2. Test the extent of the intermarriages among these words by successively
attaching each of the prefixes to each of the main (or key) syllables.
(Thus re-ject, re-fer, re-pel, etc.)
<Two Admonitions>
In tracing verbal kinships you must be prepared for slight variations in
the form of the same key-syllable. Consider these words: wise, wiseacre,
wisdom, wizard, witch, wit, unwitting, to wit, outwit, twit, witticism,
witness, evidence, providence, invidious, advice, vision, visit, vista,
visage, visualize, envisage, invisible, vis-à-vis, visor, revise,
supervise, improvise, proviso, provision, view, review, survey, vie, envy,
clairvoyance. Perhaps the last six should be disregarded as too
exceptional in form to be clearly recognized. And certainly some words, as
_prudence_ from _providentia_, are so metamorphosed that they
should be excluded from practical lists of this kind. But even in the
words left to us there are fairly marked divergences in appearance. Why?
Because the key-syllable has descended to us, not through one language,
but through several. As good verbal detectives we should be able to
penetrate the consequent disguises; for _wis, wiz, wit, vid, vic_,
and _vis_ all embody the idea of seeing or knowing.
On the other hand, you must take care not to be misled by a superficial
resemblance into thinking two unrelated key-syllables identical. Let us
consider two sets of words. The first, which is related to the _tain_
group (see <Tain> below), has a key-syllable that means holding:
tenant, tenement, tenure, tenet, tenor, tenable, tenacious, contents,
contentment, lieutenant, maintenance, sustenance, countenance,
appurtenance, detention, retentive, pertinacity, pertinent, continent,
abstinence, continuous, retinue. The second has a key-syllable that means
stretching: tend, tender, tendon, tendril, tendency, extend, subtend,
distend, pretend, contend, attendant, tense, tension, pretence, intense,
intensive, ostensible, tent, tenterhook, portent, attention, intention,
tenuous, attenuate, extenuate, antenna, tone, tonic, standard. The form of
the key-syllable for the first set of words is usually _ten, tent_,
or _tin_; that for the second _tend, tens, tent_, or _ten_.
You may therefore easily confuse the two groups until you have learned to
look past appearances into meanings. Thenceforth the holdings and the
stretchings will be distinct in your mind--will constitute two great
families, not one. Of course individual words may still puzzle you. You
will not perceive that _tender_, for example, belongs with the
stretchings until you go back to its primary idea of something stretched
thin, or that _tone_ has membership in that family until you connect
it with the sound which a stretched chord emits.