The ideas of I, my, and me are also in a logical sequence: but the forms I, my, and me are not altogether in an etymological one.
In the case of I, my, me, the etymological sequence does not tally (or tallies imperfectly) with the logical one.
This is only another way of saying that between the words I and me there is no connexion in etymology.
It is also only another way of saying, that, in the oblique cases, I, and, in the nominative case, me, are defective.
Now the same is the case with good, better, bad, worse, &c. Good and bad are defective in the comparative and superlative degrees; better and worse are defective in the positive; whilst between good and better, bad and worse, there is a sequence in logic, but no sequence in etymology.
To return, however, to the word better; no absolute positive degree is found in any of the allied languages, and in none of the allied languages is there found any comparative form of good. Its root occurs in the following adverbial forms: Mœso-Gothic, bats; Old High German, pats; Old Saxon and Anglo-Saxon, bet; Middle High German, baz; Middle Dutch, bat, bet.—Grimm, D. G. iii. 604.
[§ 319]. Worse.—Mœso-Gothic, vairsiza; Old High German, wirsiro; Middle High German, wirser; Old Saxon, wirso; Anglo-Saxon, vyrsa; Old Norse, vërri; Danish, værre; and Swedish, värre. Such are the adjectival forms. The adverbial forms are Mœso-Gothic, vairs; Old High German, virs; Middle High German, wirs; Anglo-Saxon, vyrs: Old Norse, vërr; Danish, værre; Swedish, värre.—Grimm, D. G. iii. 606. Whether the present form in English be originally adjectival or adverbial is indifferent; since, as soon as the final a of vyrsa was omitted, the two words would be the same. The forms, however, vairsiza, wirser, worse, and vërri, make the word one of the most perplexing in the language.
If the form worse be taken without respect to the rest, the view of the matter is simply that in the termination s we have a remnant of the Mœso-Gothic forms, like sutiza, &c., in other words, the old comparative in s.
Wirser and vairsiza traverse this view. They indicate the likelihood of the s being no sign of the degree, but a part of the original word. Otherwise the r in wirser, and the z in vairsiza, denote an excess of expression.