- man
- horse
- bird
- fish
- partridge
- pupil
- bee
- soldier
- book
- sailor
- child
- sheep
- ship
- ruffian
4. Using a dictionary, tell from what word each of these abstract nouns is derived:—
- sight
- speech
- motion
- pleasure
- patience
- friendship
- deceit
- bravery
- height
- width
- wisdom
- regularity
- advice
- seizure
- nobility
- relief
- death
- raid
- honesty
- judgment
- belief
- occupation
- justice
- service
- trail
- feeling
- choice
- simplicity
Nouns change by use.
13. By being used so as to vary their usual meaning, nouns of one class may be made to approach another class, or to go over to it entirely. Since words alter their meaning so rapidly by a widening or narrowing of their application, we shall find numerous examples of this shifting from class to class; but most of them are in the following groups. For further discussion see the remarks on articles (p. 119).
Proper names transferred to common use.
14. Proper nouns are used as common in either of two ways:—
(1) The origin of a thing is used for the thing itself: that is, the name of the inventor may be applied to the thing invented, as a davy, meaning the miner's lamp invented by Sir Humphry Davy; the guillotine, from the name of Dr. Guillotin, who was its inventor. Or the name of the country or city from which an article is derived is used for the article: as china, from China; arras, from a town in France; port (wine), from Oporto, in Portugal; levant and morocco (leather).
Some of this class have become worn by use so that at present we can scarcely discover the derivation from the form of the word; for example, the word port, above. Others of similar character are calico, from Calicut; damask, from Damascus; currants, from Corinth; etc.