ake such a word as _fathers_, we are enabled
to divide it into two parts; in other words, to reduce it into two
elements. By comparing it with the word _father_, we see that the s is
neither part nor parcel of the original word. Hence the word is capable of
being analysed; _father_ being the original primitive word, and s the
secondary superadded termination. From the word _father_, the word
_fathers_ is _derived_, or (changing the expression) deduced, or descended.
What has been said of the word _fathers_ may also be said of _fatherly_,
_fatherlike_, _fatherless_, &c. Now, from the word _father_, all these
words (_fathers_, _fatherly_, _fatherlike_, and _fatherless_) differ in
form and in meaning. To become such a word as _fathers_, &c., the word
_father_ is _changed_. Of changes of this sort, it is the province of
etymology to take cognizance.

s. 177. Compared with the form _fathers_, the word _father_ is the older
form of the two. The word _father_ is a word current in this the nineteenth
century. The same word is found much earlier, under different forms, and in
different languages. Thus, in the Latin language, the form was _pater_; in
Greek, [Greek: pater]. Now, with _father_ and _fathers_, the change takes
place within the same language, whilst the change that takes place between
_pater_ and _father_ takes place within different languages. Of changes of
this latter kind it is, also, the province of etymology to take cognizance.

s. 178. In its widest signification, etymology takes cognizance _of the
changes of the form of words_. However, as the etymology that compares the
forms _fathers_ and _father_ is different from the etymology that compares
_father_ and _pater_, we have, of etymology, two sorts: one dealing with
the changes of form that words undergo in one and the same language
(_father_, _fathers_), the other dealing with the changes that words
undergo in passing from one language to another (_pater_, _father_).

The first of these sorts may be called etymology in the limited sense of
the word, or the etymology of the grammarian. In this case it is opposed to
orthoepy, orthography, syntax, and the other parts of grammar. This is the
etymology of the ensuing pages.

The second may be called etymology in the wide sense of the word,
_historical_ etymology, or _comparative_ etymology.

s. 179. It must be again repeated that the two sorts of etymology agree in
one point, viz., in taking cognizance of the _c