They are called MATERIAL NOUNS.  Such are glass, iron, clay, frost, rain, snow, wheat, wine, tea, sugar, etc.

They may be placed in groups as follows:—­

(1) The metals:  iron, gold, platinum, etc.

(2) Products spoken of in bulk:  tea, sugar, rice, wheat, etc.

(3) Geological bodies:  mud, sand, granite, rock, stone, etc.

(4) Natural phenomena:  rain, dew, cloud, frost, mist, etc.

(5) Various manufactures:  cloth (and the different kinds of cloth), potash, soap, rubber, paint, celluloid, etc.

7.  NOTE.—­There are some nouns, such as sun, moon, earth, which seem to be the names of particular individual objects, but which are not called proper names.

[Sidenote:  Words naturally of limited application not proper.]

The reason is, that in proper names the intention is to exclude all other individuals of the same class, and fasten a special name to the object considered, as in calling a city Cincinnati; but in the words sun, earth, etc., there is no such intention.  If several bodies like the center of our solar system are known, they also are called suns by a natural extension of the term:  so with the words earth, world, etc.  They remain common class names.

[Sidenote:  Names of ideas, not things.]

8.  Abstract nouns are names of qualities, conditions, or actions, considered abstractly, or apart from their natural connection.

When we speak of a wise man, we recognize in him an attribute or quality.  If we wish to think simply of that quality without describing the person, we speak of the wisdom of the man.  The quality is still there as much as before, but it is taken merely as a name.  So poverty would express the condition of a poor person; proof means the act of proving, or that which shows a thing has been proved; and so on.

Again, we may say, “Painting is a fine art,” “Learning is hard to acquire,” “a man of understanding.”

9.  There are two chief divisions of abstract nouns:—­

(1) ATTRIBUTE NOUNS, expressing attributes or qualities.

(2) VERBAL NOUNS, expressing state, condition, or action.

[Sidenote:  Attribute abstract nouns.]

10.  The ATTRIBUTE ABSTRACT NOUNS are derived from adjectives and from common nouns.  Thus, (1) prudence from prudent, height from high, redness from red, stupidity from stupid, etc.; (2) peerage from peer, childhood from child, mastery from master, kingship from king, etc.