e said that it is deficient in an essential point.
It does not show how the participle past is collective. Undoubtedly it may
be said that every such participle is in the condition of words like
_ge-feax_ and _ge-heort_; i.e., that they imply an association between the
object and the action or state. But this does not seem to be Grimm's view;
he rather suggests that the ge- may have been a prefix to verbs in general,
originally attached to all their forms, but finally abandoned everywhere
except in the case of the participle.

The theory of this prefix has yet to assume a satisfactory form.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXI.

COMPOSITION.

s. 352. In the following words, amongst many others, we have palpable and
indubitable specimens of composition--_day-star_, _vine-yard_, _sun-beam_,
_apple-tree_, _ship-load_, _silver-smith_, &c. The words _palpable_ and
_indubitable_ have been used, because in many cases, as will be seen
hereafter, it is difficult to determine whether a word be a true compound
or not.

s. 353. Now, in each of the compounds quoted above, it may be seen that it
is the second word which is qualified, or defined, by the first, and that
it is not the first which is qualified, or defined, by the second. Of
_yards_, _beams_, _trees_, _loads_, _smiths_, there may be many sorts, and,
in order to determine what _particular_ sort of _yard_, _beam_, _tree_,
_load_, or _smith_, may be meant, the words _vine_, _sun_, _apple_, _ship_,
and _silver_, are prefixed. In compound words it is the _first_ term that
defines or particularises the _second_.

s. 354. That the idea given by the word _apple-tree_ is not referable to
the words _apple_ and _tree_, irrespective of the order in which they
occur, may be seen by reversing the position of them. The word
_tree-apple_, although not existing in the language, is as correct a word
as _thorn-apple_. In _tree-apple_, the particular sort of _apple_ meant is
denoted by the word _tree_, and if there were in our gardens various sorts
of plants called _apples_, of which some grew along the ground and others
upon trees, such a word as _tree-apple_ would be required in order to be
opposed to _earth-apple_, or _ground-apple_, or some word of the kind.

In the compound words _tree-apple_ and _apple-tree_, we have the same
elements differently arranged. However, as the word _tree-apple_ is not
current in the language, the class of compounds indicated by