Chapter CLXI: Section II: Derivation of Nouns

In _English_, Nouns are derived from nouns, from adjectives, from verbs, or from participles.

I. Nouns are derived from _Nouns_ in several different ways:--

1. By the adding of _ship, dom, ric, wick, or, ate, hood_, or _head_: as, _fellow, fellowship; king, kingdom; bishop, bishopric; bailiff_, or _baily, bailiwick; senate, senator; tetrarch, tetrarchate; child, childhood; God, Godhead_. These generally denote dominion, office, or character.

2. By the adding of _ian_: as, _music, musician; physic, physician; theology, theologian; grammar, grammarian; college, collegian_. These generally denote profession.

3. By the adding of _r, ry_, or _ery_: as, _grocer, grocery; cutler, cutlery; slave, slavery; scene, scenery; fool, foolery_. These sometimes denote state or habit; sometimes, an artificer's wares or shop.

4. By the adding of _age_ or _ade_: as, _patron, patronage; porter, porterage; band, bandage; lemon, lemonade; baluster, balustrade; wharf, wharfage; vassal, vassalage_.

5. By the adding of _kin, let, ling, ock, el, erel_, or _et_: as, _lamb, lambkin; ring, ringlet; cross, crosslet; duck, duckling; hill, hillock; run, runnel; cock, cockerel; pistol, pistolet; eagle, eaglet; circle, circlet_. All these denote little things, and are called diminutives.

6. By the addition of _ist_: as, _psalm, psalmist; botany, botanist; dial, dialist; journal, journalist._ These denote persons devoted to, or skilled in, the subject expressed by the primitive.

7. By the prefixing of an adjective, or an other noun, so as to form a compound word: as, _foreman, broadsword, statesman, tradesman; bedside, hillside, seaside; bear-berry, bear-fly, bear-garden; bear's-ear, bear's-foot, goat's-beard_.

8. By the adoption of a negative prefix to reverse the meaning: as, _order, disorder; pleasure, displeasure; consistency, inconsistency; capacity, incapacity; observance, nonobservance; resistance, nonresistance; truth, untruth; constraint, unconstraint_.

9. By the use of the prefix _counter_, signifying _against_ or _opposite_: as, _attraction, counter-attraction; bond, counter-bond; current, counter-current; movement, counter-movement_.

10. By the addition of _ess, ix, or ine_, or the changing of masculines to feminines so terminating: as, _heir, heiress; prophet, prophetess; abbot, abbess; governor, governess; testator, testatrix; hero, heroine_.

II. Nouns are derived from _Adjectives_ in several different ways:--

1. By the adding of _ness, ity, ship, dom_, or _hood_: as, _good, goodness; real, reality; hard, hardship; wise, wisdom; free, freedom; false, falsehood_.

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."