A closely similar case is the plural ending -er. The consonant originally was s, as seen, for instance, in the Gr. and Lat. nom. genos, genus, gen. Gr. gene(s)os, genous, Lat. generis for older genesis. In Gothonic languages s, in accordance with a regular sound shift in this case, became r (through z) whenever it was retained, but in the nom. sg. it was dropped, and thus we have in OE. sg. lamb, lambe, lambes, but in the pl. lambru, lambrum, lambra. In English only few words show traces of this flexion, thus OE. cild, pl. cildru, ME. child, childer, whence, with an added -en, our modern children. But in German the class had much more vitality, and we have not only words belonging to it of old, like lamm, pl. lämmer, rind, rinder, but also gradually more and more words which originally belonged to other classes, but adopted this ending after it had become a real sign of the plural number, thus wörter, bücher.
There is one trait that should be noticed as highly characteristic of these instances of secretion, that is, that the occurrence of the endings originating in this way seems from the first regulated by the purest accident, seen from the point of view of the speakers: they are found in some words, but not in others, whereas the endings treated of under the heading Coalescence are added much more uniformly to the whole of the vocabulary. But as a similarly irregular or arbitrary distribution is met with in the case of nearly all flexional endings in the oldest stages of languages belonging to our family of speech, the probability is that most of those endings which it is impossible for us to trace back to their first beginnings have originated through secretion or similar processes, rather than through coalescence of independent words or roots.
XIX.—§ 14. Extension of Suffixes.
A special subdivision of secretion comprises those cases in which a suffix takes over some sound or sounds from words to which it was added. Clear instances are found in French, where in consequence of the mutescence of a final consonant some suffixes to the popular instinct must seem to begin with a consonant, though originally this did not belong to the suffix. Thus laitier, at first formed from lait + ier, now came to be apprehended as = lai(t) + tier, and cabaretier as cabare(t) + tier, and the new suffix was then used to form such new words as bijoutier, ferblantier, cafetier and others. In the same way we have tabatière, where we should expect tabaquière, and the predilection for the extended form of the suffix is evidently strengthened by the syllable division in frequent formations like ren-tier, por-tier, por-tière, charpen-tier. In old Gothonic we have similar extensions of suffixes, when instead of -ing we get -ling, starting from words like OHG. ediling from edili, ON. vesling from vesall, OE. lytling from lytel, etc. Consequently we have in English quite a number of words with the extended ending: duckling, gosling, hireling, underling, etc. In Gothic some words formed with -assus, such as þiudin-assus ‘kingdom,’ were apprehended as formed with -nassus, and in all the related languages the suffix is only known with the initial n; thus in E. -ness: hardness, happiness, eagerness, etc.; G. -keit with its k from adjectives in -ic has already been mentioned (376). From criticism, Scotticism, we have witti-cism, and Milton has witticaster on the analogy of criticaster, where the suffix of course is -aster, as in poetaster. Instead of -ist we also find in some cases -nist: tobacconist, lutenist (cf. botan-ist, mechan-ist).
To form a new word it is often sufficient that some existing word is felt in a vague way to be made up of something + an ending, the latter being subsequently added on to another word. In Fr. mérovingien the v of course is legitimate, as the adjective is derived from Mérovée, Merowig, but this word was made the starting-point for the word designating the succeeding dynasty: carlovingien, where v is simply taken over as part of the suffix; nowadays historians try to be more ‘correct’ and prefer the adjective carolingien, which was unknown to Littré. Oligarchy is olig + archy, but for the opposite notion the word poligarchy or polygarchy was framed from poly and the last two syllables of oli-garchy, and though now scholars have made polyarchy the usual form, the word with the intrusive g was the common form two hundred years ago in English, and corresponding forms are found in French, Spanish and other languages. Judgmatical is made on the pattern of dogmatical, though there the stem is dogmat-. In jocular German schwachmatikus ‘valetudinarian,’ we have the same suffix with a different colouring, taken from rheumatikus (thus also Dan. svagmatiker). Swift does not hesitate to speak of a sextumvirate, which suggests triumvirate better than sexvirate would have done; and Bernard Shaw once writes “his equipage (or autopage)”—evidently starting from the popular, but erroneous, belief that equipage is derived from Lat. equus and then dividing the word equi + page. Cf. Scillonian from Scilly on account of Devonian as if this were Dev + onian instead of Devon + ian.
XIX.—§ 15. Tainting of Suffixes.
It will be seen that in some of these instances the suffix has appropriated to itself not only part of the sound of the stem, but also part of its signification. This is seen very clearly in the case of chandelier, in French formed from chandelle ‘candle’ with the suffix -ier, of rather vague signification, ‘anything connected with, or having to do with’; in English the word is used for a hanging branched frame to hold a number of lights; consequently a similar apparatus for gas-burners was denominated gaselier (gasalier, gasolier), and with the introduction of electricity the formation has even been extended to electrolier. Vegetarian is from the stem veget- with added -ari-an, which ending has no special connexion with the notion of eating or food, but recently we have seen the new words fruitarian and nutarian, meaning one whose food consists (exclusively or chiefly) in fruits and nuts. Cf. solemncholy, which according to Payne is in use in Alabama, framed evidently on melancholy, analyzed in a way not approved by Greek scholars. The whole ending of septentrionalis (from the name of the constellation Septem triones, the seven oxen) is used to form the opposite: meridi-onalis.
A similar case of ‘tainting’ is found in recent English. The NED, in the article on the suffix -eer, remarks that “in many of the words so formed there is a more or less contemptuous implication,” but does not explain this, and has not remarked that it is found only in words ending in -teer (from words in -t). I think this contemptuous implication starts from garreteer and crotcheteer (perhaps also pamphleteer and privateer); after these were formed the disparaging words sonneteer, pulpiteer. During the war (1916, I think) the additional word profiteer[97] came into use, but did not find its way into the dictionaries till 1919 (Cassell’s). And only the other day I read in an American publication a new word of the same calibre: “Against patrioteering, against fraud and violence ... Mr. Mencken has always nobly and bravely contended.”