2. By the changing of t into ce or cy: as, radiant, radiance; consequent, consequence; flagrant, flagrancy; current, currency; discrepant, discrepance, or discrepancy.
3. By the changing of some of the letters, and the adding of t or th: as, long, length; broad, breadth; wide, width; high, height. The nouns included under these three heads, generally denote abstract qualities, and are called abstract nouns.
4. By the adding of ard: as, drunk, drunkard; dull, dullard. These denote ill character.
5. By the adding of ist: as, sensual, sensualist; separate, separatist; royal, royalist; fatal, fatalist. These denote persons devoted, addicted, or attached, to something.
6. By the adding of a, the Latin ending of neuter plurals, to certain proper adjectives in an: as, Miltonian, Miltoniana; Johnsonian, Johnsoniana. These literally mean, Miltonian things, sayings, or anecdotes, &c.; and are words somewhat fashionable with the journalists, and are sometimes used for titles of books that refer to table-talk.
III. Nouns are derived from Verbs in several different ways:--
1. By the adding of ment, ance, ence, ure, or age: as, punish, punishment; abate, abatement; repent, repentance; condole, condolence; forfeit, forfeiture; stow, stowage; equip, equipage; truck, truckage.
2. By a change of the termination of the verb, into se, ce, sion, tion, ation, or ition: as, expand, expanse, expansion; pretend, pretence, pretension; invent, invention; create, creation; omit, omission; provide, provision; reform, reformation; oppose, opposition. These denote either the act of doing, or the thing done.
3. By the adding of er or or: as, hunt, hunter; write, writer; collect, collector; assert, assertor; instruct, instructer, or instructor. These generally denote the doer. To denote the person to whom something is done, we sometimes form a derivative ending in ee: as, promisee, mortgagee, appellee, consignee.
4. Nouns and Verbs are sometimes alike in orthography, but different in pronunciation: as, a house, to house; a use, to use; a reb'el, to rebel'; a rec'ord, to record'; a cem'ent, to cement'. Of such pairs, it may often be difficult to say which word is the primitive.
5. In many instances, nouns and verbs are wholly alike as to form and sound, and are distinguished by their sense and construction only: as, love, to love; fear, to fear; sleep, to sleep;--to revise, a revise; to rebuke, a rebuke. In these, we have but the same word used differently.
IV. Nouns are often derived from Participles in ing; as, a meeting, the understanding, murmurings, disputings, sayings, and doings: and, occasionally, one is formed from such a word and an adverb or a perfect participle joined with it; as, "The turning-away,"--"His goings-forth,"--"Your having-boasted of it."
SECTION III.--DERIVATION OF ADJECTIVES.
In English, Adjectives are derived from nouns, from adjectives, from verbs, or from participles.
I. Adjectives are derived from Nouns in several different ways:--
1. By the adding of ous, ious, eous, y, ey, ic, al, ical or ine: (sometimes with an omission or change of some of the final letters:) as, danger, dangerous; glory, glorious; right, righteous; rock, rocky; clay, clayey; poet, poetic, or poetical; nation, national; method, methodical; vertex, vertical; clergy, clerical; adamant, adamantine. Adjectives thus formed, generally apply the properties of their primitives, to the nouns to which they relate.
2. By the adding of ful: as, fear, fearful; cheer, cheerful; grace, graceful; shame, shameful; power, powerful. These come almost entirely from personal qualities or feelings, and denote abundance.
3. By the adding of some: as, burden, burdensome; game, gamesome; toil, toilsome. These denote plenty, but do not exaggerate.
4. By the adding of en: as, oak, oaken; silk, silken; wheat, wheaten; oat, oaten; hemp, hempen. Here the derivative denotes the matter of which something is made.
5. By the adding of ly or ish: as, friend, friendly; gentleman, gentlemanly; child, childish; prude, prudish. These denote resemblance. The termination ly signifies like.
6. By the adding of able or ible: as, fashion, fashionable; access, accessible. But these terminations are generally, and more properly, added to verbs. See Obs. 17th, 18th, &c., on the Rules for Spelling.
7. By the adding of less: as, house, houseless; death, deathless; sleep, sleepless; bottom, bottomless. These denote privation or exemption--the absence of what is named by the primitive.
8. By the adding of ed: as, saint, sainted; bigot, bigoted; mast, masted; wit, witted. These have a resemblance to participles, and some of them are rarely used, except when joined with some other word to form a compound adjective: as, three-sided, bare-footed, long-eared, hundred-handed, flat-nosed, hard-hearted, marble-hearted, chicken-hearted.
9. Adjectives coming from proper names, take various terminations: as, America, American; England, English; Dane, Danish; Portugal, Portuguese; Plato, Platonic.
10. Nouns are often converted into adjectives, without change of termination: as, paper currency; a gold chain; silver knee-buckles.
II. Adjectives are derived from Adjectives in several different ways:--
1. By the adding of ish or some: as, white, whitish; green, greenish; lone, lonesome; glad, gladsome. These denote quality with some diminution.
