English Etymology

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Our primer of English Etymology is meant to serve as an introduction to the study of the historical grammar of English. However manifold the advantages which the student may derive from Professor Skeat's Etymological Dictionary, it cannot be denied that it does not commend itself as a book for beginners. Though it is a work of deep research, brilliant sagacity, and admirable completeness, the linguistic laws underlying the various changes of form and meaning are not brought out clearly enough to be easily grasped by the uninitiated. We therefore propose to furnish the student with a small and concise book enabling him to get an insight into the main linguistic phenomena. We are greatly indebted to Professor Skeat, of whose excellent work we have made ample use, drawing from it a great deal of material, which we hereby thankfully acknowledge. As our aim has of course not been to produce a book in any way comparable to our prede cessor's work in fulness of detail and general completeness, we have confined ourselves to merely selecting all words the history of which bears on the development of the language at large. We have therefore, in the first place, traced back to the older periods loanwords of Scandinavian, French and Latin origin and such genuine English words as may'afford matter for linguistic investigation. In this way we hope to have pro vided a basis for every historical grammar of English, e.g. For Sweet's History of English Sounds.