lation at all with each
other, so much has one or the other, or both, changed in meaning from
that of the original word from which they come. A familiar pair of
doublets is _dainty_ and _dignity_, both of which come from the Latin
word _dignitas_. _Dignity_, which came into the English language
either directly from the Latin or through the modern French word
_dignite_, has not wandered at all from the meaning of the Latin word,
which had first the idea of "merit" or "value," and then that of
honourable position or character which the word _dignity_ has in
English. _Dainty_ has a quite different meaning; though it, too, came
from _dignitas_, but through the less dignified way of the Old French
word _daintie_.

The English words _dish_, _dais_, _desk_, and _disc_ all come from the
Latin word _discus_, by which the Romans meant first a round flat
plate thrown in certain games (a "quoit"), and secondly a plate or
dish. In Old English this word became _dish_. In Old French it became
_deis_, and from this we have the English _dais_--the raised platform
of a throne. In Italian it became _desco_, from which we got _desk_;
and the scientific men of modern times, in their need of a word to
describe exactly a round, flat object, have gone back as near as
possible to the Latin and given us _disc_. It is to be noticed that
the original idea of the Latin word--"having a flat surface"--is kept
in these four descendants of a remote ancestor.

The words _chieftain_ and _captain_ are doublets coming from the Late
Latin word _capitaneus_, "chief;" the former through the Old French
word _chevetaine_, and the latter more directly from the Latin.
_Frail_ and _fragile_ are another pair, coming from the Latin word
_fragilis_, "easily broken;" the one through Old French, and the other
through Modern French.

Both these pairs of words have kept fairly close to the original
meaning; but _caitiff_ and _captive_, another pair of doublets, have
quite different meanings from each other. Both come from the Latin
word _captivus_, "captive," the one indirectly and the other directly.
_Caitiff_, which is not a word used now except occasionally in poetry,
means a "base, cowardly person;" but _captive_ has, of course, the
original meaning of the Latin word.

Another pair of doublets, which are quite different in form and almost
opposite to each other in meaning, are _guest_ and _hostile_. These
two words come from the same root word; but this goes fur