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‘You do wrong in misprizing these men of the 18th Century. They reduced life, to be sure: but by that very means they saw it far more completely than do we, in this lyrical age, without worship of fine excess’. That was Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, addressing, in his own quaint manner, a 1918 Cambridge student gathering. ‘Misprize’ in this context means ‘despise’ or ‘fail to appreciate’ The Middle English word (derived from Old French ‘mespriser’) is not listed in some dictionaries and has perhaps joined other fossilized specimens. Etymology, which treats of words taken separately, classifies them, and considers their origin and form, shows us both the changes they have undergone and the effects of the changes on the meaning of words. If we examine the words in a dictionary, we find that a great majority of them have been formed from other words, ‘either by joining two words together, or by adding to a word a sound, which by itself is without meaning’. The former process is called composition, the latter derivation. The processes yield compounds (such as ‘mankind’, ‘footman’, ‘godlike’) and derivatives (strength and strengthen from ‘strong’, glaze and glazier from ‘glass’ and ‘godly’ from ‘God’, for example.). To sum up in grammarians’ jargon, ‘the primary elements and significant parts of words are called roots (ultimate unanalysable elements of language). The root is modified (1) by endings called suffixes which form derivatives (‘richly’, ‘nestling’) (2) by particles, placed before the root, called prefixes, which form compounds (‘forbid’, ‘untrue’). Two words may be placed together to form compound words (‘blackbird’, ‘churchyard’, ‘blood-red’). Another interesting discovery we make, as we chase the origins of words, is that several of these spring from the same source. Thus, as we have seen, ‘frail’ is cognate with ‘fragile’ ’fracture’, ‘fragment’, ‘fraction’ and ‘refraction’. ‘Frail’ is a derivative from the Latin ‘frangere/break’, which is also the ultimate source of the other words I have mentioned. We are familiar with ‘eloquence’ or the skilful/expressive use of language, especially to impress or persuade an audience. Examples: Antony’s eloquence inflamed the mob, which went on the rampage. He was an eloquent speaker. His speech was eloquent and swayed the mob. The art/style of speaking clearly and effectively, especially in public, is called ‘elocution’. A person who teaches it is called an elocutionist, an expert in elocution. In the phrase ‘elocution lessons’ the noun is used attributively. We also call a talkative person ‘loquacious’. Both ‘eloquent’ and ‘loquacious’ are used in formal contexts. That reminds me of another formal term, ‘obloquy’, which means ‘public shame’ or ‘disgrace’, ‘abuse’ or ‘discredit’. I have only to add ‘soliloquy’ (instance of speaking one’s thoughts aloud, especially in a play without another character being present on the stage) to this list to drive home my point about cognates. The Middle English word, ‘eloquence’, which the Concise Oxford Dictionary (COD) defines as ‘the fluent, forcible and apt use of language’, is derived from Old French, from the Latin ‘eloquentia’ and from ‘e (loqui speak)’. ‘Loqui’ (talk) is the ultimate source of the half a dozen words we have dealt with today. Let me conclude with what Cicero said about the ideal of the ancient orator: ‘The art of speaking well, that is to say, of speaking with knowledge, skill and elegance, has no delimited territory, within whose borders it is enclosed and confined. ‘All things whatsoever that can fall under the discussion of human beings, must be aptly dealt with by him who professes to have this power, or he must abandon the name of eloquent’ (De Oratore). We have only to look up words such as ‘retain’, ‘maintain’, ’sustain’, ‘obtain’, ‘tenant’, ‘tenor’ and ‘tenacious’ to find out for ourselves that they are all related to the Latin ‘tenere’ (hold/keep). Readers' response/inputs can be e-mailed to mhdevan@chennaionline.com. Published on 9th March 2002
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