CHAPTER XI.
THE SUPERLATIVE DEGREE.
[§ 326]. The history of the superlative form, accurately parallel with what has been stated of the comparative, is as follows:—
In Sanskrit there is, 1. the form tama, 2. the form ishta; the first being the commonest. The same is the case in the Zend.
Each of these appears again in the Greek. The first, as τατ (tat), in λεπτότατος (leptotatos); the second, as ιστ (ist), in οἴκτιστος (oiktistos). For certain reasons, Grimm thinks that the tat stands for tamt, or tant.
In Latin, words like intimus, extimus, ultimus, preserve im; whilst venustus, vetustus, and robustus, are considered as positives, preserving the superlative form -st.
Just as in inferus and nuperus, there was the ejection of the t in the comparative ter, so in infimus, nigerrimus, &c., is there the ejection of the same letter in the superlative tim.
This gives us, as signs of the superlative, 1. tm; 2. st; 3. m, t being lost; 4. t, m being lost.
Of the first and last of these, there are amongst the true superlatives, in English, no specimens.
Of the third, there is a specimen in the Anglo-Saxon se forma, the first, from the root fore, as compared with the Latin primus, and the Lithuanic pirmas.