Adjectives denoting the matter out of which any thing is made, are derived from nouns by adding en; as, from "Oak, oaken; wood, wooden; wool, woollen," &c.
Adjectives denoting abundance are derived from nouns by adding ful; as, from "Joy, joyful; sin, sinful; fruit, fruitful," &c.
Adjectives denoting plenty, but with some kind of diminution, are derived from nouns by adding some; as, from "Light, lightsome; trouble, troublesome; toil, toilsome," &c.
Adjectives denoting want are derived from nouns by adding less; as, from "Worth, worthless;" from "care, careless; joy, joyless," &c.
Adjectives denoting likeness are derived from nouns by adding ly; as, from "Man, manly; earth, earthly; court, courtly," &c.
Some adjectives are derived from other adjectives, or from nouns by adding ish to them; which termination when added to adjectives, imports diminution, or lessening the quality; as, "White, whitish;" i.e. somewhat white. When added to nouns, it signifies similitude or tendency to a character; as, "Child, childish; thief, thievish."
Some adjectives are formed from nouns or verbs by adding the termination able; and those adjectives signify capacity; as, "Answer, answerable; to change, changeable."
4. Nouns are derived from adjectives, sometimes by adding the termination ness; as, "White, whiteness; swift, swiftness;" sometimes by adding th or t, and making a small change in some of the letters; as, "Long, length; high, height."
5. Adverbs of quality are derived from adjectives, by adding ly, or changing le into ly; and denote the same quality as the adjectives from which they are derived; as, from "base," comes "basely;" from "slow, slowly;" from "able, ably."
There are so many other ways of deriving words from one another, that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to enumerate them. The primitive words of every language are very few; the derivatives form much the greater number. A few more instances only can be given here.