Latin Adjectival Forms. 411. The Latin formatives are -ose -ive -ile, -il -ine -ary -atory -ent -lent -ate -al -ical -an, -ian -arian -alian. -ose. We begin our Latin list with a second issue of the Latin termination -osus. It is as markedly modern as the previous one is distinguished for its old standing in the language. It has an Italian tinge. Examples:-bellicose, globose M, gloriose, grandiose, jocose, operose, otiose, varicose. otiose. We lay out of the case such stories of supernatural events as require on the part of the hearer nothing more than an otiose assent; stories upon which nothing depends, in which no interest is involved, nothing is to be done or changed in consequence of believing them.-W. Paley, Evidences, ii. I. operose. I heard Dr. Chalmers preach. It was a splendid discourse against the Judaical observance of the Sabbath, which he termed an expedient for pacifying the jealousies of a God of vengeance,'—reprobating the operose drudgery of such Sabbaths. Many years afterwards, I mentioned this to Irving, who was then the colleague of Chalmers; and he told me that the Deacons waited on the Doctor to remonstrate with him on the occasion of this sermon.-H. C. Robinson, Diary, 1821. 412. In -ive, Latin -ivus. Examples:-active, aggregative, appreciative, associative, authoritative, comparative, conclusive, creative, distinctive, elective, exclusive, forgetive Sh, imaginative, inquisitive, inventive, legislative, passive, pensive, plaintive, positive, reflective, reparative, repulsive, responsive, retentive, sensitive, speculative, suggestive, superlative. crescive. Grew like the Summer Grasse, fastest by Nighte Shakspeare, Henry V, i. 2. responsive. The swain responsive as the milk-maid sung. Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village. speculative. High on her speculative tower Stood Science waiting for the hour. William Wordsworth, The Eclipse of the Sun, 1820, aggregative, associative, creative, motive. Fancy is aggregative and associative-Imagination is creative, motive.— John Brown, M.D., Hora Subseciva. distinctive. There was something so very distinctive in him, traits and tones to make an impression to be remembered all one's life.-John Keble, Memoir, P. 452. This form has been fruitful in substantives, as alternative, detective, executive, invective, motive, narrative, palliative, prerogative, representative, sedative. Horne Tooke having obtained a seat in the House of Commons as representative of the famous borough of Old Sarum.-H. C. Robinson, Diary, 1801. 413. In ile, -il; Latin -ilis and -ilis, aș juvenīlis, facilis. This quantitive distinction is not observed in English. Examples :-civil, contractile, docile, facile, febrile, fertile, fragile, gentile, hostile, infantile, juvenile, servile,, sessile, subtil. In -ine, -in; Latin -inus, -ineus. Examples:-canine, divine, feminine, internecine, marine, masculine, sanguine. Our pronunciation of marine is decidedly French, and thus we are again reminded that our Latin list is not purely and exclusively of direct Latin derival, but only prevalently so. This form has produced some gentile adjectives; as, Florentine, Latin, Philistine. 414. In ary, Latin -arius. Examples:contemporary, imaginary, military, missionary, parliamentary, secondary, sanitary, stationary, tertiary, visionary. petitionary. Ros. Nay, I pre' thee now, with most petitionary vehemence, tell me who it is. As You Like It, iii. 2. Claspt hands and that petitionary grace Of sweet seventeen subdued me ere she spoke. Alfred Tennyson, The Brook. parliamentary, military. The consequence was, that as the jealousies between the Parliament and army rose up, each side appealed to him as its especial friend, and the parliamentary Cromwell was arbitrating on the very dissatisfactions in the army which the military Cromwell' had been fostering.-J. B. Mozley, Essays, i. 264. This form occurs frequently in its substantival aspect: signatary. All the Powers, signataries of the Treaty of 1856.-Queen's Speech, 1867. 415. In atory, Latin -atorius. Examples:―commendatory, criminatory, derogatory, excul CC patory, expiatory, migratory, nugatory, obligatory, preparatory, propitiatory, respiratory, supplicatory. criminatory. And was taken with strongly criminatory papers in his possession. Substantivate-lavatory, observatory. 416. In -ent, from the Latin participial terminations -ens, -entis. Examples:-benevolent, dependent, efficient, eminent, fluent, innocent, insolent, insolvent, lenient, munificent, obedient, patent, patient, potent, prominent. Many of these are used substantively, as expedient, incident, insolvent, patent, patient, precedent, student. diluent. His rule is not Sir Roger de Coverley's, that there is much to be said on both sides; but a rule much more diluent of all certainty, viz., that there is no proof in any case in which there is anything to be said on the other side. -J. B. Mozley, Essays, ii. 379: 'The Argument of Design.' 417.. The form -lent, from the Latin -lentus, must be distinguished from the foregoing. Examples:-corpulent, esculent, feculent, flatulent, fraudulent, opulent, somnolent, succulent, truculent, violent, virulent. Some adjectives in -ent, with an L of the root, have a false semblance of belonging here, as benevolent, equivalent, indolent, insolent, prevalent, malevolent. Here we seem almost over the border of English philology, but in dealing with such a borrowing language as ours, it is not always easy to draw the boundary line. esculent. The Chinese present a striking contrast with ourselves in the care which they bestow on their esculent vegetation . . . A more general knowledge of the properties and capabilities of esculent plants would be an important branch of popular education.-C. D. Badham, The Esculent Funguses of England, ed. F. Currey, p. xvi. In ate, from the Latin participle -atus:-accurate, compassionate, considerate, delicate, desolate, determinate, illiterate, immediate, inordinate, mediate, moderate, obstinate, passionate, sedate, separate, temperate. 418. In -al, Latin -alis. Examples:-accidental, carnal, conditional, diurnal, eternal, formal, habitual, influential, inquisitorial, intellectual, intelligential M, intentional, martial, nuptial, parental, partial, personal, prodigal, radical, sensual, suicidal, universal. parental. That, under cover of the Phoenician name, we can trace the channels through which the old parental East poured into the fertile soil of the Greek mind the seeds of civilisation.-William Ewart Gladstone, Juventus Mundi, p. 129. residual. But the planetary orbits turned out to be not quite circular after all; and grand as was the service Copernicus rendered to science, Kepler and Newton had to come after him. What if the orbit of Darwinism should be a little too circular? What if species should offer residual phenomena, here and there, not explicable by natural selection ?-T. H. Huxley, Lay Sermons. Many substantives have been produced from this adjectival form. Thus, cardinal bishop has become Cardinal, general captain has become General, cathedral church has become Cathedral, and Confessional is better known as a substantive than as an adjective. In like manner capital is now better known as a substantive. For a capital city we say a Capital; for capital letters we say Capitals; and the chapiters in architecture are also called Capitals. So that there is a freshness, as of novelty almost, about the reverted adjectival use :— The old traditions which invested parents with the right to govern their children, and made Obedience the capital virtue of childhood, have begun to disappear.-R. W. Dale, The Ten Commandments (1872), p. 7. |