Another
point of novelty in the method of treatment is presented in the copious
practical exercises on the _use of words_. The experienced instructor very
well knows that pupils may memorize endless lists of terms and definitions
without having any realization of the actual living power of words. Such a
realization can only be gained by _using_ the word,--by turning it over in
a variety of ways, and by throwing upon it the side-lights of its synonym
and contrasted word. The method of thus utilizing English derivatives gives
a study which possesses at once _simplicity_ and _fruitfulness_,--the two
desiderata of an instrument of elementary discipline."
[2] "Etymology," Greek _et'umon_, the true literal sense of a word
according to its derivation, and _log'os_, a discourse.
[3] "Vocabulary," Latin _vocabula'rium_, a stock of words; from _vox,
vocis_, a voice, a word.
[4] By the _Low_ German languages are meant those spoken in the low, flat
countries of North Germany, along the coast of the North Sea (as Dutch, the
language of Holland); and they are so called in contradistinction to _High_
German, or German proper.
[5] For the full definition, reference should be had to a dictionary; but
in the present exercise the literal or etymological signification may
suffice.
[6] _Fen'do_, _fen'dere_, is used in Latin only in composition.
[7] Another mode of spelling _defense_.
[8] From _pass_ and _over_, a feast of the Jews instituted to commemorate
the providential escape of the Jews to Egypt, when God, smiting the
first-born of the Egyptians _passed over_ the houses of the Israelites,
which were marked with the blood of the paschal lamb.
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