CHAPTER X.
INTERJECTIONS.
We have said almost enough about their Etymology already. Still, it may not be superfluous to bestow a passing notice on the singularly expressive character of certain of these parts of speech, heard, it is true, repeatedly; but unaccountably omitted in all previous Grammars. For instance, how many lives does the warning, “Hoy!” of the coachman or cab-driver daily save? What an amount of infantile aberrations from propriety is the admonitory “Paw-paw!” the means of checking. With what felicity is acquiescence denoted by “Umph!” The utility of the Interjections on various occasions, such as our meals, for example, in enabling us to economise our speech, is very striking.
CHAPTER XI.
OF DERIVATION.
Those who know Latin, Greek, Saxon, and the other languages from which our own is formed, do not require to be instructed in philological derivation; and on those who do not understand the said tongues, such instruction would be thrown away. In what manner English words are derived, one from another, the generality of persons know very well: there are, however, a few words and phrases, which it is expedient to trace to their respective sources; not only because such an exercise is of itself delightful to the inquiring mind; but because we shall thereby be furnished (as we hope to show) with a test by means of which, on hearing an expression for the first time, we shall be able, in most instances, to decide at once respecting its nature and quality.