It was originally hit. The -t is a Neuter ending seen also in wha-t and tha-t. The h is sometimes found so late as Chaucer; thus, Hit snewede in his hous of mete and drynke.1 Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 1. 345. 461. Its. The old Genitive of hit was his, and this was used long after hit had become it. Its is quite a modern word. The earliest example of it yet found is in a book published in 1598. It does not occur once in the English Bible, its office being fulfilled by his, her, thereof, or of it; thus, The fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself. Gen. i., 11. The tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month.-Rev. xxii., 2. And when the woman saw that the tree was good of the fruit thereof.—Gen. iii., 6. she took And behold another beast. . . and it had three ribs in the mouth of it, between the teeth of it.-Dan. vii., 5. Its is not found in Bacon (1561-1626) or Spenser, and very rarely in Shakespeare. Milton (1608-1674) uses it sometimes, but often avoids it, as in His form had not yet lost All her original brightness.-Paradise Lost, I., 591–2. Even in the eighteenth century its was not used as freely as we now use it. Thus Pope (1688-1744) seems to avoid it in the lines, Where London's column, pointing to the skies, Moral Essays, III., 339–40. 462. Personal Pronouns (Third Person).—They, their, and them are the old Nominative, Genitive, and Dative Plural of the Definite Article. In A.-S. the Nominative and Accusative was hi, the Genitive hira, and the Dative him. By the fourteenth 1 'It abounded in his house of meat and drink.' century they had almost replaced hi, though hi (in various forms) is sometimes met; as in In glotonye, God it wote, gon hii to bedde.1 Piers the Plowman, V., 43. But for their and them, hire and him (in various forms) were always used down to the time of Chaucer; as, So pricketh hem nature in here corages.2 Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 1. 11. In the plays and novels of the last century we often find 'em for them; as in, For let 'em be clumsy, or let 'em be slim, School for Scandal (1777), iii., 3. We still hear 'em sometimes in informal talk. It is a contraction, not of them, but of the old hem. 463. Verbs. It has been seen (Par. 293) that we have now very few personal endings for Verbs. The personal endings were originally Pronouns placed after and compounded with the verbal root . . . as if we were to say love-I, love-thou, love-he, &c.' 13 The ending of the First Person Singular was at first m (for mi) as still seen in a-m. The ending for the Second Person (now st) was once t, which can be traced back to ti, the same as the root of the Pronoun thou. The ending of the Third Person was th (the same as the root of the and that), but as far back as the Norman Conquest the s began to replace the th. The Present Indicative Plural ended in -th for all Persons, the Past Indicative and Subjunctive Plural ending in n. By Chaucer's time (when many inflexions had been lost, and some of the remaining ones were confounded), the Plural for Indicative and Subjunctive had become en; the n was gradually dropped, leaving an accented e, and finally this was dropped also. Exactly the same thing happened with the Infinitive, which originally ended in an, and by Chaucer's time was en or ë. Thus, ''In gluttony, God it knows, go they to bed.' 3 Dr. Morris. Bischopes and bachelers, bothe maisters and doctours, That ha-n [Pl.] cure vnder Cryste, and crownyng in tokne Piers the Plowman, Prologue, 11. 87-91. DERIVATION. ROOTS, PREFIXES, AND SUFFIXES. 464. Take the word in-com-pre-hens-ible ness. By stripping off the last syllable we get in-com-pre-hens-ible. By now stripping off the first syllable we get com-pre-hens-ible; and we can proceed in the same way till we have only hens left. This comes from a Latin Verb hend-ere 2 which is called the Root of the word. In-, com-, and pre-, are called Prefixes; -ible and -ness are called Suffixes or Affixes; and the whole word is said to be a Derivative. Similarly, in un-right-eous-ness, the Root is right, un- is the Prefix, -eous and -ness are the Suffixes, and the whole word the Derivative. 465. A word which is formed by the joining together of two or more words is called a Compound, as book-worm, quarter-mastergeneral. Compound words are said to be formed by Composition. 466. Derivatives are formed (1) By composition. (2) By the addition of Prefixes or Suffixes. (3) By internal changes. Bishops and bachelors, both masters and doctors that have cure under Christ, and crowning [the tonsure] in token and sign that they should shrive their parishioners, preach and pray for them, and the poor feed, live in London.' 2 Obsolete in classic times. WORDS FORMED BY COMPOSITION. Nouns. 467. Nouns are formed by joining (1) Noun and Noun; as, hill-top. Exercise 212. Of what Parts of Speech are the following Nouns compounded? Rose-tree. Moon-light. Rail-way. Wind-mill. Cock-crowing. Bullbaiting. Carving-knife. Drawing-room. Princess-royal. Good-will. Bluebell. Free-man. God-send. Scare-crow. Break-fast. Shoe-maker. Church-yard. Spinning-wheel. Round-head. Quick-silver. Pick-pocket. Stop-gap. Make-weight. Adjectives. 468. Adjectives are formed by joining— (1) Noun and Adjective; as, sea-green, purse-proud. (2) Noun and Participle; as, sea-faring, moth-eaten, heart- (3) Adverb and Participle; as, ill-looking, high-born. Exercise 213. Of what Parts of Speech are the following Adjectives compounded? Foot-sore. Sea-sick. Heart-broken. New-made. Head-strong. Childlike. Sea-girt. Time-serving. Ear-piercing. Spirit-stirring. Well-bred. Earth-born. Thunder-struck. Awe-struck. Home-sick. Terror-stricken, Al-mighty. In-bred. R Verbs. 469. Verbs are formed by joining (1) Noun and Verb; as, way-lay, back-bite. (2) Adjective and Verb; as, white-wash, ful-fil. (3) Adverb and Verb; as, fore-tell, cross-examine. (4) Verb and Adverb; as, doff [= do+off], don [= do + on], dout 1 [ = do + out]. Exercise 214. Of what Parts of Speech are the following Verbs compounded? Of what Parts of Speech are the following Adverbs compounded? Side-ways. Al-ways. Like-wise. Some-times. Straight-way. Thenceforward. Where-by. Where-of. There-of. Some-how. Mean-while. Here-after. WORDS FORMED BY THE ADDITION OF PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES. I. Prefixes of English Origin. 471. Nouns are formed by the Prefixes Mis- (wrong); as, mis-deed, mis-trust, mis-take. Un- (the opposite of); as, un-truth, un-rest, un-belief. 1 Dout, to put out (as a fire). 2 Here is itself a compound |