OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY
OF
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
AND
LITERATURE
[Illustration]
W. & R. CHAMBERS
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
1882
Edinburgh:
Printed by W. & R. Chambers.
PREFACE.
The object of this book, as indicated in the title, is to give an
outline of the History of the English Language and Literature.
It aims, however, at being something more than a mere statement of
facts. It is intended to excite an interest in English philology, and in
the leading authors that from the time of Cædmon have used the English
tongue.
It is therefore to be regarded as an introduction to English philology
and literature; and is adapted for use in the advanced classes of
elementary schools, in secondary schools, and for pupil teachers, as
well as for private students.
CONTENTS.
_LANGUAGE._
CHAPTER I.
=HISTORY OF THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.=
PAGE
1. What a Language is 7
2. The English Language 7
3. Family 8
4. Teutons 8
5. High-German 9
6. Low-German 9
7. Scandinavian 10
8. The chief Teutonic Languages 10
9. Where the English came from 11
10. The Periods of English 12
11. Anglo-Saxon 12
12. Early English 13
13. Middle English 13
14. Modern English 13
15. English Words in English Language 14
16. Changes in English 15
17. Loss and Gain 16
18. Foreign Elements in English 16
19. Welsh 17
20. Keltic Element 18
21. Latin Element of First Period (i) 18
22. “ “ (ii) 19
23. Latin Element of Second Period (i) 20
24. “ “ (ii) 20
25. Scandinavian Element (i) 21
26. “ “ (ii) 22
27. “ “ (iii) 22
28. Latin Element of Third Period (i) 23
29. “ “ (ii) 24
30. “ “ (iii) 24
31. “ “ (iv) 25
32. “ “ (v) 25
33. “ “ (vi) 26
34. Synonyms from Norman-French 26
35. Bilingualism 27
36. Doublets 28
37. Doublets 28
38. Pronunciation 28
39. Latin of Fourth Period 29
40. Mouth Latin and Book Latin 30
41. Greek Doublets 32
42. English and French Words in Sentences 33
43. English Words Lost 33
CHAPTER II.
=HISTORY OF THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH.=
1. An Inflected Language 34
2. Grammar of Nouns 35
3. Grammar of Adjectives 35
4. Grammar of Definite Article 35
5. Grammar of Personal Pronoun 36
6. Grammar of Verbs 36
7. Fragments of Noun Inflections 36
8. “ Adjective Inflections 37
9. “ Pronoun Inflections 37
10. “ Verb Inflections 37
11. “ Inflections in Adverbs 38
12. “ Inflections in Prepositions 39
CHAPTER III.
=CHANGES IN MODERN ENGLISH.=
1. Formation of Modern English 39
2. Continued History 39
3. Spanish and Italian 40
4. Dutch Words 41
5. Latin and Teutonic Element 41
6. Influences affecting our Language at the present time 42
CHAPTER IV.
1. Words adopted from Foreign Languages 43
2. Chief Dates in the History of the English Language 45
CHAPTER V.
=NOTES ON THE GROWTH OF ENGLISH WORDS.=
1. Roots; Influence of Imitation on Language 46
2. Hybrids 46
3. Words disguised in Form or in
Meaning 48
4. Words that have changed their Meaning 53
5. Words from the Names of Persons 54
6. Words from Names of Places 55
7. English (or Teutonic) Roots 56
8. Latin Roots 57
9. Greek Roots 63
10. Branching of Words from Latin Stems 65
11. Branching of Words from English Stems 69
CHAPTER VI.
=PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES.=
PREFIXES.
1. English (or Teutonic) 70
2. Latin 71
3. Greek 72
SUFFIXES.
4. English (or Teutonic) 72
5. Latin 74
6. Greek 75
_LITERATURE._
=I. OUTLINE OF OUR EARLY LITERATURE.=
PAGE
1. The _Beowulf_ 76
2. Cædmon 76
3. Bæda 77
4. King Alfred 77
5. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 78
6. Archbishop Ælfric 78
7. Anglo-Saxon Gospels 78
8. Old English Dialects 79
9. First English Book after Norman Conquest 80
10. Orm’s _Ormulum_ 80
11. Langland and Chaucer 81
12. Alliteration or Head-Rhyme 82
13. John Gower 83
14. John Barbour 83
15. Sir John Mandeville 83
16. John Wicliffe 84
17. Our English Bible and its History 85
=II. TABULAR OUTLINE OF MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE= 87
[Illustration]
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
CHAPTER I.
=History of its Vocabulary.=
1. =WHAT A LANGUAGE IS.=--A language is a number of different sounds which
are made by the =tongue= and the other organs of speech. But a spoken
language is, or may be, written or printed upon paper by the aid of a
number of =signs= or =symbols=--which are generally printed in black ink
upon white paper.--The parts of a spoken language are called =sounds=; the
smallest parts of a written or printed language are called =letters=.--A
language is also called a _tongue_ or a _speech_.--A language, like a
living being, does not remain always the same. It _grows_. As it grows,
it alters in appearance; small and great changes take place in it; and
the story of these changes is called the _History of the Language_.
2. =THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE= is the name given to the language which is
spoken in Great Britain and Ireland, in the United States, in Canada, in
Australia and New Zealand, in South Africa, and in many other parts of
the world where Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Irishmen are found. In the
middle of the =fifth century= it was spoken by a few thousand men who
came over to Britain from the north-west of Europe, and by many
thousands of men and women who dwelt on the banks of the lower parts of
the great German rivers--the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Weser. It is now
spoken by more than 100 millions of people. But the English spoken in
the fifth century was a very different language from the English that is
spoken now. It was different, yet still the same. It was different in
appearance, as a child of one year old is different in looks from a man
of forty; but both the English of to-day and the English of the fifth
century are the same--because the one has grown out of the other, just
as the tall strong man of forty has grown out of the child of one year
old.
3. =FAMILY.=--To what family of languages does our English speech belong?
It belongs to the =Indo-European family= of languages. This family is so
called, because the languages which belong to it are spoken both in
India and in Europe. Many thousand years ago, the people from whom we
are descended lived on the high table-lands in the heart of Asia. Bands
of them kept travelling always farther and farther west; and it is from
their language that most of the tongues spoken in Europe are derived.
These bands left their friends and relations and country, just as young
men and women nowadays leave the homes of their parents to go and settle
in distant countries. The Indo-European is also called the Aryan family
of languages. Altogether, it embraces seven great languages--(1) The
Indian or Sanskrit; (2) Persic; (3) Greek; (4) Latin; (5) Keltic; (6)
Teutonic; and (7) Slavonic, which includes Russian, Polish, &c.
4. =TEUTONS.=--The English language was introduced into this country by
bands of warlike colonists from Northwestern Germany, who drove the old
inhabitants to the mountainous regions in the west of the island. Those
colonists were variously called Angles, Saxons, and Jutes; but they all
belonged to the Teutonic race, and their speech was a branch of the
Teutonic group of languages. The Teutonic group of languages contains
three main sections, from which all the others spring. These three main
sections are: =High-German=, =Low-German=, and =Scandinavian=. High-German is
the name given to the kind of German which is spoken on the higher lands
or table-lands of South Germany--those table-lands which slope from the
Central Plain of Europe up to the Alps; and its northern boundary is the
pretty river _Main_, which falls into the Rhine. Low-German is the name
given to the kind of German spoken in the lowlands of Germany; and the
southern boundary of this kind of speech is the river Main--its northern
boundary being the Baltic and the North Sea. Scandinavian is the wide
general name given to those kinds of Teutonic speech which are found in
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. These divisions may be placed in a
table in the following manner:
TEUTONIC.
|
+---------------------+---------------------------+
| | |
=High-German.= =Low-German.= =Scandinavian.=
| | |
+------+-----+ +-----+--+--+------+ +--------+--+---+-------+
| | | | | | | | | | |
Old. Middle. New. Dutch. | Frisian. | Icelandic. | Norwegian. |
Flemish. English. Danish. Swedish.
5. =HIGH-GERMAN.=--High-German is spoken in the southern parts of
Germany--such as Bavaria, Swabia, and other hilly regions; and also in
the north and east of Switzerland.--It is this form of the language that
has become the book-speech or literary language of the Germans; and its
technical name is =New High-German=.
6. =LOW-GERMAN.=--The languages which belong to this division are spoken
in the plains of Germany, especially along the lower courses of the
rivers, in Holland, in part of Belgium, in England, Scotland, and
Ireland, and the British Colonies, and in the United States of North
America. The Low-German spoken in Holland is called _Dutch_; the
Low-German spoken in Belgium is called _Flemish_; the Low-German spoken
in Friesland--a wealthy province of Holland--is called _Frisian_; and
the Low-German spoken in England is called _English_. (But, as we shall
soon see, English contains many thousands of words in addition to those
which are purely Low-German.) The language on the continent which is
most like English is the Frisian language. There is indeed a well-known
couplet, every word in which is said to be both Frisian and English. It
runs thus:
Good butter and good cheese
Is good English and good Fries.
The following are the chief subdivisions of
LOW-GERMAN.
|
+------------------+--------+-------+------------------+
| | | |
=Dutch= =Flemish= =Frisian= =English=
(Spoken in Holland). (in Flanders). (in Friesland). (in England, etc.).
7. =SCANDINAVIAN.=--Scandinavian is the general name given to the
different kinds of Teutonic speech which are employed in Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. The oldest and purest kind of Scandinavian
speech is that spoken in the far-off country in the middle of the North
Atlantic, called Iceland; and it is the purest, because for many
centuries there has been very little communication with that country.
Indeed, the Icelandic of the 12th century differs very little from the
Icelandic of to-day. But the English of the twelfth century differs so
much from the English of the nineteenth century, that we should at first
sight hardly know them for the same speech.--One peculiar mark of a
Scandinavian speech is the preference for hard consonants--the
preference, for example, of a _k_ over a _ch_ or _sh_. Thus the Danes
say _Dansk_ for _Danish_; and it is Danish influence that has given to
Scotchmen and to the north of England the form _kirk_ instead of
_church_.
8. =THE THREE CHIEF TEUTONIC LANGUAGES.=--The three most important
languages belonging to the great Teutonic stock are =English=, =Dutch=, and
=German=. If we look at the words used in these languages, we shall at
once see that they are sister-languages. If we look at the way in which
their words are changed--or at their inflections--we shall also see
that they are very closely related. Thus the commonest words appear in
these three languages in the following shape:
=English= Three. Mother. Brother. Have (inf.).
=Dutch= Drie. Moeder. Broeder. Hebben.
=German= Drei. Mutter.[1] Bruder.[2] Haben.
Again, the inflections of these three languages are very similar--are in
fact, different shapes of the same changes. Thus the possessive case of
nouns in all three languages ends in =s= or =es=[3] or =’s=. The second person
singular of verbs in all three ends in _st_; and the ending of the past
participle in all three is generally _en_. We know, then, both from
history and from a comparison of the actual facts in the present state
of the languages, that all three are sister-tongues.
9. =WHERE THE ENGLISH CAME FROM.=--Those Teutons who brought over the
English tongue to this island, came from the north-west of Europe--most
of them from that part of the German coast which lies between the river
Elbe and the river Weser. The kind of Low-German spoken by them is much
the same as that still spoken in the lowlands of Hanover, Holstein, and
Schleswig. There is in Holstein--upon the west coast--a small district
which is called =Angeln=--that is, _England_--to this day. The Teutons who
came over to Britain belonged to three tribes. They were =Jutes= and
=Angles= and =Saxons=. The Jutes came from Jutland.[4] The Angles came from
Schleswig and Holstein. The Saxons came from Hanover and the land to the
west of it. The Jutes settled in Kent and the Isle of Wight. The Saxons
settled in Essex (or East Sex), Wessex[5] (or West Sex), Sussex (or
South Sex), and Middlesex; and the ending _sex_ is an indication of the
fact. The Angles settled chiefly in the north and east. One of the
kingdoms founded by them was called East Anglia; and the northern and
southern settlers in it gave their names to the two counties of Norfolk
and Suffolk, which are only later forms of the words _North folk_ and
_South folk_. These three tribes all spoke different dialects of the
same speech. The early predominance of the Angles, especially as the
Angles in Northumbria were the first to have a literature, gave to the
language the name of _English_, though the Keltic people still call it
_Saxon_ or _Sassenach_. The country also in time acquired, from the same
cause, the name of _Engla-land_, or the _land of the English_. The first
landing of Teutons took place in the year 449; and for about a hundred
years afterwards, bands of strong young warriors and colonists continued
to arrive at short intervals.
10. =THE PERIODS OF ENGLISH.=--The language brought over to Britain by
these three tribes has grown very much since the fifth century. It has
been growing for fourteen hundred years. It has therefore altered very
much in every way; its appearance has changed; and we have to learn the
English of the fifth, or the eighth, or the eleventh century, almost as
if it were a foreign language. There are four chief periods in the
history of the English language. These are:
I. Old English, commonly called Anglo-Saxon 450-1100
II. Early English 1100-1250
III. Middle English 1250-1485
IV. Modern English 1485-1882
But it must not be forgotten that there is no hard and fast line between
one period and another. A living language, like a living body, is always
changing. It takes on new additions of new matter; it loses the old.
With these new additions, its form also changes. We are rarely sensible
of these changes; but they are going on all the time for all that.
11. =THE OLDEST ENGLISH OR ANGLO-SAXON, 450-1100.=--This form of the
English language contained a very large number of inflections. The
definite article was inflected for gender, number, and case; nouns and
adjectives were highly inflected; and the verb had a very much larger
number of inflections than it has now. The words of the English
vocabulary during this period were almost entirely English; a few Latin
and Greek words--brought in chiefly by the church--and a few Keltic
words, had found their way into the English vocabulary. The rhyme used
in poetry was not end-rhyme, as at the present date, but head-rhyme or
alliteration--as we find it in the well-known line from Pope:
Apt alliteration’s artful aid.
To this period belong the writings of the poet Cædmon and of King
Alfred.
12. =EARLY ENGLISH, 1100-1250.=--The Normans had seized all power in the
state and in the church, and had held it since the year 1066. During the
early part of this period, English was not written, had ceased to be
employed in books; and French words began to creep in even among the
spoken words of the English people. The inflections of words began to
drop off, or to be carelessly used, and then to be mixed up and confused
with each other. One of the chief writers of this period is a priest
called =Layamon=, who wrote a poem called the _Brut_ (_Brutus_), which
gave some account of the beginnings of the English people, who were
believed to be descended from Brutus, the fabled son of Æneas of Troy.
13. =MIDDLE ENGLISH, 1250-1485.=--Nouns and adjectives during this period
lost almost all their inflections. The inflections of verbs were very
much altered and greatly simplified.--In the year 1349, boys in school
were allowed to cease translating their Latin into French, and began to
translate it into English. In the year 1362 Edward III. passed an act of
parliament ordering the use of English in the pleadings of cases in all
courts of law, instead of Norman-French, which had hitherto been
employed. To the first half of this period belong such works as the
_Metrical Chronicle_ and the _Lives of the Saints_, supposed to have
been written and translated by Robert of Gloucester; to the second half
belong the works of the great poet Chaucer, of William Langland, and of
the reformer Wicliffe.
14. =MODERN ENGLISH, 1485-1882.=--The year 1485 marks the accession of
the House of Tudor to the throne, in the person of Henry VII. By this
time almost all inflections had disappeared from our language. Many
hundreds of French words had come into the language. From the time of
the Revival of Letters[6]--which may be said to have begun in the
sixteenth century--several thousands of Latin words were poured into the
English vocabulary. The period which lies between 1485 and 1603--the
year in which James I. came to the throne--is sometimes called the
period of =Tudor English=. Its greatest verse-writer is Shakspeare; its
greatest prose-writer is Hooker, who wrote _The Laws of Ecclesiastical
Polity_.
15. =ENGLISH WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.=--The English language has for
centuries been importing words from many foreign tongues into its own
vocabulary; and it has given a hearty welcome to all kinds of strangers.
So much is this the case, and so far has this habit of taking in
strangers gone, that we can now quite accurately say: _Most of the words
in our English language are not English._ There are more Latin words in
our tongue than there are English. But this statement is true only of
our words as we find them _in the dictionary_. The words which we use
every day--the language _of the mouth_--is almost entirely English. The
_fixed vocabulary_--the vocabulary printed in the dictionary--is more
Latin than English; the _moving vocabulary_--the words which are daily
spoken--is English. Thus, if we take a passage in our translation of the
Four Gospels, we shall find from 90 to 96 per cent. of the words used
are English--and pure English. In the _Prologue_ which Chaucer wrote to
his famous set of poems called _The Canterbury Tales_, 88 per cent. of
the words are English; while, in Mrs Browning’s _Cry of the Children_,
the English words rise to the large proportion of 92 per cent.
The following is a list of a few more percentages of purely English
words in the writings of well-known authors:
Spenser (_Faerie Queene_, ii. 7) 86 per cent.
Shakspeare (_Henry IV., Part I._, Act ii) 91 “
Milton (_Paradise Lost_, Book VI.) 80 “
Swift (_John Bull_) 85 “
Johnson (Preface to _Dictionary_) 72 “
Gibbon (_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_,
I., cap. vii.) 70 “
Macaulay (_Essay on Lord Bacon_) 75 “
Tennyson (_In Memoriam_, first twenty poems) 89 “
16. =CHANGES IN ENGLISH.=--Let us take a passage from the Saxon
translation of the Old Testament--and it is the oldest English version
we have--and notice what differences there are between this English and
the English of the present day. This translation was made by Abbot
Ælfric, who lived and wrote late in the tenth century. He translated
into English the five books of Moses--commonly called the
Pentateuch--Joshua, Judges, and part of the book of Job. Let us see how
he writes (Genesis, ix. 1):
God blet[~t]sode God blessed
Noe and his suna Noah and his sons
and cväd hem tô: and quoth to them:
Veahxađ Wax (ye)
and beođ gemenigfilde and be manifolded
and âfyllađ and fill
þâ eorđan! the earth!
Now every word in the above verse is modern English; but every word has
been changed--with the exception of _God_, _his_, and _and_. All the
other words have changed enormously in the course of the eight centuries
since the verse was written. The words have changed; and the grammar has
changed. The word _bletsian_ has become _bless_. The grammar of the
verbs has changed enormously. For example, the imperative ending _ath_
in _Veahxath_ and _âfyllath_ has quite fallen away. It existed, in the
form of _eth_, down to the time of Chaucer, who writes _Standeth up!_ in
addressing several persons.--Next, we ought to notice that _all_ the
words are pure English. The modern version which we still use, and
which was published in 1611, has been obliged to use Latin and French
words. It says--and the words in italics are all foreign words: ‘Be
_fruitful_, and _multiply_ and _replenish_ the earth’! That is, it
employs three Latin words in the most important parts of the sentence.
17. =LOSS AND GAIN.=--But, while the English language has, in the course
of centuries, lost almost all its inflections, it has been all that time
gaining new words, and at the same time gaining new powers of
expression. In fact, the history of our language is a history of both
loss and gain. It has lost _inflections_ and gained new _words_. An
inflected language is generally called a =Synthetic Language=, because it
expresses changes of relations by the _adding-on_ (_synthesis_) of
something to the end of the word. A language which expresses relations
by little words like prepositions is called an =analytic language=. We may
therefore say that:
=English was in its earlier forms a synthetic language; but it is
now an analytic language.=
So much for the form or grammar of it. But, on the other hand, if we
look at the matter or words or vocabulary of it, we shall find that:
=English was originally a pure or unmixed language; but is now an
extremely composite one.=
18. =THE FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH.=--These have come into our language
chiefly because the English people have come so much into contact with
other peoples and tribes and nations. They came over to this island in
the fifth century, and found Kelts here; and from them they took some
Keltic words. About the end of the eighth century, the Danes came to
them; and a number of Danish words entered the language. Then another
set of Danes or Scandinavians--called Normans--came to them, conquered
them, and gave them many hundred Norman-French words. Then, with the
Revival of Letters, many scholars came over here, taught the English
people to read Greek and Latin books; and these books gave the language
several thousand words. Then the English people have always been the
greatest travellers in the world. They have gone to China and brought
home Chinese words (as well as things); they have long held India, which
has given us Hindu words; they have imported names and terms from North
and from South and Central America; they have borrowed from Spaniards
and Italians; they have taken words, nearer home, from the Dutch and
from the Germans; they have gone to the farthest east and to the
farthest west, and there is hardly a language on the face of the globe
from which they have not imported some words that live and make
themselves useful in our language.
19. =WELSH.=--When the English settled in this island, they found a people
who were called Britons, and who spoke a language called =British= or
=Kymric=. It is a language very different from English; and at first the
English warriors and the British people did not understand one single
word of what each other said. The Old English word for _foreigners_ was
_Wealhas_--or, as we call it now, _Welsh_; and the English fighting men
who came over called the British people, not by the name which they
themselves used, but simply the _foreigners_--the _Welsh_. In the same
way, a German to this day calls an Italian or a Frenchman a _Welshman_;
and he calls France or Italy _Welshland_. The language spoken by the
Welsh belongs to the =Keltic group= of languages. This group contains also
=Erse=, which is spoken in the west of Ireland; =Manx=, which is spoken in
the Isle of Man; =Gaelic=, which is spoken in the Highlands of Scotland;
and =Breton=, which is spoken in Brittany--a mountainous and rugged
peninsula in the north-west of France. It at one time embraced also
=Cornish=--the language spoken in Cornwall, which was also called _West
Wales_. But that language died out in 1778; and it is not now spoken by
any one. The following is a table of the Keltic group:
KELTIC.
|
+-----------------+----------------+
| |
GADHELIC. KYMRIC.
| |
+--------+----------+ +-----------+----------+
| | | | | |
=Erse.= =Gaelic.= =Manx.= =‘Welsh.’= =Breton.= =Cornish.=
(dead)
20. =THE KELTIC ELEMENT.=--The words given to the English language by the
Kelts are of two kinds:
(i) Names of mountains, rivers, lakes, and other natural features;
(ii) Names of common things, which the English picked up in their
daily intercourse with the British or Welsh.
(i) The Keltic name for a mountain is _Pen_--a word which we find in
_Pennine_ and _Apennine_. The Gaelic or Scotch Keltic form of the word
is _Ben_. Thus we have _Ben More_--which means the _Big Mountain_--_Ben
Nevis_, and many others. The commonest Keltic word for a river is
_Avon_. There are fourteen Avons in Great Britain. _Esk_ is another
common Keltic name for a river; and there are eight _Esks_ in Scotland
alone. In England the name takes the form of _Ex_ or _Exe_ (the
consonants having changed places, _Ex_ = _Eks_). The name appears as
_Ex_ in _Exeter_ (the old form was _Exanceaster_)--that is, _the camp on
the Ex_; as _Ax_ in _Axminster_; as _Ox_ in _Oxford_; as _Ux_ in
_Uxbridge_; as _Usk_, in Wales; and even as _Ouse_, in Yorkshire and
other counties.--_Aber_ is a Keltic word which means _the mouth of a
river_; and we find it in _Aberdeen_ (the town at the mouth of the Dee);
_Arbroath_, which is = _Aberbrothock_; _Aberystwith_; _Berwick_--the old
form of which was _Aberwick_. _Berwick_ accordingly means the _wick_ or
town at the mouth of the Tweed. _Car_ or _Caer_ is the Keltic word for
_castle_ or _stronghold_; and we find this name in _Carlisle_,
_Cardiff_, _Caernarvon_, and others.
(ii) The names of common things which we have received from the Kelts
are--_basket_, _bran_, _cradle_, _crockery_, _clout_, _cuts_ (= _lots_),
_darn_. Such words as _button_, _ribbon_, _barrel_, _car_, and _cart_,
are also Keltic, but have come into the English language through the
Norman-French, who received them from the descendants of the ancient
Gauls. Some Keltic words have come to us from Scotland--such as _pony_,
_clan_, _whisky_, _claymore_ (a kind of sword), _pibroch_, and _plaid_;
and it is chiefly to Sir Walter Scott’s writings that we owe the common
use of these words. Ireland has also sent us a few Keltic words, such as
_Tory_, _brogue_, and _shamrock_.
21. =THE LATIN ELEMENT OF THE FIRST PERIOD= (i).--The Roman power, as is
generally known, was settled in Britain from the year 43 till the year
410. In the beginning of the year 410, the very existence of the Roman
Empire was threatened by the Goths and other warlike peoples; and the
Roman forces were withdrawn to defend the very heart of the empire. The
Romans, though conquerors, were true benefactors. They gave the Britons
good laws; cut roads for them through the island; established camps;
built forts and strongholds; dug harbours or ports; and planted military
settlements--which they called _colonies_--here and there among the
conquered people. When the Romans went away, they left these important
benefits behind them; and, with the things themselves, the words also
remained. But they left only six words behind them, and all of these
have combined themselves, or gone into composition, with words that are
purely English. The following are the six words: =Castra=, a _camp_;
=Strata= (_via_), a _paved road_; =Vallum=, a _rampart_; =Fossa=, a _ditch_;
=Colonia=, a _settlement_; and =Portus=, a _harbour_.
22. =THE LATIN ELEMENT OF THE FIRST PERIOD= (ii).--(_a_) The Latin word
=Castra= has become _chester_, _caster_, _cester_, and even _ter_ (in
_Exeter_). We generally find it in the form of _chester_ in the south
and west; _cester_ in the middle; and _caster_ in the north and east of
England. Thus we have Chester, Manchester, and Winchester in the west
and south; Leicester and Towcester in mid-England; and Tadcaster,
Doncaster, and Lancaster in the north.
(_b_) =Strata.=--The Romans drove a strongly-built military road from the
south-east to the north-west of the island--from =Richborough=, near
Dover, up to the standing camp on the river Dee, which is now called
=Chester=. This was _the_ =Strata= or =Street=. It was afterwards carried
farther north, and even into Scotland. It went right over the crest of a
hill in Westmoreland, which is called =High Street= to this day. We can
trace the path of this great military road by the names of the towns and
villages that are strung upon it. Thus there are =Streat=ham (near
London), =Stret=ton, =Strat=ford-on-Avon, Stony =Strat=ford, =Stret=ford (near
Manchester), =Strad=broke, and many others.
(_c_) =Vallum= is found in _wall_.
(_d_) =Fossa= is found in the names _Fossway_, _Fosbrooke_, _Fosbridge_,
and others.
(_e_) =Colonia= is found in _Colne_, _Colchester_, _Lincoln_, and others.
(_f_) =Portus= appears in _Portsmouth_, _Portsea_, _Bridport_, and some
other names.
23. =THE LATIN ELEMENT OF THE SECOND PERIOD= (i).--This element was not
introduced by the Romans themselves, but by Christian missionaries who
came from Rome, sent by Pope Gregory the Great to convert, not the
Britons, but the English, to Christianity. A band of forty monks, with
St Augustine at their head, landed in Kent in the year 597. For four
centuries from this date a large number of Latin words came into the
English language, chiefly words relating to the church and church
observances.
=Church Terms.=--_Calic_, from _calix_, a cup; _cluster_, from
_claustrum_, a closed place; _priest_, from _presbyter_, an elder;
_sanct_, from _sanctus_, a holy man; _sacrament_, from _sacramentum_, a
sacred oath; _predician_, from _prædicare_, to declare; _regul_, from
_regula_, a straight piece of wood. But the old form of most of these
words has disappeared, to make room for Norman-French forms from the
same Latin source. Along with these were adopted a few Greek words--such
as _bishop_, from _episkopos_, an overseer; _angel_, from _anggelos_, a
messenger; _apostle_, from _apostolos_, a person sent; _monk_, from
_monăchos_,[7] a person who lives alone; and a few others.
24. =THE LATIN ELEMENT OF THE SECOND PERIOD= (ii).--The introduction of
Christianity proved to be the beginning of an intercourse with Rome,
Italys, and the Continent; and this intercourse brought with it
commerce. Commerce imported many new things; and the names of these
things came into the island along with the things themselves. Thus we
have _butter_ from _butŷrum_; _cheese_ from _caseus_; and _tunic_ from
_tunica_. We have also _fig_ from _ficus_; _pear_ from _pirum_;
_lettuce_ from _lactuca_, which itself comes from _lac_--milk (and hence
means _the milky plant_); and _pease_ from _pisum_. (_Pease_ is really
the singular; and _pea_ is a false singular--not a plural.) We have also
from the same source some names of animals. Such are _camel_ from
_camēlus_; _lion_ from _leo_; _oyster_ from _ostrea_; _trout_ from
_trutta_. A few miscellaneous words have also come to us from this
quarter--such as _pound_ from the Latin _pondus_, a weight; _candle_
from _candēla_; and _table_ from _tabŭla_. The Latin word _uncia_, which
means the twelfth part of anything, is, as it were, split up into
two--and gives the two words _inch_ and _ounce_, which are fundamentally
but two forms of one word. (But with regard to this class of words also
it should be observed that the words directly introduced from the Latin
have either been greatly changed in form; or they have been subsequently
borrowed again from the French.)
25. =THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT= (i).--In the year 787, the Northmen,
Norsemen, or Normans of Scandinavia, began to make descents on the east
coast of England. These attacks were so dreaded by the English that
prayers were regularly used in the churches against them; and a part of
the Litany of the time contained the utterance: ‘From the incursions of
the Normans, good Lord, deliver us!’ These attacks went on for three
centuries. In the ninth century, these Danes obtained a permanent
footing in the northern and eastern parts of England; and by the
eleventh century they had become so strong that Danish kings sat upon
the throne of England from 1016 to 1042. These Norsemen were Teutons.
They were Teutons who had migrated to the north. As northern people
generally do, they preferred hard sounds to aspirates. They preferred a
_k_ to a _ch_; a _p_ to an _f_. The probable reason is that, in the cold
mists of the north, they had learned not to open too much their mouths
and throats; and thus they formed the habit of using a shut sound like
_k_ to a sound like _ch_ (in _loch_), which requires a stream of air to
be passed through the throat. We must not forget that it was the
_spoken_ language of England that was affected by the Danes; not the
_written_ language; for the simple reason that, in these times, not more
than one man in a thousand--either among Danes or Englishmen--could read
and write.
26. =THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT= (ii).--The Danish contribution is, like the
Keltic, of two kinds: (_a_) Names of places; and (_b_) Common words.
(_a_) The most remarkable example of the place-name is the noun _by_,
which means _town_. There are in England more than six hundred names
ending in _by_. Almost all of these lie to the north and east of Watling
Street; to the south of it, there is scarcely one. Thus we have
_Whitby_, the _White Town_; _Tenby_, in Wales, _Dane’s town_; and
_Grimsby_, _the town of Grim_. We find the word _by_ also in the
compound _by-law_. The following words are also derived from the Danes:
=Thorpe=, a village Althorpe (old); Bishopsthorpe;
(_Drup_ in Jutland, where Burnham-Thorpe (where Nelson
there are scores of was born).
towns with this ending.)
=Fell=, a hill or table-land Scawfell, Crossfell, Goat Fell.
=Dale=, a valley Ribblesdale, Grimsdale.
=Thwaite=, a forest clearing Applethwaite.
=Toft=, a homestead Lowestoft (the form in Normandy is _tôt_).
=Wick=, a creek or bay Ipswich, Greenwich, Berwick. (Viking =
a creeker.)
=Oe= or =ea=, an island Faroe, Chelsea (= _chesel ea_, the shingle
island).
=Ness=, a nose or cape Sheerness, Caithness, Fife Ness; the
Naze (in Essex, etc.).
(_b_) To the Norsemen we also owe the words _are_, which pushed out the
pure English _syndon_; _talk_; _tarn_; _busk_ (dress); _sky_;
_hustings_; _fellow_; _odd_; _blunt_; _kid_; and many more.
27. =THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT= (iii).--One result of this mixture of Danes
with Englishmen was that both, in trying to speak the language or to use
the words of each other, would naturally take firm hold of the _root_ of
the word, and allow the inflections to take care of themselves. Hence
English words would lose their inflections; and this process, after it
had once begun, would go on at an increased speed, the greater became
the communication at church and at market between the English and the
Danes. The same process is now going on in the United States. Thousands
upon thousands of Germans have settled there among an English-speaking
people. These Germans are rapidly falling into the habit of using their
German words without inflections at all.
28. =LATIN ELEMENT OF THE THIRD PERIOD= (i).--This element is really
Norman-French. French is Latin, with many of the inflections lost or
changed, and with the pronunciation of the vowel-sounds enormously
altered. But it did not come from the written Latin of books; but from
the spoken Latin of soldiers and country-people (the _lingua Romana
rustica_). Norman-French is the French spoken by the Normans, who lost
their own Norsk or Danish speech, and learned French from their French
wives and children. In the year 912, the Normans, under Duke Rolf or
Rollo, wrested from King Charles the Simple the beautiful valley of the
Seine, which was afterwards called by the name of Normandy.
Norman-French was a dialect of French, and it differed in many respects
from the French spoken in the other parts of France. This Norman-French
was introduced into England as a court language by Edward the Confessor,
in the year 1042; but it was brought into this country as a folk-speech
by bands of Norman-French under the leadership of Duke William, the
seventh Duke of Normandy, in the famous year 1066. This Norman-French,
which they brought with them, became in England the language of the
ruling classes, of the court, of the lawyers, and of all priests high in
the ranks of the church. Books ceased to be written in English; boys
translated their Latin into French; an English churl had to employ a
lawyer who used only French in his law-papers and his pleadings; and
even ‘uplandish’ or country people tried ‘to speak Frensch, for to be
more ytold of.’ The saturation of English with French words probably
reached its highest point at the end of the fourteenth century; and
about that time a reaction set in. As has been before pointed out, in
1349, boys were allowed to translate their Latin into English; in 1362,
Edward III. passed an act of parliament to authorise the use of English
in courts of law; and even the Normans who lived in London had begun to
use English in their families. But, by the time French had ceased to be
the language of the upper classes, several thousand French words had
found their way into our vocabulary, which had become to a large extent
_bilingual_.[8]
29. =NORMAN-FRENCH= (ii).--The words which have been introduced into our
pure English speech from the Normans fall easily into classes.
(_a_) =Feudalism[9] and War.=--Armour, chivalry, captain, battle,
duke, fealty, realm.
The English word for _armour_ was _harness_; and Macaulay uses _harness_
in this sense in one of his _Lays_:
Now while the three were tightening
Their harness on their backs.
--_Chivalry_ comes from the Fr. _cheval_, which is a broken-down form of
the Low Latin word _caballus_, a horse.--_Captain_ comes from the Lat.
_caput_, a head.--_Battle_ comes from the Fr. _battre_, to beat.--_Duke_
comes from the Fr. _duc_--which comes from the Lat. _dux_ (accusative
_ducem_, most French nouns being borrowed from the accusative, not the
nominative form of the Latin noun), a leader.--_Fealty_ is the
Norman-French form of the word _fidelity_, from the Lat. _fidelitas_,
faithfulness.--_Real-m_ is the noun from the adjective _real_, which
comes from Lat. _regal-is_; it is the land ruled over by a _rex_ or _ré_
(a king).
30. (_b_) =Hunting.=--Forest, leveret, quarry, couple, venison.
_Forest_ comes from the Low Lat.[10] _foresta_; from Lat. _foris_,
out-of-doors. A forest does not necessarily contain trees; it is merely
the name for the _open_ hunting-ground as contrasted with the inclosed
space called a park.--_Leveret_, a young hare, from the Fr. _lièvre_;
from the Lat. _lepus_ (_-oris_).--_Quarry_ comes from the Lat. _cor_,
the heart, and at first meant the heart and intestines, which were
thrown to the dogs who hunted down the wild beast. Milton has the
phrase, ‘scents his quarry from afar.’--_Couple_ comes from the Lat.
_copula_, a band.--_Venison_ means _hunted flesh_, and comes from the
Fr. _venaison_, which comes from the Lat. verb _venari_, to hunt.
31. (_c_) =Cookery.=--Beef, veal, pork, mutton, pullet.
The Saxon hind had the charge of the cattle and animals on the farm
while they were alive; but he never saw anything of them after they were
killed. He never met them at dinner. The flesh of these animals received
French names from the Norman-Frenchmen who ate them; and their Saxon or
English names were forgotten. A German says _calf’s flesh_, but we use
the Norman-French word _veal_. Thus the corresponding English words to
those printed above are _ox_, _calf_, _swine_, _sheep_, and _fowl_. The
word _beef_ comes from the Fr. _bœuf_, which comes from the Lat. _bos_
(acc. _bovem_), an ox.--_Veal_ comes from the old French word _veel_,
which comes from the Lat. _vitellus_, a little calf.--_Pork_ comes from
Fr. _porc_, which is derived from the Lat. _porcus_, a pig.--_Mutton_
comes from the Fr. _mouton_, from the Low Latin word _multo_, a
sheep.--_Pullet_ comes from Fr. _poulet_, which comes from the Low Latin
word _pulla_, a hen.
32. (_d_) =Law.=--Chancellor, judge, parliament, court, assize, sue,
damages, and many others.
The word _chancellor_ comes from the Fr. _chancelier_; from the Lat.
_cancellarius_, the keeper of written papers. ‘The officer who had the
care of the records stood behind the screen of lattice-work or of
cross-bars which fenced off the judgment-seat.’ _Cancer_ is the Latin
name for a crab; _cancellus_ is a little crab; _cancelli_ are cross-bars
or lattice-work, like the claws of crabs crossed. Hence also to
_cancel_, which means to draw cross strokes through writing.--_Judge_
comes from the French word _juge_, which comes from the Lat. _judex_ (=
_jus-dic-s_, a sayer of right). The old English term was _dempster_,
from the verb _deem_; noun, _doom_.--_Parliament_ comes from the Fr.
_parler_, to speak; from Low Lat. _parabolāre_, to talk; whence also
_parlour_, a room for speaking in.--_Court_ comes from the old Fr.
_cort_; from Lat. _cohors_ or _cors_, an inclosed space. A _cohors_ was
a sheep-pen; but it was afterwards applied to a number of
soldiers.--_Assize_ comes from the old Fr. _assise_, an assembly of
judges; from the Lat. _assidēre_, to sit beside.--_Sue_ comes from the
old Fr. _suir_ (modern Fr. _suivre_); from the Lat. _sequi_, to follow.
We have from the same root the words _suit_, _suite_, _pursue_, _ensue_,
_issue_.--_Damages_, from the old Fr. _damáge_, which comes from the Low
Lat. _damnaticum_, harm; which comes from the Lat. _damnum_, loss.
33. (_e_) =Church.=--Friar, relic, tonsure, ceremony, etc.
_Friar_ is a word which comes from the old Fr. _freire_, which is
derived from the Lat. _frater_, a brother.--_Relic_, chiefly used
in the plural, from Fr. _reliques_; from Lat. _reliquiæ_,
remains.--_Tonsure_ comes from the Fr. _tonsure_; from Lat. _tonsura_,
a cutting.--_Ceremony_, from the Fr. _cérémonie_, a rite; from Lat.
_cærimonia_.
34. =SYNONYMS GIVEN US BY NORMAN-FRENCH.=--Among other benefits which we
have received from the coming in of Norman-French into our language, is
a number of synonyms.[11] These have enabled us to give a different
shade or colouring to certain words, or to put them to a special use.
Thus we speak of the _blessing_ of God, and the _benediction_ of a
clergy-man; of the _bloom_ on a peach, and the _flower_ of a lily; of a
person as a _member_ of a learned society, but not a _limb_. Now
_blessing_, _bloom_, and _limb_ are all English; _benediction_,
_flower_, and _member_ are all Latin words--Latin words which have come
to us through the doorway of the French language. The following are some
more of these synonyms; and, after examining them, it will generally be
found that the English words are stronger, simpler, and more homely
than the French words.
ENGLISH. FRENCH.
Bough Branch.
Buy Purchase.
Feeling Sentiment.
Friendly Amiable.
Hearty Cordial.
Luck Fortune.
Meal Flour.
Mild Gentle.
Wish Desire.
Work Labour.
Wretched Miserable.
Wright Carpenter.
35. =BILINGUALISM.=--During the three centuries which lay between 1066 and
1362, the English and the Normans had to meet each other constantly in
the field, in the church, at markets, and in towns and villages. They
had to buy and sell from each other; to give and take orders from and to
each other; and to speak with each other on many kinds of business. They
also intermarried. Thus the Norman got slowly into the habit of joining
an English word with his French word--so as to make it clear to the
Englishman; while the Englishman, on his side, joined the corresponding
French word--when he happened to know it--to the English word he had to
employ. These words, ever after, ran in couples; and this habit of going
in couples became a habit of the language. Hence it is that, in the
opening words of our Prayer-Book, we use such couples as _assemble_ and
_meet together_; _acknowledge_ and _confess_; _dissemble_ and _cloak_;
and _humble_ and _lowly_. The words _meet together_, _acknowledge_,
_cloak_, and _lowly_, represent the purely English part of the
congregation; while the Norman-French supplies such words as _assemble_,
_confess_, _dissemble_, and _humble_. The great poet of the fourteenth
century--Chaucer--has hundreds of examples of such phrases. He gives us,
for example, _hunting_ and _venerye_; _mirth_ and _jollity_; _care_ and
_heed_; _swinke_ and _labour_; _pray_ and _beseech_; a _wright_ and
_carpenter_. The practice of using these pairs of words has very greatly
diminished in our day; but a few examples still keep their place in the
language. Such are _will and testament_, _use and wont_, _aid and abet_,
and several others.
36. =DOUBLETS.=--It is chiefly to the same Norman-French influence that we
owe a minor phenomenon of the language--the appearance of two forms of
the same word. These two forms are called =doublets=. The Norman-French
could not pronounce our semi-vowel _w_. They had either to make a _v_ of
it, or a hard _g_. They preferred the hard _g_; and, to keep it hard,
they added a _u_. Thus, for _wile_, they said _guile_; for _wise_ (=
_manner_), they said _guise_; for _ward_, _guard_; for _warden_,
_guardian_; for _wardrobe_, _garderobe_; for _warrant_, _guarantee_; and
so on.
37. =DOUBLETS FROM DIALECTS AND OTHER SOURCES.=--Besides the doublets due
to Norman-French influences, there are many interesting cases which may
be referred to. Some are evidently due to differences of dialect. The
English language grew up from different centres, which had little or no
connection with each other, on account of the difficulties of
travelling. Hence a word would take different forms in different
dialects--like _church_ in the south of the English-speaking country,
and _kirk_ in the north; so also with _cole_, of which the northern form
is _kail_. Sometimes one word is merely a later and modified form of
another, as _draw_ of _drag_. In all cases doublets are forms of the
same word, which have come through different experiences of place, or
time, or other influence. In short, they should be recognised as really
one word, with a difference in spelling and meaning, resulting from its
history. Other specimens of doublets are _down_ and _dune_; _shriek_ and
_screech_; _shell_ and _scale_; _wagon_ and _wain_.
38. =PRONUNCIATION.=--The Norman-French refined our mode of speaking; made
the existing vowel-sounds less coarse; gave us some new vowel-sounds;
and, above all, taught us to give up most of our rough throat-sounds or
gutturals. They gradually turned out the gutturals from the beginning of
words; and _genoh_ became _enough_, and _gif_, _if_. They turned them
out of the middle of words; and _nagel_ became _nail_, and _hagel_,
_hail_. They got rid of them at the ends of words; and we no longer
pronounce the guttural in _flight_, _might_, _right_, and _sight_. This
is all the more absurd and remarkable that we write _the sound that
once was there_ with two strong gutturals, _g_ and _h_. Sometimes the
influence of the Norman-French was to turn the guttural into a kind of
hissing sound or sibilant; and it is in this way that we came to say
_teach_, _beseech_, and _catch_. But the _ch_ in these words comes back
to its older use, and becomes a _gh_ again, in the past tense--in
_taught_, _besought_, and _caught_.
39. =LATIN OF THE FOURTH PERIOD.=--The Latin introduced into our language
by the Norman-French was a _spoken_ Latin. It was the Latin of the _ear
and mouth_. It was the everyday speech of the people; and underwent very
great change. The Latin introduced into our language by learned men was
a _written_ or _printed_ Latin. It was the Latin of _the eye and pen_.
This Latin is called the _Latin of the Fourth Period_; and it was
brought into our language by a powerful movement known as the =Revival of
Learning=.--When the Turks took Constantinople in 1453, the learned
Greeks of that capital fled from the city, carrying with them their
precious manuscript copies of Greek and Latin writers. They fled into
Italy, into Germany, and into France and England. They taught Greek and
Latin in the universities of these countries; and very soon the study of
Greek and Latin became the fashion among all persons of leisure; and the
stores of thought and beauty in Homer and Sophocles, in Virgil and
Horace, were diligently studied and appropriated. Queen Elizabeth was a
good Greek scholar, and could both speak and write good Latin. Now began
to come into our language thousands of Latin words; until, in the
beginning of the seventeenth century, an eminent writer complains that
Englishmen will have ‘to learn Latin to understand English, and a work
will prove of equal facility in either.’ Unlike the Latin words of the
Third Period, the Latin words introduced in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries suffered little or no change. They were
transferred from Latin books just as they were--by the accurate aid of
the hand and eye, and underwent no process of change or corruption. The
Latin _opinio_ became _opinion_; _notio_, _notion_; _suggestio_,
_suggestion_; _separatum_, _separate_; _iteratum_, _iterate_; and so on.
It would be a great mistake, however, to suppose that all the Latin of
this _Fourth Period_ came _directly_ from the Latin. Most of it came
through the medium of French, as did the Latin of the _Third Period_;
but unlike it, it was not the language of the people. In French, as in
English, it was the language merely of books, of the literary and of
learned men.--It is worthy of notice that many words which we use every
day, and which we think must _always_ have been in the language, only
came in about this period, and are therefore comparatively new. Thus Mr
Gill, the high-master of St Paul’s School in 1619, and the teacher of
John Milton in his boyhood, complains of the introduction of words which
are now quite common to all of us. He says: ‘O harsh lips! I now hear
all around me such words as _common_, _vices_, _envy_, _malice_; even
_virtue_, _study_, _justice_, _pity_, _mercy_, _compassion_, _profit_,
_commodity_, _colour_, _grace_, _favour_, _acceptance_.’ The wonder
nowadays would be how we could possibly get on without these words, and
how we could ever have done without them.
40. =MOUTH LATIN AND BOOK LATIN.=--The introduction of Latin words into
our English speech by two doors--by the living conversation of living
people, and by the silent door of books, has given rise to a phenomenon
of the same kind as that described in section 36. But the phenomenon of
duplicates or =doublets= presents itself to our notice on a much larger
scale now; and, in every case, the duplicate word becomes in reality two
separate words--employed for separate purposes, and with perfectly
distinct meanings. Thus, though _legal_, _leal_, and _loyal_ are, in
their origin, fundamentally the same word, their meanings are perfectly
distinct and even widely different; _hospital_ and _hotel_ are the same
words, but they are no longer used in the same sense; while _fact_ and
_feat_ have also widely diverged from each other in use and in
signification. The Latin words that have come from the Latin language by
the path of books, have kept their Latin shape, and may be called _Book
Latin_. The Latin words that have come to us by the path of
Norman-French have undergone great alterations; and they may be called
_spoken Latin_. The chief process of alteration undergone by them is
that of _squeezing_; three syllables have generally been squeezed into
two. The following is a list:
=DUPLICATE WORDS OR DOUBLETS.=
LATIN. BOOK LATIN. SPOKEN LATIN.
Benedictio, benediction, benison.
Cadentia (things falling cadence, chance.
or befalling),
Captivus, captive, caitiff.
Conceptio, conception, conceit.
Cophinus, coffin, coffer.
Debitum, debit, debt.
Defectum, defect, defeat.
Dilatare, dilate, delay.
Exemplum, example, sample.
Fabrica, fabric, forge.
Factio, faction, fashion.
Factum, fact, feat.
Fidelitas, fidelity, fealty.
Fragilis, fragile, frail.
Gentilis, gentile, gentle, genteel.
Granum (a grain), granary, garner.
Historia, history, story.
Hospitale, hospital, hotel.
Lectio, lection, lesson.
Legalis, legal, loyal.
Major (greater), major, mayor.
Maledictio, malediction, malison.
Nutrimentum, nutriment, nourishment.
Oratio, oration, orison.
Pagus (a country district pagan, paynim (the heathen).
or canton),
Particula, particle, parcel.
Pauper, pauper, poor.
Penitentia, penitence, penance.
Persecutum, persecute, pursue.
Potio (a draught), potion, poison.
Providentia, providence, prudence.
Pungens, pungent, poignant.
Quietus, quiet, coy.
Radius, radius, ray.
Regalis, regal, royal.
Respectus, respect, respite.
Securus, secure, sure.
Senior, senior, sir.
Separatum, separate, sever.
Species, species, spices.
Status, state, estate.
Superficies, superficies, surface.
Tractus, tract, trait, treat.
Traditio (a giving up), tradition, treason.
NOTES.--_Benison_ is the opposite of _malison_. A _caitiff_ was a
person who _allowed_ himself to be taken captive. A _feat of arms_
was a _fact_ or _deed of arms_; hence a _feat_ par excellence. The
hard guttural _c_ in _fabric_ has become a sibilant _g_ in _forge_,
by Nor. Fr. influence. The _g_ in _fragile_ was originally hard.
_Major_ is a _greater captain_; a _mayor_ is a _greater alderman_.
_Orison_ may be compared with _benison_, _poison_, _reason_, and
_treason_. The _p_ in _separate_ has become a _v_ in _sever_; both
letters being _labials_. The cutting down of the five syllables in
_superficies_ into two in _surface_, is the most remarkable
instance of compression in the whole list.
Many of the _Book Latin_ words in the above list, such as _captive_,
_debit_, _defect_, _fact_, &c., were borrowed _directly_ from the Latin,
and not through the medium of French books.
41. =GREEK DOUBLETS.=--The same phenomenon has also taken place with
reference to Greek words. It is of course the newer form of these words
that was given us by the revival of learning; the older forms may have
existed in the language since the coming of Augustine in the end of the
sixth century.
GREEK. OLDER FORM. NEWER FORM.
Adamas, adamant, diamond.
Asphodĕlos, asphodel, daffodil.
Balsamon, balsam, balm.
Blasphemein, blaspheme, blame.
Cheirourgos, chirurgeon, surgeon.
Dactŭlos (a finger), date (the fruit), dactyl.
Phantasia, fancy, phantasy.
Phantasma, phantasm, phantasy.
Presbutĕros, priest, presbyter.
Paralysis, palsy, paralysis.
Scandalon, slander, scandal.
NOTES.--_Adamant_ means _the unsubduable_; a _chirurgeon_ is
literally a _worker with the hand_; _phantasia_ is the power of
_presenting to the mind’s eye_ a bodily image that is not present;
_presbuteros_ means simply _elder_. In the time of Shakspeare,
_fancy_ meant _love_. ‘Tell me where is fancy bred!’ is the first
line of a song in the _Merchant of Venice_.
42. =ENGLISH WORDS AND FRENCH WORDS IN SENTENCES.=--The difference between
English steeped in French and Latin, and English written almost wholly
in pure English words, can be at once seen in the two following
passages, which are taken from the work of Mr C. Schele De Vere, an
American writer.
(_a_) ‘The Norman _altered_ and _increased_ our _language_; but he could
not _extirpate_ it. To _defend_ his _conquest_, he took _possession_ of
the _country_; and, _master_ of the _soil_, he _erected_ _fortresses_
and _castles_, and _attempted_ to _introduce_ new _terms_. The
_universe_ and the _firmament_--the _planets_, _comets_, and
_meteors_--the _atmosphere_ and the _seasons_, all were _impressed_ with
the _seal_ of the _conqueror_. Hills became _mountains_, and dales
_valleys_; streams were called _rivers_, and brooks _rivulets_;
waterfalls, _cascades_; and woods, _forests_.’
All the words in italics in the above passage are either of Latin or of
French origin; if of French, then they are Latin at second-hand.
(_b_) ‘But the _dominion_ of the Norman did not _extend_ to the home of
the Englishman, it stopped at the threshold of his house; there, around
the fireside in his kitchen,[A] and the hearth in his room,[12] he met
his beloved kindred; the bride, the wife, and the husband, sons and
daughters, brothers and sisters, tied to each other by love, friendship,
and kind feelings, knew nothing dearer than their own sweet home.’
Only one word in the above is French (_dominion_), and two are Latin
(_extend_ and _kitchen_). All the others are purely English.
43. =ENGLISH WORDS LOST.=--The copious introduction of Norman-French,
Latin, and Greek terms into our language, had the effect of pushing a
great number of purely English words _out_ of our speech, or at least of
making them less frequent in use. Thus we used to say _fore-elders_, but
this word has had its place taken by _ancestors_; _fairhood_ has been
pushed out by _beauty_; and _wonstead_ by _residence_. In the same way,
_forewit_ has given place to _caution_; _licherest_[13] to _cemetery_;
_inwit_ to _conscience_; _bookhoard_ to _library_; and _hindersome_ to
_obstructive_. In fact, it is often easier for us to understand foreign
words than those of our own native home-grown speech. The title of an
old book written in the thirteenth century is the _Ayenbite[14] of
Inwyt_--a title which is to us much more intelligible in its
Franco-Latin translation of _Remorse of Conscience_. Mr Barnes, the
Dorsetshire poet, has tried to re-introduce the genuine homely English
way of speaking and writing; and to banish Latin terms. Thus, in his
_Grammar_ or ‘Book of Speech-Craft,’ he calls _singular_, _onely_;
_plural_, _somely_; and he calls _degrees of comparison_, _pitches of
suchness_. The difficulty he has to contend with is, that this home
English is less intelligible to our modern ears than the foreign Latin.
Thus the following sentence looks like a word-puzzle: ‘These pitch-marks
off mark sundry things by their sundry suchnesses, as, “The _taller_ or
_less tall_ man of the two is my friend.”’ And he also says--what is a
useful warning for us: ‘Speech was shapen of the breath-sounds of
speakers, for the ears of hearers; and not from speech-tokens (letters)
in books, for men’s eyes.’