child
sheep
ship
ruffian
4. Using a dictionary, tell from what word each of these abstract nouns is derived:—
sight
speech
motion
pleasure
patience
friendship
deceit
bravery
height
width
wisdom
regularity
advice
seizure
nobility
relief
death
raid
honesty
judgment
belief
occupation
justice
service
trail
feeling
choice
simplicity
SPECIAL USES OF NOUNS.
By b
1 e
3 i.ng used so as to vary their usual meaning, nouns of one class may be made to
Nouns change by use.
approach another class, or to go over to it entirely. Since words alter their meaning so rapidly
by a widening or narrowing of their application, we shall find numerous examples of this shifting from class to class; but
most of them are in the following groups. For further discussion see the remarks on articles (p. 119).
Prop
1 e
4 r
. nouns are used as common in either of two ways:—
Proper names transferred to
common use.
(1) The origin of a thing is used for the thing itself: that is, the name of the inventor may be
applied to the thing invented, as a davy, meaning the miner's lamp invented by Sir Humphry Davy; the guillotine, from
the name of Dr. Guillotin, who was its inventor. Or the name of the country or city from which an article is derived is used
for the article: as china, from China; arras, from a town in France; port (wine), from Oporto, in Portugal; levant and
morocco (leather).
Some of this class have become worn by use so that at present we can scarcely discover the derivation from the form of
the word; for example, the word port, above. Others of similar character are calico, from Calicut; damask, from
Damascus; currants, from Corinth; etc.
(2) The name of a person or place noted for certain qualities is transferred to any person or place possessing those
qualities; thus,—
Hercules and Samson were noted for their strength, and we call a very strong man a Hercules or a
Samson. Sodom was famous for wickedness, and a similar place is called a Sodom of sin.
A Daniel come to judgment!—Shakespeare.
If it prove a mind of uncommon activity and power, a Locke, a Lavoisier, a Hutton, a Bentham, a
Fourier, it imposes its classification on other men, and lo! a new system.—Emerson.
Mate
1 r
5i.al nouns may be used as class names. Instead of considering the whole body of
Names for things in bulk altered for
material of which certain uses are made, one can speak of particular uses or phases of the
separate portions.
substance; as—
(1) Of individual objects made from metals or other substances capable of being wrought into various shapes. We know
a number of objects made of iron. The material iron embraces the metal contained in them all; but we may say, "The
cook made the irons hot," referring to flat-irons; or, "The sailor was put in irons" meaning chains of iron. So also we may
speak of a glass to drink from or to look into; a steel to whet a knife on; a rubber for erasing marks; and so on.
(2) Of classes or kinds of the same substance. These are the same in material, but differ in strength, purity, etc. Hence it
shortens speech to make the nouns plural, and say teas, tobaccos, paints, oils, candies, clays, coals.
(3) By poetical use, of certain words necessarily singular in idea, which are made plural, or used as class nouns, as in
the following:—
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
From all around—
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air—
Comes a still voice.
—Bryant.
Their airy ears
The winds have stationed on the mountain peaks.
—Percival.
(4) Of detached portions of matter used as class names; as stones, slates, papers, tins, clouds, mists, etc.
Abst
1 ra
6. ct nouns are frequently used as proper names by being personified; that is, the
Personification of abstract ideas.
ideas are spoken of as residing in living beings. This is a poetic usage, though not confined
to verse.
Next Anger rushed; his eyes, on fire,
In lightnings owned his secret stings.
—Collins.
Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.—Byron.
Death, his mask melting like a nightmare dream, smiled.—Hayne.
Traffic has lain down to rest; and only Vice and Misery, to prowl or to moan like night birds, are
abroad.—Carlyle.
Abst
1 ra
7. ct nouns are made half abstract by being spoken of in the plural.
A halfway class of words. Class
nouns in use, abstract in meaning.
They are not then pure abstract nouns, nor are they common class nouns. For example,
examine this:—
The arts differ from the sciences in this, that their power is founded not merely on facts which can be
communicated, but on dispositions which require to be created.—Ruskin.
When it is said that art differs from science, that the power of art is founded on fact, that disposition is the thing to be
created, the words italicized are pure abstract nouns; but in case an art or a science, or the arts and sciences, be
spoken of, the abstract idea is partly lost. The words preceded by the article a, or made plural, are still names of abstract
ideas, not material things; but they widen the application to separate kinds of art or different branches of science. They
are neither class nouns nor pure abstract nouns: they are more properly called half abstract.
Test this in the following sentences:—
Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so.—Emerson.
And still, as each repeated pleasure tired, Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired.—Goldsmith.
But ah! those pleasures, loves, and joys
Which I too keenly taste,
The Solitary can despise.
—Burns.
All these, however, were mere terrors of the night.—Irving.
Noun
1 s
8. used as descriptive terms. Sometimes a noun is attached to another noun to add
By ellipses, nouns used to modify.
to its meaning, or describe it; for example, "a family quarrel," "a New York bank," "the State
Bank Tax bill," "a morning walk."
It is evident that these approach very near to the function of adjectives. But it is better to consider them as nouns, for
these reasons: they do not give up their identity as nouns; they do not express quality; they cannot be compared, as
descriptive adjectives are.
They are more like the possessive noun, which belongs to another word, but is still a noun. They may be regarded as
elliptical expressions, meaning a walk in the morning, a bank in New York, a bill as to tax on the banks, etc.
NOTE.—If the descriptive word be a material noun, it may be regarded as changed to an adjective. The term "gold pen"
conveys the same idea as "golden pen," which contains a pure adjective.
WORDS AND WORD GROUPS USED AS NOUNS.
Owin
1 g
9
. to the scarcity of distinctive forms, and to the consequent flexibility of English speech,
The noun may borrow from any
words which are usually other parts of speech are often used as nouns; and various word
part of speech, or from any
groups may take the place of nouns by being used as nouns.
expression.
(1) Other parts of speech used as nouns:—
Adjectives, Conjunctions, Adverbs.
The great, the wealthy, fear thy blow.—Burns.
Every why hath a wherefore.—Shakespeare.
When I was young? Ah, woeful When!
Ah! for the change 'twixt Now and Then!
—Coleridge.
(2) Certain word groups used like single nouns:—
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.—Shakespeare.
Then comes the "Why, sir!" and the "What then, sir?" and the "No, sir!" and the "You don't see your
way through the question, sir!"—Macaulay
(3) Any part of speech may be considered merely as a word, without reference to its function in the sentence; also titles
of books are treated as simple nouns.
The it, at the beginning, is ambiguous, whether it mean the sun or the cold.—Dr BLAIR
In this definition, is the word "just," or "legal," finally to stand?—Ruskin.
There was also a book of Defoe's called an "Essay on Projects," and another of Dr. Mather's called
"Essays to do Good."—B. FRANKLIN.
It is 2to
0. be remembered, however, that the above cases are shiftings of the use, of words
Caution.
rather than of their meaning. We seldom find instances of complete conversion of one part of
speech into another.
When, in a sentence above, the terms the great, the wealthy, are used, they are not names only: we have in mind the
idea of persons and the quality of being great or wealthy. The words are used in the sentence where nouns are used,
but have an adjectival meaning.
In the other sentences, why and wherefore, When, Now, and Then, are spoken of as if pure nouns; but still the reader
considers this not a natural application of them as name words, but as a figure of speech.
NOTE.—These remarks do not apply, of course, to such words as become pure nouns by use. There are many of these.
The adjective good has no claim on the noun goods; so, too, in speaking of the principal of a school, or a state secret, or
a faithful domestic, or a criminal, etc., the words are entirely independent of any adjective force.
Exercise.
Pick out the nouns in the following sentences, and tell to which class each belongs. Notice if any have shifted from one
class to another.
1. Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
2. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate.
3.
Stone walls do not a prison make.
Nor iron bars a cage.
4. Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named.
5. A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.
6.
Power laid his rod aside,
And Ceremony doff'd her pride.
7. She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies.
8. Learning, that cobweb of the brain.
9.
A little weeping would ease my heart;
But in their briny bed
My tears must stop, for every drop
Hinders needle and thread.
10. A fool speaks all his mind, but a wise man reserves something for hereafter.
11. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
12. Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.
13.
And see, he cried, the welcome,
Fair guests, that waits you here.
14. The fleet, shattered and disabled, returned to Spain.
15. One To-day is worth two To-morrows.
16. Vessels carrying coal are constantly moving.
17.
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.
18. And oft we trod a waste of pearly sands.
19.
A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays
And confident to-morrows.
20. The hours glide by; the silver moon is gone.
21. Her robes of silk and velvet came from over the sea.
22. My soldier cousin was once only a drummer boy.
23.
But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.
24. All that thou canst call thine own Lies in thy To-day.
INFLECTIONS OF NOUNS.
GENDER.
In La
2 t
1in
. , Greek, German, and many other languages, some general rules are given that
What gender means in English. It
names of male beings are usually masculine, and names of females are usually feminine.
is founded on sex.
There are exceptions even to this general statement, but not so in English. Male beings are,
in English grammar, always masculine; female, always feminine.
When, however, inanimate things are spoken of, these languages are totally unlike our own in determining the gender of
words. For instance: in Latin, hortus (garden) is masculine, mensa (table) is feminine, corpus (body) is neuter; in
German, das Messer (knife) is neuter, der Tisch (table) is masculine, die Gabel (fork) is feminine.
The great difference is, that in English the gender follows the meaning of the word, in other languages gender follows
the form; that is, in English, gender depends on sex: if a thing spoken of is of the male sex, the name of it is masculine; if
of the female sex, the name of it is feminine. Hence:
Gend
2 e
2. r is the mode of distinguishing sex by words, or additions to words.
Definition.
It is e
2 v
3 i.dent from this that English can have but two genders,—masculine and feminine.
All nouns, then, must be divided into two principal classes,—gender nouns, those
Gender nouns. Neuter nouns.
distinguishing the sex of the object; and neuter nouns, those which do not distinguish sex,
or names of things without life, and consequently without sex.
Gender nouns include names of persons and some names of animals; neuter nouns include some animals and all
inanimate objects.
Some
2
4 w
. ords may be either gender nouns or neuter nouns, according to their use. Thus, the
Some words either gender or
word child is neuter in the sentence, "A little child shall lead them," but is masculine in the
neuter nouns, according to use.
sentence from Wordsworth,—
I have seen
A curious child ... applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell.
Of animals, those with which man comes in contact often, or which arouse his interest most, are named by gender
nouns, as in these sentences:—
Before the barn door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of a husband, ... clapping his burnished
wings.—Irving.
Gunpowder ... came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly sent his rider
sprawling over his head—Id.
Other animals are not distinguished as to sex, but are spoken of as neuter, the sex being of no consequence.
Not a turkey but he [Ichabod] beheld daintily trussed up, with its gizzard under its wing.—Irving.
He next stooped down to feel the pig, if there were any signs of life in it.—Lamb.
Acco
2rd
5. ing to the definition, there can be no such thing as "common gender:" words either
No "common gender."
distinguish sex (or the sex is distinguished by the context) or else they do not distinguish sex.
If such words as parent, servant, teacher, ruler, relative, cousin, domestic, etc., do not show the sex to which the
persons belong, they are neuter words.
Put in
2
6 c
. onvenient form, the division of words according to sex, or the lack of it, is,—
(MASCULINE: Male beings.
Gender nouns {
(FEMININE: Female beings.
Neuter nouns: Names of inanimate things, or of living beings whose sex cannot be determined.
The
2in
7.flections for gender belong, of course, only to masculine and feminine nouns. Forms would be a more accurate
word than inflections, since inflection applies only to the case of nouns.
There are three ways to distinguish the genders:—
(1) By prefixing a gender word to another word.
(2) By adding a suffix, generally to a masculine word.
(3) By using a different word for each gender.
I. Gender shown by Prefixes.
Usua
2 ll
8 y
. the gender words he and she are prefixed to neuter words; as he-goat—she-goat,
Very few of class I.
cock sparrow—hen sparrow, he-bear—she-bear.
One feminine, woman, puts a prefix before the masculine man. Woman is a short way of writing wifeman.
II. Gender shown by Suffixes.
By fa
2 r
9 .the largest number of gender words are those marked by suffixes. In this particular the native endings have been
largely supplanted by foreign suffixes.
The native suffixes to indicate the feminine were -en and -ster. These remain in vixen and
Native suffixes.
spinster, though both words have lost their original meanings.
The word vixen was once used as the feminine of fox by the Southern-English. For fox they said vox; for from they said
vram; and for the older word fat they said vat, as in wine vat. Hence vixen is for fyxen, from the masculine fox.
Spinster is a relic of a large class of words that existed in Old and Middle English,[1] but have now lost their original force
as feminines. The old masculine answering to spinster was spinner; but spinster has now no connection with it.
The foreign suffixes are of two kinds:—
(1) Those belonging to borrowed words, as czarina, señorita, executrix, donna. These are
Foreign suffixes. Unaltered and
attached to foreign words, and are never used for words recognized as English.
little used.
(2) That regarded as the standard or regular termination of the feminine, -ess (French esse,
Slightly changed and widely used.
Low Latin issa), the one most used. The corresponding masculine may have the ending -er (-
or), but in most cases it has not. Whenever we adopt a new masculine word, the feminine is formed by adding this
termination -ess.
Sometimes the -ess has been added to a word already feminine by the ending -ster; as seam-str-ess, song-str-ess. The
ending -ster had then lost its force as a feminine suffix; it has none now in the words huckster, gamester, trickster,
punster.
The e
3 n
0. ding -ess is added to many words without changing the ending of the masculine; as,—
Ending of masculine not changed.
baron—baroness
count—countess
lion—lioness
Jew—Jewess
heir—heiress
host—hostess
priest—priestess
giant—giantess
The masculine ending may be dropped before the feminine -ess is added; as,—
Masculine ending dropped.
abbot—abbess
negro—negress
murderer—murderess
sorcerer—sorceress
The feminine may discard a vowel which appears in the masculine; as in—
Vowel dropped before adding -
ess.
actor—actress
master—mistress
benefactor—benefactress
emperor—empress
tiger—tigress
enchanter—enchantress
Empress has been cut down from emperice (twelfth century) and emperesse (thirteenth century), from Latin
imperatricem.
Master and mistress were in Middle English maister—maistresse, from the Old French maistre—maistresse.
When
3
1.the older -en and -ster went out of use as the distinctive mark of the feminine, the ending -ess, from the French -
esse, sprang into a popularity much greater than at present.
Instead of saying doctress, fosteress, wagoness, as was said in the sixteenth century, or
Ending -ess less used now than
servauntesse, teacheresse, neighboresse, frendesse, as in the fourteenth century, we have
formerly.
dispensed with the ending in many cases, and either use a prefix word or leave the masculine
to do work for the feminine also.
Thus, we say doctor (masculine and feminine) or woman doctor, teacher or lady teacher, neighbor (masculine and
feminine), etc. We frequently use such words as author, editor, chairman, to represent persons of either sex.
NOTE.—There is perhaps this distinction observed: when we speak of a female as an active agent merely, we use the
masculine termination, as, "George Eliot is the author of 'Adam Bede;'" but when we speak purposely to denote a
distinction from a male, we use the feminine, as, "George Eliot is an eminent authoress."
III. Gender shown by Different Words.
In so
3m
2.e of these pairs, the feminine and the masculine are entirely different words; others have in their origin the same
root. Some of them have an interesting history, and will be noted below:—
bachelor—maid
boy—girl
brother—sister
drake—duck
earl—countess
father—mother
gander—goose
hart—roe
horse—mare
husband—wife
king—queen
lord—lady
wizard—witch
nephew—niece
ram—ewe
sir—madam
son—daughter
uncle—aunt
bull—cow
boar—sow
Girl originally meant a child of either sex, and was used for male or female until about the fifteenth century.
Drake is peculiar in that it is formed from a corresponding feminine which is no longer used. It is not connected
historically with our word duck, but is derived from ened (duck) and an obsolete suffix rake (king). Three letters of ened
have fallen away, leaving our word drake.
Gander and goose were originally from the same root word. Goose has various cognate forms in the languages akin to
English (German Gans, Icelandic gás, Danish gaas, etc.). The masculine was formed by adding -a, the old sign of the
masculine. This gansa was modified into gan-ra, gand-ra, finally gander; the d being inserted to make pronunciation
easy, as in many other words.
Mare, in Old English mere, had the masculine mearh (horse), but this has long been obsolete.
Husband and wife are not connected in origin. Husband is a Scandinavian word (Anglo-Saxon hūsbonda from Icelandic
hús-bóndi, probably meaning house dweller); wife was used in Old and Middle English to mean woman in general.
King and queen are said by some (Skeat, among others) to be from the same root word, but the German etymologist
Kluge says they are not.
Lord is said to be a worn-down form of the Old English hlāf-weard (loaf keeper), written loverd, lhauerd, or lauerd in
Middle English. Lady is from hlœ
̄ fdige (hlœ
̄ f meaning loaf, and dige being of uncertain origin and meaning).
Witch is the Old English wicce, but wizard is from the Old French guiscart (prudent), not immediately connected with
witch, though both are ultimately from the same root.
Sir is worn down from the Old French sire (Latin senior). Madam is the French ma dame, from Latin mea domina.
Besid
3 e
3. s gander and drake, there are two other masculine words that were formed from the
Two masculines from feminines.
feminine:—
Bridegroom, from Old English brȳd-guma (bride's man). The r in groom has crept in from confusion with the word
groom.
Widower, from the weakening of the ending -a in Old English to -e in Middle English. The older forms,
widuwa—widuwe, became identical, and a new masculine ending was therefore added to distinguish the masculine from
the feminine (compare Middle English widuer—widewe).
Personification.
Just
3a
4s
. abstract ideas are personified (Sec. 16), material objects may be spoken of like gender nouns; for example,—
"Now, where the swift Rhone cleaves his way."
—Byron.
The Sun now rose upon the right:
Out of the sea came he.
—Coleridge.
And haply the Queen Moon is on her throne,
Clustered around by all her starry Fays.
—Keats.
Britannia needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep;