to live the life of a
hermit. Through external compulsion or internal characteristics a word has
contacts with its fellows. And its most intimate, most spontaneous
associations are normally with its own kindred.

In our work hitherto we have had nothing to say of verbal consanguinity.
But we have not wholly ignored its existence, for the very good reason
that we could not. For example, in the latter portions of Chapter IV we
proceeded on the hypothesis that at least some words have ancestors. Also
in the analysis of the dictionary definition of _tension_ we learned
that the word has, not only a Latin forebear, but French, Spanish,
Portuguese, and Italian kinsmen as well. One thing omitted from that
analysis would have revealed something further--namely, that the word has
its English kinfolks too. For the bracketed part of the dictionary
definition mentions two other English words, _tend_ and _tense_,
which from their origin involve the same idea as that of _tension_--
the idea of stretching.

Now words may be akin in either of two ways. They may be related in blood.
Or they may be related by marriage. Let us consider these two kinds of
connection more fully.

<Words Related in Blood>

As an illustration of blood kinships enjoyed by a native English word take
the adjective _good_. We can easily call to mind other members of its
family: goodly, goodish, goody-goody, good-hearted, good-natured, good-
humored, good-tempered, goods, goodness, goodliness, gospel (good story),
goodby, goodwill, goodman, goodwife, good-for-nothing, good den (good
evening), the Good Book. The connection between these words is obvious.

Next consider a group of words that have been naturalized: scribe,
prescribe, ascribe, proscribe, transcribe, circumscribe, subscriber,
indescribable, scribble, script, scripture, postscript, conscript,
rescript, manuscript, nondescript, inscription, superscription,
description. It is clear that these words are each other's kith and kin in
blood, and that the strain or stock common to all is _scribe_ or (as
sometimes modified) _script_. What does this strain signify? The idea
of writing. The _scribes_ are a writing clan. Some of them, to be
sure, have strayed somewhat from the ancestral calling, for words are as
wilful--or as independent--as men. _Ascribe_, for example, does not
act like a member of the household of writers, whatever it may look like.
We should have to scrutinize it carefully or consult the