Words ending in silent _e_ after _u_ or a consonant generally drop the
_e_ on taking an additional termination beginning with a vowel; as, sale,
_salable_; plague, _plaguy_; sue, _suing_; eye, _eying_.
EXCEPTION I.—Words ending in _ce_ and _ge_ retain _e_
before _able_ and _ous_; as, service, _serviceable_; trace,
_traceable_; courage, _courageous_; advantage, _advantageous_.
EXCEPTION II.—Compounds and prefixes retain _e_; as,
_firearms_, _foreordain_, _pole-axe_, _vice-admiral_,
_fire-engine_.
_Remark._—From singe, springe, swinge, tinge, we write
_singeing_, _springeing_, _swingeing_, _tingeing_, to
distinguish from _singing_, _springing_, _swinging_, and
_tinging_. _Dyeing_, from dye, retains _e_, to distinguish it
from _dying_, the present participle of die. Mile retains _e_
in _mileage_. Derivatives from proper names of persons retain
_e_; as, _daguerreotype_, _morseograph_.