we can put a verb after it, as

truth honors its speaker;

we can put a preposition before it, as

he spoke with truth.

90. In such a case as this, the noun is said to be DERIVED from the adjective; the process of making it is called DERIVATION, and it is itself called a DERIVATIVE, or a derivative noun; and the word from which it is made is called its PRIMITIVE (which means here 'predecessor, more original'). And the addition th that makes the derivative is called a noun-making SUFFIX (suffix means 'fixed or fastened on at the end').

There are many nouns made from adjectives in our language by the same suffix, often along with some change of sound in the adjective itself: thus,

91. This derived noun truth we can then turn again into an adjective, by adding to it the adjective-making suffix ful: thus, truthful; the word means nearly, though not precisely, the same as true. It is plain enough here that what we call the suffix ful is really nothing but the common adjective full, and that truthful is nearly the same as full of truth.

The adjectives that are derived from nouns by adding ful to them are a very large number: thus,

faithful, sorrowful, disdainful, tearful, careful, wilful.

92. But this derived adjective truthful we can turn once more into a noun by adding another noun-making suffix, namely ness: thus, truthfulness. We might define truthfulness to mean 'the quality of being truthful,' just as truth sometimes means 'the quality of being true.'

The English nouns which are derived from adjectives by

adding ness are still more numerous than the adjectives which are derived from nouns by adding ful. Examples are

calmness, fatness, godliness, heaviness, foolishness, faithfulness, faithlessness, suitableness, disinterestedness.

93. In the same way, taking foul as our starting-point, we may form filth, the quality of being foul,' or 'what is foul'; then, by another suffix than ful for making adjectives from nouns, filthy, 'marked with filth' (like mighty, funny, watery, and so on); and, again, filthiness, 'the quality of being filthy.'

Or, we might have added ness directly to the primitive adjective foul, forming foulness, the quality of being foul': although we do not say trueness, any more than we say truthy like filthy, or filthful like truthful.

No real reason can be given for such differences; it is simply the case that the one is customary, or what we are used to, and not the other.

94. Again, both our adjectives true and foul we can turn into adverbs (42), by adding the adverb-making suffix ly: thus, truly, foully.

And we can treat in the same way the derived adjectives truthful and filthy: thus,

truthfully, filthily.

In fact, there are not many adjectives in the language from which we cannot derive adverbs by this adverb-making suffix, and a large part of our adverbs are made by it.

But the same suffix ly also makes quite a number of adjectives from nouns examples are

manly, brotherly, homely.

95. Verbs also are derived from nouns and adjectives by verb-making suffixes: thus, freshen from the adjective fresh, lengthen from the noun length; other examples are

whiten, blacken, sweeten, sharpen, heighten, frighten.

And, on the other hand, derivatives are made by suffixes from verbs. Thus, from suck come the nouns sucker and suckling,

both meaning 'one who sucks'; from hinder comes hindrance, 'anything that hinders'; and so on. And verbs in general form adjectives in ing and ed or en; we shall see hereafter (238) that they have the special name of "participles" thus,

:

a beaten dog.

96. In all our examples thus far, the word derived by adding a suffix has been a different part of speech from the primitive, the simpler word to which the suffix was added; and that is in general the way in our language.

But it is not always so. Thus, we have nouns derived from nouns as duckling, 'a little duck'; brooklet, a small brook'; countess, 'the wife of a count'; kingdom, 'the realm of a king'; knighthood, 'the rank of knight'; and so on. Again, we have adjectives derived from adjectives: as greenish from green and greener and greenest, as we saw above (78), are really of the same kind. And there are a few cases of verbs derived from verbs (by a change in pronunciation, not an added suffix): as fell, 'cause to fall'; set, 'cause to sit'; lay, 'cause to lie'; and so on (225 c).

97. There are also nouns, as well as verbs, derived from verbs by changes of pronunciation, without any suffix: thus, bond and band from bind, song from sing, speech from speak, proof from prove, and so on.

Those who study the history of our language are able to show that in most or all such cases there was formerly a suffix upon the derived word, but it is now lost.

98. For the same reason, because of the loss of suffixes that once existed, there are not a few instances where words of which one is a derivative from the other, or else both alike are derivatives from a third which is no longer part of the language, are precisely alike. Thus, we have love the verb, and love the noun; we have fight both as verb and as noun; and many other like cases.

99. But we also very frequently take a word which is properly one part of speech and convert it into another, or use it with the value of another, without adding a suffix, or making any

other such change of form as regularly belongs to a derivative. Thus, many adjectives are used as nouns : for example,

the good and the wicked,

meaning good and wicked persons; or

the good, the beautiful, and the true,

meaning that which is good, etc. Some adjectives do not add ly (94) to form adverbs, but are themselves used directly as adverbs for example,

much, little, fast, long, ill;

others sometimes add ly and sometimes are used as adverbs without it for example,

full, wide, late, deep, mighty.

Nouns are sometimes used as adjectives: we do not say a golden watch but a gold watch. And both nouns and adjectives are turned into verbs: thus,

I head a rebellion;

I hand a paper;

I toe a mark;

I stomach an affront;

I black boots;

they bettered their condition;

This also is a kind of derivation.

I foot a bill;

I finger a pie;

I eye a scene;

I breast the waves;
the fruit matures;
the work wearied him.

100. We also have derivative words made by putting something before the primitive, instead of after it. Thus, a host of words, of various kinds, may have un put before them, making a derivative which is the same part of speech, but of opposite meaning. For example, untrue and untruthful are adjectives, the opposite of true and truthful; and untruly and untruthfully are adverbs, the opposites of truly and truthfully. We can say also untruth, though there are far fewer nouns to which we add un in this way; other examples are unbelief, unrest. And verbs derived with un, like undo and undress, are still less common.

101. An addition thus made at the beginning of a word is called a PREFIX instead of a suffix (prefix means 'fixed or fastened

on in front'). Prefixes are in English much less common than suffixes; and they do not ordinarily change the part of speech of the word to which they are added. Other examples are

be fall, gain say, recall, dishonest, mis chance.

102. We saw above that the suffix ful, of truthful and other words like it, was really the adjective full added to the noun truth, in such a way that the two form but a single word. It would be proper, then, to say that truthful is a word made up of the two other independent words truth and full. Further examples are

rainbow, grass-plot, gentleman, washtub,

high-born, homesick, browbeat, fulfil.

Such a word is called a COMPOUND; the two parts are said to be COMPOUNDED, and the putting them together is called COMPOSITION (which means simply 'putting together ').

103. There are great numbers of compound words in English, and we are all the time making new ones.

Sometimes the compounded words stand in the compound just as they would in a sentence, and seem simply to have grown together into one: such are

blackberry, broadaxe, gentleman, highland, grandfather. But much more often they have such a relation to one another that if we used them separately we should have to change their order, or put in other words to connect them, or both thus, housetop is the top of a house,' headache is an 'ache in the head,' heartrending is rending the heart,' blood-red is 'red like blood,' knee-deep is 'deep up to the knee,' washtub is a 'tub to wash in,' drawbridge is a 'bridge made to draw up,' steamboat is a 'boat that goes by steam,' and so on.

Then there are cases in which the relation of the two words is still more peculiar: thus, a pickpocket is a 'person who picks pockets,' a telltale is one who tells tales'; and we call one a red-coat because he wears a red coat.'

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104. A compound is thus generally a shortened or abbreviated description of something. The compounded word, though really made up of two, comes to