The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1902-02-04
NrMRER or ENGLISH WORDS.

NUMBER OF ENGLISH N'"''H'
The latest English dictionaries con-
tain more than 25aCOo words aud each
new edition boasts proudly q 'h'u-
sands Of entries never before 'a'A-
,oruea This seems an appalling num-
nar when one remembsvs .ha' the au-
,hors with the largest v''aeu'ag'eS
n.v. never commanded more 'han lS'-
900 words and that the ordinary eau-
o.n.a man finds 5000 words enough for
.u his needs. Most of US know the
meanings OF some thousands OF "efas
,h,ch we ourselves never employ, but
which Of us is master Of even 29'cV
words? Yet the number is less 'han
sne-,enth Of the words in the English
language. II We may believe the die
tionaries.
Analyze these voluminous and boast
full dictionaries, however, and their
totals may be cut down. We may
throw out thousands OF compound
forms OF words. such as dis;ruSt'
trustful. dis,rus,ed, the meaning Of
which is perfectly clear from The word
trps, More thousands OF double
nouns. such as lemon-eolored, heat
piercing. iron-souled, ought 10 go out
because they are no, really words, but
various forms or combinations OF
words. Skeats' genealogical Dicdon-
arr Of the English Language, which
attempts this elimination and which
contains. for example, book, but not
Aooky. bookishness. booked or booking,
contains only 1850 words.
Modern dictionaries can be pruned
further Of hundreds Of foolish and un-
necessary definitions Of the same word.
Thus Richard Grant White points Out
that one dictionary gives Is meanings
Of fall as a verb. and 1s as a noun:
yet all these meanings are merely
agurative and metaphorical applica-
tons OF the first meaning Of the word
applications entirely plain TO any man
who knows that first meaning. So.
also, run. as a verb ,ransitive, has IS
meanings. as a verb intransiiye g. as
noun Il. and in current phrases q.
Thus the editor Of that dictionary. in
casting his total OF words for adyer-
ising purposes, counted the little word
fan Al times and the little word run
1lO times.
Phniologists have marvellous chem .
istry by which they have reduced all .
the words in English. and in most Of
the known languages. TO few hun
dred roots Max Muller. after exclud-
ing slang. scientific words and the
words peculiar to certain crafts and .
arts, says that there are about 400 .
truly English words o. including .
French. Latin. Greek and Celtic pri-
maries, about 1880 words in all.
He then shows very curlously that
many OF our familiar and apparently
unrelated words nave common
origin. Thus from the yerD TO bear
are derived such words rs burden,
that which is carried; bier, on which
a corpse is carried barrow q wheeled
Implement for carrying thllg3; hlth,
the act Of bearing children: bairns,
children that have been born: barely.
what the earth bears; barn, a tariey-
house.
Now the root II all these words is
he syllable bar, and that syllable has
ne same meaning in English Latin,
Creek, Celtic, Slayonic Zenl and San
ikrit; that is. in all the languages Z
which form what is called the Aryan
amily Of speech. All the races Of that
amily had a common origin In
ndla. and they separated at some re-
note period in the darkness that pre- 4
eded history. That syllable bar, !s a
n inheritance from the earliest gen a
rations Of our forefathers. It Is the }
anne as the Latin. ferre, and from #,
therefore,, sprang fertile. reference and =
n compounds Of ferre. Bar VIII ac- a
cunt for more than 100 words in Eng t
sh.
Thus philolOgy pares down the go
10 words in the dictionaries to about b
% roots, and it is mainly with those 3
oots that philology concerns itself;
lst as a chemist does not experiment, .
sually, with air. but rather with hy- n
rogen. oxygen and nitrogen, the ele- t