To the question "How shall we teach etymology in our schools?" we offer, then, this volume as our reply. A recent writer says: "The scholar should be accustomed daily to hunt down words that may be assigned from his various lessons. He will soon display a wonderful interest in this exercise; and what enjoyable surprise he will manifest when he discovers the latent thought and history locked up in some common word with which he supposed himself familiar! Our noblest authors, who understand best the use of the English language, employ words with a view to their etymological meaning; and one reason why we have among us so many superficial readers is because so many are untrained in this method of studying words." The utility of etymology as an aid in reading is not here too emphatically set forth, and it is therefore as an adjunct of the reading-lesson that it may be most fitly and effectually taught. By placing the subject directly before the eyes of both teacher and pupil in the daily reading-lessons, an interest will be awakened by mere juxtaposition, and the salutary contagion of a curiosity the gratification of which will breathe life and character into thousands of dead words, and insure aptness and precision in the use of them, will spread through the school. Should the teacher even choose to dispense with all systematic instruction in the etymological part of this volume, there is still such an amount of reading matter left as to serve all the purposes of a first-class reading book; while by pupils who may form a taste for tracing the derivation of words the opportunity here offered of gratifying it cannot fail to be prized. Simply as a reading book, then, the volume is made doubly valuable by its additions. The recent researches of Wedgwood, Scheler, Mahn, Trench, Marsh, Haldeman, De Vere, Stormonth and others, have cleared etymology of many errors, and we have availed ourselves freely of the amendments which the latest science has made good. To the seductions of fanciful and doubtful etymologies we have been indisposed to yield, and any errors that may have crept into so large a collection of words we shall be always eager to correct. Care has been taken to prepare this work so that it may be easily used by teachers and pupils unacquainted with Latin or Greek. The pronunciation of words from those languages has been marked according to Webster's system, so that any English scholar may pronounce them at sight, and full explanations as to the use of the book may be found on pages 36, 58, 421, etc. * CONTENTS. PAGI Pronunciation.-Accent.-Emphasis.-Pause. flex.-Monotone.-Parenthesis.-Examples of Emphasis. Exam- ples of Inflection.-Examples of Circumflex.-Examples of Mono- tone.-Examples of Parenthesis.-Pronunciation Marks................ 11-18 I. The Science of Etymons.-Words from the Latin and Greek.-Ex- ample from Johnson.-II. Anglo-Saxon Derivatives.-How to dis- tinguish Latin and Greek Derivatives.--How to distinguish Anglo- Saxon Derivatives.-III. Classic Words sometimes to be Preferred. -Words from the Latin through the French.-Latin Words not perfectly Naturalized.-Greek Words not Naturalized.-Miscella- neous Derivations.-IV. Double Forms.--Concealment of Origin by Spelling.-Etymology a help to Accuracy.-Etymology as a guide to Pronunciation.-Pronunciation of Latin and Greek Words.-Pre- LIST OF PREFIXES OF ENGLISH WORDS...... 19-30 LIST OF SUFFIXES OF ENGLISH WORDS 7 All Sorts of Minds.-A Fitting Rebuke.-Animal and Vege- |