Excerpt from Principles of English Etymology The present volume is intended to serve as a help to the student of English etymology. In my Etymological Dictionary, the numerous examples of similar letter - changes are invariably separated from each other, by the necessity for adhering to the alphabetical order. It is therefore advisable to re-arrange the results so as to shew what words should be under consideration at the same time. It is only by a com parison of this character that the various phonetic laws can be properly observed and tested. I have found it advisable to follow the example of Mr. Sweet, in his History of English Sounds, and to consider what may be called the 'native element' of our language apart from the Romance or imported element. Hence I have purposely excluded all words of French origin from the present investigation. A few French words are quoted here and there by way of illustration, but no inferences are here drawn from the results which their history furnishes. If the present volume should meet with approval, I propose to issue another volume, to be entitled 'second Series, ' Which will deal particularly, and almost exclusively, with the words which have been imported into English from French, as well as from Latin, Greek, and other languages (except Teutonic and Celtic) af/er the N orman Conquest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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New Premium Paperback - Bookstore Quality Edition!The object of the present volume is to draw attention to some of the principles that should guide the student of etymology in general, and of English etymology particularly; in order that any one who employs an etymological dictionary may be able to do so with some degree of intelligence and to some profit. It is much easier to accomplish this at the present date than it was some ten or twenty years ago. The steady progress of the New English Dictionary furnishes us with innumerable and indisputable instances of the actual usages of English words, so that the mistakes which formerly arose from a very imperfect knowledge of their history have largely been corrected, and much that was once obscure has been made plain. Meanwhile, the great gains that have resulted from the scientific study of comparative philology as applied to the Indo-Germanic languages have been properly formulated and tabulated...