us to account "_the
termination ish_, in some sort, _a degree of comparison_."--_Octavo Gram._,
p. 47. But what is more absurd, than to think of accounting this, or any
other suffix, "_a degree of comparison?_" The inaccuracy of the language is
a sufficient proof of the haste with which Johnson adopted this notion, and
of the blindness with which he has been followed. The passage is now found
in most of our English grammars. Sanborn expresses the doctrine thus:
"Adjectives terminating with _ish_, denote a degree of comparison less than
the positive; as, _saltish, whitish, blackish_."--_Analytical Gram._, p.
87. But who does not know, that most adjectives of this ending are derived
from _nouns_, and are compared only by adverbs, as _childish, foolish_, and
so forth? Wilcox says, "Words ending in _ish_, generally express a slight
degree; as, _reddish, bookish_."--_Practical Gram._, p. 17. But who will
suppose that _foolish_ denotes but a slight degree of folly, or _bookish_
but a slight fondness for books? And, with such an interpretation, what
must be the meaning of _more bookish_ or _most foolish_?

[180] "'A rodde shall come _furth_ of the stocke of Jesse.' _Primer, Hen.
VIII_."--_Craven Glossary_.

[181] _Midst_ is a contraction of the regular superlative _middest_, used
by Spenser, but now obsolete. _Midst_, also, seems to be obsolete as an
adjective, though still frequently used as a noun; as, "In the
_midst_."--_Webster_. It is often a poetic contraction for the preposition
_amidst_. In some cases it appears to be an adverb. In the following
example it is equivalent to _middlemost_, and therefore an adjective:
"Still greatest he _the midst_, Now dragon grown."--_Paradise Lost_, B. x,
l. 528.

[182] What I here say, accords with the teaching of all our lexicographers
and grammarians, except one dauntless critic, who has taken particular
pains to put me, and some three or four others, on the defensive. This
gentleman not only supposes _less_ and _fewer, least_ and _fewest_, to be
sometimes equivalent in meaning, but actually exhibits them as being also
etymologically of the same stock. _Less_ and _least_, however, he refers to
three different positives, and _more_ and _most_, to four. And since, in
once instance, he traces _less_ and _more, least_ and _most_, to the same
primitive word, it follows of course, if he is right, that _more_ is there
equivalent to _less_ and _most_ is equivalent to _least_! The following