with a tendency to collection or association; Middle High German, ge-rassel = rustling; ge-rumpel = c-rumple.
8. And it has also the power of expressing the possession of a quality.
| Anglo-Saxon. | English. | Anglo-Saxon. | Latin. |
| Feax | Hair | Ge-feax | Comatus. |
| Heorte | Heart | Ge-heort | Cordatus. |
| Stence | Odour | Ge-stence | Odorus. |
This power is also a collective, since every quality is associated with the object that possesses it; a sea with waves = a wavy sea.
9. Hence it is probable that the ga-, ki-, or gi-, Gothic, is the cum of Latin languages. Such, at least, is Grimm's view, as given in the "Deutsche Grammatik," i. 1016.
Concerning this, it may be said that it is deficient in an essential point. It does not show how the participle past is collective. Undoubtedly it may be said that every such participle is in the condition of words like ge-feax and ge-heort; i.e., that they imply an association between the object and the action or state. But this does not seem to be Grimm's view; he rather suggests that the ge- may have been a prefix to verbs in general, originally attached to all their forms, but finally abandoned everywhere except in the case of the participle.
The theory of this prefix has yet to assume a satisfactory form.