rms.

In addition to these main constituents of our language, we have borrowed
words, sometimes in considerable numbers, sometimes singly and
accidentally, from almost every tongue known to mankind, and every year
sees new words added to our vocabulary. The following chapters deal
especially with words borrowed from Old French and from the other
Romance languages, their origins and journeyings, and the various
accidents that have befallen them in English. It is in such words as
these that the romance of language is best exemplified, because we can
usually trace their history from Latin to modern English, while the
earlier history of Anglo-Saxon words is a matter for the philologist.

[Page Heading: LATIN WORDS]

Words borrowed directly from Latin or Greek lack this intermediate
experience, though the study of their original meanings is full of
surprises. This, however, is merely a question of opening a Latin or
Greek dictionary, if we have not time for the moment's reflexion which
would serve the same purpose. Thus, to take a dozen examples at random,
to _abominate_[6] is to turn shuddering from the evil _omen_, a
_generous_ man is a man of "race" (_genus_), an _innuendo_ can be
conveyed "by nodding," to _insult_ is to "jump on," a _legend_ is
something "to be read," a _manual_ is a "hand-book," an _obligation_ is
essentially "binding," to _relent_ is to "go slow," _rivals_ are people
living by the same "stream"[7] (_rivus_), a _salary_ is an allowance for
"salt" (_sal_), a _supercilious_ man is fond of lifting his "eyebrows"
(_supercilium_), and a _trivial_ matter is so commonplace that it can be
picked up at the meeting of "three ways" (_trivium_). _Dexterity_
implies skill with the "right" hand (_dexter_), while _sinister_
preserves the superstition of the ill-omened "left."

It may be remarked here that the number of Latin words used in their
unaltered form in every-day English is larger than is generally
realised. Besides such phrases as _bona-fide_, _post-mortem_,
_viva-voce_, or such abbreviations as A.M., _ante meridiem_, D.V., _Deo
volente_, and L. s. d., for _librae_, _solidi_, _denarii_, we have,
without including scientific terms, many Latin nouns, e.g., _animal_,
_genius_, _index_, _odium_, _omen_, _premium_, _radius_, _scintilla_,
_stimulus_, _tribunal_, and adjectives, e.g., _complex_, _lucifer_,
_miser_, _pauper_, _maximum_, _senior_, and the ungrammatical _bonus_.
The Lat. _veto_, I forbid, has been