenerate tried to turn out soften; and deturpate to take the place of defile. But good writers, like Bacon and Raleigh, took care to avoid the use of such terms, and to employ only those Latin words which gave them the power to indicate a new idea—a new meaning or a new shade

of meaning. And when we come to the eighteenth century, we find that a writer like Addison would have shuddered at the very mention of such “inkhorn terms.”

[40.] Eye-Latin and Ear-Latin.—(i) One slight influence produced by this spread of devotion to classical Latin—to the Latin of Cicero and Livy, of Horace and Virgil—was to alter the spelling of French words. We had already received—through the ear—the French words assaute, aventure, defaut, dette, vitaille, and others. But when our scholars became accustomed to the book-form of these words in Latin books, they gradually altered them—for the eye and ear—into assault, adventure, default, debt, and victuals. They went further. A large number of Latin words that already existed in the language in their Norman-French form (for we must not forget that French is Latin “with the ends bitten off”—changed by being spoken peculiarly and heard imperfectly) were reintroduced in their original Latin form. Thus we had caitiff from the Normans; but we reintroduced it in the shape of captive, which comes almost unaltered from the Latin captivum. Feat we had from the Normans; but the Latin factum, which provided the word, presented us with a second form of it in the word fact. Such words might be called Ear-Latin and Eye-Latin; Mouth-Latin and Book-Latin; Spoken Latin and Written Latin; or Latin at second-hand and Latin at first-hand.

[41.] Eye-Latin and Ear-Latin.—(ii) This coming in of the same word by two different doors—by the Eye and by the Ear—has given rise to the phenomenon of Doublets. The following is a list of Latin Doublets; and it will be noticed that Latin1 stands for Latin at first-hand—from books; and Latin2 for Latin at second-hand—through the Norman-French.

Latin Doublets or Duplicates.
Latin. Latin1. Latin2.
AntecessoremAntecessorAncestor.
BenedictionemBenedictionBenison.
Cadentia (Low Lat. noun)CadenceChance.
CaptivumCaptiveCaitiff.
ConceptionemConceptionConceit.
ConsuetudinemConsuetudeCustom.
Costume.
CophinumCoffinCoffer.
Corpus (a body)CorpseCorps.
Debitum (something owed)DebitDebt.
Defectum (something wanting)DefectDefeat.
DilatāreDilateDelay.
ExemplumExampleSample.
Fabrĭca (a workshop)FabricForge.
FactionemFactionFashion.
FactumFactFeat.
FidelitatemFidelityFealty.
FragilemFragileFrail.
Gentīlis (belonging to a gens or family)GentileGentle.
HistoriaHistoryStory.
HospitaleHospitalHotel.
LectionemLectionLesson.
LegalemLegalLoyal.
MagisterMasterMr.
Majorem (greater)MajorMayor.
MaledictionemMaledictionMalison.
MonetaMintMoney.
NutrimentumNutrimentNourishment.
OrationemOrationOrison (a prayer).
Paganum (a dweller in a pagus or country district)PaganPayne (a proper name).
Particulam (a little part)ParticleParcel.
PauperemPauperPoor.
PenitentiamPenitencePenance.
PersecutumPersecutePursue.
Potionem (a draught)PotionPoison.
PungentemPungentPoignant.
QuietumQuietCoy.
RadiusRadiusRay.
RegālemRegalRoyal.
RespectumRespectRespite.
SecurumSecureSure.
SenioremSeniorSir.
SeparatumSeparateSever.
SpeciesSpeciesSpice.
StatumStateEstate.
TractumTractTrait.
TraditionemTraditionTreason.
ZelosumZealousJealous.

[42.] Remarks on the above Table.—The word benison, a blessing, may be contrasted with its opposite, malison, a curse.—Cadence is the falling of sounds; chance the befalling of events.—A caitiff was at first a captive—then a person who made no proper defence, but allowed himself to be taken captive.—A corps is a body of troops.—The word sample is found, in older English, in the form of ensample.—A feat of arms is a deed or fact of arms, par excellence.—To understand how fragile became frail, we must pronounce the g hard, and notice how the hard guttural falls easily away—as in our own native words flail and hail, which formerly contained a hard g.—A major is a greater captain; a mayor is a greater magistrate.—A magister means a bigger man—as opposed to a minister (from minus), a smaller man.—Moneta was the name given to a stamped coin, because these coins were first struck in the temple of Juno Moneta, Juno the Adviser or the Warner. (From the same root—mon—come monition, admonition; monitor; admonish.)—Shakespeare uses the word orison freely for prayer, as in the address of Hamlet to Ophelia, where he says, “Nymph, in thy orisons, be all my sins remembered!”—Poor comes to us from an Old French word poure; the newer French is pauvre.—To understand the vanishing of the g sound in poignant, we must remember that the Romans sounded it always hard.—Sever we get through separate, because p and v are both labials, and therefore easily interchangeable.—Treason—with its s instead of ti—may be compared with benison, malison, orison, poison, and reason.

[43.] Conclusions from the above Table.—If we examine the table on page 231 with care, we shall come to several undeniable conclusions. (i) First, the words which come to us direct from Latin are found more in books than in everyday speech. (ii) Secondly, they are longer. The reason is that the words that have come through French have been worn down by the careless pronunciation of many generations—by that desire for ease in the pronouncing of words which characterises all languages, and have at last been compelled to take that form which was least difficult to pronounce. (iii) Thirdly, the two