ion: since they form not the parts of words,
but the parts of phrases. Such are the expressions _time and tide_--_might
and main_--_rede me my riddle_--_pay your shot_--_rhyme and reason_, &c.
These words are evidently of the same class, though not of the same species
with _bishopric_, _colewort_, _spillikin_, _gossip_, _mainswearer_, &c.

These last-mentioned terms give us obsolete words preserved in composition.
The former give us obsolete words preserved in combination.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXII.

ON DERIVATION AND INFLECTION.

s. 371. _Derivation_, like _etymology_, is a word used in a wide and in a
limited sense. In the wide sense of the term, every word, except it be in
the simple form of a root, is a derived word. In this sense the cases,
numbers, and genders of nouns, the persons, moods, and tenses of verbs, the
ordinal numbers, the diminutives, and even the compound words, are alike
matters of derivation. In the wide sense of the term the word _fathers_,
from _father_, is equally in a state of derivation with the word _strength_
from _strong_.

In the use of the word, even in its limited sense, there is considerable
laxity and uncertainty.

_Gender_, _number_, _case_.--These have been called the _accidents_ of the
noun, and these it has been agreed to separate from derivation in its
stricter sense, or from derivation properly so called, and to class
together under the name of declension. Nouns are _declined_.

_Person_, _number_, _tense_, _voice_.--These have been called the
_accidents_ of a verb, and these it has been agreed to separate from
derivation properly so called, and to class together under the name of
conjugation. Verbs are _conjugated_.

Conjugation and declension constitute inflection. Nouns and verbs, speaking
generally, are inflected.

Inflection, a part of derivation in its wider sense, is separated from
derivation properly so called, or from derivation in its limited sense.

The degrees of comparison, or certain derived forms of adjectives; the
ordinals, or certain derived forms of the numerals; the diminutives, &c.,
or certain derived forms of the substantive, have been separated from
derivation properly so called, and considered as parts of inflection. I am
not certain, however, that for so doing there is any better reason than
mere convenience.

Derivation proper, the subject of the present chapter, comprises all the
changes that words undergo,