SECTION II.—­FIGURES OF ETYMOLOGY.

A Figure of Etymology is an intentional deviation from the ordinary formation of a word.  The principal figures of Etymology are eight; namely, A-phoer’-e-sis, Pros’-the-sis, Syn’-co-pe, A-poc’-o-pe, Par-a-go’-ge, Di-oer’-e-sis, Syn-oer’-e-sis, and Tme’-sis.

EXPLANATIONS.

I. Aphaeresis is the elision of some of the initial letters of a word:  as, ’gainst, for against; ’gan, for began; ’neath, for beneath; ’thout, for without.

II. Prosthesis is the prefixing of an expletive syllable to a word:  as, adown, for down; appaid, for paid; bestrown, for strown; evanished, for vanished; yclad, for clad.

III. Syn’cope is the elision of some of the middle letters of a word:  as, med’cine, for medicine; e’en, for even; o’er, for over; conq’ring, for conquering; se’nnight, for sevennight.

IV. Apoc’ope is the elision of some of the final letters of a word:  as, tho’ for though; th’, for the; t’other, for the other; thro’, for through.

V. Parago’ge is the annexing of an expletive syllable to a word:  as, Johnny, for John; deary, for dear; withouten, for without.

VI. Diaeresis is the separating of two vowels that might be supposed to form a diphthong:  as, cooeperate, not cooperate; aeronaut, not aeronaut; or’thoepy, not orthoepy.

VII. Synaeresis is the sinking of two syllables into one:  as, seest, for seest; tacked, for tack-ed; drowned, for drown-ed; spoks’t, for spok-est; show’dst, for show-edst; ’tis, for it is; I’ll, for I will.

VIII. Tmesis is the inserting of a word between the parts of a compound, or between two words which should be united if they stood together:  as, “On which side soever.”—­Rolla. “To us ward;” “To God ward.”—­Bible.  “The assembling of ourselves together.”—­Id. “With what charms soe’er she will.”—­Cowper.  “So new a fashion’d robe.”—­Shak. “Lament the live day long.”—­Burns.

OBS.—­In all our pronunciation, except that of the solemn style, such verbal or participial terminations as can be so uttered, are usually sunk by synaeresis into mere modifications of preceding syllables.  The terminational consonants, if not uttered with one vowel, must be uttered with an other.  When, therefore, a vowel is entirely suppressed in pronunciation, (whether retained in writing or not,) the consonants connected with it, necessarily fall into an other syllable:  thus, tried, triest, sued, suest, loved, lovest, mov’d, mov’st, are monosyllables; and studied, studiest, studi’dst, argued, arguest, argu’dst, are dissyllables; except in solemn discourse, in which the e is generally retained and made vocal.