_. In French it became _vierge_, which, in time,
came to be mistaken for a derivative, and _virgo_ = _the virgin_, _the
lady_, _the queen_.

s. 90. Sometimes, where the form of a word in respect to its _sound_ is not
affected, a false spirit of accommodation introduces an unetymological
_spelling_; as _frontispiece_, from _frontispecium_, _sovereign_, from
_sovrano_, _colleague_ from _collega_, _lanthorn_ (old orthography) from
_lanterna_.

The value of forms like these consists in their showing that language is
affected by false etymologies as well as by true ones.

* * * * *

s. 91. In _lambkin_ and _lancet_, the final syllables (-kin and -et) have
the same power. They both express the idea of smallness or diminutiveness.
These words are but two out of a multitude, the one (_lamb_) being of
Saxon, the other (_lance_) of Norman origin. The same is the case with the
superadded syllables: -kin being Saxon; -et Norman. Now to add a Saxon
termination to a Norman word, or _vice vers[^a]_, is to corrupt the English
language.

This leads to some observation respecting the--

s. 92. _Introduction of new words and Hybridism._--Hybridism is a term
derived from _hybrid-a_, _a mongrel_; a Latin word _of Greek extraction_.

The terminations -ize (as in _criticize_), -ism (as in _criticism_), -ic
(as in _comic_)--these, amongst many others, are Greek terminations. To add
them to words not of Greek origin is to be guilty of hybridism. Hence,
_witticism_ is objectionable.

The terminations -ble (as in _penetrable_), -bility (as in
_penetrability_), -al (as in _parental_)--these, amongst many others, are
Latin terminations. To add them to words not of Latin origin is to be
guilty of hybridism.

Hybridism is the commonest fault that accompanies the introduction of new
words. The hybrid additions to the English language are most numerous in
works on science.

It must not, however, be concealed that several well established words are
hybrid; and that, even in the writings of the classical Roman authors,
there is hybridism between the Latin and the Greek.

Nevertheless, the etymological view of every word of foreign origin is, not
that it is put together in England, but that it is brought whole from the
language to which it is vernacular. Now no derived word can be brought
whole from a language unless, in that language, all its parts exist. The
word _penetrability_ is not derived from the English