i PE 1628 .W3 1895 Copy 1 Jiff A ** Counting^ou^e €fcitiom DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, EXPLANATORY, PRONOUNCING, ETYMOLOGICAL, AND SYNONYMOUS. WITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING COMMERCIAL AND OTHER USEFUL TABLES. MAINLY ABRIDGED FROM THE LATEST EDITION OF THE QUARTO DICTIONARY OF NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D., Br WILLIAM G. WEBSTER t AND WILLIAM A. WHEELEE. SWus'tratrir &tt!) max* tfjau Hfttct ^untotf aiiir Jftftp (£njjrabw§3 on 22afl0a. m^W NEW YOEK: IVISON, BLAKEMAN, TAYLOE, & CO. SPRINGFIELD, MASS. : G. & C. MERRIAM. CINCINNATI, OHIO: VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG, & CO. J ! . _ s.\ \> J " *r * a Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867. by G. & C. Merkiam, the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE This work, originally prepared by Mr. William G. Webster, with the co-oper- ation of the late Professor Chauncey A. Goodrich of Yale Gollege, was first pub- lished in 1856. While it was framed with a particular reference to the wants of students in our colleges, academies, and other advanced schools, aM also of those engaged in private study, it was at the same time designed for use in the family, the office, and the counting-house, and among all who might desire to obtain a com- prehensive dictionary of small size and cost. The present revision has been made by Mr. William A. Wheeler, one of the editors of the revised edition of Webster's Quarto Dictionary issued in 1864. Keep- ing in view the general plan of the abridgment as just stated, he has not only brought the work into full conformity with the revised Quarto, but has considerably enlarged its scope, and proportionally increased its usefulness. In its present form, this volume comprises a copious and careful selection of English words in actual use at the present day, shows their correct orthography and pronunciation, gives their etymology in a concise manner, and exhibits their various shades of signification by means of formal definition conveyed for the most part in briaf descriptive sentences or clauses. In some thousands of cases, a list of Syn- onyms, printed in a separate paragraph and in smaller type, is subjoined to the defini- tions; and, in addition, synonymous words, to the number of about seventeen hun- dred, are carefully discriminated in nearly six hundred distinct articles. Wood-cuts, selected and engraved expressly for the work, have been freely introduced, not as mere embellishments, but for the purpose of leading to a better understanding of the terms under which they occur. The Introduction contains a concise and authen- tic exposition of the subject of English orthoepy, a very full collection of Rules for Spelling, and an explanatory list of Prefixes and Suffixes, with appropriate example* of their use. The character and range of the Appendix will be best understood by referring to the various Tables included in it, or by an inspection of the Contents on page v. Its leading object, however, is to add to the value of the work as a (Hi) Iv PREFACE. popular manual of reference, by presenting in a form adapted for ready consultation pronouncing vocabularies of proper names, and brief explanations of certain other matters concerning which information is often desired by readers and writers of every class. The attention of bankers, merchants, and business men in general, is particularly requested to the Commercial Tables on pages 549-630. These tables are in part the products of original research, and in part they are compilations from the best sources. The portion relating to Money, Weights, and Measures has been prepared by Mr. E. B. Elliott, of the United States Treasury Department, at Washington, a gentleman well known as a statistician and cambist. Mr. Elliott has also revised with scrupulous care the proof-sheets of this portion of the work, which, the Editor confi- dently believes, will be found comprehensive, practical, and thoroughly satisfactory. The " T ible giving the Currency, Rate of Interest, Penalty for Usury, and Laws in regard to the Collection of Debts," etc., presents in a small compass much useful information, and supplies a want not filled by any other similar work of reference. Such are the chief features of this Dictionary, which, as it now stands, revised in all its departments, and enriched by many important additions, considerably exceeds its original limits ; the size of the page having been somewhat increased, and more than one hundred pages added to the number contained in the former edition. In the arrangement of words, while a strict alphabetical order is followed, words of the same form — whether etymologically related or not — are not treated in dis- tinct articles, but the definition of one immediately follows that of another in the same paragraph, being separated from it only by a dash; as, " Ab'o-rig'i-nal, «. First or primitive. — n. A first or original inhabitant." This has been done to save space ; but the inspector will find that facility of reference has not been sacri- ficed to the necessity for compression. In submitting this work to the judgment of the public, the Editor indulges the hope that the protracted labor and unremitting care he has bestowed upon it have resulted in the production of a Dictionary which will be found to answer all the purposes for which it is intended. Wilt t am A. Wheeler. CONTENTS. PAGE KEY TO THE PRONUNCIATION vi PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION vil to xxii Vowels, vii YOWELS IN MONOSYLLABLES AND ACCENTED SYLLABLES, vii REGULAR OR PROPER DIPHTHONGS, XJ VOWELS IN UNACCENTED SYLLABLES xi SILENT VOWELS ^ . xii CONSONANTS . . Xiii ASSIMILATION OF CONSONANTS XIX DUPLICATION OF CONSONANTS xix Accent ... xix DIVIDED USAGE XIX DISSYLLABLES XX TRISYLLABLES AND POLYSYLLABLES XX Syllabication xxii RULES FOR SPELLING CERTAIN CLASSES OF WORDS xxii to xxvi PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES xxvii to xxxi ABBREVIATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS xxxii A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE . . . . l to 486 APPENDIX. PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OP GREEK AND LATIN PROPER NAMES 487 to 495 PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF SCRIPTURE PROPER NAMES 496 to 601 PRONOUNCING VOCABULARIES OF MODERN GEOGRAPHICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL NAMES 602 to 619 elements of pronunciation of the principal modern languages of continental europe .602 explanation of abbreviations and signs 604 vocabulary of modern geographical names 606 Vocabulary of Modern Biographical Names 614 PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF ENGLISH CHRISTIAN NAMES, WITH THEIR DERIVA- TION, SIGNIFICATION, ETC 520 to 525 Names of Men 620 Names of Women 623 CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES 626. 527 QUOTATIONS, WORDS, PHRASES, PROVERBS, ETC., FROM THE GREEK, THE LATIN, AND MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES 628 to 533 METRIC SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES . 534 ABBREVIATIONS USED IN WRITING AND PRINTING 535 to 538 ARBITRARY SIGNS USED IN WRITING AND PRINTING 539 to £41 A CONCISE ACCOUNT OF THE CHIEF DEITIES, HEROES, ETC., IN THE GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY 542 to 548 TABLES OF MONEY, WEIGHT, AND MEASURE OF THE PRINCIPAL COMMERCIAL COUN- TRIES IN THE WORLD 649 to 598 TABLE SHOWING THE INTRINSIC VALUES OF THE PRINCIPAL GOLD AND SILVER COINS OF DIFFERENT FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND THE RATES FIXED BY LAW AT WHICH THEY SHALL BE RECEIVED IN PAYMENT OF CUSTOMS DUES 699 to 603 TABLES OF THE CHIEF COMMERCIAL WEIGHTS AND MEASURES OF DIFFERENT COUN- TRIES. REDUCED TO THE LEGAL STANDARDS OF THE UNITED STATES 604 to 608 A CLASSIFIED SELECTION OP PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATIONS 609 to 620 KEY TO THE PRONUNCIATION, VOWELS. K, A, long, as in A, X, short ,0,8 in E, E, long, as in £, E, short, as in I, I, long, as in . I, t, short, as in . REGULAR LONG AND SHORT SOUNDS. Old, Note, L5af, Deposb. ale, Fate, Chamber, Gray. Add, Fat, Have, RXndom. Eve, Mete, Peace, Seizure £nd, Met, Check, Leopard. Ice, Fine, Mire, Thrive. Ill, Fin, AdmKt, Tribute. odd, Not, TSrrid, Resolvts. Use, Tube, Lute, Feudal. Cs, Tub, but, Study. Fly, Style, Sky, Edify. Cyst, Nymph, Lyric, Abyss. A, A, as in A, X, Italian, as in . . A , A, as in . . . . A, A, broad, as in . . A, A, like short o,as in E, E, like a, as in . . E,E, like long a, as in E , £ , as in . . . . T, i, like long e, as in . I.I, like e.asin . Iir, Share, Pair, Bear, arm, Father, Bar, Palm. Ask, Grass, Dance, Branch All, Talk, Haul, Swarm. What, Wander, Wallow. Ere, There, Heir, Where Eight, Prey, Obbjy. Ermine, VErge, PrefEr. Pique, Machine, Police. Irksome, VIrgin, Thirsty 0, b,long, as in . 0, 6, short, as in U, U, long, as in tJ, u, short, as in Y, Y, long,&s in Y, Y, short, as in OCCASIONAL SOUNDS. 6,6, like short «,as in Other, D6ne, S6n, W6n. 0, o,like long oo, as in Prove, Do, Move, Tomb. 0, p, like short oo, as in BpsOM, WpLF, WpMAN. 6, 6, like broad a, as in Order, Form, Stork. 00, o"b,asin . . . Moon, Fo"od, Booty. 00, ob, as in . . . Wo"ol, Fo~bT, Go~bD. IJ, y, preceded by r, as in Rude , Rumor, Rural. U, u, like short oo, as in Bull, Put, Push, Pull. U, u,asin . . . . Urge, Burn, Furl, Concur. E, I, o, silent . ToKijN, Cousin, Mason. REGULAR DIPHTHONGAL SOUNDS. Oi, oi, or Oy, oy (unmarked), as in Oil, Join, Moist, Oyster. Ou, ou, or Ow, ow (unmarked), as in Out, Hound, Owl, Vowel. CONSONANTS. 9, C, soft, like s sharp, as in . £ede, Qite, Mercy. €J, -e, hard, like k, as in . Ch, ch (unmarked), as in Qh, CH, soft, like sh, as in €h, ch, hard, like k, as in G, G, hard, as in . . . 0, G, soft, like j, as in . -Gall, -Concur, Success. Child, Much, Touch, (^haise, Marchioness. -Chorus, Echo, Distich. Get, Tiger, Begin. Gem, Engine, Elegy. S, s, sharp (unmarked), as in SAME, Yes, Rest. S, g, soft or vocal, like z, as in Ha§, Amu§E, ROSEATE. Th, th, sharp (unmarked), as in T-H, ,TH fat or vocal, as in . . Ng, ng (unmarked), as in . . N, n, (See § 82), as in . . X, £, like gz, as in Ph, ph, like/(unmarked), as in Qu, QU, like lew (unmarked), as in Wh, wh, like hw (unmk'd), as in Zh, ZH, as in Thing, Breath. Thine, Smooth. Sing, Single. Linger, Link. Exist, Auxiliary. Phantom, Sylph. Queen, Conquest. What, Awhile. Vision (yizh'un). *** When one letter of an improper diphthong, or of a triphthong, is marked, it is to be taken as representing the sound of th» combination, and the letter or letters which are not marked are to be regarded as silent; as in dim, clean, ceil, people, r.qute, soul, Journal, tow, &c. The combined letters ce, ci, sci, se, si, or ti, occurring before a vowel in a syllable immediately preceded by an accented syllable, are generally equivalent to sh ; as in o/cean, ceta'ceous, so/ci'al, logi'cmn, suspicion, auspi/cious, con/science, nau/seous, controversial, dissen/sion, initial, ora/^'on, flcti/ftous, &c. Such syllables are not always respelled, as, in general, they will naturally be pronounced correctly by an English speaker. But in all exceptional, doubtful, or difficult cases, the appropriate respelling is used. V For an explanation of foreign sounds occurring in the Dictionary see pp. 502-504. RESPELLING FOR PRONUNCIATION. —(1.) In respelling the French an, en, on, &c, the letters ng are not to be pro- nounced themselves, being designed simply to mark the vowel as nasal, that is, as pronounced through both the nose and the month at the same time. — (2.) The respelling of a word when a number of related words follow, applies to all of them down to some other word which is respelled. ACCENT. - The principal accent is denoted by a heavy mark; the secondary, by a lighter mark; as in Su'perinten-d'ent. In the division of words into syllables, these marks, besides performing their proper office, supply the place of the hyphen, except in some compound and derivative words. Cvi) PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION, WITH EXPLANATIONS OF THE KEY. VOWELS. § 1. The vowel sounds in monosyllables and accented syllables are marked in the Dictionary by pointing the let- ters according to the Key. Each of the vowels will now be considered under three heads ; namely, its regitlar long, and short, and its occasional sounds, as heard in monosyllables and in accented and unaccented syllables. I. VOWELS IN MONOSYLLABLES AND ACCENTED SYLLABLES. § 2. Regular long sound, marked A, a, as in ah ; heard also in pain, day, gaol, gauge, aye, break, veil, whey, &c. Note. — This sound of a is in most cases dipthongal, having a slight " vanish " in e annexed to its " radical" or initial sound, as in pay, where the y may be regarded as representing the vanish. Writers are not agreed as to the nature of the radical part, some eousidering it to be the sound of short e, while others assert that it is a distinct, though very similar, element, being like the other long vowels as compared wich their true corresponding short sounds, of a slightly less open quality. — See § 11, and § 8, Note. § 3. Regular short sound, marked ]L, 3, as in add; heard also in plaid, bade, &c. Note. — This is a distinct element from the long a. Like the other shut or stopped vowels (6, T, 6, u, oo), its sound is exceedingly short, and has a certain abrupt, ex- plosive character, which is hardly found in any language but our own. With respect to its position in the scale cf sounds, it is a palatal vowel, intermediate between a and £, the tongue being raised higher than for d, and not so high as for e\ Occasional, Sounds of A. § 4. Sound of a before r, in such words as air, care, fare, bear, prayer, parent, marked A, a. The letter e has the same sound in a f ~w words, such as tliere, where, their, heir, &c. Two errors in opposite extremes are here to be avoided : 1. That of the vulgar, who pronounce where, whar ; bear, bar ; careful, earful, &c. ; 2. That of some among the educated classes, who pronounce pair, parent, &c, as if Bpelt pay'er, pay'rent, &c. Some have considered the a in care as a distinct element ; this, however, is not admitted by Smart, who maintains that it is our long a inflate, and owes all its peculiarity to the subsequent r. Such. also, is the statement of Dr Web- ster and most English orthoepists. The sound of r in these words is what Smart calls a ,; guttural vibration," — a sound which he represents by vr, and Dr. Webster by er. In care we touch lightly on the a sound (the radical alone I without the vanish ; see § 2), and then pass fully and l strongly into the guttural vibration (ca'ur or co/er), draw- i ing the two as closely as possible into the same syllable — I so closely that Smart (not aiming at philosophical exact- ! ness) speaks of the r as actually blending with the previous vowel. In like manner, parent is sounded pa'ur-ent, or pa.'. j er-ent ; and fairy has the sound of faer-y, a3 the word was ! actually spelt by Spenser in his ( - Faery Queen.'" Smart ! refers, also, with approbation, to another mode of identify- ' ing the sound in question ; namely, that of prolonging our short e before r. Thus, ther (with the e as in then ), drawn I out into long quantity, gives us there (thar) ; and er (the first syllable in e;-ror) gives us ere or e'er (sir). Thus, in the view here presented, the initial sound should always be that of a in fate (the radical without the vanish ; see § 2), though the final impression upon the ear is that of an open or broad sound, in consequence of the ct opening power " of the r. In primitive words like flare, lair, pair, and the others mentioned above, it is very important not to dwell so long on the a as to make it diphthongal ; for, if the close vanishing element of the vowel is retained, it is impossible for the open r to blend with it in the same syllable. But in derivative words like flayer, layer, payer, it is essential to preserve the terminational sound of the a, in order to keep up a distinction between the two classes. Some, however, especially in New England, give these words a slightly different sound ; namely, that of our short a before the r. in air, pronounced der, with a somewhat lengthened sound of the a. This sound is rather more open than the one mentioned above, and is apt, in the mouths of our common people, to become too broad and coarse. If well executed, however, it is scarcely at all inferior to the other in smoothness and grace. It is frequently heard among the well-educated in England ; there is a tendency j in many to intermingle the two, and it often requires a nice ear to determine which is used. Dr. Webster, who adopted the former in hi3 own practice, once remarked to the writer that he regarded the difference as unimportant, provided the New England sound be given without coarse- ness or undue breadth. § 5. Sound of the Italian a, marked A, a, as in drrru, father, far ; heard also in alt, hearth, aunt, guard, are, &o. Note. — This sound occurs in monosyllables and'in the accented syllable of many words, before r final or r fol- lowed by another consonant (as in scar, tar, tart, yard, de-bar', de-part'), and in the derivatives of such words (as in scarred, tarry, of, or resembling, tar, debarring). But when a occurs in an accented syllable, before r followed' by a vowel or by another r, in a word not a derivative, it has its regular short sound, as in arable, barrow, t&rry, Co delay. The Italian a is the most open of all the vowel sounds, l-m\ vm PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION. and is one of the extremes of the vowel scale, the other extremes being e and 6b. In its formation, the mouth and throat are opened widely, and the tongue is left iu its nat- ural position of rest. It was formerly much more common in English than it is at the present day. The loss of it to go great an extent has been an injury to our language, and any further exclusion of it is therefore undesirable. § 6. Sound of a in certain words (chiefly monosyllables) ending in ff, ft, ss, st, sk, sp, with a few in nee, and nt, marked A, a, as in staff", graft, pass, last, ask, gasp, chance, chant, &c. NOTE . — Down to the close of the last century, words of this class were universally pronounced with the full Italian a. Some, especially among the vulgar, gave this too broad- ly, or with a kind of drawl {as pass like pahss, fast like fahst), so that Walker, disgusted with this abuse, and having a prejudice against intermediate sounds, marked all such words in his Dictionary by the sound of short a, giving the vowel in past, staff, &c, the sound of that in pat, Stdffa (the island), &c. It will not be surprising — if we bear in mind the remark in § 3 on the extreme short- ness and abruptness of this sound — that this change was strongly condemned by the orthoepists. Jones declared it to be " a mincing affectation ; " and Mitford said, " No English tongue fails to express, no English ear to perceive, the difference between the sound of a in passing and in passive. No colloquial familiarity will substitute the one for the other." Still, the high character of Walker, and the increasing disgust for every thing like a drawl in speaking, gave currency to the change. It prevailed in London, and in some of the larger cities of America, until there sprung up, on both sides of the Atlantic, what Smart has called a " new school " and an " old school " on this subject. The extreme shortness of the a as marked by Walker, was still objected to ; and Smart, in his Dictionary, first published in 1836, censured Walker on this account, saying, "He allows no compromise between the broad Italian a, with which a vulgar mouth pronounces ass, and the sound nar- rower (if possible) than the a in at, with which an ^fleeted speaker minces the same word." He therefore spoke of a " medium sound " of the a iu words of this class, saying, " We are apt, even in London, to give a slight prolongation to the vowel (a) which would, in other cases, be quite rus- tic." This prolongation has passed into America, and is now heard extensively among the followers of Walker in this country. It is a kind of drawl on the a in such words as last, past, fast, &c. Smart states, however, in a recent letter, that in England this prolongation is now wholly laid aside. " Custom with us," he remarks, "is much changed. It is no longer affectation to say ass ; and grant, graft, &c, at present indicate the pronunciation of well-educated Lon- don people under sixty-five or sixty years of age. 1 ' In other words, Walker's extreme short sound of staff, like Staffa, and pass like passive, is now adopted by many Londoners as the true and only proper sound. The change introduced by Walker never had any great currency in this country, except in a few large cities and iu places immediately affected by their influence. Our leading lexicographers, Webster and Worcester, declared against it. Many who were taught it in childhood have since laid it aside ; and there is an increasing disposition among our teachers and literary men to unite on some in- termediate sound between the extreme broadness, or length, of the a in father, and the extreme narrowness, or shortness of the a in fat. That of Smart (mentioned above as now dis- used was intermediate in quantity : and so also is another, which Fulton and Knight have introduced into their Dic- tionary, namely, a shortened sound of the Italian a. They give the word "lard" as an example of the long Italian sound (as in father ■, &c.), and " last " of their short Italian pound ; and mark with the latter the entire class of words now under consideration, such as staff, graft, pass, last, ask, gasp, and a few words in nee and nt, as dance, and chant. In this way thev guard against that undue prolon- gation of the o which offended Walker, and still retain in use one of the finest sounds of our language. This is the sound recommended in this volume, and marked A, a. Some might possibly prefer one a little less open, verging slightly more towards that of a in an ; and there is cer- tainly room here for a diversity of taste and practice among those who agree in the main point of rejecting the extreme shortness of Walker's sound. If it be proposed, however, to give these words a sound intermediate in quality between the Italian a and our short a, one thing is important to be considered. Mr. Smart states, in answer to an inquiry om the subject, that, although he can exemplify such a sound, he is not aware that any thiug of the kind is used among the educated classes in England. The only alternative there seems to be between the Italian a ar;d the extreme short sound of Walker ; and it is natural and desirable that those among us who reject the latter should adopt the same sound with those who led the way in that rejection upon the other side of the Atlantic. Any one who" heard the lectures of Mr. Thackeray during his Tisit to this coun- try in 1855-56, and noticed his pronunciation with reference to this subject, must have been struck with the definite sound of the Italian a which he gave to all words of this class. He even gave that sound in the word answer, which, though common in England, is comparatively rare in Amer- ica. A gentleman who held for many years a high diplo- matic station at the court of St. James, told the writer that, except among Londoners, he almost uniformly heard the Italian a in such cases, especially among the officers of government, and the nobility and gentry with whom he was led to associate. Such, also, is said by members of Oxford and Cambridge to be the case now at those univer- sities ; and some of the most eminent preachers of the king- dom, such as the Bishop cf Oxford (Wilberforce), have been mentioned in confirmation of this remark. It is for such reasons that the words in question are here marked with a shortened or brief sovnd ot the Italian a, in accordance with the views and practice of Dr. Webster. § 7. Sound of broad a, marked A, a, as in all, talk, haul, swarm ; heard also in sauce, awe, geCrgic, fork, grCat, bought, &c. Note. — This has sometimes been called the German a, but is a broader and more guttural sound, being formed by a depression of the larynx, and a consequent retraction of the tongue, which enlarges the cavity of the mouth poste- riorly. § 8. Short sound of broad a, marked A, a, as in what, wander, wallow, &c. ; heard also in knowledge. NOTE. — This is the extreme short sound of broad a, and coincides with the sound of o in not. It differs, however, in quality as well as quantity from broad a, being a more open sound ; that is to say, the aperture of the lips and the internal cavity of the mouth, though of the same shape in both cases, are somewhat larger for the former (a) than for the latter (a), while the position of the tongue remains unaltered throughout. Nor is this difference peculiar to a and a ; it also exists between the other pairs of vowel sounds that have essentially the same organic formation, but differ in length or duration : in each case, that which is the briefer in quantity is the more open in quality of the two. There is a sound of a, as heard in salt, although, &c., which is intermediate between that in awe and that in what. No distinctive mark is used to indicate this intermediate sound, but the inquirer is referred to this section from all words in the vocabulary in which the sound occurs. — See § 21, Note. § 9 . An exceptional sound of a occurs in the words any^ many. It is as if they were spelled en'y, men'y, being the regular short sound of e. E. § 10. Regular long sound, marked E, S, as in £ve, mMe. PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION. &c. ; heard also in Ccesar, beard, feet, leisure, people, key, machine, field, oesophagus, quay, &c. Note. — In the formation of this element, the tongue is raised convexly within the dome of the palate, pressing against its sides, and leaving only the smallest possible pas- sage through which a vowel sound can be uttered. E is therefore the closest lingual or palatal vowel, and is one of the extremes of the natural vowel scale, d and oo being the ©ther extremes. § 11. Regular short sound, marked £, e, as in £nd, met ; heard also in many, aphceresis, said, says, feather, heifer, leopard, friend, asafixtida, bury, guess. NOTE. — This is not a short sound of the long e. It has usually been considered as the shut or extreme short sound of the a in fate; but most orthoepist3 at the present day, while allowing it to be a nearly related sound, regard it as distinct, being slightly more open than the radical part of d, and lacking the vanish : both are intermediate between a and e, the tongue not being so much depressed as for the former, nor raised so hish toward the palate as for the latter. — See § 2, and § 3, NOTE. Occasional, Sounds of E. § 12. Sound of e like a (as in care, fair, bear, &ca, marked E, e, as in ere, thzre, Mir, Per, &c. This, as is stated in § 4, is the same sound with that of a in care. — See §4. § 13. Sound of e like a, marked E, e, as in eh, eight, prey, vein, &c — See § 2. NOTE. — This is essentially the sound which this letter generally has in the leading modern languages of Continen- tal Europe. § 14. Sound of e before r, verging toward the sound of u in urge, marked E, e, as in ermine, verge, prefer ; heard also in earnest, mirth, myrtle, &c. NOTE. — The case here contemplated is that of e before r, in a monosyllable or in an accented syllable in which the r is not followed by a vowel or by another r, or in derivatives of such words, when the syllable retains its accent, as in herd, defer, deferring, err, erring, term, merry , maternal. When e occurs before r, followed by a vowel or by another r, in a word not derived as above, it either has the short sound, as in ferry, peril, perilous, heritage, ferule, or the long sound, as in period, hero, material. The vulgar universally, and many cultivated speakers both in England and America, give the e in such words the full sound of u in urge, as, murcy for mercy, turm for term, &c. But, in the most approved style of pronunciation, the organs are placed in a position intermediate between that requisite for sounding Ti and that for sounding S, thus making (as Smart observes) " a compromise between the two." In other words, this element is radically distinct from both ft and g, being less guttural than the former and less palatal thavthe iatter, from which it was doubtless originally evolved. I. § 15. Regular long sound, marked T, I, as in ice ; heard also in aisle, height, eying, eye, vie, guile, buy, thy, rye, &c. ; in pint, in child, mild, wild ; and in monosyllables ending with nd, as bind, find, kind, &c, except wind, meaning air in motion, and wind, to scent, to cause to lose or to recover wind or breath. Note. — This sound, though represented by a single character, is not a simple element, but a diphthong. It is composed of a and c as extremes, with the a accented, but made so very brief that the ear with difficulty recognizes the precise character of the sound. § 16. Regular short sound, marked I, t, as in W,; heard also in English, beaufin, been, sieve, women, busy, guinea, nymph, &c. Note . — This is not a short sound of long i. Many have considered it as the shut or extreme short sound of long e ; but it is really a distinct, though closely allied, element, and is so regarded by the best orthoepists at the present time. In its formation, the tongue is slightly relaxed from the position assumed for producing e; this is the only dif- ference between the two sounds. — See § 3, Note, and § 8, Note. Occasional, Sounds of I. § 17. Sound of i like that of long e, marked I, Y, as in pique, machine, caprice, &c. — See § 10. Note. — This is appropriately the sound of i in all for- eign languages. Most of the English words in which this sound is represented by this letter are from the French. § 18. Sound of i before r, verging toward u in urge, marked I, T, as in irksome, virgin, thirsty, &c, identical with that of e in ermine. NOTE. — Jin this case is sounded by many speakers like u, as vurgin for virgin. The observations made under § 14 as to short e in words like ermine, verdure, &c, apply fully to this sound of the i. O. §19. Regular long sound, marked 0, 5, as in did; heard also in hautboy, beau, yeoman, sew, roam, hoe, door, shoulder, grow, owe, &c. Note. — This sound of o is in most cases diphthongal, having a slight " vanish " in oo annexed to the " radical " or initial sound, as in below, where the w may be regarded as representing the vanish. The radical part of the sound is a simple element, intermediate with respect to the mode of its formation, between a and oo, the tongue being less depressed than for a, and the labial aperture greater than for oo. It is essentially the same element as that described in the next section, but of a slightly less open quality. The vanish of the o is omitted in unaccented syllables, as in o-pin'ion, to-bac'co, &c, but ought not to be omitted else- where. This remark is important as bearing on a very prevalent error, which will be mentioned in the next sec- tion. § 20. I* is exceedingly common, in some parts of the United States, to shorten the long o of certain words, as bolt, most, only, Sec, by dropping the vanishing element which belongs to the vowel, and giving to the radical por- tion a somewhat more open quality ; but this practice is wholly opposed to English usage. The provincialism here pointed out obtains, more or less widely, in respect to the following words, namely : boat, bolster, bolt, bone, both, broke, broken, choke, cloak, close, a., coach, coat, coax, colt, colter, comb, dolt, folks, goad, hold, holm, holster, home, homely, hope, jolt, load, molten, most, molt, none, only, open, pole, polka, potdtice, poultry, revolt, road, rode, rogue, soap, sloth, smoke, sofa, sol (the name of the note G of the musi- cal scale), spoke, v., spoken, stone, story, swollen (or swoln), throat, toad, upholsterer, upholstery, whole, wholly, whole- some, wrote, yoke, yolk, and possibly a few others. Most persons in New England sound the o in a part or all of these words without the vanish, while some among th© vulgar go further, and give to a number of them almost the sound of short u, as hum for home, &c. They should all, however, have the full sound of the o as heard in ac- cented syllables, though not in all cases with quite the same prolongation of the sound. Thus the full o of dome should be given to home ; of hole to whole ; of slope to hope ; of poach to coach ; of moat to coat ; of joke to spoke, cloak, smoke, and broke ; of hone to bone and stone ; and similarly in the other cases. Still, the theoretic phonolo- gist can not but regard the true short o described in thii section as an important and legitimate member of the fanv PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION. ily of vowel sounds, and must look upon its absence in the established orthoepy of our language as a defect and an anomaly. To him, therefore, its rise and growth in the popular speech are interesting facts, and its final preva- lence and admittance to equal rights with the other vowels is a thing he would rather desire than deprecate. § 21. Regular short sound, marked 0, 6, as in odd, nSt ; heard also in wander, knowledge, &c. — See § 3, Note, and § 9. Note. — This is the shut or extreme short sound of broad a, and coincides with the sound of a in what. There is a medium sound of this letter which is neither so short as in not, nor so long as in naught. This medium sound is usually given to the short o when directly followed by ss, si, and tli, as in cross, cost, broth; also, in gone, cough, trough, off, and some other words. To give the extreme ehort sound to such words is affectation ; to give them the full sound of broad a is vulgar. Occasional Sounds of 0. § 22. Sound of o like short u, marked 6, 6, as in other, dove, &c. ; heard also in does, g&n, flood, double, &c. — See § 31. § 23. Sound of o like do long, marked 0, o, as in prove, do, move, tomb, &c. — See § 26. § 24. Sound of o like do short, marked 0, q, as in bosom, wolf, woman, &c. — See § 8, Note, and § 27. NOTE. — This sound coincides with that of u in bull, which is also used for 00 short. — See § 33. § 25. Sound of like a (broad a), marked o, 6, as in 6rder,fGrm, stCrk, &c. — See § 1. NOTE. — The letter generally has this sound when it occurs before r in a monosyllable" fas in fCr, form, lOrd, north) or in an accented syllable when not followed by a vowel or by another r, as in fdr'mer, Or' 'chard, abh£r'. and also in the derivatives of such words, as iu formed, north'- ern, abhGr'ring. But when occurs, in an accented syllable, before r followed b3^ a vowel or by another r in a word not a derivative, it has its regular short sound, as in for' eign, Sr'ange, tor'rid. These two sounds of o, namely, the broad, like that of a in call, and the short, like that of a in what, have been confounded by some orthoepists ; but there is an obvious difference between them, not only in quantity, but also in quality, the short vowel being more open than the broad. — See § 8, Note. OO. § 26. Regular long or open sound, marked 0~0, Co, as in moon, food ; heard also in rheum, drew, to, canoe, man- oeuvre, group, rude, rue, recruit, &c. Note. — This sound is the same element with the u of the Germans, Spaniards, and Italians, and coincides with the French ou in route. It is the closest labial vowel ; that is to say, in forming it the lips are more neariy closed than for any other vowel, the sides being brought into contact with each other so as to leave only a small central aperture for the escape of the voice. § 27. Regular short sound of 00, marked 0*0, cTo, as in wool, foot ; heard also in wolf, should, bull, Sec. — See § 8, Notz. § 28. The following words, room, root, roof, rood, broom, and soon, have properly the long sound of 00, as in food (see § 26) ; but many pronounce them with the short sound, as in foot (see § 27). New Englanders especially are often recognized abroad by their habit of pronouncing room, room; root, root; roof, roof; rood, rood; broom, broom, and soon, soon. U. § 29. Regular long sound, marked U, u, as in mate, unit, &c. ; heard also in beauty, feodal, feud, pew, ew\ lieu, view, cue, suit, yew, you, yule, &c. Note. — This is a compound sound, formed of thevowe? 00, with a slight sound of the consonant y or of the vowel e" or 1 before it. "When the u begins a syllable, or is pre. ceded by any one of the palatal or labial sounds k, g, p. b f, v, tn, the sound of y is clearly perceived, as in the word* usage, cube, gules, puny, burin, futile, mule. §30. When the long u is preceded, in the same syllable by any one of the consonants d, t, I, n, s, and th, it is peculiarly difficult to introduce the sound of y ; and henc« negligent speakers omit it entirety, pronouncing dwty, dooty ; tune, toon ; lute, loot ; nuisance, noosance ; suit, soot ; thurible, thoorible, &c. The reason is, that, in form, ing these consonants, the organs are in a position to pass with perfect ease to the sound of 00, while it is very difficult in doing so to touch the intermediate y ; hence the y h* such cases is very apt to be dropped. On this point Smart remarks, « To say tube (tyoob), lucid (lyoocid), with the. u as perfect [i. e. with a distinct sound of y prefixed to 00] as in cube, cubic, mute, &c, is either northern or laboriously pedantic," — a de&cription which applies to the vulgar in our Eastern States, and to those who are over-nice at th» South. The practice of good society is to let the y sink into a very brief sound of long e or of short i, both of which havr, a very close organic relationship to consonant y. Special care must be taken not only to make this sound as brief as possible, but to pronounce it in the same syllable with the 00. We thus avoid the two extremes, of over, doing, on the one hand, by making too much of the y, and on the other hand, of sounding only the 00 after the man- ner of careless speakers. It ought to be added that wherever the sound of sh, zh, or y consonant, precedes the u, the y is omitted, as in Star-e, sounded shoor ; sugar, shoogar ; azure, azlvoor ; yule , yooh &c. § 31. Regvlar short sound, marked fj, ti, as in but .• heard also in sun, does, blood, touch, 8:c. Note. — This is not the short soiind of long u. It is a di&tinct and simple element, and derives its peculiar gut- tural character from the influence of the pharynx and back part of the mouth. In its organic formation, it is essential-. ly the same sound as u in urge, but is shorter in quantity, and of a rather more open quality. — See § 3, Note, and §8, NOTE. Occasional Sounds of U. § 32. Sound of u when preceded by r in the same syl- lable, marked U, u, as in rude, rumor, rural, &c. Note. — All the English orthoepists agree that the« in this case drops the yori which is generally an element of its compound sound when preceded, in the same syllable, by anj r other consonant than r, and becomes simply 00, so that rue is pronounced rob ; rule, robl ; ruby, rob by, &c. § 33. Sound of u like that of short 00 (6*0), marked tJ, u, as in bull, put, push, pull, &c. — See § 8, Note, and §27. § 34. Sound of u before r in such words as urge, burn, furl, concur, &c, marked ft, ff ; heard also in worm, jour- ney, &c. NOTE. — This is often called the natural vowel, because it requires almost no effort to utter it, the mouth being slightly opened in the easiest or most natural and uncon- strained manner for the passage of voice in a nearly un- modified form. But the name is scarcely appropriate ; for the sound is altogether wanting in many languages, and — with the single exception of the English — it occupies a comparatively subordinate place in the vowel systems of the principal tongues in which it occurs. It has been more aptly termed the neutral vowel, with reference to its want PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION. XI of any strongly-marked distinctive character ; and this name is here adopted as, on the whole, preferable to any other. The sound differs from that of short a (with which it has often been identified) in length, and in a somewhat greater degree of closeness. (See § 8, Note.) It occurs, in monosyllables, before r not followed by a vowel (as in cur, fur, furl, hurt, burst, purr) ; in accented syllables, be- fore r final or r followed by one or more consonants different from itself (as in recur', cur 1 few, fur'long, disbursed') ;.and in derivatives from any such words (as currish, furry, pur- ring, recurring). Except in the cases here specified, the letter u before r has its short sound, as in cur'ry, hur'ry. Y. § 35. Regular long sound, marked Y, y, as inffy, style, sky, edify, &c. NOTE. — This is the same sound as long i. — See § 15. § 36. Regular short sound, marked Y, f, as in cyst, nymph, lyric, abyss, coinciding with the sound of short i. — See §16. Occasional, Sound of T. § 37. Y has only one occasional sound ; namely, in such words as myrrh, myrtle, in which it has, like the e and i in similar circumstances (see § 14 and § 18), very nearly the sound of u in urge. Thi3 is indicated in the Dictionary by respelling, the words in which y has this sound being very few in number. H. REGULAR OR PROPER DIPHTHONGS. OI or OY. § 38. The sound of oi or oy (unmarked), as heard in oil, join, oyster, &c. Note . — The elements of this diphthong are 6 as in cord (the same as broad a), and 1 as in fin (short t), with the accent on the former. Oy is always regular in English words, and oi is regular also, except in the following cases ; namely, avoirdupois (av-wr-du-poiz'), connoisseur (kon-i's- soor'), shamois (sb&m'my), choir (kwire), tortoise (tor'iis), tur-quois (sometimes pronounced tur-keez'). Until near the beginning of the present century, oi was extensively pronounced like long i, as jlne for join, rile for roil, &c. : but this pronunciation is now confined ex- clusively to the lowest classes. ow. § 39. The sound of ow (unmarked), as heard in owl, vowel, flower, &c. NOTE . — This diphthong is compounded of the elements a and oo, the former of which is accented, but made ex- tremely brief. In a considerable number of words, ovj represents the sound of long o; in the single word knoivl- edge and in its derivatives, it has the sound of short o. These are accordingly distinguished by the proper mark, as blow, slow, know, knowledge, &c. OTJ. § 40. This diphthong has two leading sounds. (1.) That of ow in words derived from the Anglo-Saxon, as in out, hound, &c. (2.) That of oo in words derived from the French, as in $oup, group, &c. § 41. The diphthong ou has also, in a number of words, the sound of long o. as in so ul ; in a few cases, the sound of the broad a, as in bought (bawt) ; sometimes that of short u, as in couple ; sometimes that of u in urge, as in adjourn (adjurn) ; and, in the three words could, would, mould, that of oo as in foot. These peculiarities are indi- cated in this Dictionary by the appropriate mark over the rignificant or sounded vowel, or by respelling. HI. VOWELS IN UNACCENTED SYLLABLES. § 42. When an unaccented syllable ends in a consonant, its vowel, if single, has, in strict theory, its regular short or shut sound, though uttered somewhat more faintly, or with a less proportionate force, than in an accented syllable, as in assign', con'duct, conflict, &c. In many words of this class, however, the vowel is apt to suffer a change or corruption of its distinctive quality, passing over into some sound of easier utterance. Thus the vowel sounds in tho unaccented syllables ar, er, ir, or, yr (as in altar, offer, tapir, mirror, zephyr), are coincident with that of tho second u in sulphur. As a general rule, a and o, in unac- cented syllables ending in a consonant, verge toward, ox fall into, the sound of short w, particularly in colloquial discourse, as in bal'lad, bar'raci-, verbal, bed' lam, capstan, jal'ap, bi'as, bal'last, hav'oc, methW, nis'tol, ven'om, compel', iiag'o??, bish'op, vi'lot, prov'osf. In such words, it would ordinarily be the merest pedantry or affectation to give the vowel its regular short sound. The vowel e, in unaccented syllables ending in a con- sonant, is, in some words, liable to be sounded like short i (as in barrel), and, in others, like short u (as in silent) ; but these changes are usually avoided by good speakers. It may here be remarked, that some of the diphthongs are similarly affected by the absence of accent. Thus ai, which, in an accented syllable, is usually sounded like long a (as in corn-plain'), sinks into S or t in an unaccented syllable, as in mountain, pronounced moun'ten or moun / - tin. So ei, ey, and ie become changed in pronunciation into i (as in surfeit, hon'ey, car'fied), and ou is sounded as u (as in griev'ous). It is also to be observed, that, in the unaccented sylla- bles of some words from the Latin, the vowel is long, though followed by a consonant in the same syllable, as in cantharides; but, in such cases, the long mark is, in the Dictionax-y, placed over the vowel. § 43. When the unaccented syllable does not end in a consonant, two cases arise ; namely, — (1.) The syllable may consist of, or may end in, a vowel, as in the words a-bound', di-xect', e-vent/, mo-lest', &c. (2.) The syllable may end in a consonant, with final e mute at the close of words, as in ul'ii-mate, n'nite, rer/- tile, &c. The former of these will, for the sake of brevity, b« called No. 1, the latter No. 2. These will now be con- sidered under each of the vowels. A. § 44. (No. 1. See § 43.) Here the a has properly a brief sound of the Italian a, as in Cu'ba, a-niuse', A-mer-'i- ca ; but, in familiar speech, it is almost always so slighted and obscured as to be indistinguishable from the neutral vowel, or u in urge, murmur, &c. In some words, like a-e / ri-al, c/ia-ot/ic, &c, the a has its regular long or nanio sound, somewhat shortened by the omission of the {( van- ish." This is due to the influence of the subsequent vowel, which, in fluent utterance, refuses to take the Italian a before it without the intervention of one or more con- sonants. Some speakers in this country give the same brief sound of long a to this letter when it occurs in an initial unaccented syllable followed by a consonant in an accented syllahle, as in a-bound', fa-tal'i-ty ; but this prac- tice is not sanctioned by the best orthoepists. In the ter- minations -a-ny and -a-ry, the a has usually the same sound as short e unaccented, as in mia'cel-la-ny, nu/ment- o-ry, &c. PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION. § 45. (No. 2. See § 43.) Here the a has sometimes its long sound, particularly in verbs ending in ate, as, dedi- cate, ed'u-cate, &c. In other parts of speech, the sound of the a is more obscure, verging toward short e, as in ul'- ti-mate, night'in-gale, preface, &c. In some instances it is apt to verge toward short i, as in village. E. § 46. (No. 1 See § 43.) Here the e has its long sound, slightly obscure or abridged, as in e-vent/, e-mo'tion, so- ei'e-ty, &c. Care should be taken not to sink th« e into an indefinite sound of short u, as, society for society, &c. § 47. (No. 2. See § 43-) Here, also, the e has usually its long sound a little shortened and slighted, as in obso- lete. In a few instances, it verges toward short e, as in college. I. There is great diversity in the case of this letter. Hence it is difficult to lay down general rules ; and, as Smart re- marks, " The inquirer must be sent to the Dictionary to learn, in each particular case, the true pronunciation." § 48. (No. 1. See § 43.) 2, when final in a syllable, has more commonly its short sound, as in phi-los'o-phy, dl-rect', &c. But the i is usually long in the ■initial sylla- bles i, bi, chi, cli, cri, pri, tri, as in I-de'a, bl-Ol'o-gy, crl- teli-on, prl-me'val, &c. § 49. (No. 2. See § 43.) In these terminations, usage is greatly divided. On the whole, the i is more generally 6hort, as in ac-com'pHce, in'fi-mte, ferl/le, marl-tome, ad-a-manllne, an'ise, posl-tfve, &c. ; but there are some important exceptions, as, cock'a-trice, ex^le, gen't/le, con'- cu-bme, ar'chlve, &c. ; also all names of minerals ending in lite or ite ; as chrys'o-llte, ste'a-tlte, &c. Here the Dic- tionary must be consulted for the several wor as. Accord- ing to Smart and Cull, chemical terms ending in ide (as bromide, cliloride, &c.) should be pronounced with the i long ; but all other orthoepists are unanimous in making the vowel short ; and the propriety of the latter mode of pronunciation is established by the fact that this whole class of words is not unfrequently spelled without the final e, thus, bromid, dilorid. o. § 50. (No. 1. See § 43.) Here the o has usually its long Bound slightly abbreviated, and without its « vanish " (see § 19), as in o-pinlon, croc'o-dile, to-bae'eo, &c. Care should here be taken not to sink the o into short u, as care- less speakers often do, pronouncing o-pinlon, ? ar "i their derivatives. § 70. The sound of d (unmarked), as in dale, sad, rider, tradesman, &c. Note. — The sound of this letter is formed by pressing the end of the tongue against the upper gums, and then forcing up vocalized breath, or voice, into the mouth, the eoffc palate being raised to prevent its escape through the nose. This is the regular and usual sound of d ; but when this letter follows a whispered or non-vocal consonant in the game syllable, it uniformly takes the sound of t, as in hissed (hist). (See § 108.) D is silent only in the words Wednes- day and handkerchief. P. § 71. ^k° sound of f (unmarked), as ia. fame, leaf, def- inite, softly, &c. Note. — This letter, which is never silent, is uttered by applying the lower lip to the upper front teeth, and emit- ting the breath. Phas only this one sound, except in the single word of, in which it has the power of v. In the compounds hereof, thereof, and whereof, many speakers preserve the customary and regular sound of the f; but good usage allows it to be sounded as in the simple word. G. § 72. G marked thus, G, g (g hard), has the sound of that letter in the word go ; as in get, gave, give, begun, keg, sluggish, smuggle, &c. Note. — This sound is produced by a compression of in- tonated breath, or voice, confined within the mouth by a contact of the root of the tongue with the posterior part of the palate, which is at the same time raised sufficiently to cover the back nostrils, or openings from the pharynx into the nose. G is hard before a (except in the single word gaol and its derivatives), o, u, h t I, and r, as in gate, gore, gum, ghastly, glad, grain. It is sometimes, though not usually, hard before e, i, and y, as in get, give, gibbous, muggy. This occurs chiefly in words from the Anglo-Saxon, and in a very few from the Greek. It is also, and always, hard at the end of words, and in the derivatives of such words, even when the g is doubled and followed by e, i, or y, as in crag, drug, fog, cragged, druggist, foggy. When a, I, or i, is preceded in the same syllable by the sound of g, or of k, very many speakers, particularly in England, interpose a slight sound of e, as in card, kind, garden, guard, girl, guile, guise, sky. Some persons affect the introduction of a full and distinct sound of long e, or of consonant y, in such cases ; saying kee-ard or k-yard, kee-lnd or k-yind, ske-y or sk-yl, &c. The practice of a very large portion, if not a majority, of the best speakers ia the United States, and also of many educated persons in England, is to join the sound of the g or k to that of the & or t, without suffering any other sound to slip in between them. § 73. G marked thus, 6, g (g soft), has the compound sound of j, as in gem, rage, engine, caged, See. — See § 77. Note. — The letter g generally takes this sound when it comes before e, i, or y; but there are some exceptions. (See the preceding section.) G has also its soft sound before a in the single word gaol (now commonly spelled jail), and in its derivatives and compounds. § 74. In a few words from the French, g retains the sound of zh, which it has before e and i in that language, as in rouge (roozh), mirage (ml-razh/), &c. G is silent before in and n final, and also when initial before n, as in phlegm, sign, gnat. For the office which g performs in such words as longer, stronger, &c, see § 82. GH. § 75. This digraph (which is unmarked) is sounded, at the beginning of a word, like g hard, as in ghastly, ghost, gherkin, &c. It is silent after the vowel i, as in high, sigh, weigh ; and it. is generally silent before t, as in bought, fraught, taught, Sec. The words draught and laughter, where it has the sound off, are exceptions. In other cases, gh is generally pronounced like/, as in chough, cough, rough, tough, trough, enough, &c. ; but it sometimes has the sound of k, as in hough, lough, shough. In the word hiccough, it is usually pronounced like p. H. § 7Q. This letter (which is unmarked) is a mere aspira- tion or breathing, and represents no fixed configuration of the vocal organs. Note. — It is an emission of unvocalized breath through whatever position of the mouth-organs is required by the succeeding element, the organs being always placed to form the next following letter before the h is pronounced. Thus, in lie the tongue is put in a position to sound the t before PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION. XV the h is uttered ; and similarly in hall, hard, home, &c. It differs, however, from a mere whispered vowel, in being an expiration of breath through the open glottis, whereas in whispering a vowel the glottis is almost closed by the ap- proximation of the vocal cords. In the following words, heir, heiress, herb, herbage, honest, honor, honorable, hour, with their derivatives, and also in hostler (more properly spelt ostler), h is silent. It is also marked as silencby most orthoepists in hospital, humor, and humble, with their derivatives. There is, however, an in- creasing tendency to sound the h in these words. H is silent after g initial, as in ghost, gherkin, &c. ; after r, as in rhyme, myrrh, &c. ; and also when preceded by a vowel in the same syllable, as in ah, eh, oh, buhl, Jehovah, &c. In many parts of England, the sound of this letter is almost always omitted where it ought to be uttered, and uttered where it ought to be omitted ; as ^ouse for house, happle for apple, &c. This very gross and vulgar error is rarely, if ever, heard among natives of the United States. J. § 77. This letter (which i3 unmarked) has very nearly the Bound of dzh, being precisely the same as that of g soft, as in jar, jeer, joke, &c. — See & 73. Note. — The sound of y, though almost identical with that of dzh, differs from it as the sound of ch in chin dif- fers from that of tsh. ( See § 66, Note . ) J" is never silent. In the word hallelujah, it has the sound of consonant y. In words in which d precedes a letter having regularly the sound of y, and occurring in an unaccented syllable, as in modulate (mod'u-late), soldier (sold'yer), the sound of j is very often substituted for the combined sounds of the d and y (thus, moj'oo-late, soVjer) ; — just as the sound of ch is substituted for the combined sounds of t and y in nat- ure, question, righteous, &c. (See § 66, Note.) Smart remarks, " It is possible to preserve the pure sound of the t and d in nature and verdure ; yet nothing is more certain than that they are not preserved pure by the best and most careful speakers." § 78. This letter (which is unmarked) has one uniform sound, as heard in keep, king, kitchen, &c, and is precisely equivalent to c hard. — See § 64. Note . — The sound represented by this letter differs from that of g in go (hard g) only in being a whispered and not a vocal utterance ; the organs are placed in the same posi- tion for forming both sounds. Before n, in the same sylla- ble, k is silent, as in knack, knell, knit, know, &c. It is also silent after c, as in back, barrack, &c. In regard to the pronunciation sometimes given to such words as kind, sky, &c, see § 72, Note. L. § 79. The sound of I (unmarked), as heard in left, bell, chalice, melting, &c. Note, — This letter has only one sound, which consists of an efflux of vocalized breath, or voice, over the sides of the tongue, while its tip is pressed against the gums of the upper front teeth. L is silent in many words, especially before a final consonant, as in almond, malmsey, palmer, alms, calm, walk, half, could, would, should, &c. § 80. The sound of m (unmarked), as heard in make, aim, clamor, armed, &c. NOTE. — This letter has one uniform sound, produced by closing the lips, and letting the voice issue through the nose. It is silent when it precedes n in the same syllable, as in mnemonics. IT. § 81. The sound of n (unmarked), as heard in nail, ten, panel, entry, &c. Note. — In the production of this sound, the tip of the tongue is pressed against the upper gums, as for d ; but the voice, instead of being confined within the mouth, is suf- fered to escape uninterruptedly through the nose, the nasal passages being uncovered for that purpose. When final after I or m,n is uniformly silent, as in kiln, condemn, solemn, hymn, limn, &c; but it is generally sounded in the derivatives formed from such words by add- ing to them a termination beginning with a vowel, as in condemnatory, solemnize, hymnic, limner, &c. In the present participles of verbs ending in mn, as contemn, hymn, &c, the n, though often unpronounced, is more properly sounded, as, contemning, hymning, &c. § 82. The sound of n as heard in linger, link, uncle, &c. (marked N, ri). Note . — This is essentially the same sound as that repre- sented by ng ; but its length varies greatly according as it is followed by a whispered or a vocal consonant. When it is followed in the same syllable by the sound of k, as in link, it is cut so short by the instantaneous and perfect closure of the organs which form this pure mute as to add almost nothing to the length of the syllable. It seems undesirable, therefore, to respell words ending in nk by the use of ng; and, in this volume, this is not done, a diacritical mark being placed below the n instead, as a sufficient indication of the true quality and quantity of the sound. But when this sound of n is followed by that of g in a separate syllable, as in the primitive words anger, finger, conger, hunger, it is long and sonorous, and increases the dui-ation of the syl- labic utterance very perceptibly. As a general rule, the change of n into n takes place only before g and k (or before the equivalents of &, namely, c, q,an£Lx=ks. It takes place before k or its equivalents when any one of these letters fol- lows n in the same syllable, as in link, cinqae, minx, be- think', adungue', pharynx ,- and before g or k, or an equiv- alent of k, when any one of these letters begins an unac- cented syllable and the n ends a preceding accented one, as in concord, congress, un/cle, &c. Vcn'gxxva. and a few other words are exceptions ; also words beginning with the prefixes in, non, quinque, and un; as, in'come, non'con- form'ity, quTn^uevalve, un'compound'ed, &c. It is to be observed that, if the n ends an unaccented syllable, and the g or k begins an accented one, the n invariably retains its regular sound ; as in con-cord'ant, con-gres'sional, &c. It is also to be observed that in most derivative words, like hanger, singer, wronger (from hang, sing, and wrong), the g is not sounded, but unites with the n to represent the sound which in the primitives just cited is represented by n alone. But in the comparative and superlative de- grees of the three following words, namely, long, strong, and young, and also in the words diphthongal and triphthongal (from diphthong and triphthong), the g is always, though very irregularly, pronounced, taking its hard sound, as in go; thus, lon'ger, stron'ger, &c. It is further to be ob- served that there is a small class of words in which the » has its ordinary sound, as in nail, and the g its soft sound, as in gem. Of this class, the words danger, stranger, gin- ger, and plunger are examples. § 83. The sound of ng (unmarked), a3 in sing, singer, singly, Sec. Note. — This is a simple elementary sound, and is not (as might be supposed) a compound sound made up of the sound of n in conjunction with that of g. In forming ng, the tongue is placed in the same position as for forming g ; the nostrils, however, are not completely closed, but yet so much so as to produce a marked resonance (somewhat sim- ilar to the sound of n), which may be continued to any length, as in sing, bring, &c. — See § 82. P. § 84. The sound of p (unmarked), as heard in pay, apt, paper, aptly, &c. Note. — The position of the organs necessary for forming this sound is the same as for 6, but the sound itself differs XVI PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION. from that of 6 in being an utterance of the breath instead of the voice. P has but one sound ; it is silent when initial before n, s, and t, as in pneumatics, -psalm, pshaw, ptarmigan. It is also silent or very indistinct when it occurs between m and j t in the same syllable, as in tempt, exempt, &c. ; but when , preceded by m in the same syllable and followed by t or by | k in the next syllable, it is more properly sounded ; as in temp-ta'tion,exemp'tion, redemption, consumptive, sump'- tuous, bump' kin, pump' kin, &c, though, in colloquial ut- terance, it is very often suppressed in words of this class. It is also mute in the following words, and in their deriva- j tives : namely, raspberry, receipt, sempstress, accompt, and corps. PH. § 85. This digraph (which is unmarked) occurs chiefly in words of Greek derivation, and has usually the sound off, as in phantom, sylph, philosophy, &c. In Stephen it has the sound of v ; and, according to most orthoepists, it has the same sound in nephew (nev'ew), though in this country it has commonly its regular sound of f in that word. Before th initial, ph is silent, as in p/ithisis ; it is also si- lent in apop/ithegin. In diphthong, triphthong, ophthalmy, naphtha, and other allied words, together with their deriv- atives, the ph is often sounded as p, or the li may be re- garded as silent. Q. § 86. Q is followed in all cases by u, and these two let- ters, taken together, have usually the sound of kw, as in queen (kween), conquest (koyk'west), &c. In a few words derived from the French, qu is sounded like k, as in co- quette, quadrille, &c. It has the same sound in the com- mon termination que, as in antique, oblique, burlesque, &c. R. § 87. This letter (which is unmarked) may be viewed under three aspects : — (1.) jR as in rip, trip, carol, &c. (sometimes called rough, trilled, dental, or initial r). In forming this sound, the tongue assumes nearly the same position as for d ; but the voice, instead of being con- fined within the mouth, is suffered to flow freely over the tip of the tongue, producing a very slightly trilled and peculiarly liquid sound, closely resembling that of z in the mode of its formation, but not partaking of its harsh, buzz- ing quality ; the difference between the two sounds, in this respect, resulting from the fact that the tip of the tongue is approximated more closely to the upper gum for z than for r. R is sometimes strongly trilied or rolled by a forcible expulsion of the voice ; but in customary speech it is very gently pronounced, and any marked vibration of the tongue should be carefully avoided as a pedantic affectation. The sound here described is heard in English in the two follow- ing cases : 1. When r is not preceded by a vowel, as in ream, dream, prompt, spring ; 2. When it stands between two Towels of which the first is short, as in baron, ?nerit, spirit, ■florid. Often the r is doubled in the written word, as in barren, merry, torrid ; but, in these cases, only one r is heard in the pronunciation, providing the preceding vowel is short. — See § 109. (2.) R as in far, form, terse, surge, &c. (sometimes called smooth, palatal, guttural, obscure, or final r). By most orthoepists at the present day, the letter r, when it occurs before any consonant, or when final, is regarded as a distinct element from the last, and as formed by a slight vibration of the back part, or root, of the tongue against the extremity of the soft palate. Many writers, however, do not admit any such distinction in the sound of r, maintaining that the value of the letter (apart from the obscure vowel element described in No. 3) is uniform in all situations. (3.) R, connected with a guttural vowel sound, as heard in such words as fare, mere, ire, ore, cure, poor, pure, &c Here the character r represents two sounds ; namely, an ob- scure vowel sound resembling that of u in urge, and a smooth or palatal r, so that the above words are pronounced iaur (seo § 4), nieur, iur, &c. § 88. In the pronunciation of accurate speakers, r is never silent ; but when it occurs after a long vowel or a dipththong in the same syllable, as in here, fur, murmur, our, mire, &c, it is commonly and entirely suppressed, both in the United States and the south of England. In the northern counties of England, and in Scotland and Ire- land, with equal impropriety it is, when so situated, always trifled. § 89. In English usage, when the letter r is preceded in an accented syllable by a long vowel or a diphthong, and is followed by a vowel in the next syllable, it uniformly repre- sents both the palatal, or smooth, and the dental, or trilled, sound of this letter, as in hero, iris, glory, lurid, pronounced hur'ro, ir'ris, gl5r'ry, lur'rid. In the United States, this double power of the letter r is chiefly, though not invari- ably, restricted to the derivatives of words ending in r or re preceded by a long vowel or a diphthong, as in poorer (poor'rer), from poor; boring (b.3r ring), from bore ; airy (ax'- ry), from air ; peerage (peer'rage), from peer ; wiry (wlr'ry), from wire ; securing (secur'ring), from secure ; but, on the other hand, we say he'ro, i'ris, glo'ry, lu'rid, &c, because these words are not derived from any other words in the language. In Scotland, however, the universal practice is to join the r m all cases to the following vowel ; or, in other words, to give it only its dental or trilled sound ; thus, pee'rage and he'ro, wl'ry and I'ris, bu'ring and glo'ry, secu'- ring and lu'rid, &c. It is to be observed that those orthoapists who maintain that r has one invariable sound, assert that the only pecu- liarity in the English pronunciation of such words as hero, iris, &c, and in the English and American pronunciation of such words as poorer, boring, &c, consists in the inter- position between the r and the preceding vowel of an ob- scure vowel sound like that of u in urge, which obscure sound is omitted by the Scotch. § 90. S unmarked has its regular sharp or hissing sound, as in same, y- reau (for bureau') was admitted by Dr. Webster, and is very generally applied to the article of furniture, while bureau' is sometimes used in reference to a department of the gov- ernment. Ac' cess (for access') is authorized by a number of orthoepists, and especially, among the later ones, by Knowles, Boag, Wright, Clarke, and Cull. (3.) No orthoepist has given any sanction, it is believed, to ro'mance and fi'nance (for romance' and finance'), or to re' 'search and re'source (for research.' and resource'), though these pronunciations are not infrequently heard in America. The two last ought especially to be discountenanced ; for search and source are English words, and should tnerefore remain (as they were from the first) the chief objects of thought. § 115. We have about eighty cases among our dissylla- bles in which the same word is used for a verb on the one hand, and a noun or an adjective on the other. To distin- guish between them, we accent the nouns and the adjec- tives on the first syllable, and the verbs on the last, as, a con'vert, to convert' ; a con'tract, to contract', &c. It is unnecessary to give the fist in full, since the accent of nearly all these words has been long settled by general usage. Note. — There are a few cases of divided use in nouns, which will sooner or later be made to conform to the gen- eral rule. For example, usage will probably soon fix per- manently on perfect for the adjective, and perfect' for the verb ; per'mit for the noun, and permit' for the verb ; pro'- test for the noun, and protest' for the verb ; per' fume for the noun, and perfume' for the verb ; pro'ceeds for the noun, and proceed' for the verb ; de'lail for the noun, and detail' for the verb ; in' crease for the noun, and increase' for the verb ; re'tail for the noun, and retail' for the verb ; sur'vey for the noun, and survey' for the verb. There is a tendency among many to accent theirs* sylla ble of the noun ally, allies; and, although without sanc- tion as yet from a single orthoepist, it would not be sur- prising if this tendency should prevail on the ground stated above, making the noun al'ly, al'lies, and the verb ally'. The noun cement has been extensively pronounced cem'ent, as distinguished from the verb to cement' ; but Smart thinks this will not finally prevail ; and the tendency does certainly* now seem to be toward cement' for the noun as well as the verb. § 116. We have a few dissyllables which are at once nouns and adjectives. These are distinguished by accent- ing the nouns on the first syllable, and the adjectives on the last. NOUNS. Au'gust, the month. Com'pact, an engagement. Ex'ile, banishment. In'stinct, an impulse. Min'ute (of time). Su'pine (in grammar). ADJECTIVES. August', noble. Compact', close. Exile', small, slender. Instinct/, animated. Minute', very small. Supine', indolent. The word gallant departs from the above rule. When It denotes a suitor, or " attentive to ladies," it is accented gallant', and is changed into gal'lant when it means high- spirited or daring. Trisyllables and Polysyllables. § 117. Fourth Prdjciple. — In words of three or more syllables, there is a strong tendency to accent the antepe- nult, or third syllable from the end, as in el'oquent, ac'ci- dent, opportu'nity. Note. — This tendency is counteracted by that of deriva- tion (Principle No. 1. See § 112) ; and here arises another " conflict/' which, to some extent, arrays our scholars on the one side, and the body of the people on the other. Many scholars, for example, are strongly inclined to say contem'plate, demon'strate, confis'cate, obdu'rate, &c. (for- getting that they come from participles, contempla'tus, dem- onstra'tus, Sec), because by Latin rules their second sylla' ble is long ; while the mass of the people, who know noth- ing of Latin , and are governed by English analogies, are equally bent on saying con' template, demonstrate, ob'dw rate, &c. The latter pronunciation is now very extensively heard, and thus we have a '-divided usage" in respect to these and similar words. There is a class of botanical and mineral ogical terms ending in phyllous and phyllite (from PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION. xxi Gr. 4>v\\oi>, a leaf ), as quadriphyllous, anthophyllite, &c, in which the same struggle is going on. Words having these terminations are differently accented by different au- thorities, and sometimes even by the same authority. Knowles, Gray, and Worcester are the only authorities who are self-consistent in their pronunciation of such words — Knowles accenting them all on the antepenult, Gray as uniformly on the penult, and Worcester giving- an alternative in every case, the penultimate accentuation t>eing his preference. There can be no doubt that that mode of pronunciation which places the accent on the an- tepenult is most in accordance with the genius of our lan- guage ; and, in all probability, it will ultimately prevail over the learning or the pedantry of those who contend for the penultimate accentuation. In like manner, bal'cony (for balco'ny) has now, according to Smart, become the true English pronunciation, and is so marked by Knowles, Web- ster, Cull, Wright, Cooley, and many more. Ele'giac (for e'cgi'ac) is the general pronunciation of this country (in accordance with maniac and most other words in -iac), and has the sanction of Perry, Knowles, Wright, Clarke, Cull, Cooley, and \Y r ebster. Quan'dary (for quan- da'ry), in accordance with boundary a,nd nearly every other word of three syllables in -ary, is our prevailing pronunci- ation, and is sanctioned by Maunder, Cull, Craig, Clarke, Cooley, Worcester, and Webster. Many are disposed to reduce vaga'ry to the same accentuation (va'gary). § 118. It is a J ust principle, laid down by Walker, that (t when words come to us whole from the Greek or Latin, the same accent ought to be preserved as in the original." Hence the following words ought to be accented as here marked : namely, Abdo'men, hori'zon, deco'rum, diplo'ma, muse'um, sonorous, acu'men, bitu'men, and, on like grounds, farra'go, and others. Yet the strong tendency of our language to accent the antepenultimate in all words of three or more syllables has caused this principle to be violated in some cases, as in am'azon, cic'atnx, min'ister, or'ator, pleth'ora, &c. § 119. Words of more than two syllables having the same orthography are generally distinguished by a differ- ence of accent, as at'tribute, n., and attrib'u'e, t., miscon'- duct, n., and misconduct', v., o'verthrow, n., and over- throw', v. In such cases, the nouns have the accent fur- ther from the end. § 120. With a very few exceptions, words of more than two syllables having the following terminations take the accent on the antepenult, or last syllable but two : — ~cracy ; as, democracy, theoc'racy ; ferous ; as, somniferous, umbelliferous ; -fluent ; as, affluent, circumfluent ; -fluous ; as, mellifluous, superfluous ; -gonal ; as, diag'ona 1 , hexag'onal; -gony ; as, cosmog'ony, theog'ony ; -grapher ; as, lexicographer, stenographer ; -graphy ; as, photog'raphy, typography ; -loger ; as, philol'oger, astrologer ; •logist ; as, entomol'ogist, physiol'ogist ; ■logy ; as, chronol'ogy, mythol'ogy ; ioquy as, colloquy, solil'oquy ; tnachy: as, logom'achy, theom'achy ; •malhy ; as, chrestom'athy, polym'athy; •meter; as, barom'eter, hygrom'eter ; •fnetry ; as, a'tim'etry, geom'etry ; •nomy; as, astron'omy, eron'omy ; -parous; as, ovip'arous. vivip'arous ; pathy ; as, ap'athy, antip'athy ; -phony ; as, antiph'ony, coloph'ony ; 'Sropy ; as, acros'copy, deuteros'copy ; ^strophe ; as, apos'trophe, catas'trophe ; -tomy; as, anat'omy, lithot'omy ; -trophy; as, at'rophy, hyper' trophy ; •famous, as.flammiv'omous, igniv'omous ; -porous, as, carnio'orous, graminiv'orous. § 121. Words of more than two syllables, ending in -cate, -date, -gate, -fy, -tude, and -ty, preceded by a vowel, have, for the most part, the accent on the antepenult : as, J dep'recate, rus'ticate, recip'rocate ; an'tedate, elu'cidate, ac~ I com'modate ; prop'agate, delegate, fu'migate ; rar'efy^ j sanc'tify; qui'etude, lat'itude ; soci'ety, acid'ity, dep'uty. § 122. The penultimate syllable is to be accented in al- j most all words having the sound of sh, of zh, or of conso- I nant y immediately before their last vowel or diphthong ; ' e. g., dona'tion, concession, Ulu'sion, controversial, ver- mil' ion, opin'ion. The Terminations IC and ICS. § 123. Words ending in ic and ics (derivatives from words in i*o? or ic us, in Greek or Latin, or formed after the same analogy) have their accent on the penult ; as, epi- dem'ic, scientific, &c. The following words are exceptions, having the accent on the antepenult ; namely ^ ag'aric, Ar'- abic, aritk'metic, ar'senic, n., cath'olic, choleric, ephem'eric, her'etic, lu'natic, pleth'oric, politic, rhet'oric, and tur'meric. Climacteric has usually the antepenultimate accent, though some pronounce it climacter'ic. In like manner, the nouns empiric and schismatic, and the noun and adjective sple- netic, are sometimes accented on the penult, and sometimes on the antepenult. ; The Terminations E-AL, E-AN", and E-TJM. § 124. A part of the words having these terminations ! follow the English analog}", and take the antepenultimate j accent ; as, cent' lean, hypcrbo'rean, Hercu'lean, Mediterra'- \ nean, subterra'nean, Tarta'rean, marmo'rean ; petro'leum, ' perios'teum, succrda'neum. A part accent the penult; as, adamante'an, Atlant'ean, colosse'an, empyre'an, Epicure'an, ! Europe'an, pygme'an ; mausole'um. muse'um. Orphean, i being derived from Or'pheus (or'l'us), is more properly ac- ; cented Or'phean. Most words ending in eal accent the ante- penult ; as, lin'eal, ethe'real, fune'real ; but hymene'al and ide'al take the accent upon the penult. The Termination OSE. § 125. There is a considerable number of adjectives ending in ose, as animose, comatose, operose, &c, in the accentuation of which the dictionaries are at variance with each other, and many of them inconsistent with them- selves. But all words of this class, as Walker remarks, ought, from their form and derivation, to be pronounced alike. Walker himself accents them all upon the last syl- lable, and in this he is followed by Worcester and Cooley ; but, in trisyllables having this termination, most recent authorities, following the natural tendency of the language, as well as the prevailing usage, give only a secondary ac- cent to the last syllable, placing the principal accent on the antepenult. (See § 110, Note, second paragraph.) As to dissyllabic adjectives ending in ose, as jocose, verbose, mo- rose, &c, they take the accent on the last syllable, with a few exceptions. § 126. I n poetry, words are frequently used with an ac- centuation different from that adopted in ordinary speech, as in the following examples : "~ ' XX11 RULES FOR SPELLING. 'Twixt that and reason what a nice barrier' ! Forever separate, yet forever near. Pope. Ye icefalls ! ye that from the mountain's brow Adown enormous rav'ines slope amain. Coleridge. § 127. When two words of similar formation and the game accentuation are contrasted with each other, the ac- cent is transferred to the syllable of difference (unless this is already accented, as in em'inent, im'minent), and the Jegularly accented syllable takes a secondary accent ; thus, Undo' is pronounced vn'do' when opposed to do or to out'- do 1 , and in'tervene' is pronounced in'tervene.' when used antithetically to su'pervene'. So also with am'puta'tion and im'puta'tion, bi'en'nial and tri'en'nial, op'pose', and sup'pose' ; ex'tr'cise, and ex'or'cise, al-le'ga'tion&nd al-li'- g'l'tion ; proph'et' and profit' ; do'nor> and do'nee', guar- antor' and guar 'antee' '. § 128. When separately pronounced, all monosyllabic words have their vowel as distinctly sounded as if under ac- cent. But in connected discourse, certain classes of mono- syllables, such as articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunc- tions, and auxiliary verbs, are usually unemphasized, and their vowel is liable to the same corruption of quality as that in an unaccented syllable of a word. But when used antithetically to other words, they are emphasized, receiv- ing a full and distinct stress of voice. Thus, the possessive pronoun their, when emphatic, should take the full sound of e; as, ^Tkeir (ther) interests, and not yours, are to be consulted." But when unemphatic, the sound becomes more obscure, verging toward, or falling into, that of the neutral vowel (u in urge) ; as, t( They will not neglect their (thur) interests." So, also, there, when used as an adverb of place, is distinctly pronounced with the appropriate sound of the vowel ; as, " I shall be there (ther)." When, however.it serves merely to introduce a verb or a sentence, it takes the obscurer sound ; as, " There (thur) is no diffi- culty in the case." In like manner we say a, your, that, the, from, /Cr, &c, when we pronounce the words by them- selves ; but in actual use they become nearly or quite u, yur, thut, thu, frfim, fur, &c. The following passage from the « Spectator," No. 80, well illustrates this tendency to a corruption of the vowel sound in unemphasized monosylla- bles : — « My lords, with humble submission that that I say is this, that that that that gentleman has advanced is not that that he should have proved to your lordships." SYLLABICATION. § 129. Words are sometimes divided into syllables for the sole purpose of showing their proper pronunciation (ae, a-dorn, o-void) ; and sometimes in order to exhibit their etymological composition merely, without the least regard to their pronunciation (as, ad-orn, ov-oid). In ordinary cases — as where a word requires to be divided at the end of a line — these modes of syllabication are to a certain extent combined. In the United States, the etymological principle is allowed to operate only in separating prefixes, suffixes, and grammatical terminations from the radical part of the word, where this can be done without misrepre- senting the pronunciation. In English practice, however, words are usually divided in such a manner as to show their constituent parts independently of the pronunciation (as, hypo-thesis, philosophy, belli-gtrtnt, &c), and a single' consonant or a consonant digraph between two vowels goes to the latter (as, a-na-to-my, de-li-cate, ma-t/u -ma-tics, &c). In this Dictionary, words are uniformly divided so as to represent their pronunciation in the most accurate manner ; but very frequently the root of a word may be exhibited to the eye without violating the orthoepical prin- ciple of syllabication, and where this is possible it has generally been done, more particularly in the case of ac- cented syllables. EULES FOE SPELLING CEETAIN CLASSES OF WOEDS. FOUNDED ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY OF DR. WEBSTER, AS EXHIBITED IN THIS VOLUME. § 130 (1). The letters /and I, at the end of monosyl- lables, and standing immediately after single vowels, are generally doubled ; as in staff, cliff, doff, puff; all, bell, hill, toll, null. The words clef, if, of, and sol, are excep- tions. / § 131 (2). The letter s, at the end of a monosyllable, and standing immediately after a single vowel, is generally doubled, except when it is used to form the possessive case cr plural of a noun, or the third person singular of a verb ; as in grass, press, hiss, moss, truss. The only impor- tant exceptions are as, gas, has, teas, yes, his, is, thus, and t(S. § 132 (3)- Besides /, I, and s, the only consonants that are ever doubled at the end of a word are b, d,g, m, n, p, r, t, and z. The following list contains all, or nearly all, the words in which these letters are doubled ; namely, abb, ebb; add, odd, rudd ; bigg, egg, snigg ; lamm, scomm, mumm (to mask) ; inn, bunn ; wapp ; gnarr, parr, err, birr, shirr, shirr, burr, hurr, murr, purr ; mitt, plitt, smitt, butt; fizz, fuzz, buzz, huzz, muzz. Note. — The words let, net, and set are sometimes incor- rectly spelled lett, nett, and sett ; and ?ome other words which should have the final letter single are spelled, by some writers, with it doubled. § 133 (4). A consonant standing at the end of a word immediately after a diphthong or double vowel is never doubled. The words ail, peat, haul, door, and maim, are examples. The word guess is only an apparent exception, as the u does not strictly form a diphthong with the e k but serves merely to render the g hard. § 134 (5). Monosyllables ending, as pronounced, with the sound of k, and in w^ich * follows the vowel, have RULES FOR SPELLING. xxin usually k added after the c ; as in black, fleck, click, knock, and buck. The words lac, sac, talc, zinc, ploc, roc, soc, arc, marc, ore, and fl.se, are exceptions. Words of more than one syllable, ending in ic or iac, which formerly ended in k, also words derived from the Lat- in or Greek languages, or from other sources, and similar to these, or formed in an analogous manner, are now written without the k; as, maniac, elegiac, cubic, music, public. The word derrick is an exception. Words of more than one syllable, in which c is preceded by other vowels than i •r ia, commonly end in ck ; as, arrack, barrack, hammock, kUlock, wedlock. The words almanac, sandarac, limbec, xebec, manioc, and havoc, are exceptions. Almanac, limbec, and havoc, however, are sometimes written with k after the c, especially in England. § 135 (6)- In derivatives formed from words ending in c, by adding a termination beginning with e, i, or y, the letter k is inserted after the c, in order that the latter may not be inaccurately pronounced like 5 before the following vowel : as, colic, colicky ; traffic, trafficked, trafficking, trafficker ; talc, talcky ; zinc, zinrky. § 136 (7). I n derivatives formed by adding a termina- tion beginning with a vowel to monosyllables and words accented on the last syllable, when these words end in a single consonant (except x) preceded by a single vowel, that consonant is doubled ; as, clan, clannish ; plan, planned, planning, planner ; bag, baggage ; hot, hotter, hottest ; wit, witty ; cabal', cabal'ler ; abet', abet' ted, abet' ting, abet'tor ; begin', begin'ning, begin'ner ; infer', inferred', infer'ring. The consonant is doubled in these words in order to pre- serve the short sound of the vowel, as otherwise the latter would be liable to be pronounced lbng. Thus, planned, hottest, and abetted, would naturally be pronounced planed, hotest, and abated, if the consonant were not doubled. Words of this class, in which the final consonant is pre- ceded by qit followed by a single vowel, form no exception to the rule, since the u performs the office of the consonant w ; as, squab, squabbish, squabby ; squat, squatting, squat- ter ; quit, quitted, quitting; acquit', acjuit'ted, acquit'ting. The derivatives of the word gas (except gassed, gassing, and gassy) are written with but one 5 ; as, gaseous, gaseity, gasify. Excellence, as being from the Latin excellens, re- tains the double I, though one I has been dropped from the termination of excel'. Besides these, the only exceptions to the rule are those derivatives in which the accent of the primitive is thrown back upon another syllable : as, cabal', cab'alism, cab'a'.ist ; prefer', preference ; refer', reference ; defer', deference. It i3 no exception to this rule that chan- cellor, and the derivatives of metal and crystal, as metalloid, metallurgy, crystalline, crystallize, and the like, are written with the I doubled, since they are derived respectively from the Latin cancellarius (through the French), and metallum, and the Greek KputrraAAo?. So also the word tranquillity retains the double I as being from the Latin tranquillitas, while the English derivatives of tranquil, though often written with two Vs, are more properly written with only one, as tranquilize, tranquilizer, and the like. § 137 (8). When a diphthong, or a digraph represent- ing a rowel sound, precedes the final consonant of a word, or the accent of a word ending in a single consonant falls on any other syllable than the last, or when the word ends in two different consonants, the final consonant is not doubled in derivatives formed by the addition of a termina- tion beginning with a vowel: as, daub, daubed, dauber; need, needy ; brief, briefer, briefest ; rev' el, rev'eled, rev'eling ; trav'el, trav'eling, trav'eler ; profit, profited; act, acted, actor ; perform, performer ; stand, standing. The final consonant is doubled in the derivatives of a few words ending in g, in order to diminish the liability to its being pronounced like j, before e or i : as, humbug, hum- bugged, humbugging ; periwig, periwigged. The word woolen is more generally thus written, in the United States, with one / ; but in England it is written woollen. Note. — There is a large class of words ending in a single consonant, and accented on some other syllable than the last, the final consonants of Avhich are, by very many writers and lexicographers, doubled in their derivatives, unnecessarily and contrarily to analogy. This practice ap- pears to have arisen from a desire to prevent the vowel of the final syllable of the primitive from being inaccurately pronounced long in the derivatives. These words are chiefly those ending in I, with also a few of other terminations. The following list, the words in which are chiefly verbs, includes the most important of those in regard to which usage varies : namely, apparel, barrel, bevel, bias, bowel, and its compounds, cancel, carburet, and all similar words ending in uret, cavil, carol, channel, chisel, compromit, counsel, cud- gel, dial, dishevel, dowel, drivel, duel, empanel, enamel, equal, funnel, gambol, gravel, grovel, handsel, hatchet, im- peril, jewel, kennel, kidnap, label, laurel, level, libel, mar- shal, marvel, medal, metal, model, panel, parallel, parcel, pencil, peril, pistol, pommel, quarrel, ravel, revel, rival, rowel, shovel, shrivel, snivel, tassel, tinsel, trammel, travel, tunnel, unravel, vial, victual, worship. Worcester doubles the final letters of all these words, except parallel, in form- ing derivatives by the addition of terminations beginning with vowels, thoug-h he remarks, with respect to those end- iug in I, that " it better accords with the analogy of the language " to spell their derivatives with but one I. Smart retains the double consonant in this class of words solely on the ground that usage favors it, but remarks that " the double p in worshipped, worshipper, &c, the second I in travelling, traveller, &c, are quite unnecessary on any other score than to satisfy the prejudices of the eye." Cooley doubles the consonant in a majority of the deriva- tives of words of this class, but writes a single consonant in many, as in those of apparel, barrel, bevel, channel, drivel, gambol, &c. Perry wrote the derivatives of these words with but one I, according to the rule, and the same prac- tice was advocated by Walker. Conformity to the regular rule has been advocated also by Lowth and other eminent scholars. § 138 (9)- Derivatives formed from words ending in a double consonant, by adding one or more syllables, com- monly retain both consonants : as, ebb, ebbing ; odd, oddly; stiff, stiffness ; fell, fellable ; skill, skillful, skillfulness ; xvilt, willfid, willfulness ; dull, dullness ; full, fullness. So also the double I is retained in the words installment, inthrall- ment, thralldom, and enrollment (from install, inthrall, thrall, and enroll), in order to prevent the false pronuncia- tion they might receive if spelled with one /. Many writers and lexicographers, especially in England, omit ono I in these words, as also in the derivatives of skill, will, dull, and full, formed by adding the syllables ly and ness. The derivatives of pontiff aie exceptions to the rule, be- ing written with only one f; as, pontific, pontifical, ponti- ficia 1 , and the like. One I also is dropped in a few words formed by adding the termination ly to words ending in 11, in order to prevent the concurrence of three Vs : as, ill, illy ; dull, dully ; full, fully. ATords similarly formed by adding the termination less, however, are written either with three Ps, a hyphen being inserted before the termina- tion, or with two Ps and without the hyphen : as, bell-less, or belless, skill-less or skilless, smell-less or smelless. § 139 (10)- In derivatives formed from words ending with silent e, the e is generally retainea when the termina- tion begins with a consonant : as, pale , paleness ; hate, hate- ful ; incite, incitement ; chaste, chastely, chasten e ss ; move, movement. When, however, the « is immediately preceded XXIV RULES FOR SPELLING. by another vowel (except el), it is often dropped from the derivative : as. due, duly ; argue, argument ; true, truly ; awe, awful ; and the derivatives and compounds of these words. The words wholly, nursling, wisdom, abridgment, ac- knowledgment, lodgment, judgment, and the compounds of some of these, are exceptions. The last four, however, are written, by many authors, abridgement, acknowledgement, lodgement, judgement. § 140 (11)- I n derivatives formed from words ending with silent e, when the termination begins with a vowel, the e is generally omitted, except ia the cases mentioned in the next paragraph: as, bride, bridal; guide, guidance; flume, plumage ; use, usage ; grieve, grievance ; come, com- ing; shape, shaping; move, movable ; sale, salable; fleece, fleecy ; force, forcible ; true, truism. The e is retained in the word hoeing, shoeing, and toeing (from hoe, shoe, and toe), in order to prevent a doubt as to the pronunciation, that might arise in case it were omitted. Jt is retained, also, in the words dyeing, singeing, springe- rng, swingeing, tingeing (from dye, singe, springe, swinge, tinge), to distinguish them from dying, singing, springing, swinging, tinging (from die, sing, spring, swing, ting.) The word mileage, as commonly written, docs not omit the e, though it is sometimes, and more correctly, spelled mil- age. The words lineage, lineal, and pineal, though appar- ently exceptions, are not really such, since they are derived not directly from line and pine, but from the Latin linea (through the French), linealis, and pinea. The e, standing, in a derivative, before a termination beginning with a or o, and immediately after c or g, is retained in order to pre- serve the soft sounds of these consonants : as, peace, peaceable ; notice, noticeable ; manage, manageable ; change, diangeable ; advantage, advantageous ; outrage, outrage- ous ; mortgage, mortgageor. The latter word is sometimes very improperly written mortgagor, and pronounced mor'- ga-jor. § 141 (12). In derivatives formed from words ending in ie, by adding the termination ing, the e is dropped, and the i changed to y, in order to prevent two i's from coming together : as, die, dying ; hie, hying ; lie, lying ; tie, tying ; vie, vying. § 142 (13). In derivatives of words ending in y pre- ceded by a consonant, and formed by appending any ter- mination except one beginning with t, the y is usually changed into i : as, icy, iciest, icily ; mercy, merciless ; tidy, tidiness; modify, modifies ; foggy, fogginess ; earthy, earth- iness ; pity, pitiful. The derivatives of adjectives of one syllable ending in y preceded by a consonant, are exceptions, and usually re- tain the y : as, shy, shyness; sly, slyest ; dry, dryly; spry, spryer, spryest ; wry, wryness. But the adjectives drier and driest, from dry, are commonly written with i instead of y. Derivatives formed by adding the termination ship, as secretaryship, suretyship, ladyship, and the like, also re- tain the y, though some authors write them with i, ac- cording to the rule. The words babyhood and ladykin are likewise exceptions. The y is also retained in the possessive case singular of nouns, when formed by adding s with the apostrophe : as, country 's, everybody^. § 143 (11)- Derivatives formed by affixing a termina- tion to words ending in y preceded by a vowel, generally retain the y unchanged : as, gay, gayety, gayly ; play, player, plays ; sway, swayed ; obey, obeying ; joy, joyful ; enjoy, enjoyed ; buy, buying ; gluey, glueyness. The words daily, laid, paid, said, saith, slain, and staid (from day, lay } pay ^ say, slay, and stay), with their com- pounds, are exceptions. Staid, however, is sometimes written stayed. Derivatives from words ending in uy, as colloquies, from colloquy, are hot exceptions to the rule, as u, in such cases, is not strictly a vowel, but stands for the consonant w. § 144 (15). Derivatives formed by appending a syllable beginning with a vowel to words ending with a vowel sound, generally retain the letter or letters representing such sound : as, huzza, huzzaed ; agree, agreeable, agree- ing ; weigh, weighing ; dough, doughy; echo, echoed ; woo, wooes ; bow, bowed ; beau, beauish. Derivatives of words of this class ending in silent e, as also those formed from words ending in double e by adding a termination beginning with e, drop the final e : as, hoe, hoed; sue, sued; owe, owed; free, freer, freest ; agree, agreed. The cases mentioned in sections 11, 12, and 13 are also exceptions. § 145 (16). Derivatives formed by prefixing one or more syllables to words ending in a double consonant com- monly retain both consonants : as, tipstaff, rebuff, befall, inthrall, disinthrall, foretell ', undersell, fulfill, enroll, emboss, (from staff, buff, fall, thrall, tell, sell, Jill, roll, boss). The word until is an exception, being always written with one /. Those words of this class which end in // are written by some authors, especially in England, with one I : as, bcfal, inthral, foretel ,fulfi> , enrol. The words distill and instill should be written with the I doubled, though they are often written distil and instil, with only one I. § 146 (!")• Compound words formed by joining two or more words commonly retain all the letters of the simple words : as, stiff-necked, well-bred, dull-eyed, save-all, ivide- mouthed. • There are numerous exceptions to this rule, many of them compounds which by long use have acquired the force of single words. They are the following : namely, some compounds of all and well; as, almighty, almost, alone, a'ready, also, although, altogether, ahvays, withal, there- withal, wherewithal, welcome, welfare ; — compounds of mass; as, Candlemas, Christmas, Lammas, Michaelmas, &c. ; — words of which the second part is the adjective full; as, artful, hateful, rueful, woeful ; — also, the words chilb'ain, fulfil, namesake, neckerchief, numskull, pastime, standish, and wherever. § 147 (18). The plural of nouns regularly ends in s, or, in certain classes of words, in es. When the noun in the singular ends with such a sound that the sound of 5 can unite with it and be pronounced without forming a separate syllable, s only is added in form- ing the plural : as, sea, seas ; tree, trees ; woe, woes ; canto, cantos; virtue, virtues: purlieu, purlieus ; claw, claws ; cab, cabs; panic, panics; bead, beads; chief, chiefs; bag, bags; path, paths; lock, locks ; bell, bells; gem, gems ; fan, fans; cup, cups ; ear, ears; art, acts. A few plurals from nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant, end in es : as, echo, echoes; cargo, cargoes ; embargo, embargoes; motto, mot- toes ; potato, potatoes. Other nouns of this class gener- ally form their plurals regularly, though usage differs with regard to some of them. Those in which final o is pre- ceded by a vowel form their plurals regularly. The plural of alkali is written alkalis or alkali"S ; that of rabbi, either rabbis or rabbies. With regard to other nouns ending in t usage differs, though they are more properly written with the termination is. When the noun in the singular ~nds with such a sound (as that of ch, sh, j, s, x, or z) that the sound of 5 can not unite with it in pronunciation, but must form a separate syllable, e is inserted before s in forming the plural, unless RULES FOR SPELLING. XXV the word ends with silent e, in which case the latter serves to form a separate syllable with s: as, church, churches ; rush, rushes ; age, ages ; lace, laces ; gas, gases ; box, boxes; maze, mazes. To express the plural of a letter, figure, or any character or sign, or of a word mentioned without regard to its meaning, the letter 5, generally preceded by the apostrophe, is appended, as in the phrases, K The two Vs in all ; " Two *'s in Orion ; : ' " The why's and ivherefore's of the question." Some writers, however, omit the apostrophe in such cases, joining the s immediately to the letter, character, or word, as in the phrases " The two Is in all ; " tf Two *s in Orion ; " Others still write the names of the letters with their proper plural endings, instead of the letters themselves : as, the two ees, efs, ells, esses, and the like. The plurals of letters are also rarely expressed by simply doubling them, without adding any plural sign : as, the two ee in bee, the two 11 in all; but this practice is not to be commended, as ee, U, &c, are properly read double e, double I, &c. § 148 (19)- Nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant form their plural by adding es and changing y into i: as, mercy, mercies ; lady, ladies ; sky, skies ; army, armies ; pity, pities. This rule includes words ending in quy, in which u, being pronounced like w, is strictly a consonant : as, colloquy, colloquies. The plural of proper nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant, is formed by changing y into ies, according to the rule : as, "The three Maries.^ Many writers, however, form the plural of such words by simply adding s: as, K The three Mar?/.*." When the singular of a noun ends in y preceded by a vowel (except u having the power of iv), the plural is regu- larly formed by adding 5 only : as, day, days; key, keys ; money, moneys: attorney, attorneys; alloy, alloys; guy, guys. Swne plurals of the latter class are often inaccu- rately written with the termination ies : as, monies, attor- nies, and the like. § 149 (20). The plurals of a few nouns ending in /or fe are irregularly formed by changing /or fe into ves. The following words, with their compounds, are the principal examples: namely, life, lives; knife, knives ; wife, wives ; leaf, leaves ; sheaf, sheaves ; loaf loaves ; beef, beeves ; thi"f thieves ; calf calves ; half halves ; elf, elves ; shelf, shelves ; self, selves ; wolf, wolves. The plural of staff is sometimes written staffs, but more commonly staves, ex- cept when it means a corps of officers, either military or civil, in which sense it is always written staffs. The plural of wharf is generally written ivharfs in England; in the United States it is more commonly, but improperly, written wharves, as it is also by some recent English writers. The plurals of hoof and turf, formerly written hooves and turves, are now written hoofs and turfs. The plurals of other nouns ending in /, fe, or ff, are formed regularly by the addition of s only. § 150 (21). In the following nouns, the plural is dis- tinguished from the singular only by a change of the vowel or vowel sound of the word : namely, man, men ; woman, women ; goose, geese ; foot, feet ; tooth, teeth ; brother, brethren; louse, lice; mouse, mice. Compounds ending with these words form their plurals in the same manner : •s, fotman, foemen; dormouse, dormice. Words which end in the syllable man, and are not compounds, form their plurals regularly, by adding s only : as, cayman, cay- mans: d»sm r in. desmans: firman, firmans ; talisman, talismans: German. Germans; Mussulman, Mussulmans. The plurals of talisman and Musstdman are sometimes, by a gross blunder, written talismen and Massulmen. § 151 (22). A few plurals end in en : namely, brother, brethren; child, children; ox, oxen. To these may be added the obsolete forms eyne, kine, shoon, hosen, housen, (from eye, cow, shoe, hose, house), the first three of which, though they have received a slightly different form, end, as pro- nounced, with the sound of n. § 152 (23). The words brother, die, pea, and penny, have each two plurals of different forms and with different significations : as, brothers, male children of the same parent, also, members of the same society, association, class, or profession ; brethren, members of the same religious or ec- clesiastical body, the word in this form being rarely used except in religious writings, or in scriptural language, where it also has the same meaning that brother has in ordinary language ; dies, implements for making im- pressions by stamping, or for making screws, also the cubical parts of pedestals ; dice, the cubical blocks used in games of chance ; peas, seeds of the pea-plant, when a defi- nite number is mentioned ; pease, the same in bulk, or spoken of collectively ; pennies, the coins, especially when a definite number is mentioned ; pence, the amount reckoned by these coins. § 153 (24). A few words, mostly names of animals, have the same form in the plural as in the singular : as, deer, sheep, trout, and the like. § 154 (25). Many words adopted from foreign languages retain their original plurals: as, datum, data; criterion, criteria; genus, genera; larva, larvse, ; crisis, crises; mat- rix, matrices ; focus, foci ; monsieur, messieurs. Many words of this class, while retaining the original plurals, have also a second, formed after the analogy of English words of similar termination : as, formula, form- ids or formulas ; beau, beaux or beaus ; index, indices or indexes; stratum, strata or siratums ; bandit, banditti or bandits; cherub, cherubim or cherubs; seraph, seraphim or seraphs. The plurals of the last two words are sometimes incorrectly written cherubims and seraphims, with double plural terminations, from ignorance or forgetfulness of the fact that, in Hebrew words, im is a plural ending. § 155 (26). In certain loose compounds consisting of a ' noun followed by an adjective or other qualifying expres- [ sion, the plural is commonly formed by making the same | change in the noun as when it stands alone : as, court- | martial, courts-martial; cousin-german, cousin s-german ; I son-in-law, sons-in-law. When, however, the adjective is j so closely joined to the noun that the compound has the force of a simple word, the plural of the compound is com- monly formed like that of any other word of the same termination : as, cupful, cupfuls ; handful, handfuls. § 156 (27). There are many words, besides those men- tioned in the preceding paragraphs, in respect to which usage, even that of the best authors, is variable. The most important of these words are mentioned in this and the succeeding sections. The derivatives of the word villain, as villainous, vil- lainy, &c, though often written villanous, villany, &c^ properly retain the ?', according to the practice of many writers, like those of other words similarly ending in ainz as, mountainous, from mountain ; captaincy, from captain; and the like. The words connection, deflection, inflection, and reflec- tion follow the spelling of the words connect, deflect, inflect, and reflect, though often written, especially in England, con- nexion, deflexion, inflexion, and reflexion. The word woe, though often written without the final e, should retain it, like most other nouns of one syllable and of similar form : as, doe, floe, foe, hoe, sloe, toe, and the like. Monosyllables other than nouns, and words of more XXVI RULES FOR SPELLING. than one syllable, having a similar termination, omit the e; as, do, go, no, so, canto, motto, potato. The words defense, expense, offense, and pretense are properly written thus, though often spelled with c instead of s, for the s belongs to the words from which they are derived, and is also used in all their derivatives. The words drought and height were formerly written drouth and hight, and are still very often thus written in America. The verb practice is thus written like the noun, in preference to the form practise, though the latter spell- ing is used by many writers, especially in England. The difference in spelling between the noun and the verb is properly observed, in words of this kind, only in such as are accented on the last syllable, as device, devise. Derivatives of the Greek eBpa (seat, base, side ; pro- nounced lied'ra), as polyhedron, tetrahedron, octahedral, and the like, are properly thus written with h before the e of the termination, but are sometimes written polyedron, tetracdron. octacdral, &c, without the h. § 157 (28). There is a class of adjectives ending either in able or in ible, of which a large majority have the termina- tion able ; as, blamable, laudable, legible, mutable, naviga- ble, vendible. Many of them are from Latin words ending in abilis or ibilis ; some are from the French ; and not a few are formed by adding the termination to English words. Those from Latin words end respectively in able or ible, according as they are derived from words ending in abilis or ibilis : as, mutable (Lat. mutabilis) ; credible (Lat. cred ibilis). Those formed from English words generally end in ab 7 e ; as, avoidable, eatable, laughable, liable, salable, serviceable. There are a few words respecting which usage is variable : as, addible or addable ; conversable or conversible ; in'ftr- able or infer'rible ; referable or refer'rible. § 158 (29). There is a class of words beginning with en or in, as enclose or inclose, enquire or inquire, ensure or in- sure, and the like, many of which take either form of the prefix indifferently. They are chiefly derived from the Latin, either directly or through the French, the prefix in belonging to the former language, and en to the latter. In some of these words, en is to be preferred ; in others, in ; in many of them, either may be used indifferently. §159 (30). There was formerly considerable diversity of usage in respect to the terminations ant and ent, both of which were in certain cases used almost indifferently ; as in the words confidant or confident, dependant or dependent, and the like. Present usage, however, is definitely settled in favor of one or the other form, in nearly or quite every word of this class, though not always upon uniform princi- ples. In the few words in which both these terminations are retained, it is the more general practice to write the adjective with ent, and the common noun with ant, while the corresponding abstract noun ends in ence, as in the adjectives confident and dependent, the common nouns con- fidant and dependant, and the abstract nouns confidence and dependence. In the case of very many words, however, the adjective ends in ant, as also the common noun ; while the abstract noun ends in ance, as in the adjectives attend- ant and repentant; the common nouns b-irk, decline, de- cease, deduct, decamp, deject, c/eter, de- scend, detain, depart, detract, deuude, denominate, denounce, derange, de- prave, despoil, DI. 1. [Gr. Si's, twice.] In chemistry, a prefix denoting two equivalents of the substance indicated by the noun following that of which the prefix forms a part ; as, d/chloride of mer- cury ; i. c. a compound formed of exxviij XXV111 PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES. two equivalents of mercury and one of chlorine. 2. See Dis Dl'A. [Gr. Sid, akin to Lat. dis.] A pre- fix denoting through, right through. Exercise.— Diameter, diagram, di- alogue, diagonal, diacritical, diatribe, dialect. Dis. An inseparable prefix, from the Latin (whence Fr. des), denoting separation, a parting from ; hence it generally has the force of a nega- tivfe. It sometimes passes into the iorms di and dif. Exercise. — .Distribute, disconnect, disarm, disoblige, disagree, disorder, dis- pel, discover; divert: differ, diffuse. Dys-. An inseparable prefix, from the Greek Svo-, hard, ill, and signi- fying ill. bad, hard, unlucky, dan- gerous, &c. Exercise. — Dysentery, dyspepsy. E. A Latin prefix ; the same as Ex. EM. See EN. £n. A prefix to many English words, chiefly borrowed from the French ; it coincides with the Latin in, Gr. iv. For ease of pronunciation, it is changed to em, particularly before a labial. Exercise. —Enehant, enamor, en- core, encamp, engrave, enjoy, enlarge, ennoble, enrich; employ, empower, em- _ boss, em brace. Ep, i [Gr. ini. See Ob.] A prefix, £p'V. ) signifying on, above, toward, by, to, among, near, &c. Exercise. — Epilogue, epithet, epi- demic, e/ntaph, epidermis, epitomize, ephemeral. Eu. A prefix from the Gr. ei>, well, signifying well, easy, advantageous, good, and the like. Exercise.— Tsnlogy, ewphony, eu- charist, euphemism. EX. A Latin preposition or prefix (Gr. eg or in), signifying out of, out, proceeding from. Hence, in compo- sition, it signifies sometimes out of; sometimes off, from, or out ; some- times beyond. In some words, it in- tensifies the meaning. The x regu- larly remains only before the vowels and before c, h,p, q, s, t; it is as- similated to a following f and drops away altogether before the other con- sonants. In a few words it changes into ec. Prefixed to names of office, it denotes that a person has held that office, but has resigned it, or been left out, or dismissed. Exercise.— Fxhale, exclude, ex- scind, excess, exceed, excel, exact, exert, exist, exonerate, exult, excel, exhaust, expend, exquisite, exsiccant, extort, ef- flux, effect, effusion, elect, event, edi- tion, emigrate, eject, eccentric: ex-chan- cellor, ex-governor, ex-president. Ex'TRA. [Contr. from extern (parte), from exter, being on the outside, from ex, out of, from.] A Latin preposi- tion, denoting beyond or excess, often used in composition as a prefix sig- nifying outside of or beyond the lim- its or jurisdiction of that denoted by the word to which it is joined. Exercise. — Extradition, extrava- gant, extraneous, extraordinary, extra- judicial. FOR. [A.-S. for, allied to Goth, fair, Ger. ver.] As a prefix to verbs, for has usually the force of a negative or privative, denoting for th, away, out, without. Exercise.— .Forbid, forseke, for- swear./orego. FORE. [A.-S. /ore, kindred with for, prep.] An adjective used in compo- sition, to denote advancement in place or time. Exercise. — Forebode, forefather, /oreshorten, foreground, foresee, fore- tell, /oreordain,/b?-eshow,,/brearm,. /"ore- warn, /oreknowledge, forerunner, /ore- stall. HY'PER. [Gr. vTrep, allied to Lat. su- per, Skr. upare, Eng. over.] A prefix used in composition to denote excess, or something- oi-er or beyond. Exercise. — 7/yperbolical, hypertro- phy, nyperborean, nnpercritical, hyper- Hy'po. A prefix from the Greek preposition viro [allied to Lat. sub, Skr. upar], under, beneath, frequent- ly used in composition to signify a less quantity, or a low state, or degree of that denoted by the word with which it is joined, position beneath it, &c. In chemistry, prefixed to the name of a compound containing oxy- gen, it designates another compound containing less oxygen ; as hypo-ni- trous acid, which contains less oxygen than nitrous acid. Exercise. — .Hi/pochondrinc, 7w/po- static, nypothesis, nypoteuusc, hyphen.. IL. The form of in when used before words beginning with I. See I.N. IM. A prefix from the Lat. in, n being changed to in, before a labial, for the sake of easy utterance. The same prefix is sometimes used in compounds not of Latin origin. For im, the French write em, which is used in words introduced into Eng- lish from the French language. See Em. Exercise. — /mbibe, immense, im- partial, immoral, import, imprint, im- bank, imbitter, imprison. IN. 1. [Allied to Gr. iv, Skr. ina.] A prefix from the Latin in, often used in composition, and signifying with- in, into, or among, or serving to render emphatic the sense of the word to which it is prefixed. — In before lis changed intoiV; before r, into ir ; before a labial, into im. 2. [Allied to Eng. un. See UN.] A Latin particle of negation. Before b and p, it becomes im ; before /, m , r, the n assimilates itself to these con- sonants. In a few words in is changed into ig. Exercise. — 1. /nbred, incase, inject, inspect, induce, infuse, inclose, increase; i/legal, iilumine, illusion ; irradiate, irra- tional, irregular: imbitter, immaterial, impatient. — 2. Inactive, incapable, in- vincible, intolerable, infirm, impassable; {/licit, i/limitable, immortal, irrepressi- ble, irresolute, ignoble, ignorant. In'ter. [From in, with an adverbial ending.] A Latin preposition, sig- nifying among or between; — used as a prefix. Exercise. — /ntercept, interfere, in- terrupt, intercede, interpose, inter- change, intermingle, interview, inter- pose, intervene, intersperse. IN'TRO. [Lat., contr. from intero (loco).] A prefix signifying within, into, in, and the like. Exercise. — Introduce, infromission, introvert, inteoit, introspection. MEt'A. [Gr. jnei-a, allied to jueVos, Lat. medius, Eng. mid, middle.] A prefix in words of Greek origin, sig- nifying in the midst of; also, beyond, over, after, behind, with, between, reversely. Exercise. — Metaphor, metaphysics, metamorphose, metaphrase. Mis. [A.-S., having the same origin with the verb to miss.] A prefix de- noting error, wrong, defect, unlike- ness, &c. Exercise. — 3/istake, mismanage, mispronounce, mistrust, misbehave, mis- believer, miscreant, misdemeanor. Non, adv. [Lat. non,0. Lat. nanum. nenum, from ne-oenum, or neunum, not one.] Not; — used in English as a prefix, generally and properly to substantives and verbs only, giving them a negative sense, ordering and varying their meaning, as do the prefixes un and in those of adjec- tives ; also, in some cases, prefixed to adjectives. Exercise. — TVbn-residence, non-per- forinancc, non-arrival, non-intercourse, non-intervention, non-conductor, non- acid, non-electric, non-existent, non-com- missioned. OB. [Kindred with Gr. iiri.] A Latin preposition, signifying, primarily, in front, before, and hence against, to- ward. In composition the b is often changed into the first letter of the word to which it is prefixed. In a few cases the b becomes s. It means re- versed or back in ooovate, occiput, &c. Exercise.— Ooject, oojuigatory, occa- sion, offer, oppose, ostentation. PA'RA. [Gr.,prob. akin toLat.pra?and prseler.] A preposition, used in com- position, and signifying beside, to the side of, to, amiss, wrong, beyond, contrary to, &c. It is sometimes contracted into par. Exercise. — Paradox, paragon, paralysis, parasite, parallel, paragraph, paraclete, paraphrase ; parody, par- oxysm, parhelion. PER. A Latin prepo.-ition often used in composition as a prefix denoting through, passing, or over the. ivhole extent. The r is sometimes assimi- lated. In chemistry, it signifies very, fully, or to the utmost extent ; as in peroxide, a substance oxidated to the utmost degree. Exercise. — Perambulate, perfunc- tory, persecute, perforate, permanent, permit, percussion, pervade, peruse, perfection, perdition, peilucid; peroxide. PER'I. [Gr. 7repi, Skr. pari.] A pre- fix used in many words derived from PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES. XXIX the Greek, and signifying with, around, about, near, and the like. Exercise. — Pericarp, period, peri' phrase, peripatetic, periphery, periheli- on, perimeter. Post. A Latin preposition, used in composition as a prefix, signifying after. Exercise. — Postpone, postscript, posterior, posthumous, postobit. PRE. An English form of the Latin prefix, prx, before. It expresses pri- ority of time, place, or rank. Exercise.— Preclude, predict, pre- fer, preponderate, precursor, precede, prefix, prelude, premonition, pre-emi- nent. PRE'TER. A prefix, from the Lat. pr&ter (from prsR, with the adverbial termination ter), used in the compo- sition of some English words, and having the signification of past, be- yond ; hence, beside, more. Exercise. — Preterit, pretermit, pre- teraatural. PRO. [Orig. neuter dative for proi, Gr. J Trpo.] A Latin preposition, used in composition as a prefix, and denoting fore, forth, forward, in front of, in favor of, for, in the place of. Exercise. — Produce, project, pro- fess, promise, protract, pronoun, pro- ceed, provoke, promote, protrude. PROS. [Gr. n-pos. Cf. Skr. prati.] A Greek preposition, used in composi- tion, and signifying motion towards, a being on, at, by, or beside, a re- maining brside, and hence connec- tion and engagement ivith any thing. Exercise. — Proselyte, prosody. PSEU'DO (su'do). [From Gr. tffevSrjg, lying, false, from xj/evSeiv, to belie.] A prefix used in words from the Greek, and signifying false, counter- feit, pretended, or spurious. Exercise. — Pseutfo-martyr, pseudo- philosophy, pseudonym. without, and used in composition. It drops the final e in sincere, and also changes the n into m in simple. Exercise. — Sinecure. STEP. [A.-S. stedp.fr. sleopan,stepan, to bereave.] A prefix used in compo- sition before fat her,, mot her, brother, &c, to indicate that the person thus spoken of is not a blood-relative, but is a relative by the marriage oi a pa- rent. Exercise. — Stepson, stepsister, step- child. Ra. An inseparable prefix or preposi- tion in words from the French and Italian, coming from the Lat. re and ad combined. See Re and Ad. , Exercise. — Pally, ramble. Re. [Lat.] A prefix or inseparable par- ticle in the composition of words, de- noting return, repetition, iteration. It is abbreviated from red, which the Latins retained in words beginning with a vowel. Exercise.— Pecur, reduce, refrain, retract, revert, rebuild, reform, restore, resound, resist, renew, recall, remove, resume, revolve; redeem, redintegrate. Re'tro. [Lat. , from re, and the ad- verbial termination ter.] A prefix in words from the Latin, signifying back or backward. Exercise. — Petrocede, retrospect, retrograde, retroact. Se. [Orig. form of sine.] An insepa- rable preposition used in some words from the Latin, and signifying with- out, aside, by itself Exercise.— Secure, seduce, seclude, secede, sequester, separate, sedition, se- gregate. SI'ne. A Latin preposition signifying SCb. [Allied to Gr. vno.] A Latin preposition, denoting under or below, used in English as a prefix, to express an inferior position, or intention, and also a subordinate degree, or imper- fect state of a quality. Before c,f, g, p, r, and m, the 6 is changed into those letters. Exercise. — Subscribe, subsequent, submarine, submerge, submit, subtract, subacid, substitute, subside, subordinate, subterranean ; succeed, suffer, suggest, suppose, surrogate, summon. JSS*- When prefixed to the name of a chemical compound, sub denotes that this, if an oxysalt, contains a less number of equivalents of the acid than of the ! base, or that the base is a sub-oxide: or, if it is a haloid salt, or analogous com- pound, that the electro-negative is in a smaller proportion than the electro-posi- tive constituent, or is combined with it in the smallest proportion possible; as in sub-bromide, sub-iodide, &c. SUB'TER. [From sho, and the adverbial termination ter.] A Latin preposi- tion, signifying under, used as a prefix in English with the same meaning as sub ; but it is less general in its application. Exercise.— Subterfuge. Stl'PER. A Latin preposition (same as Gr. V7rep), used as a prefix, and sig- nifying above, over, or in excess. Exercise. — Supe7-fine, superintend, supervise, supernumerary, superadd, su- perhuman, superfluous, superlative, su- perstructure. Sfj'PRA. [Orig. supera, from super.] A Latin preposition, signifying above, over, or beyond, and used in composi- tion. Exercise. — Supralapsarian. Su"R. A prefix, from the French, con- tracted from the Latin super, supra, and signifying over, above, beyond, upon. Exercise. — Surcharge, surmount, surprise, surfeit, surmise, swrcoat, sur- face, surplus. SYN. A prefix from the Greek prepo- sition trvv [Lat. cum, akin to Lat. simul, Skr. sa-, sam], with, along with, together with, at the same time. Before 6, m, p, ph, it changes into sym ; before I, into syl ; and sometimes the n is dropped. Exercise. — Synonym, syntax, syn- thesis, synod, synopsis, synchronous, synovial; symbol, symmetry, sympathy, symphony, syZlogism, system. TRAXg. A Latin preposition, used in English as a prefix, signifying over, beyond, through, on the other side. Hence, in a moral sense, it denotes a complete change. It sometimes drops the last consonant, and sometime* the two last consonants. Exercise.— Transalpine, trans-At- lantic, transport, tran.tfer, transmit, transit, transgress, transform, transcend; tradition, traduce. TrI. A prefix, signifying three, thrice, from Gr. Tpi's, thrice, Tpeis, rpta, Lat- tres, tria, three. Exercise.— Triangle, trident, tri- ennial, tricenniaJ, tricuspid, triune. Ul/TRA. [Lat., orig. fem. of ulter, being beyond.] A prefix from the Latin, having in composition the sig- nification beyond, on the other side, chiefly when joined with words ex- pressing relations of place. In other relations, it has the sense of excess- ively, exceedingly, beyond what is common, natural, right, or proper. Exercise. — r/tramarine. ^tramon- tane, uZtramundane, ?/Ztr«tropical; uL tra-conservative, uZtra-despotic. fjN. [A.-S un, and sometimes on, al< lied to Gr. av, d, Skr. an, a, Lat. in.] A negative prefix attached at will to almost any English adjective, or par- ticiple used adjectively, and to less numerous classes of nouns and verbs. See UH in the Dictionary. Exercise.— Enable, unfriendly, wn» certain, undo, unbar, untruth, unworthy. WITH. [A.-S. widh, wid, with, at, against, Icel. vidh, against. Com- pare A.-S. mid, mid/i, Goth, mith, Ger. mil, with.] An English prepo- sition, used in composition, and sig- nifying opposition, privation, sepa- ration, or departure. Exercise. withhold. IFttAdraw, withstand, SUFFIXES. A€. [Gr. -axos.] A suffix signifying of or pertaining to. Exercise. — Demoniac, hypochon- driac, cardiac, elegiac, prosodiac. Age. [Fr.] A termination of nouns having a collective or abstract mean- ing. Exercise. — Advantage, average, herbage, foliage, pillage, vassalage, ap- panage, homage, parentage, fruitage. Al [Lat. -alis.] A termination of words from the Latin, denoting of, or pertaining to. See Cal. Exercise. — Annua?, eordiaZ, fmaZ, legal, martiaZ, regaZ, frugaZ, filiaZ, car- naZ, casuaZ, fioraZ, manuaZ, judiciaZ, lo- caZ, decenniaZ. AN. [Lat. -anus.] A termination of some nouns and adjectives from tho Latin, denoting office, profession, or character. Exercise. — Christian, comedian, tragedian, elysian, tertian, hyperborean, sylvan, republican, pagan, Soman, ANCE, ) [Lat. -antia.] Terminations An-CY. ) of some nouns having an abstract signification. Exercise. — Elegance, abundance, brilliancy, vacancy, dissonance, toler- ance, ignorance, circumstance, repent- ance, infancy, necromancy. XXX PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES. Xnt. [Lat. -ans, -antis.] A termina- tion of adjectives from the Latin, ex- pressing quality or habit ; and of nouns denoting the doer of a thing. Exercise. ~ Vagrant, abundant, ver- dant, extravagant, triumphant, vigilant, dominant, exorbitant; assistant, com- mandant, dependant, intendant, lieu- tenant. A.R. [Lat. -aris.] A termination of adjectives derived from the Latin, and denoting of, or pertaining to. Exercise. — Angular, jocular, per- pendicular, similar, linear, familiar, solar, secular, regular. ARD, the termination of many English ■words, is taken from the Goth, /tar- dus, A.-S. heard, Icel. & Eng. hard, and appears in proper names ; as, Renard, strong in counsel ; Goddard, strong in, or through, God, &c. We find it also in appellatives, usually ■with a bad signification. Exercise. — Drunkard, dotard, bus- tare/, niggard, sluggard, dullard, cow- ard, wizard, laggard, dastard. A-RY. [Lat. -arius.] A termination of adjectives from the Latin, denot- ing of, or pertaining to; and of notfns, denoting the doer of a thing. _ Exercise. — Auxiliary, militar;/, biliary, stipendiary, pecuniary, pri- mary, plena?-?/, ordinary, sublunar?/, adversary, mercenary, vocabulary, lap- idary, boundary, granary. .Xte. [Lat. -atus.] A termination; — 1. Of verbs. 2. Of adjectives, implying nature, likeness, quality, agreement, effect, &c. 3. Of nouns, denoting (a.) office or dignity; (b.) the possessor of an of/ice or dignity; (c.) salts containing one degree or more of oxygen. Exercise. — 1. Deliberate, initiate, extricate, permeate, suffocate, navigate, ventilate, fascinate, anticipate, vener- ate. 2. Moderate, ultimate, temperate, obdurate, fortunate, insensate, passion- ate, effeminate, immaculate. 3. Pontif- icate, electorate, palatinate; magistrate, delegate, legate, candidate, advocate, laureate, surrogate; sulphate, phos- phate. Ble. [Lat. -bilis.] A termination of adjectives derived from the Latin, or formed on the same model, and sig- nifying capable of being, or worthy to be. Exercise. — FlexibZe, mutabZe, sensi- ble, warrantable, capabZe, curabZe, blam- abZe, commendable, incredibZe, accessi- ble, excusable. •€AL. [Lat. -cus ] A termination of adjectives derived from the Latin or following the analogy of such, and signifying of or pertaining to. Exercise. — Anatomical, comica?, magical, practical!, technical, classical, analyticaZ, botanica/, practicaZ, dogmat- ical, periodical D6m. A termination denoting juris- diction, or property and jurisdiction. It was originally doom, judgment. Hence it is used to denote state, con- dition, or quality. Exercise. — Kingdom, sheriffdom, dukedom, earldom, Christendom, wis- w«i freedom, throlldom. E-AN. [Gr. -aios, or -eios, Lat. -xus, -ens.] A termination of adjectives derived from Greek adjectives, or formed on the pattern of such ad- jectives, and denoting of or pertain- ing to. Exercise. — Cerulean, herculean hyperborean, subterranean, epicurean, auamantean, tartarean, empyrean. EE. A termination of nouns, denoting one on or to whom something is done. Exercise. — Appellee, donee, referee, trustee, lessee, grantee, legatee, patentee. Eer. See IER. EN. A plural termination of nouns and of verbs formerly in use, as in housen, escape*?., and retained in oxen and children. It is also still used as the termination of some verbs, as in hearken, from the Anglo-Saxon in- finitive. It is also used to form from nouns adjectives expressing the ma- terial of ivhich a thing is made. Exercise.— Glisten, listen; leaden, wooden, golden, birchen, earthen, oaken, hempen, oaten, flaxen, waxen. ENCE, ) [Lat. -entia.] A termination EN-^Y. } of abstract nouns from the Latin, or of nouns that follow the analogy of nouns so derived. Exercise.— Abstinence, circumfer- ence, reticence, agency, contingency, in- nocence, coalescence, diffidence, provi- dence, intelligence, prudence, presidency, tendency, despondency, exigency, clem- ency, transparency, solvency. Ent. [Lat. -ens, -entis.] A termina- tion of nouns from the Latin, denot- ing the doer of a thing ; or of par- ticipial adjectives expressing quality or habit. Exercise. — Dependent, recipient, student, president, agent, adherent; fer- vent, ardent, indolent, esculent, reful- gent, incumbent, evanescent, evident, omnipotent. Er. A termination of many English words, and the Teutonic form of the Latin or. It denotes an agent, and was originally of the masculine gen- der, but is now applied to men or things indifferently. At the end of names of places, er signifies a man of the place ; thus, Londoner is the same as London man. Exercise. —Hater, farmer, heater, grater, builder, waiter, lover, doer, mak- er, strainer, poker, ruler, pointer, paint- er, voter. ES'CENT. [Lat. -escens, -escentis.] A termination of participial adjectives from the Latin, denoting progression, growing, or becoming. Exercise. — Convalescent, putres- cent, quiescent, effervescent, phosphor- escent, incandescent. £ss. [Fr., from Lat. -ix.] A termina- tion of nouns feminine, distinguish- ing them from correspondent nouns masculine. Exercise. — Authoress, lioness, ne- gress, shepherdess, actress, giantess, sor- ceress, tigress, huntress, countess, priest- ess, hostess, poetess- FyL. [The same as fidl.] A termina- tion of adjectives denoting plenitude or abundance, and generally formed from substantives. Exercise. — Artful, beauti/id, peace- ful, grateful, careful, use/id, bash Ad, fan- ciA«, pain/«/, power/?/?, doubtful. FY. [Lat. facere, fieri, Yr.fier.} A ter- mination of verbs, denoting to makt, to become. Exercise. — Ampli/y, deity, grnti/y, hque/y, rare/?/, stupe/;/, pnciA/, quali/y, signi/?/, glorj/y, rati/y, testi/y, rect(/& puri/y. HOOD. [A.-S. nftd, from had, state, sex, order, degree, person, form, manner, Goth, haidus.] A termina- tion denoting state or fixedness, con- dition, quality, character, totality. Sometimes it is written head. Exercise. — Manhood, ehild7?ood, knight/?ood, brotherhood, boyhood, wid- owhood, neighbor/food, priesthood; god- head. l€. [Gr. -1K09, Lat. -ievs.] A termi- nation of adjectives denoting of, or pertaining to. Exercise. — Authentic, concentric, magnetic, seraphic, academic, dogmatic, periodic, theoretic, botanic, cubic, pro- saic, apostolic. Ies. A termination of nouns, plural in form but singular in signification, applied to certain arts or sciences. Exercise. — Optics, mathematics, hydraulics, mechanics, physics, acous- tics, statics, hermeneutics. Id. [Lat. -idus.] A termination of adjectives denoting quality. Exercise. —Acid, liquid, rigid, sor- did, arid, fervid, fluid, horrid, humid, torpid, timid, rancid, torrid, vivid. IER, ) [Fr. -ier, -iere.] A termination Eer. J of nouns denoting men from their occupations or employment. Exercise. — Brigadier, grenndie-, cavalier, mountaineer, voluntee? - , finan- cier, engineer, auctioneer, buccaneer. ILE. [Lat. -ilis.] A termination of adjectives from the Latin, denoting of, or pertaining to. Exercise. — Ag?7e, docile, fragile, versati/e, faciZe, puerile, volatiZe, fertiZe, hostiZe, futiZe, mercantiie. INE. [Lat. -inus.] A termination of adjectives from the Latin, denoting of, or pertaining to. Exercise. — Adamantine, feminine, pristine, aquiline, canine, clandestine, alpine, serpentine, genuine, equine. ION. [Lat. -?'o, genitive -?' onis.] A ter- mination of abstract nouns derived from the Latin, or formed after the same analogy. Exercise. — Ambition, conception, probation, evasion, version, crucifixion, union, action, addition, compassion, ex- tension, opinion, vermilion. ISH. [A.-S. -isc, Goth, -isle, N. H. Ger. -isch.] A termination of English words denoting diminution, or a small degree of the quality. Ish an- nexed to proper names forms a pos- sessive adjective. Annexed to com- mon nouns, it forms an adjective de- noting a participation of the quali- ties expressed by the noun. Exercise. — WhitisZ?, yellowish ; Swe- dish, Danish, English, Spam's/?, Scottish; foolisZ?, roguisZ?., brutish, childis/?, doltisA, boorish, slavish, feverish, knavtsA, girl- ish, woinanisft. PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES. Igsl. [Gr. -loyxos.] A termination of nouns from the Greek, or of nouns formed on the same model as these, denoting tenets, doctrines, or princi- ples. Exercise. — Atheism, catechism, he- roism, mechanism, sophism, skepticism, archaism, barbarism, heathenism, ego- tism, magnetism. 1st. [Gr. -ictttj;.] A termination of nouns denoting men from their occu- pations, pursuits, or principles. Exercise. — Baptist, chemist, eulo- gist, theist, oculist, moralist, novelist, philologist, sophist, annalist, chemist, botanist. Ite. [Lat. -itus.] A termination of nouns and adjectives. It is often used to form collective or gentile names. Exercise.— Appetite, exquisite, fa- vorite, recondite, definite, opposite, requisite, bedlamite, Jacobite. l-TY. See TY. Ive. [Lat. -ivus.] A termination of nouns and adjectives from the Latin, denoting ability, power, or activity. Exercise. — Authoritative, incentive, persuasive, vindictive, convulsive, delu- Bive, negative, formative, conducive, furtive, derisive. IzE,)[Gr. -tfeiv.] A termination of Ise. | verbs from the Greek, or of "verbs formed on the same model, and denoting to make, to cause to be, to become. Exercise. — Agonize, characterize, tantalise, criticise, exercise, equalize, civilize, enfranchise, exorcise, memorise, organize, satirize. KIN. [A.-S. cyn, cynd, kin, kind, off- spring, race ; allied to Lat. genus, Gr. yeVos, yovo?] A diminutive ter- mination, denoting small, from the sense of child. Exercise. — Lambfcin, manifcin, nap- tin, pipA,i/i, bod&in. YjE. A diminutive termination. Exercise.— Crumble, bundle, girdZe, joggle, fondle, dim pie, throttle, thimble, canticle, ruffle, speckle, suckle, sparkle, 6toppie. Less. A terminating syllable of many nouns and some adjectives. It is the A.-S. leas, allied to Eng. loose, from A.-S. ledsan, to Zo.se. Hence, it is a privative word, denoting destitution ; as, a witness man, a man destitute of wit ; childless, without children. Exercise. — Fatherless, faithless, f>enniles.«, lawless, boundless, needless, ifeless, nameZess, careless, hopeless, nerveless, worthless, pitiless. XJ5t. [French dim. termination et, as in tsZet, eaglet , circlet , goblet , floweret, baronet : with I inserted , as in stream- let, branchlet.] A termination of di- minutives ; as, hamlet, a little house ; rivulet, a small stream. Exercise.— Eyelet, frontlet, tabZet, ringlet. ClNG. [A.-S.] A termination denoting condition, offspring, or progeny. Exercise. — Hireling, earthling, WorldZing, foundling, darling, firstling, underling, starling, groundling, gosZing, •apZing, changeling, fatling, nestling. LY. [0. Eng. lich, being an abbrevia- tion of A.-S. lie, Goth, leiks, Eng. like.) A termination of adjectives, as in lovely, manly, that is, love- like, man-like. It is also a termina- tion of adverbs [0. Eng. liche, A.-S. lice]. Exercise. — Courtly< costZy, priestZy, portZy, gristl?/, hilly, shelly, bravely, coarsely, purely, chiefly, rashly, tardiZy, silliZy, angrily/meekZy. MEnt. A termination of nouns (formed often from verbs), denoting con- dition, state, or act. Exercise. — Engagement, manage- ment, impediment, embarrassment, .judg- ment, amusement, investment, aroitra- nient, infringement. Mo-NY. [Lat. -monium, -monia.] A termination of nouns from the Latin, signifying action, or an active faculty, being, or a state of being, viewed ab- stractly. Exercise. — Alimony, matrimony, testimony, ceremony, parsimony, acri- mony, sanctimony, patrimony. Nfiss. [A.-S. -ness, -niss, Goth, -nas- sus.] A termination of abstract names, denoting state, or quality. Exercise. — Blindness, goodness, greatness, sweetness, godliness, weariness, stiffness, rashness, boyishness, blackness, usefulness, zealousness. Ock. [A.-S. -ca or -uca.] A diminutive termination of nouns. Exercise. — Bulloc/t, hillocfc, mat- toc/:, paddocfc, pollock. Or. A termination of Latin nouns, denoting an agent. It is annexed to many words of English origin ; as in lessor. In general, or is annexed to words of Latin, and er to those of English, origin. See ER. Exercise. — Actor, creditor, editor, captor, conductor, pastor, inspector, pretor, orator, dictator, professor. O-RY. [Lat. -orius.] A termination of words from the Latin, denoting of, or pertaining to. Exercise. — Amatory, consolatory, promissory, satisfactory, compulsory, cursory, prefatory, nugatory, valedic- _ tory. OSE, ) [Lat. -osus, -us.] A termina- 00s. J tion of English adjectives (many of which are derived directly from the Latin), denoting quality or property). Exercise. — Dubious, conscious, atro- cious, conspicuous, onerous, generous, dangerous, populous, morose, comatose, operose, verbose. Rl€. [A.-S. rice, ric ; fr. the same root as Lat. regere, to rule, and regio, re- gion.] A termination signifying juris- diction, or a district over which gov- ernment is exercised. Exercise. — Bishopric. ShIp. [A.-S. scipe, scype, fr. scyppan, to mold, form, shape.] A termina- tion denoting state, office, dignity, profession, or art. Exercise. — Lords/dp, friendship, chancellorship, stewardship, horseman- xxxl ship, copartnership, hardship, clerks/lip, worship, scholars/up, censors/lip. SlON. See Ion. Some. [A.-S. sum, Goth, sama, like, the same.] A termination of certain adjectives. It indicates a considera- ble degree of the thing or quantity ; as, mettleso??ie, full of mettle or spirit ; gladsowe, very glad or joy- ous. Exercise. — Blithesome, wearisome, loathsome, troublesome, wbole«ome, lone« some. STER. [A.-S. -estre, -istre.] A termk nation denoting skill or occupation. It was originally applied to denote the female agent in an action. Thus, songster signified, at first, a female who sings ; but the ending ster having at length, in a measure, lost its peculiar force, the feminine termination ess was appended to it ; thus, songster became songsteress,or songstress, with a double euding. Exercise. — Gameste?-, songster, spinster, youngster, punster, maltster, tapster. T, 1 [A.-S.] A termination of abstract TH. I nouns of Anglo-Saxon origin. Exercise. — DeptTi, growt/?, strengtA, ■wealth, width, warmtA, birth, breadth, depth, mirth, healtu, trufl; / draff, joint, flight, height, drift, gift, theft. Tion. See Ion. Tude. [Lat. -tudo.] A termination of abstract nouns from the Latin, signifying action or an active fac- ulty, being, or a state of being. Exercise. — Amplitude, fortitude, gratitude, solitude, infinitude, turpitude, altitude, rectitude, servitude, aptitude, magnitude. TY. [Lat. -tas, -talis, Fr. -tc.] A ter- mination of words denoting action or an active faculty, being, or a slate of being, viewed abstractly. Exercise. — Antiquity, difficulty, humility, necessity, probability, laxity, impiety, society, modesty, majesty, lib- erty, fatuity. URE. [Lat. -ura.] A termination of words derived from the Latin (often through the Italian or French), and denoting action or an active faculty, being, or a state of being, viewed ab- stractly. Exercise. — Creature, fracture, legis- lature, nature, superstructure, lecture, fissure, flexure, exposure, tenure, junc- ture, verdure. WARD, or WARDg. [A.-S. -weard, -weardes; Goth, -vairths, allied to Lat. vertere, to turn, versus, toward.* A suffix used in the composition of a large class of words, and denoting direction, or tendency to, motion to- ward, and the like. Exerci 3E. — Upward, onwards, west- ward, backwards, forward, homeward, downwards, inward. Wise. [A.-S. wise, allied tog-wise.] A termination of adverbs implying m tAe direction or manner of. Exercise. — Endwise, lengthwise, sidewise, likewise. ABBREVIATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. a. . .stands for adjective. abbrev abbreviated. adv adverb. Alg Algebra. Am., Amer America, American. Anat Anatomy. Anc Ancient. Antiq Antiquities. Ar Arabic. Arch Architecture. Arith Arithmetic. Armor Armorican. A.-S Anglo-Saxon. Astrol Astrology. Astron Astronomy. augm augmentative. Bisc Biscayan. Bot Botany. Braz Brazilian. Cf. Confer (compare). Chald Chaldee. C/iem Chemistry. Chin Chinese. Colloq Colloquial, colloquially. Com Commerce, common. comp compound, compound- compar comparative. [ed. conj conjunction. contr contracted.contraction. corrupt corrupted, corruption. D Dutch. Dan Danish. dat dative. Dim., dim diminutive. Eccl Ecclesiastical. Eng England, English. esp especially. f. feminine. Far Farriery. fig figuratively. Fort Fortification. fr from. Fr French fut future. Gael Gaelic. gen genitive Geol Geology. Geo m Geometry. Ger German. Goth, .stands for Gothic. Gr Greek. Gram Grammar. H. High. Heb Hebrew. Her Heraldry. Hind Hindostanee. Hist History. hypoth hypothetical. Icel Icelandic. i. e id est ( that is). imp imperfect. impers impersonally. Ind Indian. infra below. intens intensive. inter j interjection. Ir Irish. it.,Ital Italian. Japan. .Japanese. L Low. Lat Latin. Lit. . lit Literally , literally. M... Middle. m. masculine. Mach Machinery. Malay Malayan. Math Mathematics. Mech Mechanics. Med Medicine. Mil Military. Min Mineralogy. modi/. modification. Mus Music. Myth Mythology. IV". New. n noun. Naut Nautical. neut neuter. Norm. Fr Norman French. O Old. Obs Obsolete. orig original, originally. p participle. p. a participial adjective. Paint Painting. Per Persian. perh.. stands for perhaps. vers person. Peruv Peruvian. Pg Portuguese. pi. plural. Poet Poetry, poetical. Pol Polish. p.p participle past. p.pr participle present. Pre/., pre/. Prefix prep preposition. pret preterit. Prin Principles. prin principally. Print Printing. priv privative. Prob. , prob probably. - Pron., pron... [ Pronunciation, pro- > p \ nounced ; pronoun. prop properly. Pros Prosody. Prov Provincial. Rhet Rhetoric. Rom Roman. Rom. Cath Roman Catholic. Russ Russian. Sax Saxon. [stood) sc scilicet (being under- Scot Scotland, Scottish. Script Scripture, Scrip- sing singular. [tural Skr.... Sanskrit. Sp Spanish. superl superlative. supra above. Sw Swedish. Syn Synonyms. Syr Syriac. term termination. Theol Theology. Turk Turkish. U. S United States. v verb. vb. n verbal noun. v. i verb intransitive. v. t verb transitive. W. Welsh. Zob'l Zoology. %* In this Dictionary, words from foreign languages, both ancient and modern, are usually printed in Italics, though many of them are not ordinarily so printed in other works ; as, ADOBE, ADDENDUM, ALIBI. %* Compound words, which in ordinary writing and printing have their constituent parts separated by a hy- phen, are here distinguished from those which are usually and properly written and printed without one, by the use of a longer hyphen than that employed for the mere division of words into syllables ; as, Ale-house. Words having prefixes or initial syllables which are commonly separated from other syllables by a hyphen, are distinguished in tho same way ; as, Re-enforce, Electro-magnetic. * # * The syllables -ed ; -ING, inclosed within brackets (see Abandon), represent respectively the imperfect tense and past participle, and the present participle — which may in all cases be used as a verbal noun — of regular verbs. In like manner, the syllables -ER ; -EST (see Dark) represent the comparative and superlative degrees of regular adjectives. The principal parts of irregular verbs (as Make) and the comparative and superlative of irregular adjectives (as Good) are given in full. *** The figures which immediately follow certain words in the Vocabulary refer to corresponding sections in the Principles of Pronunciation on pp. vii.-xxii., or in the Rules for Spelling, on pp. xxii.-xxvi. \* For the " KEY TO THE PRONUNCIATION," see page vi. It is desirable that those who use this Dictionary 8hould make themselves familiar with the Key, as they will then find it easy to understand the notation by which the pronunciation of every word is expressed. Csxxii) - DICTIONABY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. A (2-8, 44, 45), an adjective, com- monly called the indefinite arti- cle, and signifying one or any, but less emphatically. It is a contrac- tion of an, and is substituted for it before all words beginning with a consonant sound, except words be- ginning with the sound of A and hav- ing the accent on any other syllable than the first. A-BACK', adv. Backward, against the mast ; — said of the sails when pressed by the wind. Xb'a-cus, ». [Lat.] 1. The upper plate upon the capital of a col- umn. 2. An in- strument for per- forming a r i t h- Abacus, metical calculations by means of sliding balls. A-baft' (6), prep. Towards the stern from ; back of. A-BAN'DON, V. t. [-ED; -ING, 137.] [Lat. ad, and Low Lat. bandum.] To give up wholly and finally, or with a view never to resume. Syn.— To relinquish; forsake; desert; surrender; leave; forego. — We abandon what we give up finally, as vice ; we re- linquish what we have prized or sought, as a claim or hopes ; we desert what we ought to adhere to, as duty ; we surren- der (usually under a necessity) what we have held as our own or in trust, as a fortress: we renounce a thing publicly or as a duty, as allegiance or the world. A-BAN'doned, p. a. Given up en- tirely, as to a vice. A-Ban'don-ment, n. Entire deser- tion or relinquishment. A-base', v. t. [-ed ; -ing, 140.] [Fr. abaisser.} To bring low, as to the ground ; to cast down. Srx. — To depress; degrade; reduce; humiliate; humble. A-base'ment, n. Act of abasing, or bringing very low. Sytt. — Humiliation; depression; deg- radation. — Abasement is a humbling, as of the pro tul ; debasement is a corrupting, as of coin ; depression is a sinking down, as of spirits; degradation is a bringing down from a higher rank or grade, as of a peer. A-bash', v. t. [-ed; -ing.] [Fr. abaisser.] To destroy the self-pos- session of; to strike with sudden shame or fear. Syx. — To confuse ; confound. — "We are confused when we lose our self-pos- session ; we are confounded when our faculties are overwhelmed and brought toji stand. A-bat'a-ble, a. Capable of being abated. A-BATE', v. t. [-ED ; -ING.] [Lat. ah and batuere.] To bring down or reduce from a higher to a lower state, num- ber, degree, or the like ; specifically, (Law.), (a.) to cause to fail as a writ; \b.) to destroy as a nuisance. — v. i. 1. To decrease ; to become less in strength or violence. 2. To be defeated ; to fail, as a writ. Syx. — To decline ; subside ; dimin- ish. — Lessen, decrease, diminish, refer to quantity or size ; decline is to fall off ; abate supposes previous violence, as, the storm abates ; subside, previous com- motion, as, the tumult subsides. A-BATE'MENT, n. Act of abating , or state of being abated ; decrease ; spe- cifically, (a.) a remitting, as of a tax: (b.) failure, as of a writ; (c.) removal, as of a nuisance. AB'a-tis, In. [Fr. See ABATE.] Ab'at-tIs, ) A row of sharpened branches of trees turned outward for w defense. Ab'ba, n. A Syriac word meaning father, used to denote a religious superior. iB'BA-CY, n. The condition or priv- ileges of an abbot. [abbey. Ab-ba'TIAL, a. Pertaining to an ABBlt (ab'ba), n. [Fr.] Originally, an abbot ; but now, an ecclesiastic devoted to teaching, literature, &c. AB'bess, n. Governess of a nunnery. AB'BEY, n. ; pi. AB'BEYg. 1. A res- idence of monks or nuns. 2. The dwelling of an abbot. 3. A church attached to a monastery. ABECEDARIAN .Xb'BOT, n. [Lat. abba. See ABBA.] Head of a society of monks. AB'BOT-ship, n. The state or office of an abbot. AB-BRE'VI-ATE, V. t. [-ED ; ING.] [Lat. ah and breviare.] To bring with- in less space. Syx. — To abridge; contract; curtail; compress ; condense. Ab-bre'VI-a'tion, n. 1. Act of ab- breviating. 2. The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by con- traction or omission; as, Gen. for Genesis. Ab-bre'VI -A/TOR, n. One who ab- breviates. AB-BRE'vi-A-TO-RY(50),a. Abbrevi- ating ;_ shortening. AB'DI-eATE,V. t. [-ED; -TNG.] [Lat. abdicare.] To give up right or claim to; to withdraw from (as an office) with or without formal resignation. — v. i. To relinquish an office, right, trust, &c, with, or without resign- ing. Syn. — To relinquish; renounce; for- sake ; quit. .Ww-eA'TION, n. Abandonment of a public office or of a right or trust, w with or without a formal surrender. AB'Di-eA'TTvE, a. Causing, or im- plying, abdication. Ab-do'MEN, n. [Lat.] The belly, or the upper part of the belly. Ab-dom'I-NAL, a. Pertaining to the abdomen. [belly ; pursy. AB-DOM'l-NOtrs, a. Having a big Ab-duce', v. t. [-ed; -ing.] [Lat. abducere.] To draw away ; to draw to a different part. AB-DU-eT', v. t. [-ed; -ing.] [Lat. abductus.] To take away by stealth, or by unlawful force. AB-Dfre'TlON, n. A drawing or car- rying away, especially of a person, by fraud, or stealth, or force. AB-DUG'TOR, n. 1. A person guilty of abduction. 2. A muscle which serves to draw a part out. A'be-ce-da'ri-an, n. One who A, E, 1,5, U, Y,long; X, £,1,0.1}. i, short ; CARE, FAR, ASK, ALL, WHAT ; ERE, VEIL, TERM; PIQUE, FIRM; s6N, 6r, do, wolf, too, to"ok ; URN, rue, pull ; E, T, o, silent'; c, G, soft; €, G, hard; As ; bjcist ; n