tongues and has changed so much with the centuries that whole addresses may grow

out of a single root-idea hidden away in an ancient word-origin. Translation,

also, is excellent exercise in word-mastery and consorts well with the study of

derivations.

 

Phrase books that show the origins of familiar expressions will surprise most of

us by showing how carelessly everyday speech is used. Brewer's "A Dictionary of

Phrase, and Fable," Edwards' "Words, Facts, and Phrases," and Thornton's "An

American Glossary," are all good--the last, an expensive work in three volumes.

 

A prefix or a suffix may essentially change the force of the stem, as in

_master-ful_ and _master-ly_, _contempt-ible_ and _contempt-uous, envi-ous_ and

_envi-able_. Thus to study words in groups, according to their stems, prefixes,

and suffixes is to gain a mastery over their shades of meaning, and introduce us

to other related words.

 

_Do not Favor one Set or Kind of Words more than Another_

 

"Sixty years and more ago, Lord Brougham, addressing the students of the

University of Glasgow, laid down the rule that the native (Anglo-Saxon) part of

our vocabulary was to be favored at the expense of that other part which has

come from the Latin and Greek. The rule was an impossible one, and Lord Brougham

himself never tried seriously to observe it; nor, in truth, has any great writer

made the attempt. Not only is our language highly composite, but the component

words have, in De Quincey's phrase, 'happily coalesced.' It is easy to jest at