puls-us, _puls-e_; dens-us, _dens-e_; [Greek: haps-is], _aps-e_; laps-us,
_laps-e_; vers-us, _vers-e_; valv-a, _valv-e_; nerv-us, _nerv-e_.[6] The
cause of this lies in the genius of our language, which totally rejects the
ending _v_, and uses _s_ (single) very sparingly in the singular number,
except in the ending _ous_, the genitive case, the third person of the
present tense, the obsolete _wis_, and _was_. Other words are, the
interjection _alas_; pronouns or pronominal particles; proper names, as
_Thomas_, _Chaos_; compounds, as _Lammas_, _Christmas_; _plural_ adverbs,
as _towards_, _thereabouts_; and the (perhaps) _plural_--it ought to be
so--_alms_.[7]

From roots ending in a mute +_a_ liquid, our derived words also end in _e_,
and are then in fact dissyllables; _e.g._ [Greek: bibl-os], _bible_;
[Greek: kukl-os], _cycl-e_; [Greek: mitr-a], _mitr-e_; [Greek: nitr-on],
_nitr-e_; [Greek: petr-os], _petr-e_. In this class of words the final
letters (after the analogy of Latin) have sometimes become transposed;
_e.g._ [Greek: lepr-os], _lep-er_. So now-a-days, _cent-er_ as well as
_centr-e_. Compare _metr-e_, _diamet-er_.

To apply our rules to the words required to be formed in an English shape
from [Greek: muth-os].

Very few words in our language end in _th_ which are not of purely native
growth. _Frith_ is questionable exception. Besides the monosyllable
_plinth_, we have imported from the Greek _colocynth_, _hyacinth_,
_labyrinth_, with the proper names _Corinth_, _Erymanth_, all terminating
in _nth_.

In the ending _the_ our language does not rejoice. Most of such words are
verbs, so distinguished from their cognate substantives, as _wreathe_ from
_wreath_. We have, as substantives, _lathe_ (A.-S. [Saxon: leeth]), _hythe_
([Saxon: hyeth]), _scythe_ (more properly _sithe_, [Saxon: siethe]), _tythe_
([Saxon: tyethe]); as adjectives, _blithe_ ([Saxon: bliethe]), _lithe_ ([Saxon:
lieth]). There may be one or two more.

In all these the sounds is [Saxon: eth] (_th_ in _this_) not [Saxon: