118. MUCH, MORE, MOST (O.E. micel, mâra, mæst).

Much is from O. E. micel, through the forms michel, muchel. More is formed from the root mag (or mah1), so that more = mahre and most mah-st.

In O. E. micel = great; mare, more greater; mast, mest, most = greatest A contracted form of mare (properly adverbial), ma, mo, is used by O. E. writers. It is found also in Shakespeare under the form moe.

Alexander Gill makes mo the comparative of many; more the comparative of much.

=

Many O.E. maneg, Goth. manegs, contains the root mang, a nasalized form of mag (mah).

119. LITTLE, Less, least (O.E. lytel; læssa (læs) ; læsest, læst). O.E. las-se, les-se = las-sa = læs-ra. les-st = læs-est.

les-s
least

Lesser is a double comparative, as "the lesser light" (Eng. Bible). Shakespeare has littlest (Hamlet, iii. 2).

In O.E. we find lyt = little, which has nothing to do with the root of less, which is cognate with Goth. lasivôza (infirmior), the comp. of lasiv-s (infirmus); cp. lazy. We also find in O.E. min and mis = O. N. minni, Goth. minniza = less, Lat. min-or; Goth. mins Lat. minus.

120. NEAR, NEARER, NEAREST (O.E. neah, nêh; nŷra, neår, nearra; nedhst, nêhst. Later forms of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were—negh; nerre (ner); next (neghest).

By the Old English forms we see that nigh, near, next, are their proper repre sentatives. Shakespeare uses near2 as a comparative adverb.

Near neah-r; next = negh-st or neah-st. (The guttural of course was once pronounced.)

High was once similarly compared-heah (heh, hegh); hêhra, hêrra (herre); heahst, hêhst (heghest, hext).3

121. Near, for negh or nigh, first came into use in the phrase 'far and near,' in which near is an adverb, and represents the oldest English neorran = near (adv.), analogous to feorran

=

afar.

This root is found in Sansk. mah (= magh), to grow, become great ; also in O.E. mag-en = main.

"The nere to the Church the ferther from God."-HEYWOOD's Proverbs, C

"The near in blood the nearer bloody."-Macbeth, ii. 3.

3 "When bale is hekst boote is next."-HEYWOOD'S Proverbs, E. iii. back. Hawes (Past. of Pl. p. 60) uses the old ferre :

"My mynde to her was so ententyfe That I folowed her into a temple ferre, Replete with joy, as bright as any sterre.'

In this we see the positive is replaced by an adverb,1 and not by the comparative adiective, as is usually supposed.

Nearer, nearest, are formed regularly from near.

122. FAR, FARTHER, FARTHEST (O. E. feor, fyrra, fyrrest. Later forms, fer, ferre (ferrer), ferrest).

Farthest

=

Farther is for far-er; the th seems to have crept in from false analogy with further. far-est. Further = O.E. ulterius, the comparative of furth = forth.

furthor

=

lative in O.E. was forth-m-est.

The super

LATE, LATER, LATEST (O.E. late, lator, latost); late, latter, last (O. E. late-mest = last).

Latter and last refer to order, as "The latter alternative;" "The last of the Romans."

Later and latest refer to time. This distinction is not always strictly observed by our poetical writers.

RATHER. The positive and superlative are obsolete.

Rathe was the positive, as "the rathe primrose" (Milton): here rathe means early.

Rather means sooner, and is now used where liefer was once employed.

The O.E. forms were hrad (ready), hræthra, hrathôst.

123. Adjectives containing the superlative m.

The Old English for-m-a signifies first, the superlative of a root jore. Fyrm-est = for-m-ost also had the same meaning, but is a double superlative.

First (O.E. fyrrest, fyrst) is the regular superlative of fore.

Former is a comparative formed from the old superlative.

In O.E. we have forme and foremeste for first.

"Adam our forme fader."-CHAUCER.

"Adam oure foremeste fader."-MAUNDEVILLE.

Forme fader was afterwards changed to—(1) forne fader; (2) formerfather.

1 The adverb seems to be comparative.

2 By some, further is explained as more to the fore, as if it contained the comparative suffix -ther.

3 In the "Ormulum" we have late, lattre, lattst = late, latter, last.

124. The suffix -most (O.E. mest), then, in such words as utmost is a double superlative ending, and not the word most. The analogies of the language clearly show that most was never suffixed to express the superlative.

Chaucer uses hinderest: cp. O.E. innerest, overest, upperest, utterest.

hither-m-ost is not found in the oldest English.

in-m-ost, inner-m-ost

lower-m-ost, (nether-m-ost

mid-m-ost

out-m-ost, outer-m-ost

ut-m-ost, utter-m-ost

}

up-m-ost, upper-m-ost, over-m-ost

125. Over

= O.E. inne-m-est, inne-ma.

= O.E. nithe-m-a, nithe-m-est). = O. E. mede-ma, mede-mest.

= O.E. ute-ma, ute-mest.

= O.E. yfe-mest, ufe-meste.

= upper (cp. a-b-ove) in Q. E. writers:

"Pare thy brede and kerve in two,
The over crust tho nether fro.'

Boke of Curtasye, p. 300.

"With tho ove-m-ast [uppermost] lofe hit [the saltcellar] shalle be set."

Ib. p. 322.

126. In O.E. we find superlatives of south, east, west, as— suthemest, eastemest, and westemest.

Comp. endmost (O.E. endemest), topmost, headmost.

III. NUMERALS.1

127. NUMBERS may be considered under their divisions—Cardinal, Ordinal, and Indefinite Numerals.

I The origin of the numerals is involved in much obscurity.

One seems to have been another form of the pronoun a, he, that.

In Gr. eis (év-s) we have a form cognate with some, same; cp. Lat. sim-plex, sim-ilis, semel, singuli

Two. In Lat. this assumes the form bi, vi (prefixes), bis; Gr. dis (adverb).
Three that what goes beyond, from the root tri (tar), to go beyond.

Four. The original form is said to signify and three, i.e. 1 and three. Sansk chatur, Lat. quatuor; cha qua = and; tur = tuor three.

Others explain cha = ka = one.

[Five

1. Cardinal.

128. One. O.E. an; Goth. ains; Gr. els; Lat. unus; Sansk -ka.

Out of the O.E. form an = one was developed the so-called indefinite article an and (by loss of n) a.

In O.E. we find one ana = alone.

Two. O.E. twa; Goth. tvai; Gr. dúo; Lat. duo; Sansk. dva; O.Sax. tuê.

Twain = two, O.E. twegen.

We had another word for two in the Northern dialects, of Scandinavian origin, viz. twin, originally a distributive: cp. Goth. tveinnai, O.N. tvennr. Thrin for three also occurs in O.E. Northern writers, O. N. thrennr.

Three. O.E. thri, threo; Goth. threis; Gr. Tpeîs; Lat. tres; Sansk. tri.

Four. O.E. feower; Goth. fidvor; Gr. téttapes, téσσapes; Lat. quatuor; Sansk. katvar.

=

This numeral has lost a letter, th, and there is an O. E. compound -fether-foted, fither-foted quadruped-which fether is, of course, more original than four.

Five. O.E. fif; Goth. fimf; Gr. Tévтe; Lat. quinque; Sansk. banchan.

In five we see that a nasal has disappeared.

Six. O.E. six; Goth. saíhs; Gr. §; Lat. sex; Sansk. shash.

Seven. O.E. seofon; Goth. sibun; Gr. éπтá; Lat. septem; Sansk. saptan.

Eight. O.E. eahta; Goth. ahtaú; Gг. OKTά; Lat. octo; Sansk. ashtan.

Nine. O.E. nigon; Goth. niun; O.Sax. nigun; Gr. èvvéa; Lat. novem; Sansk. navan.

In the fourteenth century we find neghen for nine. The gh or g represents an original v.

Five = that which comes after [four].

=

The Sansk. panchan is connected with pashcha coming after, as in pashchât, behind, after.

Six. Sansk. shash = Zend. kshvas, which is probably a compound of two and four.

Seven is connected with a root sap, to follow = that which follows [six]. Eight is originally a dual form. Sansk. ashtân = a + cha + tan=1+ and + 3. Nine = new that which comes after eight and is the beginning of a new quaternion.

Ten two and eight.

Ten. O.E. tŷn, ten; Goth. taihun; Gr. déкa; Lat. decem; Sansk. dashan.

The Gothic shows that tyn or ten = tegen or tŷgen.

Eleven. O.E. end-lif (endleof); Goth. din-lif; Gr. ev-deka; Lat. undecim; Sansk. êka-dasha.

Eleven end en = one + lev-en lif = ten.

Twelve. O.E. twelf; Goth. twa-lif; is a compound of twa = two lif= = ten.

The suffix -lif is another form of tig Goth. tvai-tig-jus 2 X 10 = twenty.

ten, which we find in O. E. twen-tig, So that lif corresponds to Gr. -deka; Lat. -decim. (In Lat. / and d are sometimes interchangeable, as lacryma and dacryma.) In such words as laugh, enough, gh, originally a guttural, has become f.

In Lithuanian we find wieno-lika = 11; dwy-lika = 12.

In the Fr. onze, douze; the Lat. -decim has undergone a greater change than -tig into -lif.

The Sansk. dva-dasha = 12 is represented in Hindûstânî by bâ-rah; and shodasha 16, by so-lah.

129. The numbers from thirteen to nineteen are formed by adding -teen (O.E. -tyne) ten, to the first nine numerals.

=

130. The numerals from twenty to ninety are formed by suffixing -ty (O.E. tig) = ten, to the first nine numerals.

131. Hundred. In the oldest English we find hund = hundred. In the Northumbrian dialect hundrad, hundrath occurs. Hund originally signified ten (cp. Lat. centum, Gr. é-katov, Sansk. shata); it is nothing else but a shortened form of tegen, -tegen-d, Goth. taihun, taihun-d, ten. The syllable -red-rathr is also a suffix used in Icelandic, with the same force as -tig.1

In the oldest English hund was added to the numerals from 70 to roo, as hundseofentig: = 70; Goth. sibun-têhund; Gr. éßdoμń-Kovтa; Lat septua-ginta. It is probable that the original form was not hund-seofentig, but hund-seofonta; O.Sax. (h)ant sibunta (decade seventh).

Hundred could also be expressed by hund-tentih (hund-teontig). cp. Goth. tathun-téhund.

132. Thousand O.E. thûsend; Goth. thûsendja; Slavonic tusantja; Lithuanian túk-stanti; in which perhaps we have a combination of ten and hundred. The Sanskrit sahasras, 1,000 = a going together.

1 Some suppose that hund-red hund-are (like cent-uria) with suffix d. In O.E. of the fourteenth century we find hunder and hundreth. In O. N. hundrath = hundred: cp. áttræthr, containing 80; tírethr, containing 100.