APPENDIX I
Elementary Hints on Etymology
(1) In borrowed words, especially when the borrowing language, as English, does not deal largely in sounding terminations, it is a common practice to let the termination drop, either altogether or partly, and leave only the simple root, as from λαμπάδα, lamp; from δημοκρατία, democracy; from κακοφωνία, cacophony, and other such feminines, as theology, philology, where the α is dropped, and the accent transferred to the antepenultimate after the favourite English fashion, while the German, more faithful to the Greek, preserves the accented ι, and marks the presence of the α by an e, as in Theologié, Philologié.
(2) As the Greek element in the English language often comes to us not directly from the Greek, but indirectly through the Latin of the Middle Ages, it sometimes happens that we find a pure Greek word with a Latin termination attached to it naturalised in English, as in cathédral, from καθέδρα, and in ephemeral, from ἐφήμερος. In this example the termination al, so common in Latin, takes the place of the Greek ος, with the same adjectival force; but in not a few cases, as optical, ethical, clinical, political, the al is an unmeaning superfluity, as the adjectival character of the word is already fixed by the Greek termination κος, as in κλινικός from κλίνη. In verbs the termination ate is pure Latin, but appears sometimes barbarously appended to a pure Greek verb, as homologate, from ὁμολογῶ.
(3) It is a general rule in etymology that cognate letters, that is, letters pronounced by the same organs, or a similar modification of the vocal organs, easily pass into one another; thus σ and τ being both dental, τ a pure dental, and σ a sibilant dental, and δ being only the blunt form of τ, these three letters pass into one another, as in Attic πράττω for πράσσω, and ῥόδον, English rose. So in German das for English that. In like manner, λ and ρ being both liquids, λείριον becomes lily, and the Latin Tibur becomes the Italian Tivoli, by the interchange of the labials and of the liquids.
(4) The termination s in the names of many of the sciences, as optics, acoustics, mechanics, is simply the sign of the plural in English, put for ά the neuter plural in Greek, as in τὰ πολιτικά, things belonging to the state; τὰ ὀπτικά, things belonging to vision, which, however, the Greeks often express by ἡ ὀπτική in the nominative singular feminine, with τέχνη, art, or θεωρία, theory, understood.
(5) The termination ise or ize, so common in English, generally though not always with an active signification, as in advertise, solemnise, is the ίζω of Greek, as in σοφίζω, I make wise, with σοφίζομαι, in the middle voice, I profess myself wise. The word σοφιστής from this verb, in English sophist, is the person who makes this profession, as in baptist, theorist, atheist, and other pure Greek words for an agent, with only the loss of the termination ής; sometimes in a hybrid way ist is added to a Latin root, as in deist, etymologically but not colloquially identical with theist.
(6) Sometimes not only is the terminational syllable cut off, but the initial also, either wholly or in part; so ἐπίσκοπος, with the change of π into the kindred labial β, becomes bishop.
(7) When two consonants of different kinship come together, one of them, specially that not belonging to the root, disappears, as from λάπτω, lap; from τύπτω, τύπος, type.
(8) The aspirate h, in Greek spiritus asper, has a close affinity with the sibilant s; so for ἕξ we have in Latin sex, in English six; ὗς for sow; ἕδος, sedes, seat.