Part 4 — CHAPTER XI.

THE SUPERLATIVE DEGREE.

§ 255. The Anglo-Saxon word for first was for-m-a.

The root was for = the Latin præ, the Greek προ, and being the same combination which occurs in fore, fore-m-ost, &c.

The m was the Anglo-Saxon sign of the superlative degree.

It is the m in the Latin words pri-m-us, inti-m-us, exti-m-us, ulti-m-us, &c.

It occurs even in the Gothic tongues; in other words, besides for-m-a.

In short, m is an old sign of the superlative degree; probably older than the usual form, -st, discussed in § 254. This has some important applications.

§ 256. Former.—This is a remarkable word: it is a comparative derived from the Anglo-Saxon superlative, and its analysis is for-m-er, with excess of inflexion.

§ 257. Nea-r-est.—Here the r is no part of the original root, as may be seen in § 251. It has grown out of -ah pronounced as the a in father. The true forms are positive, neah; comparative, neah-er; superlative, neah-est. Such, to a certain extent, is really the case.

§ 258. Next.—The superlative of nigh, contracted from nigh-est. The Anglo-Saxon forms were neah, nyh-st, neh-st, nyh-ste. In Anglo-Saxon the letter h was pronounced strongly, and sounded like g or k. This fact is still shown in the spelling; as nigh. In the word next this sound is preserved, slightly changed into that of k; next = nek-st.

§ 259. Upmost, &c.—The common statement concerning words like upmost is, that they are compound words, formed by the addition of the word most: this, however, is more than doubtful.

The Anglo-Saxon language presents us with the following forms:—

Anglo-Saxon.English.

Innema (inn-ema),Inmost (in-m-ost).

Ûtema (ût-ma),Outmost (out-m-ost).

Siðema (sið-ema),Latest.

Lætema (læt-ema),Latest.

Niðema (nið-ema),Nethermost (neth-er-m-ost).

Forma (for-ma),Foremost (fore-m-ost).

Æftema (aft-ema),Aftermost (aft-er-m-ost).

Ufema (uf-ema),Upmost (up-m-ost).

Hindema (hind-ema),Hindmost (hind-m-ost).

Midema (mid-ema),Midmost (mid-m-ost).

Now the words in question show at once, that, as far as they are concerned, the m that appears in the last syllable of each has nothing to do with the word most.

From the words in question there was formed, in Anglo-Saxon, a regular superlative form in the usual manner; viz., by the addition of -st; as æfte-m-est, fyr-m-est, læte-m-est, sið-m-est, yfe-m-est, ute-m-est, inne-m-est.

Hence, in the present English, the different parts of the syllable most (in words like upmost) come from different quarters. The m is the m in the Anglo-Saxon words innema, &c.; whilst the -st is the common sign of the superlative. Hence, in separating such words as midmost into its component parts, we should write

Mid-m-ostnotmid-most.

Ut-m-ost—ut-most.

Up-m-ost—up-most.

Fore-m-ost—fore-most.

In-m-ost—in-most.

Hind-m-ost—hind-most.

Out-m-ost—out-most.

§ 260. In certain words, however, the syllable m-ost is added to a word already ending in -er; that is, already marked with the sign of the comparative degree.

Neth-er-m-ost.Hind-er-m-ost.

Utt-er-m-ost.Out-er-m-ost.

Upp-er-m-ost.Inn-er-m-ost.