An Outline of English Speech-craft

Ablative (fromness case). The case of the source of the time-taking.

Abnormal. Unshapely, queer of shape, odd.

Abrade. To forfray, forfret. For for- see For- hereafter.

Absist. Forbear.

Absorb. Forsoak.

Absolute. Checkless, freed or loosened from checks.

Absolve. To forfree-en, forloosen.

Abstract (in speech-craft). Unmatterly, not of matterly form.

Accelerate. To onquicken, quicken.

Accent. Word-strain, a strain of the voice, higher or lower, on a breath-sound.

Accessary. A bykeeper, deedmate.

Accidence. The forshapenings of words for case, tale, time, mood, or person.

Accusative (case). End-case, the case of a thing which is the end or aim of a time-taking.

Acephalous. Headless.

Acoustics. Sound-lore, hearing-lore.

Active. Sprack (Wessex), doingsome, doughty.

Active (time-taking). One that can reach from the time-taker to another thing; as, ‘to strike.’ John can strike another thing.

Acute. Sharp or high in sound.

Adjective. Thing-markword, mark-word.

Adulation. Flaundering, glavering.

Adverb. An under-markword.

Adversative. Thwartsome.

Aerology. Air-lore.

Aeronaut. Airfarer.

Affirmation. Foraying, or a foryeaing, not a fornaying; as, ‘Yes, he is.’

Agglutinate. To upcleam, to cleam up.

Aggregate. The main, whole.

Allative (case). A name given by some writers to that of a thing at which the time-taking is aimed (the aim case).

Alienate. To unfrienden.

Allegory. A forlikening.

Alliteration. Mate-pennings (i. e. Breath-pennings).

Alone. All-án, all-one: – ‘Nen manniska buta God al ena.γράψον’ – W. Friesic. ‘No man, but God all-one (alone.)’

Altercation. A brangle, brangling, brawling.

Ambiguous. Twy-sided, twy-meaning: – ‘Alfred was struck as he was walking with a stout stick.’ Struck or walking with a stick? (twy-sided.) ‘Those shoes were made before the man that made them.’ Before in time, or before not behind?

Amicable. Friendly: – ‘We have lived in amicable relations’ (friendly, in friendliness).

Amphibious. Twy-breath’d, twy-aired: by lungs and gills.

Amphibology. A twy-casting, a wording of two meanings.

Amphimacrum. Long sidelings, long end-sounds. A foot (in verse) of one short sound between two long ones, or of a low sound between two high ones; as, Tó and fró.

Amputate. Forcarve.

Anachronism. A mistiming.

Anagram. A letter-shuffling; as, out of ‘name’ to

Anagram. A letter-shuffling; as, out of ‘1234

make ‘mane,’ or of ‘march’ to make ‘charm.’

make ‘3214

Analysis. A forloosening or unmaking of a word or wording, or any thing, into its sundry clear pieces.

Anastrophe. A word-shifting; as, ‘Fasten it up well,’ ‘Fasten it well up.’ ‘He brought back the horse,’ or ‘He brought the horse back.’ ‘There is none to dispute my right,’ or ‘My right there is none to dispute.’

Ancestor. Fore-elder, kin-elder.

Animate. To quicken.

Annals. Year-bookings.

Annihilate. To fornaughten.

Anniversary. Year-day.

Annuity. Year-dole.

Antanaclasis. Twy-hitting on a word: – ‘If shape that was which had no shape.’ ‘It is the best art that conceals art.’

Anodyne. Pain-dunting, pain-dilling. (Dill, -n, to dunt, to soothe.)

Anomalous. Odd-shaped, oddly shapen.

Antepenultimate (breath-sound). Last but two.

Anticipate. To foreween, foretake.

Antique. Ancient, foreold, ereold. Old for things in being, foreold or ereold for things forgone.

Antithesis. An atsetting.

Antonomasia. Name-shunning, the marking of a man by other words than his name; as, ‘The honourable member for A.,’ instead of ‘Mr. B.’

Aphæresis. Foredocking of a word; as, pothecary for apothecary, nob for knob.

Aphorisms. Thought-cullings.

Apocope. End-lopping; as mortal for mortalis, send for send-an.

Apodosis. The hank time-taking to a hinge one (protasis): – ‘If ye ask (hinge), ye shall receive (hank).’

Aposiopésis. A tongue-checking; as, ‘Do you think – but I reck not what you think.’

Apostrophe. An offturning.

Appellative (name). A call-name.

Appendix. Hank, hank-matter.

Apposition. A twy-naming, a putting of two names for one thing; as, ‘The dog Toby.’

Aptote. Casemarkless.

Aqueduct. Waterlode.

Arbitrator. Daysman (Job ix. 33).

Armistice. A weapon-staying, weapon-stay, war-pause.

Articulation. Breath-penning.

Aspirate. A breathing, hard breathing.

Assimilate. To make of the same sam (form of matter) or lic (bodily form of a thing). To assimilate food, to forselfen it, to make it into a man’s self.

Asylum has with us widely shifted its first meaning. An asylon was a sanctuary where a man was asylos, not to be pulled away (from a, sylao) by a foe. Now it often means a place whence a man cannot get away.

Asyndeton. Linklessness. The putting of words without link-words; as, ‘Faith, hope, charity,’ for ‘Faith and hope and charity.’

Atmosphere. Welkin-air.

Attraction. A fordrawing, a drawing of a word out of its true case or tale by another word to which it is nearer than to the one which it should match; as, ‘Neither of the men are (for is) come.’ Where the time-word would most likely have been drawn into the somely shape by its nearness to men.

Attraction may be misdrawing.

Augment. An eking, eking on or out.

Auxiliary. Outeking or helping.

Be- (a fore-eking, meaning by, to, about). Bebutton a coat, to put buttons to it; becloke school-children, give them clokes; becloud, obnubilate; beflood, inundate; behem, bebound or circumscribe; bereek, fumigate.

Belligerent. War-waging.

Bibulous. Soaksome.

Bicornous. Twy-horned.

Bidental. Two-teeth, two-teethed.

Bilateral. Two-sided: – ‘These articles would be considered a public bilateral contract, and would form the subject of an agreement with the Powers having Catholic subjects.’ Bilateral contract is put for bipartite, a contract by or between two sides, or of men of two sides; but it would seem that the Romans did not call the two sides in a contract or cause latera, but partes– ‘Parte utrâque auditâ.’ —Plin. Jun.

Latera are the sides of a body or space.

Binocular. Two-sighted.

Bipennated (as an axe). Twy-bladed.

Botany. Wortlore.

Cardinal (numbers). Tale-numbers; as, one, two, three.

Catachresis. A misuse (of a word); as, an iron milestone; a parricide for one who has killed his mother; dilapidated for a ragged coat.

Chemistry. Matter-lore, the science of matter.

Chronology. Time-lore.

Cinereous. Ash-grey.

Circular (a trade-circular). A touting-sheet or – bill.

Circumference. Rim, rimreach.

Circumflex. A roundwinding, a winding of the voice up and down again.

Clause. A word-cluster in a thought-wording.

Cognate. Kin, akin. Cognate breath-pennings; as, T, D, both on the roof.

Collective (name). That of a cluster or a many or a body of single things; as, a club, a herd.

Colon. Gr. kōlon, a limb or member. A mark for a limb, or marked share of a thought-bewording.

Colophon. Book-end.

Comma. Gr. komma, a cut or share. A mark for the offcutting of small shares of a discourse.

Complement. An upfilling or outfilling in words.

Compound. Clustered or a cluster, a clustered word, as horseman, or a thought-wording of two or more smaller ones.

Concord. A matching.

Concrete. Matterly.

Conditional (mood). Hinge-mood (p. 34).

Conjugation (of a time-word). The forfitting of it, the fortrimming of it.

Conjunction. A link-word.

Conjunctive. Linked, byholding.

Consonant. A letter for any breath-penning.

Construction. A word-setting, speech-trimming (see p 36).

Contraction. An updrawing: —I’ll for I will, sinn’d for sinnèd.

Co-ordinate. Rank-mate, row-mate.

Copula. A link or bond.

Correlative (words). Mate-words.

Crasis. Sound-blending, sound-welding.

Dactyl. Gr. daktylos. A foot (in verse) of one long and two short sounds, or of one high and two low sounds, as cheerily.

Dative. Giving.

Deciduous (plant). Fallsome. (Does it mean that only the leaves fall, or that the whole stem falls?) An elm is summer-green or leaved, and winter-sear. Holly is ever-green or winter-leaved. Parsley or the nettle is summer-stemm’d and winter-fallsome.

Decimate. To tithe: – ‘Breech-loading rifles would so decimate columns.’ Decimate (decimo, from decem, ten, in Latin) was to take for death every tenth man of a body that had behaved very badly. The word decimate is now used very loosely, as meaning to cut up.

Defective. Wanting of something of its kind.

Defective (verb). Wanting of some time-shapes, as quoth, must, go. The foretime shape of go (gang) would be, as that of an unmoulded time-word, goed; and goed, a worn shape of the older ‘gaode,’ is found in northern folk-speech, with yowed (Saxon eode.) Gang makes ganged.

Deficiency. Underodds. Excess, overodds.

Define. L. de, off; finio, to mark. To offmark.

Demagogue. Folk-leader, folk’s-ringleader, folk’s-reder.

Democracy. Folkdom.

Dental. L. dentes, teeth. A dental breath-penning is one more or less on the teeth; as, eth, ef.

Dependency. Beholdingness: – ‘As if one member would continue his wellbeing without beholdingness to the rest.’ —Carew.

Depilatory. Hairbane.

Depletion. Unfullening.

Depopulate. Unfolk, forwaste.

Deport. Behave.

Deposit (of money). Earnest, pledge, bewaring.

Deprave. Forshrew, forwarp.

Depraved. Wicked.

Desecrate. Unhallow.

Desolate. Forloned.

Deter. Forfray.

Deteriorate. Worsen.

Develop. Unfold, unroll.

Diacritical. Offmarking, offskilling, sunder-clearing.

Diæresis. An outsundering or outopening, or foropening or forsundering, of a sound into two; as, L. sylva, syl-wa, into syl-u-a.

Diagram. A draught, offdrawing.

Dialect. A sunder-speech, a folk-speech, a fortongueing.

Diaphanous. Thoroughshining, thoroughshowing.

Dictionary. A word-book.

Didactic. Teaching, teachsome.

Disease. The Saxon-English had about fifty pure Teutonic names of diseases, to the main of which we now give Latin names. They were ranked under some few head-words.

Cwealm (qualm) meant mostly a deadly or many-killing epidemic, as the plague or cholera, which they would call a mancwealm (manqualm). Of this word we have left only qualm with qualmish.

Adl (our addle) was another main word for disease, as an unsoundness. From this word we have addle-headed and an addled egg.

Coða, coðe, was another main word for a disease. Hence (Dorset) a cothed sheep.

Weorc, werc (our wark), was a disease of pain or achingness, as the gout or colic.

Seoc, syc, meant any sickness in which a man sinks down on his bed or is off his legs.

Braec or breach was also given for some ailings.

To these words were set others of the parts of the body which they took, or of some other marks.

Stic-adl, stitch.

Sid-adl (side-addle), pleurisy.

Lengten-adl, lent-adl, typhus.

Hip-werc (hip-wark), sciatica.

Hrop-werc (bowel-wark, belly-wark (York)), colic.

Fylle seoc, falling sickness.

Lifer seoc, liver sickness.

Lifer-adl (Aelfric), liver-addle.

Milte-seoc (Aelfric), milt-sickness.

Lenden-wyrc (Aelfric), loin-wark.

Mete-afluing (Aelfric), atrophy.

Wylde-fyr (wildfire) (Aelfric), erysipelas.

Dissipate. Forscatter.

Distribution (of prizes). Outdealing, fordealing, outgiving: – ‘Uetdieling fen da pryzen.’ —Frs. (outdealing of the prizes.)

-dom (an ending). It is our word doom, from deem, and means a state or outreach of free judgment or power; as, kingdom, freedom.

-dom. ‘The scoundreldom and the rascality of a great city.’ Scoundrelhood. Dom (from deman, to judge or rule) would be good for kingdom, popedom, sheriffdom, or mayordom. Scoundreldom would mean the might of scoundrels as ruling or judging.

Domicile. Abode, wonestead.

Ecthlipsis. An outcasting or outstriking, as of a sound; as, ‘Sing th’ Almighty’s praise’ for ‘the Almighty’s,’ or ‘I’ll go’ for ‘I will go.’

Elative (case). The fromward case; as, ‘He came from the house.’

Electricity. Matter-quickness; not speed, but liveliness. The word electricity means, as a word, only amberishness.

Ellipsis. An outleaving, as of a word understood; as, ‘I went to St. Paul’s’ (church).

-el (an ending). It means smallness or slightness: —Dazzle, to daze; fraze, frizzle; nose, nozzle (p. 18).

Embrasure. Gun-gap, cannon-gap.

Emphasis. Speech-loudening, speech-strain.

Emporium. Warestore.

Enallage. Case-shifting, an onchanging, as of a word or case into or for another; as, ‘He was father to (or of) the fatherless.’ ‘The child took the toy in (or with) her hand.’

-en-ing (an ending). It means a becoming such; as, blacken, to make or become black; blackening, the becoming black.

The ending -en-ing differs from -ness, -en-es, as in blackness, which means the having become such.

Enthesis. An insetting.

Epenthesis. An inputting or inthrusting or infoisting of a sound or clipping into a word.

Epithet. A mark-word put to a thing; as, ‘The far-shooting Apollo,’ ‘the white-blossom’d sloe.’

Equilibrium. Weight evenness.

Equivalent. Worth evenness.

-er-r (an ending). It means outeked in size or time: —Chatter, to chat much; clamber, to climb much; wander, to wind about (pp. 18, 59).

Esculent (plant). Meatwort.

Etymology. Word-building, word-making, word-shapening.

Euphemismus. A fair wording, or the putting of bad or unworthy things in a fairer light by words of less evil meanings; as, ‘I did time’ for ‘I was in prison.’ ‘A government man’ for ‘a convict.’

Euphony. Sound softness, sound sweetness.

Exalt. Forheighten: – ‘Sa hwa him selma forheaget’ (whoever himself forheightens). —Friesic (Matt xxiii. 12).

Excrescence. Outgrowth.

Exegetical. Outclearening.

Exordium. Outsetting, outset.

Expansion. Outbroadening of wild or overwrought fullness readily becomes a bad kind of wordiness: – ‘Farmer Stubbs drank beer,’ ‘The votary of Demeter, who rejoiced in the name of Stubbs, indulged in potations of the cereal liquor’; or ‘He received me with the most lively indications of amity’ for ‘He received me very kindly’; or for ‘He owes ten thousand pounds,’ ‘He is in a state of indebtedness to the extent of ten thousand pounds’; ‘He warned the hunters off his land,’ ‘He conveyed to the votaries of Diana a strong admonition that they would not be permitted to prosecute their sport within his domain.’

Faculty. Makingness.

Filiaceous. Threaden.

Flexible. Bendsome.

Fluctuate. Waver.

Foliate. Leafen.

For-. The fore-eking of forgive, forbear, is a most useful one. It is the Anglo-Saxon for, the German ver, and the Latin per, and means off or away.

For-go, per-eo, to go off or away.

Per-suadeo (L. suadeo, from suavis), to soften or sweeten off.

Foreshorten and forego should be forshorten and forgo.

Forceps. Tonglings, nipperlings.

Fore- (a fore-eking). Foredoom, predestinate; fore-token, portent, omen (p. 61).

Fossil. A forstonening.

Frangible. Breaksome.

Garrulity. 4 Wordiness, talksomeness.

Genealogy. Kin-lore, kinhood-lore.

Genitive (case). The offspring case (p. 30).

Genuflexion. Knee-bowing. Much has been said (in the law trials about posture in the administration of the Holy Communion) of genuflexion. A genuflexion is any knee-bowing, but all knee-bowing is not kneeling, which is knee-grounding.

Glossarist. A word-culler.

Glossary. Gr. glossa, tongue, speech. A word-list or word-list: – ‘Mei en lyst vin oade spreckworden’ (with a list of old saws). —Friesic.

Grandiloquent. High-talking.

Gratuitous. Out of kindness. Gratia is good will, free kindness; and gratuitus is freely bestowed of gratia, without hire or reward. But a writer says that an attack of slander on a woman’s purity ‘was gratuitous,’ or of gratia or good will, without hire or reward, as if gratuitous meant without grounds of malice.

Hendiadys. One-in-twice. A wording of one thing at twice, or as two things; as, ‘I heard shouting and men’ for ‘shouting of men.’ ‘An arm and strength’ for ‘a strong arm.’ A fortwaining.

Hexameter. Gr. hex, six; metron, measure, metre. A metre in Greek and Latin verse, lines of six feet.

-hood (an ending). It means a state of being, rank, or standing among other things: —Childhood, manhood.

Horizon. Sky-sill, sky-line.

Hybrid (word). L. hybrida, a mongrel.

Hydrophobia. Water-awe.

Hyperbaton. Gr. hyper, over; baino, to fare, go. An overfaring, an overshifting of words out of their more wonted or better ranking; as, ‘What for,’ for ‘For what.’ A ‘speaking out’ for an ‘outspeaking.’

Hypallage. Word-shifting, case-shifting; as, ‘We gave wind to our sails’ for ‘our sails to the wind.’ ‘The men were put to the sword,’ though also ‘the sword was put to the men.’

Hyperbolē. An overcasting or overshooting of the truth; as, ‘The train went as swift as lightning.’

Hyphen. A tie-stroke.

Hysterologia. A foreafter wording, forebehind or hinderforemost wording; as, ‘He earned a florin, and worked all the day,’ whereas he worked first, and so earned the florin.

Iambus. Gr. A foot (in verse) of one short or low and one long or high sound; as, ago, a low-high twin.

Idiom. Gr. idioma, from idios, one’s own. A folk’s-wording, a set form of words of any one speech or set of men; as, ‘How do you do?’ Fr.: ‘Comment vous portez-vous?’ (How do you bear yourself?) ‘I have just dined.’ Fr.: ‘Je viens de dîner’ (I come from to dine).

Imperative (mood). The bidding mood.

Impersonal (verb). A time-word without a thing-name; as, ‘It lightens,’ ‘it thunders,’ ‘it freezes,’ ‘it thaws.’ A thingnameless or a deederless time-word.

Impertinence may be meddlesomeness in what non pertinet, does not belong to one, or meddlesomeness in a deed or speech which non pertinet, does not hold by the matter under thought, unbyholdingness.