Composition and Derivation.

33. The words of which the English language is composed may be divided into two classes—primary or primitive words, and secondary or derivative words.

34. A word is a Primitive word when it does not admit of being resolved into simpler elements; as, man, horse, run.  Primitive words are called Roots.

35. A word is a Derivative word when it is made up of significant parts, which exist either separately or in other combinations; as, man-ly, man-hood, un-man, from the noun MAN.

36. A word is a Compound word when it is made up of two or more parts, each of which is a significant word of itself; as, apple-tree, tea-spoon, spend-thrift.

Some words are at once Compound and Derived, being formed from two or more words by the addition of an inflectional element; as, gray-haired, white-robed, long-legged.

37. When a compound word has been taken bodily from another language, it is for us simply a derived word, although in the language from which we have borrowed it it may be a true Compound.

Thus economy is for the English student a derived word, being in fact a Greek compound transferred to our language by a simple change of termination.  (See oikos, p. 220, and nomos, p. 235.)

38. Whenever two words are made one, and regarded as such, they should be spelt as one or be connected by a hyphen; as, everlasting, ever-living, rainbow, walking-stick, corn-field, oversee, notwithstanding, nevertheless.
          When the coalescence is complete, the Compound is written as a single word; as, blackbird, sunflower, railway.
          When the coalescence is less complete, a hyphen is used to tie the component words together; as, man-of-war, rosy-fingered, penny-wise, pound-foolish, etc.
          HYBRIDS.—When a compound or derived word is made up of elements derived from different languages, it is called a hybrid (hu'brida = mongrel, from the Greek hy'bris).

Such words as falsehood, politeness, grateful, unjust, rudeness, doubtless, useless, artful, accuser, grandfather, conceited, readable, martyrdom, wondrous, are all hybrids, the Stem and the Prefix, or Suffix, being the one of English, the other of Classical, origin; but any rule which would condemn such formations should be rejected as arbitrary and groundless.
      Generally, however, if a derived word has been formed by means of an English Suffix, and a Secondary Derivative has to be formed by means of a Prefix, the Prefix should be English.
      If the Suffix of the first derivative is of Classical origin, the Prefix should be Classical.  Thus we say undecided and indecisive, un- and -ed being both English, -in and -ive both Latin.  So ungrateful, ingratitude, unjustly, injustice.
      But one or two suffixes, of Latin origin (like -able), are treated as if of English origin, as in unspeakable.

Derivatives

39. Derivatives are formed from primitives or roots in three principal ways:

    1. By a Prefix; as do, un-do; say, gain-say; daub, be-daub, etc.

    2. By a Suffix, or ending; as good, good-ness.

    3. By a change in the body of the word itself; as sing, song; gold, gild; break, breach; dig, ditch.

The most important class of words formed by internal changes consists of the Past Tenses of primary Verbs, as tell, told; bring, brought; but these are not usually classed as Derivatives.

40. Words formed from roots by changing or modifying letters in the root are called Primary Derivatives.

41. Words formed from roots by adding Prefixes or Suffixes are called Secondary Derivatives.

42. Additions to roots and words serving to modify their meaning and use are called Affixes.  They are of two kinds—(1)  Prefixes, those at the beginning, and (2) Suffixes, those at the end of the word-bases to which they are affixed.

43. A Prefix is a significant particle placed before a word, or root, in order to modify its meaning.  As the constituent part of a word, a Prefix can be readily separated and defined.

When the Prefix ends with a consonant, that consonant is often changed or omitted, in order that the Prefix may unite easily with the word to which it is joined.
      For example, in the words af-fix, col-lect, com-mit, im-pose, suf-fix, sug-gest, sus-tain, the prefixes ad, con, in and sub are changed to af-, col-, com-, im-, suf-, sug- and sus-.

44. A Suffix is a particle placed after a word, or a root, to modify its meaning; but though sometimes significant, there are many Suffixes which are not significant, but simply paragogical—that is, they are letters or syllables without meaning, and merely serve to lengthen the words.

A word may take two or more Prefixes or Suffixes at the same time.  Thus re-pro-duce contains two Prefixes, re- and pro-; wonder-ful-ly contains two Suffixes, -ful and -ly.

45. When a Derivative is formed by means of a Prefix, the Derivative and the Root are generally of the same part of speech; as trust, in-trust; turn, re-turn.
          When a Suffix is added, the part of speech of the Derivative depends upon the Suffix; as just, justly, justness, justify.

Prefixes and Suffixes mark Derivatives, as Derivatives are not formed by the omission of elements already existing in a word.  Thus we see at once that bestir is derived from stir, and bondage from bond.
      But it is not so easy to say which is the Derivative when we are asked whether bond is derived from bind or bind from bond.  In such a case we may reason thus:  As the act of binding precedes the existence of the bond, bond is derived from bind.  And so speech is derived from speak; for the noun is not always the primary word, as some grammarians erroneously assert.